Hacking Improving the Wii Virtual Console's emulation

[NintendoFan06]

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[petethepug]

Hi,

I'm dissatisfied with the Wii Virtual Console's emulation and would like to improve it. Most notably, games seem a bit darker than their original release.

Any way to fix this by editing the files?

If you can find an ISO hack improving the color scheme than yeah your golden.

I most othen never purchause things from the Virtual Console Store, I just purchause the original game than emulate it through my Wii using something like an emulater playing it VIA ISO/ROM File emulation.

I think the color, and brightness scheme is a lot nicer than most, if not all of the Wii Ware Channels for the Virtual Console.

Also if you don't want to do that. You could try an ISO hack of the game that changed the textures of the game. Or you could try making your screen brighter, and include more colors on screen. But I highly doubt that would work,

 

[the_randomizer]

Honestly, you're better off using homebrew emulators, they're often more accurate, way more compatible and just have more features.

 

[NintendoFan06]

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[the_randomizer]

ISO hack? The games are unmodified ROM files running own Nintendo's own emulators. It seems there's some filter applied to NES, as they look darker than they originally were. Maybe some files or values in the emulator that can be edited to match the normal palette?

You'd have to run the dumped game in a hex editor and find out the offsets on what controls the filtering; the emulator is a ROM packed inside an emulator, and that is written in GX code. That's the video assembly programming language the the Wii uses, so it would be a somewhat daunting task to edit the ROM.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

ISO hack? The games are unmodified ROM files running own Nintendo's own emulators. It seems there's some filter applied to NES, as they look darker than they originally were. Maybe some files or values in the emulator that can be edited to match the normal palette?

I assume he meant IOS hack, at least I hope so.
I honestly have never noticed a difference in color/brightness on Wii VC compared to the originals, but the difference is very subtle in your pictures, subtle enough that you would get used to it after a few days and forget about it. I can't say the same for Wii U VC though, the Wii U VC games basically look like the screen is on the lowest brightness. I rarely bother with VC games these days though, I owned a few on Wii and didn't play them much because emulators work and look better.

 

[NintendoFan06]

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[The Real Jdbye]

Yeah, the Wii VC is barely tolerable. The Wii U VC is horrifically bad.

What are the absolute best emulators for each platform that I can use on the Wii?

In Wii U mode there isn't much yet, in Wii mode there's VBA GX, Snes9X GX, Gen Plus GX, not sure about other consoles though. I believe there's a RetroArch port that should do the job well for most platforms.

 

[the_randomizer]

Yeah, the Wii VC is barely tolerable. The Wii U VC is horrifically bad.

What are the absolute best emulators for each platform that I can use on the Wii?

Snes9xGX + cover mod, a recent mod of the now-abandoned Snes9xGX but with various improvements to speed and stability, definitely the best Snes emulator, i forgot where the thread was, but if you need a download I can
provide a link.

Genesis Plus GX, the best Genesis emulator on Wii, far superior to the VC emulation by far, even Sega CD support.

mGBA, the first GBA emulator to run every game at full speed, far superior to VBAGX. Avoid VBA as many games run pretty bad.

RetroArch, a GUI that runs various emulators or cores

 

[petethepug]

ISO hack? The games are unmodified ROM files running own Nintendo's own emulators. It seems there's some filter applied to NES, as they look darker than they originally were. Maybe some files or values in the emulator that can be edited to match the normal palette?

Sorry my brain is not turned on. People have said on some forums that it was possible to make a ROM into a .iso by decrypting the .bin in the Wii Application (So the main game.) However it explains it.

Not a huge file expert but a .ISO file would be a game. There are some legitimate people who have hacked the ISO to make a "fan game" or change textures if not possible through a modding method.

(IOS would be editing the main configuration of the Wii. So it seems really off topic to include an IOS mentioning. Unless this changes the problem with some games.)

Well that would be legal as long as you own the legitimate game, ... If not then it's technically piracy.

There are also ROM Hacks. Which is basically the same as an ISO.

 

[DarthDub]

Sorry my brain is not turned on. People have said on some forums that it was possible to make a ROM into a .iso by decrypting the .bin in the Wii Application (So the main game.) However it explains it.

Not a huge file expert but a .ISO file would be a game. There are some legitimate people who have hacked the ISO to make a "fan game" or change textures if not possible through a modding method.

(IOS would be editing the main configuration of the Wii. So it seems really off topic to include an IOS mentioning. Unless this changes the problem with some games.)

Well that would be legal as long as you own the legitimate game, ... If not then it's technically piracy.

There are also ROM Hacks. Which is basically the same as an ISO.

An ISO is an image of what you would burn onto a cd or dvd.

 

[NintendoFan06]

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[DarthDub]

Thanks. What about N64 emulators?

And what's the deal with Retroarch?

Retroarch is very finicky on Wii. If you can get it to work properly, then it's great.

 

[the_randomizer]

Retroarch is very finicky on Wii. If you can get it to work properly, then it's great.

Older versions of it work great, the newer ones are broken, I have 1.2.2 and never had any issues, you have to delete the config files every time you update it, and make new ones, but it gets a lot of flack because the Wii doesn't have much RAM and can't change the UI.

 

[DarthDub]

Older versions of it work great, the newer ones are broken, I have 1.2.2 and never had any issues, you have to delete the config files every time you update it, and make new ones, but it gets a lot of flack because the Wii doesn't have much RAM and can't change the UI.

I'm aware of this, but thanks for the info about deleting the config files.

 

[petethepug]

Thanks. What about N64 emulators?

And what's the deal with Retroarch?

There's Wii64. It's been abandoned but it's still great if you want to emulate some N64 Games on the Wii. However keep in mind not all of them work (And by all of them I mean either a lot, or decent amount of games.)

 

[NintendoFan06]

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[the_randomizer]

I'm aware of this, but thanks for the info about deleting the config files.

Believe me, I've had a lot of grief with RA for updating it but forgetting to remove the config files ><

 

[DarthDub]

Thanks. What about N64 emulators?

And what's the deal with Retroarch?

I would recommend Not64 for N64 emulation even though you'll run into a lot of issues with non-nintendo titles.

 

[petethepug]

Can any of these emulators make VC channel shortcuts on the Wii menu? That is the main appeal of the Wii VC to me. Not having to choose from a folder or list.

Sadly no. Only works with the file of the game, I tried to with one of my NES Wii VC Titles but it did not really work out. There was no Config to make it boot into the WAD, or play it.

You would have to download the game, and play it on the Emulator

Organization wise Wii64, provides the same amount of organization I think you want. Your able to choose which file you want to load easily, select how many players are playing, and then start playing your N64 Title.