While searching how to get channels for my GameCube backups to autoboot from the Wii menu, I couldn't find much but outdated information and broken attempts from other users, after some work I figured out a way to get it to work through USBLoaderGX and Nintendont somewhat.
With this method you can create a forwarder that will first start USBLoaderGX, which then automatically boots to nintendont which starts up the title.


Before attempting this do have your precautions setup for any possible Bannerbrick or other "Worst case scenarios"

(Only tested this on a Wii, not vWii.)

Things you need:

• WiiGSC
• a copy of a Wii ISO\WBFS file (can be any game, this will be deleted or reused for other GC channels)
• HxD (or any other Hex Editor)
• CustomizeMii
• .wad for the gamecube game you want to forward to (or make your own, I used one from this thread)
• A wbfs folder on the root of any disk to use (I'd advise an internal one for speed purposes)
• Your GameCube backup being on SD.

Due to WiiGSC being very fragile, always launch it as admin

• Open HxD and open the .wbfs file we will use to create an channel
• Edit the Title ID to the ID of the GC game you want to forward to
• Save the wbfs file as [GC TitleID].wbfs
• open WiiGSC and select "Open WBFS Drive" and navigate to the drive where your dummy wbfs is (Ex: C:\wbfs\name\GCtitleID.wbfs)
• If edited right & using a proper wbfs it should load properly, show the wii game's title but the GC's game Disc ID
• Select "USB Loader GX Forwarder" as your forwarder
• Press create channel

• Start up CustomizeMii, open the .wad you have just created
• Go to the Options tab, and extract the .dol file and save this
• Go back to the source tab and clear the current loaded .wad
• Load up the .wad file for your game you downloaded in this thread
• Under options, change the startup IOS to 35, and load the new .dol
• Install & Profit

This will make you boot into USBLoaderGX, which will then forward you to nintendont and start the title.

It's a hassle to setup, It's not desirable to have USBLoaderGX boot first, then have that autostart nintendont and the game, but for now it's a way to get these forwarder channels working.

 

[SaulFabre]

@Crumb

If you want for the forwarder channel forward through Nintendont directly and boot through the game without the need of USB Loader GX, here's another tutorial:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-...ader-for-games-skip-the-emulator-menu.520525/

Anyways, your tutorial is still nice and even a bit more understandable

Greetings

 

[V800]

I've used this method to make a forwarder to SM64 Gamecube. I'd like to contribute by saying a few things:
1) It's better to use ISO over wbfs to edit the GameID. The reason is, in ISO the gameID is right at the start, while in Wbfs in somewhere in the middle.
2) If you feel intimidated by Hex editing (I do), there's a tool called Wii ISO renamer that gets the job done.
3) I followed the rest of the tutorial to the letter and it worked! It's noteworthy that the dol file CustomizeMii may be useful for launching Gamecube games from the Homebrew Launcher.

 

[CoolMe]

@Crumb Your Nintendont is very old. Update it within Nintendont, or manually if you can't connect to the internet.

 

[pedro702]

how can someone still be using nintendont 152? jesus that thing is old and many games dont even work in that version... nintendont is up to 498 with lots of bugfixes and additions, seriously making a video tutorial with a nintendont file outdated like that ouch.

 

[SaulFabre]

how can someone still be using nintendont 152? jesus that thing is old and many games dont even work in that version... nintendont is up to 498 with lots of bugfixes and additions, seriously making a video tutorial with a nintendont file outdated like that ouch.

i agree.
look here at this updated tutorial: https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-...ader-for-games-skip-the-emulator-menu.520525/

 

[Crumb]

My Nintendon't version has been updated for a long time, don't be upset about some older footage y'all

 

[totakeke95]

I've a little doubt.

The .dol extracted from the WAD of that custom forwarders thread is from an old version of Nintendont or that .dol will simply start the main .dol from the apps/nintendont folder when it starts?

 

[CoolMe]

The .dol extracted from the WAD of that custom forwarders thread is from an old version of Nintendont or that .dol will simply start the main .dol from the apps/nintendont folder when it starts?

Don't extract anything, download latest Nintendont files and put them on the apps folder. Launch the forwarder and if it's working correctly it should boot to that latest version of Nintendont, see the version number & date to confirm it. If it's not, then you might need to replace the forwarder wad channel with different one.

 

[Crumb]

I've a little doubt.

The .dol extracted from the WAD of that custom forwarders thread is from an old version of Nintendont or that .dol will simply start the main .dol from the apps/nintendont folder when it starts?

it should be forwarding to /apps/nintendont
as in the end the .dol used is just a usbloadergx dol which is told to boot to a gc title id

 

[fergambo]

Hello. Can I select "Wiiflow forwarder" in WIIGSC? It's my actual Loader for GC

 

[Steinyamite]

When I tried this it did not work, I am not sure what I did wrong though

 

[V800]

Hello. Can I select "Wiiflow forwarder" in WIIGSC? It's my actual Loader for GC

Yes, you can. Make sure you can launch Gc games directly from Wiiflow beforehand.

Post automatically merged: Nov 30, 2022

When I tried this it did not work, I am not sure what I did wrong though

Let's search for a explanation:
- Do regular wii games work via forwarder?
- Have you tried launching Gc games from usb loader/wiiflow beforehand?

If the answer to both questions is yes, odds are you're not editing correctly the Title ID. I've shared a few tips in this thread about this precise step.

 

[DoctorIke]

Trying to use this tutorial to create a channel that launches Super Smash Bros Melee from wii flow via sd.
Wii flow has nintendont as the default gamecube launcher- and I have confirmed that the game launches properly from the wii flow application.

I created a WAD for Melee as instructed (only changing that the forwarder is for wii flow- not usb gx) but when launching the channel, I just get a message from wii flow saying "Cannot find the game with ID:GALE01".

The game is located in sd:/games/Super Smash Bros Melee [Gale01]/game.iso
I also did go into wii flow and set sd:/games as the default location for gamecube games.
Any idea how I can get wii flow to find the game? I have confirmed the ID of the iso is properly gale01 as well.

 

[V800]

Just a wild guess: Shouldn't the game ID be in capital letters? Another thing you can try is renaming the ISO using Wii iso renamer or switching to usb loader gx to rule out these possibilities.

 

[DoctorIke]

Just a wild guess: Shouldn't the game ID be in capital letters? Another thing you can try is renaming the ISO using Wii iso renamer or switching to usb loader gx to rule out these possibilities.

Unfortunately, the actual name of the game folder seems to have no bearing, I tried naming it "GALE01" which didn't seem to help.

I would use USB Loader GX, but for some reason, I cannot get Melee to run properly on a usb drive- it always crashes on "Init DI" in the nintendont boot screen. I found a fork of Nintendont online that got past that screen, but then it just loaded into an infinite black screen.

It works on SD Card, but Usb Loader GX does not support loading from SD card as far as I can tell.

Wii ISO renamer does read the game as "GALE01" (I even tried changing both the name and ID to that), and I did remember to rename my template ISO to GALE01 as well.

 

[V800]

Unfortunately, the actual name of the game folder seems to have no bearing, I tried naming it "GALE01" which didn't seem to help.

I would use USB Loader GX, but for some reason, I cannot get Melee to run properly on a usb drive- it always crashes on "Init DI" in the nintendont boot screen. I found a fork of Nintendont online that got past that screen, but then it just loaded into an infinite black screen.

It works on SD Card, but Usb Loader GX does not support loading from SD card as far as I can tell.

Wii ISO renamer does read the game as "GALE01" (I even tried changing both the name and ID to that), and I did remember to rename my template ISO to GALE01 as well.

Sometimes, when just a particular game can't be read, it's better to try to get a different iso. The original may be corrupted.

 

[DoctorIke]

Sometimes, when just a particular game can't be read, it's better to try to get a different iso. The original may be corrupted.

Tried this too. Confirmed working on my pc as well.

 

[V800]

I'm at my wits end here. I suggest you to try what @SaulFabre suggested and create a single rom loader of the game. The result of the same but, instead of using Wiigsc, you make Nintendont autoboot Smash Bros Melee. He posted a tutorial right in this thread. Worth a try, I guess.

 

[kabukijr]

I've searched through the thread that was listed but I can't find the vc banner used in the video demonstration. Anyone have a link to the banners I'm not sure where to look.