N00b questions on Hacking WiiU

[CheekyKid]

Hi everyone,

What I would like to achieve is having a WiiU console play roms (without issues) that I download for free and transfer onto an SD card.

1) Can Wii U after getting hacked play perfectly all/most Wii and Gamecube games that have been mounted on an SD card?
2) Can I just buy any Wii U I find or I need be careful to pick one with a specific firmware?
3) is the hacking easy and straight forward?

I have the 4k Alienware AW3225QF that am planning on hooking up this console to. It is 4k native but it can work with lower resolutions however am not sure how well it will look.
Do you recommend that I use a different native 1080p monitor just for the Wii U?

I have considered and tried the Dolphin emulator but I prefer to go down the console route for better compatibility.

Cheers everyone!

 

[emcintosh]

Yo ho ho!

1) USB Loader GX for Wii (despite the name, it also supports loading from SD), Nintendont for GC: https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx-troubleshooting-guide.617564/. I think you should install Wii U games to the internal memory or an external USB drive (formatted to the console's special format through the stock system settings), though, as the SD loader, Loadiine, is very slow.

2) Any firmware is fine: https://wiiu.hacks.guide/#/. The model you might be worried about is whether you get Hynix-brand internal memory, which is less reliable than the other brands. The basic 8 GB white model all have ?Samsung, but obviously have less internal storage; the deluxe 32 GB black model can have different brands, and you can only find out after hacking (using WiiUIdent).

3) Pretty easy. See link above.

4) Only a few Wii U games render at the full 1080p (the Zelda HD remakes, Mario Kart, ??). The rest run at 720p and you should set the console's output to match this. A 4K screen is probably a good idea, as both 720p and 1080p can be integer-scaled to 4K. Wii/GC games will only render at 480p, and the monitor will probably do a better job of scaling this up when the Wii U is set to 480p than the Wii U will when set to 720p/1080p. I use an mClassic HDMI dongle to help upscale lower resolutions.

 

[CheekyKid]

Yo ho ho!

1) USB Loader GX for Wii (despite the name, it also supports loading from SD), Nintendont for GC: I think you should install Wii U games to the internal memory or an external USB drive (formatted to the console's special format through the stock system settings), though, as the SD loader, Loadiine, is very slow.

2) Any firmware is fine: The model you might be worried about is whether you get Hynix-brand internal memory, which is less reliable than the other brands. The basic 8 GB white model all have ?Samsung, but ovbiously have less internal storage; the deluxe 32 GB black model can have different brands, and you can only find out after hacking (using WiiUIdent).

3) Pretty easy. See link above.

4) Only a few Wii U games render at the full 1080p (the Zelda HD remakes, Mario Kart, ??). The rest run at 720p and you should set the console's output to match this. A 4K screen is probably a good idea, as both 720p and 1080p can be integer-scaled to 4K. Wii/GC games will only render at 480p, and the monitor will probably do a better job of scaling this up when the Wii U is set to 480p than the Wii U will when set to 720p/1080p. I use an mClassic HDMI dongle to help upscale lower resolutions.

Thank you very much for this detailed reply mate!

1) So I am better off loading the games onto a usb stick than SD card, right? Couldn't I load all games (GC,Wii, WiiU) onto the same usb drive?

2) Does it actually matter if the Wii has 8gb or 32gb as I could simply load all games on an external usb drive? or via this way its going to run too slow? If this does matter then I'll go for the 32gb and hope to get the right version.

4) I have researched the mClassic HDMI dongle and it seems very good however it is quite pricy at around £75-80. Not easy to find them used either. Do you reckon the integer-scaled will suffice and there won't be a need for the mClassic?

 

[emcintosh]

Thank you very much for this detailed reply mate!

1) So I am better off loading the games onto a usb stick than SD card, right? Couldn't I load all games (GC,Wii, WiiU) onto the same usb drive?

2) Does it actually matter if the Wii has 8gb or 32gb as I could simply load all games on an external usb drive? or via this way its going to run too slow? If this does matter then I'll go for the 32gb and hope to get the right version.

4) I have researched the mClassic HDMI dongle and it seems very good however it is quite pricy at around £75-80. Not easy to find them used either. Do you reckon the integer-scaled will suffice and there won't be a need for the mClassic?

1) Wii / GC from SD should be fine. No, the format the Wii U uses makes the hard disk unreadable by PC and Wii. You can have all the game formats on the SD card (and then install Wii U games to hard disk), as that uses normal FAT32.

2) IIRC the internal storage is connected using USB 2, so will only be faster than very slow external storage.

4) Should be fine. If you don’t like how it looks, you can switch to Dolphin and increase the internal resolution.

 

[CheekyKid]

1) Wii / GC from SD should be fine. No, the format the Wii U uses makes the hard disk unreadable by PC and Wii. You can have all the game formats on the SD card (and then install Wii U games to hard disk), as that uses normal FAT32.

2) IIRC the internal storage is connected using USB 2, so will only be faster than very slow external storage.

4) Should be fine. If you don’t like how it looks, you can switch to Dolphin and increase the internal resolution.

1) so 1 disk for Wii/gc and a separate one for wii U.
2) WiiU only supports usb 2.0. If the internal memory only supports usb 2.0 then the loading speeds of an external usb drive should be similar?
4) you mean run Dolphin on my pc or on wiiU hardware?

 

[NinjaCheetah]

Not the original person replying but I can still answer your questions.

1) Yeah, you need a separate disk for your Wii U games from everything else.

2) From my experience, I have never noticed any real speed decrease from loading games off a USB hard drive vs the internal memory.

4) You'd run Dolphin on your PC, as it isn't available for Wii U (wouldn't really make much sense when the Wii U can already just run Wii games natively).

 

[SylverReZ]

1) Yeah, you need a separate disk for your Wii U games from everything else.

I think he's referring to original Wii games and not Wii U games. For Wii U, on the other hand, you can dump the discs to (.WUP) files and install them to your emulated/system NAND, as long as they have custom firmware installed.

2) From my experience, I have never noticed any real speed decrease from loading games off a USB hard drive vs the internal memory.

More or less, your mileage when booting games from an SD card may sometimes vary. Personally, though, I would still recommend booting your games from a USB flash drive for better speeds, whereas your SD card would be for homebrew and CFW.

 

[CheekyKid]

I should mention that I have no original games and planning to download everything. Does this change anything in my decision making?

So I should get an 8gb wii U (for reliability), and just use two different external drives for wiiu and wii/gc games. mClassic HDMI to be considered later if needed.

Am I missing something?

 

[SylverReZ]

So I should get an 8gb wii U (for reliability), and just use two different external drives for wiiu and wii/gc games. mClassic HDMI to be considered later if needed.

Doesn't matter which model you get, it can be easily upgraded with an external HDD or USB. Otherwise, get a Wii-U NAND-AID if you're good at soldering, to install an SD card overriding the eMMC.