Hacking My discoveries with the new BC-less Wii's

Lucif3r

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The solderpoints for GC ports are still on the motherboard. There are pics on this forum.
If I had the money to spare, I would get one and solder a GC port back.
 

obcd

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You call it lazyness that bign uses the same cases and leaves the holes in, but you have to see it from their side. With this way of doing things, they only need to keep one type of enclosure in stock.
They als need to keep the new covers in stock, but they take far less space than the enclosures. A new piece of enclosure requires the design of a new moule which is mounted on the machine that makes the pieces. Such a moule is very expensive. So, from their point of view, reusing what they have is a good descision and has nothing to do with lazyness. If the expected sales aren't high enough to justify the development costs, it's simply not worth doing it. They cut the development costs where possible. Seems logically to me.
 

Foxi4

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You call it lazyness that bign uses the same cases and leaves the holes in, but you have to see it from their side. With this way of doing things, they only need to keep one type of enclosure in stock.
They als need to keep the new covers in stock, but they take far less space than the enclosures. A new piece of enclosure requires the design of a new moule which is mounted on the machine that makes the pieces. Such a moule is very expensive. So, from their point of view, reusing what they have is a good descision and has nothing to do with lazyness. If the expected sales aren't high enough to justify the development costs, it's simply not worth doing it. They cut the development costs where possible. Seems logically to me.

You are correct, Nintendo, the petite company of 3 middle-aged game enthusiasts cannot afford those molds, they're totally not a massive company with millions upon millions of dollars in its budget.

@WiiPower That is indeed top notch info, @Supercool, I stand corrected. With all that said, don't you think that attempting such a project on the brink of WiiU's release, a few months away from Wii's official death date would be sort of pointless? Anyone who'd be even remotely interested in playing Gamecube games on their Wii would already have one anyways. Unless you treat it as a "challenge", then I can understand the motivation.

@mauifrog That's... actually a very sensible hypothesis.
 

obcd

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Big companies are still divided in smaller groups to keep things workable. Those groups work with budgets they can use for the project they are working on.
It's obvious that the whole idea of producing a wii without GC ports is making the thing cheaper.
Yes, they can afford the molds, but maybe the project group responsible for the design of a cheap Wii couldn't. There is also the stocking of again another case.
Those things take space and need to be handled with care.
They have a case, so why design another? For those unscrewing the cover and saying, hey, there are holes under it, it's ugly..?
It's not like they can make a new case much smaller, as a dvd still needs to fit in.
Why they took some descisions can only be guessed, as I don't think anyone posting here was present on the meetings they had to define the product?
 

Foxi4

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Oh, I'm sorry - I thought that when you announce a redesign of your product you actually redesign it. I was also convinced that using left-over components from a previous revision because they're cheaper is called being cheap.

Your attitude humours me. The PS3 was released in a Slim version and it has a different case, the XBox360 was released in a Slim version and it has a different case, Nintendo is the only company that came up with marvelous "cuts" and used the exact same case they used before with 1 piece of plastic attached to it to conceal that they are using left-over parts.

Please don't be a fanboy and please don't even try to use the argument that Nintendo can't afford producing a new case for their redesigned console because that's simply not true - they are a multi-million buisness, even if you cut them into brother and sister companies. They chose this option to lower the expenses and increase profits, not because they can't afford to make new molds or lack warehouse space.
 

Clydefrosch

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whats your problem? at least over here, these are cheaper than before so more people can buy them and thats exactly what they wanted.

now, if they were still priced as before, that would be a reason to be annoyed, but why would you greatly chance anything about the wii design anyway? it still takes less space than the other consoles, its hardly more than a disc drive, theres not much reason to change that. now, with the ps3 and the xbox who were about 3 or 4 times the size (speaking in volume) there was a whole lot of room for improvement in that department.
oh, and also, werent the slim versions about as expensive or more expensive than the previous generation (depending on hdd size?)

inb4 *crycry* they redesign their handhelds so much my little brain gets all confused now pp
 

obcd

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The whole idea of a company is to make money.
Being cheap is when you use lower quality stuff to cut costs.
This has nothing to do about being a fanboy. It's about understanding design and managment decisions.
Lower expenses usually also result in a lower retail price. If they can make the thing cheaper with some leftover holes in it's case, why not?
The concurrents designed a new case..? Does that make it a better solution?
To be honest, I don't care if it has some leftover holes or not.

Thanks Clydefrosch :)
 
D

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Oh, I'm sorry - I thought that when you announce a redesign of your product you actually redesign it. I was also convinced that using left-over components from a previous revision because they're cheaper is called being cheap.

Your attitude humours me. The PS3 was released in a Slim version and it has a different case, the XBox360 was released in a Slim version and it has a different case, Nintendo is the only company that came up with marvelous "cuts" and used the exact same case they used before with 1 piece of plastic attached to it to conceal that they are using left-over parts.

Please don't be a fanboy and please don't even try to use the argument that Nintendo can't afford producing a new case for their redesigned console because that's simply not true - they are a multi-million buisness, even if you cut them into brother and sister companies. They chose this option to lower the expenses and increase profits, not because they can't afford to make new molds or lack warehouse space.
The average consumer does not care in the slightest if Nintendo has re-used parts, or has a piece of plastic covering the old parts.
Everything is fine, as long as the product does what is advertised.

They obviously didn't feel that a redesigned unit would pay off, they just wanted to cut costs, and lower the price. Given how the Wii U is around the corner, I doubt a redesigned Wii would be a good idea anyway.
 

obcd

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Are you sure you are comparing the same things?
If you buy a package with 10 games and a balance board included, it's logical it will cost more than just the console with one wii sports game.
From a buissines point of view, it doesn't make sense at all. It would mean that a wii with GC ports is cheaper than one without them?
 

Krestent

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Wii bundles (all of them) generally cost $150 here. This blue Wii cost me 110 euros from Amsterdam. It was bundled with just one game: Mario and Sonic at the London Olympic Games.
 

Clydefrosch

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weird, but then again, nintendo doesnt dictate the prices after all, so they could try to charge more reasoning its newer... do you have amazon or something comparable in sweden?
 

DinohScene

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4. BC v6 and MIOS v10 are, for some reason, still being preinstalled on these new Wii's. I wonder why...

Just as I suspected.

Now just to solder on a GC port and GC memory port from a bricked Wii and a GCless Wii becomes a GC compatible one
 

Lucif3r

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weird, but then again, nintendo doesnt dictate the prices after all, so they could try to charge more reasoning its newer... do you have amazon or something comparable in sweden?


Cheapest Wii (old, mario kart bundle) available: 1249sek
Cheapest Wii (new, no special bundle, just wiisports+wii party) available: 1404sek
:rolleyes:
 

MEGAMANTROTSKY

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My brother is looking to get a replacement Wii with backwards compatibility. How can I make sure that he gets it? Is there a specific bundle or box I should watch out for?
 

shortz1994

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well me being a old gamer( ping pong black an white with only paddles,even "before atari"). but being new to the wii an hacking.
the wii is not dead, just as the old systems. they will be around for a while. still being played an "tinkered" with. yes wii u will come out an a lot of devs will move on to that. me i will not buy a wii u, for at least after 5 yrs.(wait for price drop, just as they did with the ds)..
as far as no gc support like it has, what about the other crap that stop gc backup? if they were to "lazy", to at least make a plate on the mold machine to cover the side.( i work for a stamping company,we do it all the time. piece of scap aluminum.)
they might have not added the crap the wii uses to have gc support. so maybe a usb back up loader could be writen. or an adpater made to use swiss a lot easier..?( for got the name the usb uses to not make usb loading gc capable.).
 

DinohScene

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Lucif3r

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My brother is looking to get a replacement Wii with backwards compatibility. How can I make sure that he gets it? Is there a specific bundle or box I should watch out for?

Just look at the box. The new non-bc version is horizontal on the picture, the old one is vertical in its stand.
 

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