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World's first Wii U Gamepad to PC dongle called Chocolate announced, initial wave of pre-orders sold out immediately

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A developer named Famidawg has produced the first working dongle that connects the Wii U Gamepad to PC. Called Chocolate, the dongle promises to allow full use of the Gamepad's features, (including the touchscreen, accelerometer, gyroscope, camera, microphone, NFC reader, and IR blaster) on PCs using a new open-source SDK. This dongle will work on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and connect to the gamepad using a companion app.

The dongle will allow the gamepad to run in any app compatible with the Chocolate SDK, as well as a desktop mirroring/virtual display feature and for use in PC games. The brightness settings, rumble toggle, and power-saving modes will also be available right on the gamepad.

The first wave of 30 units sold out extremely quickly. It was priced at $59, with a Fall 2026 delivery target. Only US shipping was offered, however, in their Discord server, Famidawg stated that they were open to international shipping for future waves if they're satisfied the service will be up to their standards. Also, when this first wave ships, the app, SDK, and their sources will be offered on their website.

:arrow: Source
:arrow: Official Website
:arrow: Discord Server
 
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lightwo said:
It's possible the WiFi chip in the GamePad itself is dying. That's apparently a very common problem and manifests itself as connection becoming worse over time until not being able to connect at all.

Unfortunately, while the WiFi board is easily replaceable, doing so requires taking one from a donor. Considering that's the most common fault to my knowledge, you're looking at pricey spare parts (must be the MICA2 WiFi board from the GamePad, not MICB2 from console) or a lucky pull in amongst GamePads broken in other ways.

Edit: It might be on the console side and not GamePad side, but you can't know until you narrow it down. If Vanilla is flakey too, it's the console, otherwise it's the GamePad... or maybe 5 GHz interference.
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Already swapped the wifi chip in the Wii U Gamepad, nothing changed
 
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I have two wii us and wii u pads.
Maybe a bit silly but might be fub tobuse for odd things.
I'd prefer something cheaper but I'd definitely like a dongle that sounds fun.
least for authentic wii U emulation feel but maybe might be fun with DS/3DS games.
 
ChibiMofo said:
Mass produce? Seriously? There were only around 13 million of the Gamepads ever made and many no longer work and very, very few people are going to want to do this. Which is a good thing for true preservation as wasting what few -- and essential -- Gamepads that are left on Earth on screwing around with PC gaming is a terrible idea! If they had sold 80 million of them, then okay. But this is NOT good news. Also it was only last year that MattKC hacked the encrypted stream to do the opposite -- make it possible to use something else as a Gamepad on a real Wii U (his Vanilla project). Without that work, it would have taken longer than 13 years.
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This one at Amazon.
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You are assuming the problem is with the controller rather than the console...
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You don't think at least 1000 people on earth would want one of these?
 
So I'd like to ask, is the Wii U WIFI chip really a ticking time bomb? Like the Gamepad wifi chip is no longer in production and tends to fail. Will this eventually lead it to breaking? Wonder if there is a tethered alternative down the line.

Also does this ping the Wii U gamepad while asleep like the Wii U does (cause battery drain)?
 
Not going to lie: if this thing delivers, I'm buying it in a heartbeat. Wiiu gamepad is my favorite controller for a good reason, and the only reason it's not more widely accepted is because the wiiu itself was an impopular console for some reason.
(okay... The touchpad was kind of bad, but I've played many hours on that thing. Even when the tv was available at times.)
 
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Been following the project on Discord for a while. If the dev gets Wii Fit U and the Wii Fit Meter working in Cemu with the Wii U Gamepad, he'll be my hero! 🤩
 
purple_bandit said:
30 units is insane. Seems like something a distributor would partner with to mass produce.

Also, how the hell did this take 13 years to become a thing?
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Isn't this basically screen mirroring? There are apps to mirror or stream your pc to tablets, so making a dongle like this seems too niche and redundant
 
LanHikariDS said:
I doubt that. You can really already achieve this with plenty of other devices, I don't see this really generating interest in the WiiU Gamepad itself.
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Honestly, if I could use my Switch 1 like a Wii U Gamepad with my Thor (Android-based) while that is docked to output to the TV, then I'd probably not worry about something like this. But if I recall, such a thing doesn't exist as the "server" side is generally a PC app.
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eriols said:
Isn't this basically screen mirroring? There are apps to mirror or stream your pc to tablets, so making a dongle like this seems too niche and redundant
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If it were that simple, we'd have been seeing folks use the Wii U Gamepad as such long ago. But we haven't. So it's not that simple.
 
I'm not sure about this, sounds good on paper for emulating Wii U, DS and 3DS games on PC, but in practice I don't see the point.

I would rather use a phone with a controller grip for any of that: it's smaller, has much better touch response and the battery life of basically any phone out there nowadays can easily surpass the Wii U GamePad 2~4 times in continuous use (this alone was one of the worst things about it).

There is also the fact that Nintendo never sold them separately, so you are going to pay a high price if you don't own one already.
 
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NinStar said:
I'm not sure about this, sounds good on paper for emulating Wii U, DS and 3DS games on PC, but in practice I don't see the point.

I would rather use a phone with a controller grip for any of that: it's smaller, has much better touch response and the battery life of basically any phone out there nowadays can easily surpass the Wii U GamePad 2~4 times in continuous use (this alone was one of the worst things about it).

There is also the fact that Nintendo never sold them separately, so you are going to pay a high price if you don't own one already.
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I already own a Wii-U, and since my hands aren't small, I find the Wii-U tablet to be comfy. That's why I want one. lol
 
Is it me or isn’t there already a homebrew app for pc use on the gamepad available? I’ve forgotten it’s been so long since I used the wiiu in general let alone for homebrew/hacking reasons
 
Reecey said:
Is it me or isn’t there already a homebrew app for pc use on the gamepad available? I’ve forgotten it’s been so long since I used the wiiu in general let alone for homebrew/hacking reasons
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Probably Moonlight, which you have to run through a modded WiiU. This connects the gamepad directly to your PC, without needing to mod your system in any way.
 
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DiscostewSM said:
Honestly, if I could use my Switch 1 like a Wii U Gamepad with my Thor (Android-based) while that is docked to output to the TV, then I'd probably not worry about something like this. But if I recall, such a thing doesn't exist as the "server" side is generally a PC app.
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If it were that simple, we'd have been seeing folks use the Wii U Gamepad as such long ago. But we haven't. So it's not that simple.
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Isn't there an Android version of Appollo or Sunlight?
Then moonlight from the homebrew store on Switch and you're finished.

I love the GamePad but yeah, this is really a novelty. I do wonder if and when people will start developing replacement boards and shells for the GamePad. An open source GamePad would be cool, but realistically, why wouldn't you just used a small tablet with a controller instead?

Porting that use any computer software to Switch natively would be cool, then it could just be a Wii U GamePad.
 

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