Using devolution to play gamecube games on a family wii or a wiiu
I. INTRODUCTION:
So...you heard something about gamecube games being playable on every wii and wiiu. Either from friends, guys at the internet, the front page or even at a friend's house. And upon hearing this, you thought something in the lines of "God damn! I want to know how to do that too!
".
If so...you've come to the right place. In this tutorial, I'll be explaining everything there is to know about it. But I've got to warn you: make sure you've got all the requirements before you get too excited. The list is longer than you may expect...
II. REQUIREMENTS:
* a wii that is able to play gamecube games (I'll be referring this to as 'the old one')
* one or more retail gamecube games
* a family wii or wiiu (referred to as 'the new one')
* devolution; revision 200 or higher (can be downloaded here)
* a program to rip your gamecube games (I'll be using cleanrip here)
* a FAT32-formatted USB drive or SD card, large enough to store your game(s) (note: this is to be used on your new one)
* a wiimote, preferably not a third party one (as the previous requirement: this also is to be used on the new one)
* one of the following: a wii classic controller (normal or pro), a wiiu pro controller or a PS3 controller. For the latter two, you'll also need a USB-to-mini USB cable (should normally ship with the controller).
* basic knowledge on how to hack a wii
III. INTRODUCTION, PART 2:
Yes...I know the first two requirements seem a bit out of place. If you cannot obtain or at least borrow those...sorry, but there's no point in reading further. If you want, you can vent some opinions in this discussion on anti-piracy...but please don't bother those who actually can obtain this. Thank you.
So...with that out of the way...let's make sure your old and new ones are hacked correctly.
If either or both of your old or new one is completely unhacked, I suggest you do so now. There are some quality tutorials for this out there. I (and most on this forum) will recommend modmii (keep note: this will void the warranty. If you want to keep the warranty on your device...stop reading now).
Anyhow...purely for getting this to work, you need surprisingly little. You will need (both on the old and the new one):
* IOS58. If you're on firmware 4.3, you already have this one. Family wiis and wiiu's have this as well. And if you somehow don't have it (ey...you followed modmii, right?)...just install it from this source
* the homebrew channel. As simply EVERY HACKED WII AND WIIU should have.
That and the software linked in the requirements are enough to really get started. Oh...but perhaps this: if you're using priiloader to boot into a loader when starting your wii...turn that off for now on both devices. You will need the wii menu to pair your wii wiimote.
IV. RIPPING THE GAMECUBE DISKS
Note in advance: while there are other (and depending on legislation in some countries: illegal) ways to obtain iso's, ripping them yourself is preferred. For one: compressed or out-of-region iso's may work on other means (DIOS-MIOS), but not on devolution. So unless the disk has some particular nasty sectors, I wouldn't even consider it.
Cleanrip is a simple but efficient program to create an iso of your gamecube disk. Put it on the drive (\apps\cleanrip), check for sufficient free space for your medium (every gamecube disk will require 1.35 GB), connect said drive to 'the old one' and run it like any other homebrew.
The interface literally couldn't be more simple. Your medium is formatted in FAT (note: though cleanrip can rip to NTFS, devolution won't be able to detect it). Insert the drive when it asks you to. And if your old one is connected to the net, you can even check for a verification online.
In any case: just let it rip. Once done, you can immediately rip the next one. Rip all the disks you want to play.
Connect the drive to your PC again. On the root, you will see for each game a .bca file, a -dumpinfo.txt and a .iso file. Create a \games folder directly under the root of the drive and move the .iso files there. And I suggest renaming them from their internal name (something like 'GPTP41') to their full name ('PoP: sands of time). Check to dumpinfo file for the full name of the game.
In addition, put devolution on the list of apps (if you want, you can remove cleanrip...it's no longer needed). If you already had a previous version of devolution, you can just overwrite it (and I hope for your sake that you skipped part IV ).
V. GETTING DEVOLUTION TO RUN ON THE OLD ONE
Connect the drive to the old one again (if not done already), and start devolution from the homebrew channel. This program serves both as a verifying tool as the actual loader. Make sure to eject the disk from the drive.
Wait: I'll repeat this as this isn't a detail as it may sound: eject whatever disk was there from your drive.
Also...devolution's interface...well...erm...how to say this? The capabilities of devolution stand to their interface as Leonard of Quirm's inventions stand to his ability to name the things.
Or, in layman's terms: don't let the harsh interface of devolution misguide you of what it can do.
First off: if you have a classic controller or classic controller pro: plug these into your wiimote. If you have a wiiu pro controller or PS3 controller, plug these via the mini-USB to USB cable into your wii and make sure they're in neutral position.*
Second: in devolution, the controls are more made to mimic the gamecube's controller. As such, the naming is skewed up. Here's a small overview:
physical name on the button -> what button is registered by devolution (both the interface as the game)
B -> A
Y -> B
X -> Y
A -> X
In other words: if you want to load from your usb drive (on screen: 'press X to ...') you will need to press A.
USB loaders can incorporate this and use direct mapping to correct for this, but for now...just stick to it.
After that, just select your game and acknowledge with A...sorry. I mean B. Press the B button. And keep the game disk in hand.
If you didn't like the white text on black background then, you're not going to like the next thing: total blackness. And seemingly no activity for some time (20-30 seconds). Then the drive will start blinking a blue light. This is your cue to do two things (IN ORDER):
1. connect your wiimote. It will blink on and off, kind of in the same tempo as the drive. Doing this marks the wiimote as the place to store the verification files (okay...this is not completely true. But it's best to remember it as this for now).
I have heard that it's possible to enable multiple wiimotes at this time. While this is obviously an advantage, I cannot say I tested it. Feel free to tell me the results and I'll update this part.
2. Once this is done, insert the disk. A bit of spinning will ensure, some more fluorescent lightning will appear and then some more nothingness. Then the game will start.
Take note: while it may appear as if the drive is reading, that isn't true. It's just the disc light that goes ballistic. In fact, you can just eject the drive at this point and it just keeps on playing.
There's something to be said on the controls here. There are quite a few shortcuts which are described in the readme. They're worth checking out. Here, I'll just outline what I think is important:
* each wiimote (as well as the other controller) has three states. Off, blinking and active. Off is...well...off (it can't get much clearer than that). A controller with a full light on a certain position (1->4) will emulate a gamecube controller in that position. It's the blinking (called 'inactive') position in which you can use all the funky shortcuts that tueidj provided.
* the home button (or PS button) will switch between active and inactive.
* the most interesting shortcut: plus/start when inactive. This will swap between ports.
And so on. There are some extra, but you won't need those on a daily basis. For this guide, you'll need one additional one: a short press on the power button of the wii will quit devolution to the homebrew channel.
VI. EXODUS TO THE NEW ONE
Obviously: you've got to do V. for every game you have. It's not as long as it may sound, though. But of course...If you've got a collection of 200 games or more, I hope you can also afford a butler, house maid or sexual slave to do this tedious task for you.
In any case...sooner or later, all your games are verified (or verified again, as verifications from a build below 200 must be done anew for r200). Eject the last disk, put all those disks back wherever they were stored, unplug the drive (and cables, unless you've got two televisions) and connect the drive to the new one.
Remember what I said about disabling priiloader and stuff? This is why: you will need to (re-)sync your wiimote (or wiimotes) to the new one. From there on, get to the homebrew channel and start devolution.
For the verification, at least two things are very important:
1. it's the same physical drive. ripping and verifying it on an SD card, then moving it to a USB drive? It ain't going to happen.
2. the wiimote. I don't know how exactly, but the one you turned on just before the disc verification is what will actually let your game play. You must have this one turned on, at the very least when starting the game.
And...that's it, really. The first time you start a game, it will take a bit longer to write some things (damned if I know what). But it will start. and it will be fun.
VII. FAQ:
What about memory cards? How do these work?
This part is remarkably simple. I advise to always use memory card emulation. This will create a 'memcard.bin' file in \apps\gc_devo. This virtual card can be backed up, copied, restored and probably even used by friends if you want to. Just put them in \apps\gc_devo and enable memory card emulation when it asks you to. The data will be readable.
In any case: I never had any problems with it (unlike the actual physical cards I tended to use).
What are these .dvv files in \apps\gc_devo?
These are the verification files of the games. But apart from 'if you delete them, you will have to re-verify the game', I don't know anything about them. For those jolly pirates still reading (stubborn, eh? ): It's not that simple to get around it. But feel free to try and fail.
Is there any way to make the family wii accept gamecube disks for verification?
As a matter of fact, there is. Buckchow made a very nice post about his findings if you follow this link. Yes, it involves bending a piece of metal on the inside of your wii (which is sort of a hardware mode), but it certainly deserves mentioning.
Can my favorite loaders load games from Devolution?
Probably. CFG, wiiflow, GX and postloader used to be able to play them fine. While I haven't seen (or at least tested) one that worked, it will only be a matter of time before it'll be okay.
EDIT: should be okay already (perhaps it's just postloader who's a bit behind? Or my config?)
What about third-party controllers?
Hard to say. The readme doesn't give guarantees on wiimotes. I haven't had success with a third party PS3-controller (a D3mon). Anything else...let me know.
I thought loading gamecube games from USB was impossible?
Boy...you've been living under a rock for some time, now. It used to be an issue, but not for quite some time.
What about this streaming audio bug I'm hearing about?
This used to be a common problem on some other loaders/modchips (DIOS MIOS, DML, Wode, swiss). It was about some games not displaying some audio. IIRC, devolution was the first to completely solve it. I'm not sure on the status of the other loaders, but I hear that nintendont should also have this fixed.
Now you mention it: What about nintendont?
Nintendont is a project from Crediar (author of DML and dios mios). It also aims to bring gamecube games to the wiiu. As of writing, nothing is released yet, and it's to be seen what features it may or may not have. In any case: it's out of scope for this tutorial. Use google
Erm...sexual slave?
If you're below eighteen, you shouldn't be reading that. And if you are...it's not like you can't use your imagination on this one.
LINKS:
Original devolution thread (note: tueidj is the author. Though he isn't active on the 'temp for some time, the link to the program is still the most recent one)
Devolution compatibility list
*unfortunately, I cannot properly vouch for this, as I don't have one of these myself. I'm basing myself on the included readme, here.
So...you heard something about gamecube games being playable on every wii and wiiu. Either from friends, guys at the internet, the front page or even at a friend's house. And upon hearing this, you thought something in the lines of "God damn! I want to know how to do that too!
".If so...you've come to the right place. In this tutorial, I'll be explaining everything there is to know about it. But I've got to warn you: make sure you've got all the requirements before you get too excited. The list is longer than you may expect...
II. REQUIREMENTS:
* a wii that is able to play gamecube games (I'll be referring this to as 'the old one')
* one or more retail gamecube games
* a family wii or wiiu (referred to as 'the new one')
* devolution; revision 200 or higher (can be downloaded here)
* a program to rip your gamecube games (I'll be using cleanrip here)
* a FAT32-formatted USB drive or SD card, large enough to store your game(s) (note: this is to be used on your new one)
* a wiimote, preferably not a third party one (as the previous requirement: this also is to be used on the new one)
* one of the following: a wii classic controller (normal or pro), a wiiu pro controller or a PS3 controller. For the latter two, you'll also need a USB-to-mini USB cable (should normally ship with the controller).
* basic knowledge on how to hack a wii
III. INTRODUCTION, PART 2:
Yes...I know the first two requirements seem a bit out of place. If you cannot obtain or at least borrow those...sorry, but there's no point in reading further. If you want, you can vent some opinions in this discussion on anti-piracy...but please don't bother those who actually can obtain this. Thank you.
So...with that out of the way...let's make sure your old and new ones are hacked correctly.
If either or both of your old or new one is completely unhacked, I suggest you do so now. There are some quality tutorials for this out there. I (and most on this forum) will recommend modmii (keep note: this will void the warranty. If you want to keep the warranty on your device...stop reading now).
Anyhow...purely for getting this to work, you need surprisingly little. You will need (both on the old and the new one):
* IOS58. If you're on firmware 4.3, you already have this one. Family wiis and wiiu's have this as well. And if you somehow don't have it (ey...you followed modmii, right?)...just install it from this source
* the homebrew channel. As simply EVERY HACKED WII AND WIIU should have.
That and the software linked in the requirements are enough to really get started. Oh...but perhaps this: if you're using priiloader to boot into a loader when starting your wii...turn that off for now on both devices. You will need the wii menu to pair your wii wiimote.
IV. RIPPING THE GAMECUBE DISKS
Note in advance: while there are other (and depending on legislation in some countries: illegal) ways to obtain iso's, ripping them yourself is preferred. For one: compressed or out-of-region iso's may work on other means (DIOS-MIOS), but not on devolution. So unless the disk has some particular nasty sectors, I wouldn't even consider it.
Cleanrip is a simple but efficient program to create an iso of your gamecube disk. Put it on the drive (\apps\cleanrip), check for sufficient free space for your medium (every gamecube disk will require 1.35 GB), connect said drive to 'the old one' and run it like any other homebrew.
The interface literally couldn't be more simple. Your medium is formatted in FAT (note: though cleanrip can rip to NTFS, devolution won't be able to detect it). Insert the drive when it asks you to. And if your old one is connected to the net, you can even check for a verification online.
In any case: just let it rip. Once done, you can immediately rip the next one. Rip all the disks you want to play.
Connect the drive to your PC again. On the root, you will see for each game a .bca file, a -dumpinfo.txt and a .iso file. Create a \games folder directly under the root of the drive and move the .iso files there. And I suggest renaming them from their internal name (something like 'GPTP41') to their full name ('PoP: sands of time). Check to dumpinfo file for the full name of the game.
In addition, put devolution on the list of apps (if you want, you can remove cleanrip...it's no longer needed). If you already had a previous version of devolution, you can just overwrite it (and I hope for your sake that you skipped part IV
).V. GETTING DEVOLUTION TO RUN ON THE OLD ONE
Connect the drive to the old one again (if not done already), and start devolution from the homebrew channel. This program serves both as a verifying tool as the actual loader. Make sure to eject the disk from the drive.
Wait: I'll repeat this as this isn't a detail as it may sound: eject whatever disk was there from your drive.
Also...devolution's interface...well...erm...how to say this?
The capabilities of devolution stand to their interface as Leonard of Quirm's inventions stand to his ability to name the things.Or, in layman's terms: don't let the harsh interface of devolution misguide you of what it can do.
First off: if you have a classic controller or classic controller pro: plug these into your wiimote. If you have a wiiu pro controller or PS3 controller, plug these via the mini-USB to USB cable into your wii and make sure they're in neutral position.*
Second: in devolution, the controls are more made to mimic the gamecube's controller. As such, the naming is skewed up. Here's a small overview:
physical name on the button -> what button is registered by devolution (both the interface as the game)
B -> A
Y -> B
X -> Y
A -> X
In other words: if you want to load from your usb drive (on screen: 'press X to ...') you will need to press A.
USB loaders can incorporate this and use direct mapping to correct for this, but for now...just stick to it.
After that, just select your game and acknowledge with A...sorry. I mean B. Press the B button. And keep the game disk in hand.
If you didn't like the white text on black background then, you're not going to like the next thing: total blackness. And seemingly no activity for some time (20-30 seconds). Then the drive will start blinking a blue light. This is your cue to do two things (IN ORDER):
1. connect your wiimote. It will blink on and off, kind of in the same tempo as the drive. Doing this marks the wiimote as the place to store the verification files (okay...this is not completely true. But it's best to remember it as this for now).
I have heard that it's possible to enable multiple wiimotes at this time. While this is obviously an advantage, I cannot say I tested it. Feel free to tell me the results and I'll update this part.
2. Once this is done, insert the disk. A bit of spinning will ensure, some more fluorescent lightning will appear and then some more nothingness. Then the game will start.
Take note: while it may appear as if the drive is reading, that isn't true. It's just the disc light that goes ballistic. In fact, you can just eject the drive at this point and it just keeps on playing.
There's something to be said on the controls here. There are quite a few shortcuts which are described in the readme. They're worth checking out. Here, I'll just outline what I think is important:
* each wiimote (as well as the other controller) has three states. Off, blinking and active. Off is...well...off (it can't get much clearer than that). A controller with a full light on a certain position (1->4) will emulate a gamecube controller in that position. It's the blinking (called 'inactive') position in which you can use all the funky shortcuts that tueidj provided.
* the home button (or PS button) will switch between active and inactive.
* the most interesting shortcut: plus/start when inactive. This will swap between ports.
And so on. There are some extra, but you won't need those on a daily basis. For this guide, you'll need one additional one: a short press on the power button of the wii will quit devolution to the homebrew channel.
VI. EXODUS TO THE NEW ONE
Obviously: you've got to do V. for every game you have. It's not as long as it may sound, though. But of course...If you've got a collection of 200 games or more, I hope you can also afford a butler, house maid or sexual slave to do this tedious task for you.
In any case...sooner or later, all your games are verified (or verified again, as verifications from a build below 200 must be done anew for r200). Eject the last disk, put all those disks back wherever they were stored, unplug the drive (and cables, unless you've got two televisions) and connect the drive to the new one.
Remember what I said about disabling priiloader and stuff? This is why: you will need to (re-)sync your wiimote (or wiimotes) to the new one. From there on, get to the homebrew channel and start devolution.
For the verification, at least two things are very important:
1. it's the same physical drive. ripping and verifying it on an SD card, then moving it to a USB drive? It ain't going to happen.
2. the wiimote. I don't know how exactly, but the one you turned on just before the disc verification is what will actually let your game play. You must have this one turned on, at the very least when starting the game.
And...that's it, really. The first time you start a game, it will take a bit longer to write some things (damned if I know what). But it will start. and it will be fun.
VII. FAQ:
What about memory cards? How do these work?
This part is remarkably simple. I advise to always use memory card emulation. This will create a 'memcard.bin' file in \apps\gc_devo. This virtual card can be backed up, copied, restored and probably even used by friends if you want to. Just put them in \apps\gc_devo and enable memory card emulation when it asks you to. The data will be readable.
In any case: I never had any problems with it (unlike the actual physical cards I tended to use).
What are these .dvv files in \apps\gc_devo?
These are the verification files of the games. But apart from 'if you delete them, you will have to re-verify the game', I don't know anything about them. For those jolly pirates still reading (stubborn, eh?
): It's not that simple to get around it. But feel free to try and fail.Is there any way to make the family wii accept gamecube disks for verification?
As a matter of fact, there is. Buckchow made a very nice post about his findings if you follow this link. Yes, it involves bending a piece of metal on the inside of your wii (which is sort of a hardware mode), but it certainly deserves mentioning.
Can my favorite loaders load games from Devolution?
Probably. CFG, wiiflow, GX and postloader used to be able to play them fine. While I haven't seen (or at least tested) one that worked, it will only be a matter of time before it'll be okay.
EDIT: should be okay already (perhaps it's just postloader who's a bit behind? Or my config?)
What about third-party controllers?
Hard to say. The readme doesn't give guarantees on wiimotes. I haven't had success with a third party PS3-controller (a D3mon). Anything else...let me know.
I thought loading gamecube games from USB was impossible?
Boy...you've been living under a rock for some time, now. It used to be an issue, but not for quite some time.
What about this streaming audio bug I'm hearing about?
This used to be a common problem on some other loaders/modchips (DIOS MIOS, DML, Wode, swiss). It was about some games not displaying some audio. IIRC, devolution was the first to completely solve it. I'm not sure on the status of the other loaders, but I hear that nintendont should also have this fixed.
Now you mention it: What about nintendont?
Nintendont is a project from Crediar (author of DML and dios mios). It also aims to bring gamecube games to the wiiu. As of writing, nothing is released yet, and it's to be seen what features it may or may not have. In any case: it's out of scope for this tutorial. Use google
Erm...sexual slave?
If you're below eighteen, you shouldn't be reading that. And if you are...it's not like you can't use your imagination on this one.
LINKS:
Original devolution thread (note: tueidj is the author. Though he isn't active on the 'temp for some time, the link to the program is still the most recent one)
Devolution compatibility list
*unfortunately, I cannot properly vouch for this, as I don't have one of these myself. I'm basing myself on the included readme, here.
