Gekko2 for Wii: The PS2 BIOS Menu Is Alive — Alpha Coming Soon!
Hi GBAtemp!
Handheld Game Consoles
For the past eight months, I’ve been working on an experimental project exploring PlayStation 2 emulation on the Nintendo Wii. Some of you may know it as PCSX2-Wii. It now has a new name: Gekko2.
Emulator software
My original goal was simple: get the real PS2 BIOS running. Before worrying about games or playable performance, I wanted to see the Sony startup screen and eventually reach the familiar OSDSYS menu — Browser and System Configuration.
Video Games
After months of reading code, debugging, testing, and working through countless problems, the BIOS menu finally renders in the native development build. Entering the Browser and returning to the menu has also been tested. On my actual Wii, I’ve reached the Sony Computer Entertainment startup screen — another huge milestone for this project.
OSDSYS screenshot from the native development build, not a Wii hardware capture.
Seeing that blue animation and those familiar menu options after so much work was an incredible moment for me.
Why the name change?
The project has grown into its own Wii-focused experiment, with a custom PowerPC recompiler, a Wii-specific frontend, and an experimental GX renderer. Gekko2 gives it an identity of its own: a gecko mascot, a nod to Nintendo’s PowerPC heritage, and a “2” for the PlayStation 2.
Nintendo
The new name doesn’t erase its influences. Credit and thanks go to the PCSX2 team and contributors for their emulator, documentation, and years of PS2 research, which have been important references throughout development. Gekko2 is an independent homebrew project, not an official PCSX2 release. Thanks also to the ps2sdk, devkitPro, and libogc contributors for their tools and documentation.
Emulator software
Gekko2: https://github.com/Mafiacoding/Gekko2
PCSX2: https://pcsx2.net/
PCSX2 source: https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2
Join the Gekko2 Team if you want to help or donate me an energy drink just contact me.
This has been a long learning process, with plenty of dead ends along the way. I’ve used Claude AI and, later, GPT-6.1 to help investigate code, debug problems, and rethink approaches, alongside my own reading, testing, and hardware feedback.
What’s next?
The priority is making BIOS boot and navigation reliable, then improving performance. Work is progressing on the custom PowerPC JIT and experimental GX rendering, but both are still incomplete. There are no confirmed playable games or promised FPS targets yet.
Video Games
Tekken Tag Tournament has reached the Namco logo during boot testing. That’s encouraging progress, but it does not yet demonstrate a working title screen or gameplay. A development framebuffer capture is included below.
Alpha coming soon!
The first alpha will be an experimental release for people interested in following the project and helping test it. There’s no firm release date yet. No BIOS or game files will be included.
Video Games
After eight months, I finally have something worth sharing. Thanks for reading — I’m looking forward to sharing more progress with the GBAtemp community!
Handheld Game Consoles
Tekken Tag Tournament: the Namco startup logo rendered by the development build. Native framebuffer capture, not a Wii hardware screenshot. This shows boot progress; gameplay has not been demonstrated.
Attachments
Last edited by natedogg20050,
