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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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Chellarina said:
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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I can think of 1 a couple benefits of this solution over moonlight that make me excited

1) full access to the hardware. Moonlight grants access to the controls, touchscreen, and gyro (which is inconsistent in my experience). To be fair, that's 95% percent of what you need, but having better gyro integration and microphone support will make it that much more compatible

2) the convenience factor of not having to mod/keep you Wii U plugged in. Even if your Wii U is setup all the time, it boots so slowly

3) orphaned gamepads are getting more common. Especially with the scare of dying Wii U NANDs. Currently, without the console, the gamepad is ewaste. This fixes that.
 
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DiscostewSM said:
Unfortunately, there is not. Android in this case is considered a client platform, not a server platform.
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I looked. You're right. Sounds like there might be some exciting developments soon though from some clever people so... The future looks bright.
 
LanHikariDS said:
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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Was it Dev Maschell that made the homebrew app that did all this I don’t think it was called moonlight but I’m sure it was made possible sometime. We know the wiiu can be fully hacked now very easily so it seems a cheaper solution to me
 
Wow, 60 bucks USB and with international shipping, thats going to be quite pricey for me. Hopefully there would be a way to make your usb run chocolate so you don't need to spend that much. Now i'm thinking about it, gamepads are going to go up in price because of this. Mine is slightly damaged...
 
Sorry, but when the WiiU came out, wasn't there a program that allowed you to connect the WiiU gamepad to a Linux PC? Without using a dongle?
 
If this works with batocera then I'll be elated. The wiiu release of Lego city undercover is still (imo) the best version despite to loading times.
 
Hardware plans have been cancelled and refunded. Project is moving fully to open source. Quote from discord:

"@everyone Hey everyone, I have some major news regarding the future of Project Chocolate. After evaluating the long-term sustainabilty and legal health of the project, I've made the deicsion to pivot from hardware launch to a purely community-focused open source approach.

What this means for those who have backed the preorders is that ALL preorders will be fully refunded. I have already initiated this process through Stripe and have sent out emails to all who have preordered.

Due to Stripe’s processing schedule, these refunds are expected to clear on or after April 24th. Once cleared, it typically takes 5–10 business days for the credit to appear in your bank account.

Chocolate isn't going anywhere! I'll be moving the project to GitHub and be sharing everything I am doing to make this a fully open sourced project anyone can make!

I did not make this decision lightly, but it's what is best for the project overall. I sincerely apologize and appreciate your patience."
 
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SecureBoot said:
Hardware plans have been cancelled and refunded. Project is moving fully to open source. Quote from discord:

"@everyone Hey everyone, I have some major news regarding the future of Project Chocolate. After evaluating the long-term sustainabilty and legal health of the project, I've made the deicsion to pivot from hardware launch to a purely community-focused open source approach.

What this means for those who have backed the preorders is that ALL preorders will be fully refunded. I have already initiated this process through Stripe and have sent out emails to all who have preordered.

Due to Stripe’s processing schedule, these refunds are expected to clear on or after April 24th. Once cleared, it typically takes 5–10 business days for the credit to appear in your bank account.

Chocolate isn't going anywhere! I'll be moving the project to GitHub and be sharing everything I am doing to make this a fully open sourced project anyone can make!

I did not make this decision lightly, but it's what is best for the project overall. I sincerely apologize and appreciate your patience."
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I was rooting for the author to get some financial success from this, but I'm glad that they were able to reevaluate the circumstances in time and gave priority to the spirit of the project and offered refunds. Crowdfunding is never a simple task and I'm glad they played it square. I hope they're doing well.
 
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fvig2001 said:
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)?
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I've seen a lot of instances of these WiFi chips failing all around the Internet and that some people had to change them multiple times (surprise surprise, chips salvaged from existing units are not mint condition), so I'd consider it a real problem.

I don't know if replacements are possible, but it would be possible to replace dead components on the "chip" (daughterboard, I guess) if anything. Don't know how widely available they are, it's been a long time.

To my understanding, the GamePad always consumes battery as it can't be fully powered off, its standby mode listens for Wii U power on signals (and vice versa). Changing that would require modified GamePad firmware, but until that happens, it's possible that wasn't the culprit from the start. If however you are talking about the power on signal itself, can't know until it's out, I guess.

Bladexdsl said:
i wonder if nintAPPLE had anything with him making it for free now? :creep:
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I can't tell if you're sarcastic or not, but this change made no difference in regards to price, it is still free. What was being sold were pre-assembled units of the hardware that was going to be open source anyway, and the software was already known to be released as open source when it was ready.
 
so is this project dead?

no source code. shipping cancelled. no updates in a month, all the discord invites are expired. does anyone know if this is still being worked on?
 

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