Hacking JP BIOS on NTSC system?

[solid278]

Is there a way, through softmodding, to make my Wii run JP BIOS? I want to be able to play some Japanese GCN games with the correct text/saving etc. Or do I have to hardmod my Gamecube... >_>

Thanks!

 

[SuperrSonic]

Is there a way, through softmodding, to make my Wii run JP BIOS?

No. I do not recommend it but you could use any region changer to change your region to Japan, naturally I think this would show the correct text in both Wii and GC games. It may work but no one has confirmed it, that I know of.

I want to be able to play some Japanese GCN games with the correct text/saving etc. Or do I have to hardmod my Gamecube... >_>

There are three ways I know to avoid mojibake in GC games:
1. Devolution - Since r234 the Jpn text is fixed.
2. DM/L - It has the fix as an optional setting, usually called "Japanese patch".
3. Nintendont - No idea when it was fixed but it's fixed in the current version.

I think Wii games still don't have a usb loader solution for this(?)

 

[JPnintendo]

For wii games just put Japanese on the game options, I get games working whit that.

 

[solid278]

I wasn't able to get Anyregionchanger to load on my Homebrew Channel for some reason. I tried a few other launchers and they all gave me garbled text. The only issue I have with the three you recommended is that they seem to only boot from SD/USB. What I want to do (sorry if I wasn't clear) is to run my actual retail discs, without the garbled text. I suppose I could just rip my retail copies also... but is there any way to use the discs themselves? And lastly, is there any way to force my Wii to format a Gamecube memory card as NTSC-J, so that it can be read by Donkey Konga (JP)? I imagine Anyregionchanger might do it, though I'm a bit nervous to play around with it... Even if I end up getting it to work (I just dragged the .dol and accompanying files into a folder in the apps folder... Not sure why it didn't work).

Thank you!

 

[SuperrSonic]

Don't bother with any region changer, if you just want to run the discs use DML. Use a loader to enable the Japanese patch.
For formatting the card just let the game do it.

As a recommandation get a cheap 4GB SD card or flash drive, and use clean rip to dump the games, then use devolution to load them. Devo has the most features and compatibility, and you can setup individual memory cards so Jpn games don't require any user input. You can even use the wiimote to exit, reset, etc.

 

[solid278]

And it works! Even saving in Donkey Konga! I installed DML and ran it through USB Loader GX, enabling all the Japanese options in the loader, including that VIDTV patch. Everything works great now Thanks for your help!