Hacking Buying Wii U for emulators?

[goodbytes]

Hi, apologies for the noobish post... I've been toying with the idea of getting a Wii U for a while, there is a few games I want to play but so far held off.. I came across a video on youtube that showed a couple of emulators playing, this got me really interested.. it didn't go into detail so no real indication of performance?

I am wondering if the NES, SNES, N64 and Gamecube emulators work at full speed?

and can the emulators be played from the control pad screen?

There are some games i want to revisit, in particular on the N64 and GC... or would i be better off using a PC with a decent GFX card?

If i decide to buy one, is there anything i need to look out for? i can see there is an exploit for 5.1.0 .. i guess buying a new unit is out of the question and i need to buy one that hasn't been updated? I'm guessing it can't be downgraded?

Is there anything else i need to buy or advice i should take on board before taking the plunge?

Thanks

 

[linkchidori]

You can use the emulators in the vWii on the Wii U, and Nintendont can use Bluetooth controllers now

 

[laudern]

Emulating is pretty much the only thing going for the wii u right now.

 

[Taleweaver]

Here's the thing: the wii part of the wiiu (usually called 'vwii') is pretty much exactly the same as the wii. It can be hacked using an exploit in one of a couple wii games (SSBB is the most common one). Once you have that exploit, you can do everything a hacked wii can. And that includes NES, SNES and (lately) gamecube at full speed. N64 kind of hobbles along and isn't really worked on anymore.

Can't say whether emulators can be played from the control pad screen (others may offer info on that).

It's true there are some exploits for the wiiu floating around, but unless you SERIOUSLY know how to code, you shouldn't care for it. There is no homebrew or anything of that. What matters is that thus far, no firmware upgrade has touched anything in regard of the hacky-ness of the vwii part of the wiiu. Meaning that there are no models to really look out for. And downgrading is never a good idea.

(note: if you don't care for the wiiu games at all, it might be better to just buy a wii. Assuming you avoid the mini wii, it can be hacked for pretty much exactly the same content as any wiiu).

 

[DinohScene]

Yer better off with a normal Wii if your only intention is emulation.
Normal Wii's are cheap as fuck these days.

 

[tbb043]

Some (all?) emulators on Wii support 240p (the original resolution of most of these older systems). VC games also support 240p, but there's some trick to toggling it that I can't remember at the moment.

But on the WiiU's Wii mode, there isn't any 240p support, it will only show them upscaled to whatever your Wii U is set to (anywhere from 480i to 1080p depending on what cables are used).

For some people this is not an issue, for others this is a huge issue. I personally prefer 240p over component (though not all TVs support it, mine does), so I use the Wii and save the WiiU for WiiU and Wii games (and GC games using Devolution).

 

[Wellington2k]

I use a PSX emulator on my Wii U and it plays Crash Bandicoot pretty much perfectly. Last time I tried it on my regular Wii, it didn't play as well.

 

[mightymuffy]

I use a PSX emulator on my Wii U and it plays Crash Bandicoot pretty much perfectly. Last time I tried it on my regular Wii, it didn't play as well.

I'd actually say RetroArch Wii doesn't run half as well in vWii as opposed to regular Wii... SNES in particular is noticeably slower, but yeah if anything WiiSX seems a bit better! Could be placebo effect though!

OP: All other questions seem answered 'cept for the control pad screen: answer to that one is Yes and No: Yes the emulators run on the screen, but No you can't actually use it as a controller... and in vWii mode I'm 99.9% sure you never will be able to either. If the actual Wii U mode hacking goes as far as giving us emulators then yeah we're good for the screen, but that is a long way off I'm afraid.
If you want to play some Wii U games then take the plunge, but if all you're after is those machines 'emulated', get a Wii instead at the moment - like has been said, much cheaper!

 

[pedro702]

it preety much depends on the games you want check the compat lists and such some games work some dont no emulator has 100% compat.

 

[tatumanu]

One question comes to mind... you can stream vWii emulators (and Wii games btw) to the Wii U Gamepad but you can't use it to control the game? So you have to use a external Wii and/or bluetooth controllers while streaming anything in vWii mode?

 

[pedro702]

One question comes to mind... you can stream vWii emulators (and Wii games btw) to the Wii U Gamepad but you can't use it to control the game? So you have to use a external Wii and/or bluetooth controllers while streaming anything in vWii mode?

that is right, wiiu gamepad buttoms are not done by bluetooth by by wlan which vwii which is basicaly wii has no support for.

 

[tatumanu]

that is right, wiiu gamepad buttoms are not done by bluetooth by by wlan which vwii which is basicaly wii has no support for.

Hmmm... it really is a crippling point. Would it be possible to mod the gamepad to incorporate a bluetooth signal to bypass that?
Can you play games like Skyward Sword on a screen so small with your Wii plus controller?

Anyway when the Wii U scene starts to show great results then it will be a good idea to get a Wii U for emulation. Until now you won't get the most of it.

 

[SSG Vegeta]

Emulating is pretty much the only thing going for the wii u right now.

Don't forget Super Smash Bros

 

[goodbytes]

Here's the thing: the wii part of the wiiu (usually called 'vwii') is pretty much exactly the same as the wii. It can be hacked using an exploit in one of a couple wii games (SSBB is the most common one). Once you have that exploit, you can do everything a hacked wii can. And that includes NES, SNES and (lately) gamecube at full speed. N64 kind of hobbles along and isn't really worked on anymore.


It's true there are some exploits for the wiiu floating around, but unless you SERIOUSLY know how to code, you shouldn't care for it. There is no homebrew or anything of that. What matters is that thus far, no firmware upgrade has touched anything in regard of the hacky-ness of the vwii part of the wiiu. Meaning that there are no models to really look out for. And downgrading is never a good idea.

Thanks for that i guess i've misunderstood the way around it, my intention isn't really to hack the Wii U, but just the easiest way to be able to run emulators/homebrew.... So all i need to do is complete the Wii hack (on the wii u) to install homebrew? and it doesn't matter on the version of the Wii U? ie.. i could buy a brand new premium with latest firmware and it wouldn't make any difference?

Is there anything else i'd need? I read it wont work with SDHC so just s 1GB standard SD should be enough? what about storage for roms?

Some (all?) emulators on Wii support 240p (the original resolution of most of these older systems). VC games also support 240p, but there's some trick to toggling it that I can't remember at the moment.

But on the WiiU's Wii mode, there isn't any 240p support, it will only show them upscaled to whatever your Wii U is set to (anywhere from 480i to 1080p depending on what cables are used).

For some people this is not an issue, for others this is a huge issue. I personally prefer 240p over component (though not all TVs support it, mine does), so I use the Wii and save the WiiU for WiiU and Wii games (and GC games using Devolution).

Does this mean they'll look a mess on 1080p?

I use a PSX emulator on my Wii U and it plays Crash Bandicoot pretty much perfectly. Last time I tried it on my regular Wii, it didn't play as well.

PSX emulator and crash, I think i'm sold!!

 

[Taleweaver]

Thanks for that i guess i've misunderstood the way around it, my intention isn't really to hack the Wii U, but just the easiest way to be able to run emulators/homebrew.... So all i need to do is complete the Wii hack (on the wii u) to install homebrew? and it doesn't matter on the version of the Wii U? ie.. i could buy a brand new premium with latest firmware and it wouldn't make any difference?

Is there anything else i'd need? I read it wont work with SDHC so just s 1GB standard SD should be enough? what about storage for roms?

Simple answer: if you don't want to hack your wiiu (or wii, for that matter), then emulators are out of the question. Well...okay, there are some VC games for purchase on the eshop that have their own emulator embedded in them, but I assume that's not what you're after. Nintendo will never sell emulators, so get that out of your head.

For anything else:
-the version of the wiiu doesn't matter UNTIL NOW. The latest firmware is 5.1.2 on time of writing, and as far as I've heard, vwii is still able to be hacked. There is no guarantee for the future, though. It's getting unlikely (if nintendo knew how to avoid the vwii getting hacked, they would've done it by now), but not impossible.
-yes, complete the wii hack on the wiiu. Just make sure to follow a decent guide (modmii is the best thing out there) and you'll do fine. Just keep in mind: at one point you will going to have to install these things called "cIOS"'es. Do NOT install wii ones on your wiiu (or vice versa). The guide should inform you about it.
-anything else...erm...from memory you'll need the console, one of the games with an exploit, an SD card, a computer with internet connection and a way to plug in an SD card, and some time to learn what it is exactly that the hack does and how it works. That latter is important because most screw-ups take place because people wrongfully assume that it works the same as other consoles, or because they follow hopelessly outdated youtube-videos.
-responsibility: it should go without saying, but no matter how safe the hack is, you'll void your warranty. So make sure that your device has no flaws of any kind, because nintendo will NOT repair anything once you install anything
-SD cards...I hacked mine with a 4GB card. Higher are supported, but do your research. It'll come in handy later.
-storage space: depends on the games you want to emulate. Gamecube and PSX will fill up those few gigabytes on your SD card quickly. Most people dedicate a simple USB hard drive of some hundred GB to it (FAT32 formatted). Most brands are supported, but there's a list in case you want to be sure (I assume it's the same for wiiu as for the wii).

 

[goodbytes]

Simple answer: if you don't want to hack your wiiu (or wii, for that matter), then emulators are out of the question. Well...okay, there are some VC games for purchase on the eshop that have their own emulator embedded in them, but I assume that's not what you're after. Nintendo will never sell emulators, so get that out of your head.

For anything else:
-the version of the wiiu doesn't matter UNTIL NOW. The latest firmware is 5.1.2 on time of writing, and as far as I've heard, vwii is still able to be hacked. There is no guarantee for the future, though. It's getting unlikely (if nintendo knew how to avoid the vwii getting hacked, they would've done it by now), but not impossible.
-yes, complete the wii hack on the wiiu. Just make sure to follow a decent guide (modmii is the best thing out there) and you'll do fine. Just keep in mind: at one point you will going to have to install these things called "cIOS"'es. Do NOT install wii ones on your wiiu (or vice versa). The guide should inform you about it.
-anything else...erm...from memory you'll need the console, one of the games with an exploit, an SD card, a computer with internet connection and a way to plug in an SD card, and some time to learn what it is exactly that the hack does and how it works. That latter is important because most screw-ups take place because people wrongfully assume that it works the same as other consoles, or because they follow hopelessly outdated youtube-videos.
-responsibility: it should go without saying, but no matter how safe the hack is, you'll void your warranty. So make sure that your device has no flaws of any kind, because nintendo will NOT repair anything once you install anything
-SD cards...I hacked mine with a 4GB card. Higher are supported, but do your research. It'll come in handy later.
-storage space: depends on the games you want to emulate. Gamecube and PSX will fill up those few gigabytes on your SD card quickly. Most people dedicate a simple USB hard drive of some hundred GB to it (FAT32 formatted). Most brands are supported, but there's a list in case you want to be sure (I assume it's the same for wiiu as for the wii).

Thank you, again i think i'm just getting the terminology wrong exploiting/hacking etc.. i'm basically happy to do whatever it takes to get vWii running.. but it's just an exploit? not a hack/mod?

I've seen a few threads down that someone released files to use the Wii U pro controller for home-brew apps, does this mean it is currently not working in emulators? I was hoping to use one of those for gaming.

 

[Taleweaver]

Well...then start by reading the stickies, both in the wiiu section and the wii section (the first post, that is).
An exploit is basically a bug that potentially gives full access when misused. 'Modding your wii(u)' means that you use one of those exploits to run code that wasn't meant to run by nintendo (note: this is more specifically a 'softmod'. There are no known hardmods - that require physically opening your console - on the wiiu. And they're vastly inferior on the wii). The whole process of doing that and installing apps, homebrew, cIOS or even system menu replacements (which I wouldn't advise) is generally considered 'hacking'.


I'll leave your last question to others. I haven't hacked my wiiu (no reason to: I've got two wii's that do exactly what I want as it is, and the wiiu currently has no real extra yet), so cannot confirm/deny things out of my own experience.

Good luck.

 

[goodbytes]

Thanks again Taleweaver i'm on the right track now.

Looking forward to getting involved and hanging around here.

 

[duffmmann]

Emulating is pretty much the only thing going for the wii u right now.

Yeah... it's not the tail end of 2012 anymore, this statement looks more and more ridiculous as more and more great titles are released for the console.

 

[the_randomizer]

I'd actually say RetroArch Wii doesn't run half as well in vWii as opposed to regular Wii... SNES in particular is noticeably slower, but yeah if anything WiiSX seems a bit better! Could be placebo effect though!

OP: All other questions seem answered 'cept for the control pad screen: answer to that one is Yes and No: Yes the emulators run on the screen, but No you can't actually use it as a controller... and in vWii mode I'm 99.9% sure you never will be able to either. If the actual Wii U mode hacking goes as far as giving us emulators then yeah we're good for the screen, but that is a long way off I'm afraid.
If you want to play some Wii U games then take the plunge, but if all you're after is those machines 'emulated', get a Wii instead at the moment - like has been said, much cheaper!

Odd, Snes9x Next runs fine on vWii as well as it does for me on a regular Wii, I don't know what it is you're referring to, but there should be no difference.