Hacking How to Make Wii Hospital Friendly?

[eX-Digy]

Hello,

I am a volunteer at a local hospital in the pediatric ward and there we have a few Wii in the family/play rooms for the patients and their families to use. We have a large problem that our discs get lost/scratched very often since they all over the place. These are regular store-bought Wiis that were donated to us.

I would like to know:

• What is the best (most simplistic/reliable) loader to use so that I could backup all the Wii games that the hospital owns so that the Wii could be turned on by anyone and load directly into the game selection screen, bypassing the home menu, etc?
• Is it possible to run this mod off an SD card entirely. eg. Use an SDHC card loaded with as many games as would fit (we don't have that many)? This way we could secure the SD card tray closed somehow and not have to worry about the costs and fragility/complexity of relying upon a USB hard drive. If this is not possible/feasible--could an inexpensive USB 3.0 (because they are faster) flash drive rather than a HDD be used?
• Can I modify the Wii's health and safety screen to a splash screen for the hospital? (e.g. List the internal support number, state that its the property of the hospital [deter theft], etc)
• Also, can I prevent access to the home menu entirely and put a passcode lock on it (to allow modification of settings as needed)? This would make it easier to use the Wii for everyone since no one would have to worry about kids messing with settings accidentally and so on...

Essentially what I am trying to mimic is the way the Wiis donated to us by the Starlight foundation work. They are--from what I understand--a simple loader that runs about 8-or-so Wii games from an internal storage of some kind. I am not entirely sure since I have not had a chance to look much in that area.

I apologize for the long thread and many questions, but I would appreciate guidance on how to best start this project so that I could complete it in the smallest amount of time.

 

[GamerzHell9137]

To run backups you gotta hack the Wii.
Its pretty simple, there's a discless hack for it.
There's a program for PC named ModMii, it asks you questions about what firmware you Wii is (and shows you how to check it) and MAC address (it shows you how to check that too) and then you just copy the stuff that the program downloads to your SD card.
Put the SD card in the Wii and follow the tutorial that was made specific for your Wii (After the program downloads the stuff to PC the tutorial should pop up on the screen).

Its pretty easy to hack the Wii with it.

You can backup the games on a HDD or a USB Stick/Thumbdrive and load it with a game loader(one of them is USB Loader GX).
There's a way to make a channel of the loader so you can directly when you turn on the Wii load it up.
Once you open/load the program your backed up games will be shown as channels.
So you Turn on Wii>Load/Open Game Loader>Choose the game you want to play>Press Start , that's the easiest way to run games on it.
Backing up games on the USB Device is easy too, once you're in the Game Loader put your disc in the Wii and a screen will pop up saying if you want to backup it, choose Yes and wait for it to be copied to the USB Device you are using.

Installing the Game Loader as a channel is a little more complicated but shouldn't be a problem.
You download an app from internet(named WAD Manager), get the channel installer from internet of the Game Loader, copy both to your SD card (The channel installer for the game loader goes into wad folder in the root of your SD card and the WAD Manager should be in apps folder which should be located in the root of the SD card too)

You boot up Homebrew channel(which you get after you hack your Wii) load WAD Manager and install the Wad.

......well i said lots of stuff but that's how you hack your Wii to load backups... there's no easier way, but its not hard at all to hack the Wii, you just gotta follow lots of tutorials.

 

[Foxi4]

Pretty sure that having the system hacked in a public institution is a big no-no, so make sure that the system comes with the game discs and that the rips are not downloaded - you want to use the actual discs for your rips. That way, if somebody asks, you're just using backups for the kid's convenience - a patient isn't going to go in and out of the bed every single time he/she wants to switch games and won't call the nurse just for that, for obvious reasons.

You can easily "modify" the Health Screen on the Wii - you can even skip it altogether and boot into a different logo if you wish.

Additionally, there are ways to make the system autoboot into a backup manager (pretty sure it's a feature supported by Priiloader) as well as ways to restrict the use of certain settings features with parental controls so the kids don't mess the system up with unwanted updates (available in your backup loader of choice - I normally use CFG Loader).

You're far better off using a small HDD drive stuck to the system somehow - SD's just don't provide enough space for a decent games selection.

As for the Wii Motes, they come with silicone sleeves, so you've got that part of "safety" covered. You might want to invest in wireless Nunchucks though, so that the cables aren't in the way of any other equipment or IV's, depending on who's using the system. They're not that expensive and they do the job right. You can also get silicone sleeves for those too, but I don't think that's necessary.

I hope someone will help you out with this, what you're doing sounds very noble.

EDIT: Info on Autobooting into a games selection screen using PriiLoader

 

[GamerzHell9137]

Pretty sure that having the system hacked in a public institution is a big no-no

This too, but i guess as long as they have the games on legit discs its fine?

 

[Foxi4]

This too, but i guess as long as they have the games on legit discs its fine?

I have no idea what the legal ramifications could be as it's a territorial law issue, but backups are backups - a grey area.

 

[Maxternal]

Hello,

I am a volunteer at a local hospital in the pediatric ward and there we have a few Wii in the family/play rooms for the patients and their families to use. We have a large problem that our discs get lost/scratched very often since they all over the place. These are regular store-bought Wiis that were donated to us.

I would like to know:

• What is the best (most simplistic/reliable) loader to use so that I could backup all the Wii games that the hospital owns so that the Wii could be turned on by anyone and load directly into the game selection screen, bypassing the home menu, etc?
• Is it possible to run this mod off an SD card entirely. eg. Use an SDHC card loaded with as many games as would fit (we don't have that many)? This way we could secure the SD card tray closed somehow and not have to worry about the costs and fragility/complexity of relying upon a USB hard drive. If this is not possible/feasible--could an inexpensive USB 3.0 (because they are faster) flash drive rather than a HDD be used?
• Can I modify the Wii's health and safety screen to a splash screen for the hospital? (e.g. List the internal support number, state that its the property of the hospital [deter theft], etc)
• Also, can I prevent access to the home menu entirely and put a passcode lock on it (to allow modification of settings as needed)? This would make it easier to use the Wii for everyone since no one would have to worry about kids messing with settings accidentally and so on...

Essentially what I am trying to mimic is the way the Wiis donated to us by the Starlight foundation work. They are--from what I understand--a simple loader that runs about 8-or-so Wii games from an internal storage of some kind. I am not entirely sure since I have not had a chance to look much in that area.

I apologize for the long thread and many questions, but I would appreciate guidance on how to best start this project so that I could complete it in the smallest amount of time.

The loader you'd probably be looking for would be WiiFlow since it can still run games from a SD card.
(The other two main loaders are USB Loader GX and CFG. I know GX can't use the SD card and I'm not sure about CFG but WiiFlow is, in my opinion, easier to set up initially.)

You would need to ...
1. Run ModMii for Windows on the computer. It will guide you through the initial process of convincing the Wii to let you install WiiFlow and all the background/system stuff that's needed to make it work.
http://code.google.com/p/modmii/downloads/detail?name=ModMii6.3.1.zip&can=2&q=
(It'll download and do most of the technical part for you and then generate a detailed guide for the stuff you have to do yourself.)

2. Install the WiiFlow forwarder channel by extracting this installer onto the SD card ...
http://code.google.com/p/wiiflow/downloads/detail?name=WiiFlow_Channel_Installer_v1.1.zip&can=2&q=
... going into the Homebrew Channel on the Wii (which will be installed as part of step #1) where the installer should show up so you can run it.

3. Install the PriiLoader forwarder from here ...
http://code.google.com/p/wiiflow/downloads/detail?name=Priiloader-Forwader-Loader-DWFA.dol&can=2&q=
... which will make it automatically open WiiFlow every time you run it so you can just select a game and play. To install this, you'll need to put the above file on the SD card, insert the SD card and then hold the reset button while the Wii is turning on. This will take you to the PriiLoader menu (also installed as part of step #1) There's an option there that says something like "install file". You'll use that to find the above file on the SD card and install it and then there's and then you go to the settings/options and tell it to run the "installed file" on startup. Don't forget to save the settings before exiting.

some additional useful details:
- In WiiFlow's settings (the gear icon near the bottom of the screen) you can set it to "return to" wiiflow so that when you exit a game it will send you right back to WiiFlow instead of going to the normal Wii system menu again.

- There's an option to "install game" in the settings as well. That's what you'd use to add games to the SD card.

- When you have all your games installed. It'd be a little easier to recognize them if you download the covers for them.

- You can then also activate the "parental controls" in WiiFlow just to make sure that nobody accidentally messes with the settings or deletes a game later on.




ANY other questions you have, feel free to ask.
(I'm not sure if I wrote down the exact name of the options you're supposed to choose. It should be pretty close but when in doubt, again, feel free to ask.)

 

[Foxi4]

I'm not entirely sure if using an SD/SDHC card would be such a great solution, it sort of depends on the plan. If capacity is not an issue and the system will be running up to 10-20 games max, sure - use SD, but prepare to buy 32GB-64GB ones. If you're planning to install more, you'll be needing a USB HDD. It's a matter of discreetness versus capacity.

 

[GamerzHell9137]

I have no idea what the legal ramifications could be as it's a territorial law issue, but backups are backups - a grey area.

I guess its fine, i mean what could even happen if they find out that they have a hacked Wii?
As long as they don't pirate anything its fine. They have the discs as proof for not getting the games illegal.

 

[Foxi4]

I guess its fine, i mean what could even happen if they find out that they have a hacked Wii?
As long as they don't pirate anything its fine. They have the discs as proof for not getting the games illegal.

The problem being that in some states and countries, bypassing copy protection is an offense in itself. That, and he'd have to make sure that each copy of the game is only ever used on one station at any given time, so by extension, each of the Wii's would require separate copies of the games.

I'm pretty sure that if this was a simple expression of good will and no legal limits were broken (using one game on multiple Wii's at the same time etc. or piracy), everyone would keep a blind eye to loaders as they're really just a matter of convenience in this case, not copyright abuse.

It's definitely important to keep these issues in-check, and it's more simple than it seems. Stick a simple set of stickers on the discs and Wii's - discs with the no.1 go with Wii no.1 etc. - that's easy enough and it keeps the copyright issues sorted.

 

[eX-Digy]

Thanks everyone for the advice!

I just tried out ModMii on my own Wii and it works great! Thanks for the excellent directions! Ill be sure to get that setup at the hospital as soon as I can.

As far as legality is concurred, I am aware of that and I'll make sure to have that checked by my supervisors. And these Wiis aren't in use in patient rooms--we have ones that are sponsored by nintendo on carts that look alot like the ones you see in Best Buy for demo use--so we don't have to worry about wireless nunchucks, or anything like that. Essentially imagine this situation as something like a Wii in your own home.

Additionally using a loader will prevent games from being stolen since we don't exactly have them behind some special cabinets or anything like that. And we only have about 10 games total, so SD cards would be ideal since they are less expensive than HDDs. Also could anyone point me in the direction to modify the health and safety screen?

 

[XDel]

eX-Digy: You're alright man! I love what you are trying to do!

 

[Maxternal]

Also could anyone point me in the direction to modify the health and safety screen?

Depending on which hack file ModMii had you install (I can't remember off the top of my head, TBH) There should be an option to replace it with a black screen and another one to make it automatically press A for you. I'm not sure about replacing it with another image. (if you were going have it directly boot into the game loader, though, it'd be skipping the health and safety screen completely anyhow.)