For a while now it's been possible to play Gamecube games directly with the Wii U gamepad as a controller. Not only this, you can also play PS1 and N64 games from the gamepad as well! This essentially makes it into a portable experience, well if you're close enough to the console that is. For those who love playing things off-TV, this is a really amazing feature to utilize. You could also play from a TV with the gamepad as a controller if you prefer.
It's now possible to force vWii to use Wii U CPU speeds to get a performance boost on PS1 and N64 emulators! PS1 games are now playable at fullspeed, well at least mainstream games are but not everything works.
Use Section I for Gamecube games, if that doesn't work then you'll need to use Section III instead. This tutorial doesn't require you to hack vWii at all, unless you're going to use section III.

This guide assumes that you have a basic understanding of Wii U hacks. Such as booting into Homebrew Launcher, running CFW, installing with Wup Installer GX2, how to use Nintendont, etc.

EDIT: Tutorial under construction, removed the premade homebrew injects as they used official Wii VC and are considered copyright infringement to share with others. Will add a tutorial on making your own whenever I feel like it sometime.





I. How to play Gamecube games on the gamepad

Spoiler

There are two methods for playing gamecube games on the gamepad. The first method is by making your very own indivisual Gamecube injection using Wii Virtual Console as a base, with the injector script.
The second method is to use a forwarder to Nintendont which then you can select a game from a list. Users mostly prefer method 1 because they like having indivisual gamecube titles on their Wii U home menu. It's all up to you which method you prefer. Both methods have gamepad support and save to the same location either way. You don't need to hack vWii at all to follow this section.



Method 1 - Indivisual Gamecube injects (Injecting Gamecube games into Wii VC which you can install)

Spoiler

1) Use this script to build your own Wii VC injects with gamecube games using your own .iso:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-wiivc-injector-script-gc-wii-homebrew-support.483577/

2) Once you've created your inject you should have install files, basically a bunch of .app and .h3 files in a folder. Place these on your SD card in the install folder (Same as installing Wii U games) SD:/install/NameofGame/ ~.app & .m3 files~

3) Download these Nintendont files HERE
(Courtesy of Flump for the upload)

4) Extract all the files to your SD card, Except the install folder (It's only needed for method 2)

5) On your Wii U, run CFW such as HaxchiFW or Mocha. Then launch WUP Installer GX2 to install your gamecube inject (To USB Storage or System Memory)

6) Now launch your gamecube inject from the Wii U home menu. It will ask if you want to use the gamepad as a controller, choose yes.
If your TV is turned off or the HDMI isn't connected, it will also ask if you only want to display on the gamepad. It will reboot into vWii mode and start the gamecube game.

Note: You always need to enable CFW before launching a Gamecube inject, else you'll get Error Code 99-9999 and be forced to shutdown. Even if you exit a game, you still have to enable CFW again before launching another

Note: For some users, the game may result in a black screen. As of right now, there is no explanation to this phenomenon or how to fix it. If this is the case, you won't be able to use method 1 or 2 in this section. Use the "All in One" method instead in Section III below as a workaround.

Method 2 - Nintendont forwarder (Boot directly into Nintendont where you can choose a game from a list)

Spoiler

1) Download these Nintendont files (REMOVED, make your own Nintendont inject with the Wii VC inject script. I can't help since its considered copyright)


2) Extract all files to your SD card, including the install folder (Which contains the Nintendont forwarder)

3) On your Wii U, run CFW such as HaxchiFW or Mocha. Then run WUP Installer GX2 to install Nintendont Forwarder (To USB Storage or System Memory)

4) Launch Nintendont from your Wii U home menu. It will ask if you want to use the gamepad as a controller, choose yes.
If your TV is turned off or the HDMI isn't connected, it will also ask if you only want to display on the gamepad. It will reboot into vWii mode and launches Nintendont.

Note: You always need to enable CFW before launching Nintendont, else you'll get Error Code 99-9999 and be forced to shutdown. Even if you exit a game, you still have to enable CFW again before launching Nintendont

Note: For some users, launching Nintendont may result in a black screen. As of right now, there is no explanation to this phenomenon or how to fix it. If this is the case, you won't be able to use method 1 or 2 in this section. Use the "All in One" method instead in Section III below as a workaround.

Nintendont usage tips

- Use the Official Nintendont Page for info on how to use Nintendont. It has everything you need to know!

- If you press "-" on your gamepad, it will change the control scheme to be rotated a quarter clockwise or back to the original control scheme. If you find the controls to be suddenly awkward, you must've hit the minus button by accident. Hit minus to change it back to regular controls and always remember this for future reference.
- If you hold "L" on your gamepad, your inputs on ZL/ZR will be used as half pressed L and R buttons in-game. Useful for games like Super Mario Sunshine.

- Saves are stored in SD:/saves/ as indivisual memory card .raw files. These are compatible with the Dolphin emulator and you can even use Dolphin's memory card manager to transfer saves from memory card to memory card

- You can trim your Gamecube .iso's to save space altogether by converting them to .ciso format. Use Wit (Wimm's ISO Tool)

- Check the compatibility list HERE . Note that shrunk is not the same as .ciso. All .ciso converted games will work, unlike shrunken games with DMToolbox.

II. How to play PS1 and N64 games on the gamepad

Spoiler

1) Open this google drive link:
(REMOVED, make your own WiiSXR and Wii64 injects with the Wii VC inject script. I can't help since its considered copyright)

2) Download "(WiiU Gamepad) Wii64.rar", and "(WIIU Gamepad) Wiisxr.rar"

3) On your SD card, make a folder called install. Extract the folders within the Wii64 and Wiisxr rar files into the install folder

4) Download Sign_c2w_patcher

5) Open the zip file and drag the wiiu folder to your SD card (merge it with your own if you already have one)

6) Download the latest release of Wii64 (Fix94's port of mupen64): https://github.com/FIX94/mupen64gc-fix94/releases

7) Download the latest release of Wiisxr: https://github.com/Mystro256/wiisxr/releases

8) Extract the folders from the Wii64 and Wiisxr zips to the root of your SD card, except the Readme file (There are two folders within each zip file that you need)

9) On your Wii U, run CFW such as HaxchiFW or Mocha. Then run WUP Installer GX2 and install Wii64 and Wiisxr (Install to System Storage ONLY! Don't install to USB)

10) Run Sign_c2w_patcher from Homebrew Launcher. It will reboot to the home menu with CFW enabled (This is needed to overclock vWii to get a performance boost for the emulators)

11) Run Wii64 or Wiisxr, it will ask if you want to use the gamepad as a controller, choose yes.
If your TV is turned off or the HDMI isn't connected, it will also ask if you only want to display on the gamepad. It will reboot into vWii mode then launch Wii64/wiisxr.

Note: You always need to run Sign_c2w_patcher before launching Wii64 or Wiisxr, else you'll get Error Code 99-9999 and forced to shutdown. You also won't get the overclocked CPU speeds needed for the performance boost.




Using Wiisxr

- You'll need a PS1 BIOS, place it in SD:/wiisx/bios/
- Place your PS1 games in SD:/wiisx/isos/ , they can be in either .bin or .img format (Also include the .cue/.ccd/.sub file if it exists)
- In Wiisxr, you'll need to go to settings to change some things
- Under General where it says Select BIOS, set it to SD (If you don't do this, you'll have no controls in-game)
- Be sure the option to "Boot with Bios" is set to yes
- Under Video, set the Screen Mode to 16:9
- Go back to General and choose "Save settings to SD", this saves the changes you made, permanently
- As you play different games, you'll need to change the controller type from time to time, either Standard or Analog
- For Crash Bandicoot or games without analog support, you can change the input of the DPAD to "LS-up, LS-Down, etc" to get analog controls with the gamepad. Be sure to save your button mapping to slot 1 so you can load it later. Then go back and choose Save Button Config to SD. (Thanks GameInCanada for that tip!)
- After saving in-game and you return to the Wiisxr menu, you may see a message that says "failed to save". Ignore this message, it did save successfully to your SD card in the wiisxr folder
- You'll also have to switch between Interpreter and Dynarec under Video. Check the Wiisxr compatibility list:

Wiisxr compatibilty list



Using Wii64

- Place your N64 roms in SD:/wii64/roms/
- Don't really have to change settings, everything is set properly by default. Including a memory pak
- Check the compatibilty list to see specific settings

Wii64 Compatibiltiy list

III. All in one solution for Gamecube, PS1, and N64 games on the gamepad (vWii Homebrew Channel with gamepad support. Use this if section I. didn't work on your system)

Spoiler

If you're interested in having Nintendont, Wiisxr, and Wii64 accessible all in one app, you can install Homebrew Channel forwarder on Wii U. This will boot up vWii Homebrew Channel but with gamepad support and you can launch Nintendont, Wiisxr, or Wii64 from there. You NEED to use this method if your Gamecube injects or Nintendont forwarder result in a black screen, this is a workaround to that issue. This section requires that you've hacked vWii already and can install .wad files. Use the Official vWii Hacking Guide if you haven't already, then come back to this guide and continue below.

1) Open this Google Drive link:

Spoiler

(REMOVED, make your own Homebrew Channel inject with the Wii VC inject script. I can't help since its considered copyright)

2) Download "(WIIU Gamepad) HBC.rar"

3) Extract the .rar file to the install folder on the root of your SD card

4) Download the latest release of FIX94's fork of Homebrew Channel (Called Homebrew.Channel.-.OHBC.wad): https://github.com/FIX94/hbc/releases/

5) Place the Homebrew Channel .wad file on the root of your SD card

6) Boot into vWii and install the Homebrew Channel .wad file using YAWMM (Yet Another Wad Manager) or any other wad manager. Ignore all the messages if using YAWMM, keep pressing A to skip the first messages you see. Then browse for the wad file and install it.

7) Exit vWii and run CFW such as HaxchiFW or Mocha. Run WUP Installer GX2 and install HBC (To System Storage ONLY! Don't install to USB)

8) Run "Homebrew Channel" from the Wii U home menu that you just installed. It will ask if you want to use the gamepad as a controller, choose yes.
If your TV is turned off or the HDMI isn't connected, it will also ask if you only want to display on the gamepad. It will reboot into vWii mode and launch Homebrew Channel, but with Gamepad support. Which means you can navigate with the gamepad buttons.

9) From Homebrew Channel you can launch Nintendont, Wii64, or Wiisxr. Don't launch anything else as they don't have gamepad support.

Note: You always need to run Sign_c2w_patcher before launching Homebrew Channel Forwarder else you won't get the overclocked CPU speeds needed for a performance boost with Wiisxr or Wii64. If you're just launching Homebrew Channel for use with Nintendont, you can use regular CFW such as HaxchiFW or Mocha.

 

[Lava1000]

@OrGoN3
OMG! IT WAS THE THEME I HAD IT WORKS NOW!
Thanks For The Help!

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Is it possible to merge the sign_c2w_patcher into a standard CFW? Or does it have weird side effects if not used for the methods above?

Apparently with homebrew not designed to use this c2w is affected by it, so is not a good idea unless you only use homebrew that uses that patch.

thanks for the write up. ive been hearing about this for a minute.

major question though - can we do this without the SD card? is there a way to get GC injects working and maybe put nintendont on vWii NAND somewhere? i don't think GC memory cards take up too much space but that could pose an issue.

Not to mention it would also be nice to just have all the gamecube games on the WII U USB selectable instead of having multiple channels. But then if we did have nintendon't on the wii u memory, how would we extract the memory card data? (Honestly a file manager would be nice for wii u by now)

 

[VashTS]

Apparently with homebrew not designed to use this c2w is affected by it, so is not a good idea unless you only use homebrew that uses that patch.

Not to mention it would also be nice to just have all the gamecube games on the WII U USB selectable instead of having multiple channels. But then if we did have nintendon't on the wii u memory, how would we extract the memory card data? (Honestly a file manager would be nice for wii u by now)

i'm not worried about extracting it, i just don't like to have an SD card in my Wii U's. not the end of the world but it would be nice to have Nintendont on internal NAND somewhere instead of SD. i assume its possible just needs some coding done.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

i'm not worried about extracting it, i just don't like to have an SD card in my Wii U's. not the end of the world but it would be nice to have Nintendont on internal NAND somewhere instead of SD. i assume its possible just needs some coding done.

Wouldn't that mean just making nintendon't for wii u instead of having it go into wii mode to use? I dunno just asking stuff. (If no one is willing to port the vwii emulators to wii u then I doubt anyone would want to do that with other homebrew)

 

[Sora31245]

I just corrected it saying "Extract the folders from the wii64 and wiisxr zip files to the SD card"
Basically the Wii64 and Wiisxr zips come with two folders in them. Like Wii64 would have an apps folder and wii64 folder. You'd extract both of these to your SD. Just everything you see in the zip, extract it (Except the readme)

-if possible could there be an update that uses compatability of the gamecube controller for n64,PS1, and wii games since gamecube games can now play with gamecube controllers?

 

[comput3rus3r]

can i use that c2w patch to speed up just regular vwii games in usbloader gx? if so how would i go about doing that?

 

[MattKimura]

-if possible could there be an update that uses compatability of the gamecube controller for n64,PS1, and wii games since gamecube games can now play with gamecube controllers?

Nintendont itself enables the use of the gamecube USB adapter. By normal means it doesn't work with anything else because the vWii can't read a USB device as input. The wii could use a gamecube remote because it had gamecube controller slots on top.

can i use that c2w patch to speed up just regular vwii games in usbloader gx? if so how would i go about doing that?

Nope the games don't launch when you use c2w patcher. Give it a try yourself and let me know how it goes. Someone tried the other day and didnt have any luck.
It's only useful for N64 and PS1 emulators.

 

[Der_Blockbuster]

My Problem: I can't change the resolution to 4:3. Its annoying to have a streched 16:9 in Gamecube games.
Even after going to Nintendont and chaning it, its not being affected (I disabled every widescreen or wii u widescreen mode there is).
Is there a solution for this?

 

[alcab]

Thanks @OrGoN3.

I had the same issue as Sonic Angel Knight, and I finally solved it when I detected a meta.xml corrupted file!!
Wow, this thing was making me crazy!! XD

Does anyone know if there's a tool or something to check if xml files are corrupted? It took me a while to find the file!!

Thanks a lot!

 

[MattKimura]

My Problem: I can't change the resolution to 4:3. Its annoying to have a streched 16:9 in Gamecube games.
Even after going to Nintendont and chaning it, its not being affected (I disabled every widescreen or wii u widescreen mode there is).
Is there a solution for this?

I find that Nintendont settings dont finalize if I change them then exit. Seems like you have to also launch a game. If I had a more detailed guide, I'd provide a config file for 16:9 and 4:3

Thanks @OrGoN3.

I had the same issue as Sonic Angel Knight, and I finally solved it when I detected a meta.xml corrupted file!!
Wow, this thing was making me crazy!! XD

Does anyone know if there's a tool or something to check if xml files are corrupted? It took me a while to find the file!!

Thanks a lot!

Corrupted huh, where did you originally download the xml from? Was it a download from my post?

 

[DDTarZan]

Using method 2 for Gamecube games, does anybody know if the forwarder will allow me to select games from my external HDD?

 

[alcab]

Corrupted huh, where did you originally download the xml from? Was it a download from my post?

Not at all. It was a meta.xml from an old "Save Game Manager GX for vWii" download. Didn't crash with Homebrew Channel 1.1.2, but with fix94's OHBC releases was a pain in the ass until I detected it.

By the way, thanks to you too for your tutorial!!!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Using method 2 for Gamecube games, does anybody know if the forwarder will allow me to select games from my external HDD?

As far as I know, the only way to play GCN games from your HDD with the Wii U GamePad Controller is using TeconMoon's WiiVC Injector and then installing the game as a channel in your Wii U.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Not at all. It was a meta.xml from an old "Save Game Manager GX for vWii" download. Didn't crash with Homebrew Channel 1.1.2, but with fix94's OHBC releases was a pain in the ass until I detected it.

By the way, thanks to you too for your tutorial!!!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



As far as I know, the only way to play GCN games from your HDD with the Wii U GamePad Controller is using TeconMoon's WiiVC Injector and then installing the game as a channel in your Wii U.

I dunno what the actual cause was but it worked on 1.1.2 just not 1.1.4, i just replaced all the emulators with updated ones (It was a old sd card been using since before wii u released) that i haven't used in years.

Using method 2 for Gamecube games, does anybody know if the forwarder will allow me to select games from my external HDD?

I also would like to know if is possible. So far I have to inject each game with its own channel to play the specific game. Apparently you can't, the only option is to just put the games into the proper folder on the SD card and load nintendon't with the homebrew launcher.

 

[MattKimura]

I dunno what the actual cause was but it worked on 1.1.2 just not 1.1.4, i just replaced all the emulators with updated ones (It was a old sd card been using since before wii u released) that i haven't used in years.


I also would like to know if is possible. So far I have to inject each game with its own channel to play the specific game. Apparently you can't, the only option is to just put the games into the proper folder on the SD card and load nintendon't with the homebrew launcher.

Nope it's not possible to store indivisual files on a Wiiu formatted HDD, so you wont be able to choose a game from a list using your HDD. However you can use a FAT32 HDD or flash drive to achieve that. Both a Wiiu HDD and FAT32 USB can be inserted on each end of the system.

The only way to store gamecube games on a Wiiu HDD is to create indivisual injects.

 

[OrGoN3]

Thanks @OrGoN3.

I had the same issue as Sonic Angel Knight, and I finally solved it when I detected a meta.xml corrupted file!!
Wow, this thing was making me crazy!! XD

Does anyone know if there's a tool or something to check if xml files are corrupted? It took me a while to find the file!!

Thanks a lot!

No idea if there's a tool. Do you know how your file was corrupted? Was there a random null character somewhere or was the file unreadable?

 

[alcab]

The file was completely readable. I was unable to detect where was the problem and I finally deleted it!!

 

[OrGoN3]

Nope it's not possible to store indivisual files on a Wiiu formatted HDD, so you wont be able to choose a game from a list using your HDD. However you can use a FAT32 HDD or flash drive to achieve that. Both a Wiiu HDD and FAT32 USB can be inserted on each end of the system.

The only way to store gamecube games on a Wiiu HDD is to create indivisual injects.

I'd also like to point out that you don't get access to usb devices when enabling gamepad support. So you'd have to store them on your SD card.

Keep in mind that while you can inject and install individual games into a wiiu formatted hard drive, the Wii u menu has the same title limit as the 3ds: 300 titles.

Personally I use forwards and load games off my 32gb SD card (GameCube via nintendont, n64 via fix94's fork of emukidd's wii64). Wii games I'll inject separately if I can get away without using the wiimote (no skyward sword). Wii u games I install to my 500gb external. Every n64 game, and about 10 GameCube games. Some trimmed.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

The file was completely readable. I was unable to detect where was the problem and I finally deleted it!!

What were you opening it up with? It was probably a non print character like a space, newline, carriage return, etc.

 

[alcab]

Just Wordpad. Didn't spend much time trying to figure it out. I got bored pretty fast and I deleted the file!!! XD

 

[OrGoN3]

Just Wordpad. Didn't spend much time trying to figure it out. I got bored pretty fast and I deleted the file!!! XD

That'll do it.

 

[SirNapkin1334]

About installing the patched HBC (in section 3), do we have to remove the regular HBC first, and boot into it from CBHC? Or will installing the WAD automatically remove the old HBC