Hacking Nintendo Channel and WiiWare

[zidane_genome]

I just got the Nintendo Channel, and turned off most of the phone home stuff... you have to have WiiConnect24 turned on to run it I guess, but that's not a problem for me.

I found some of the "Region Free" WiiWare titles, like Dr. Mario, and the FFCC game... will these work on my US Wii, or not?

Also, will the new update for the Shop channel affect anything with "free" VC titles?

 

[jaxxster]

yeh they will, although we'll probs see the ntsc u versions online soon.

 

[zidane_genome]

after they finished dl'ing, I noticed they all said (J)... looks like I'll still be waiting... wife's gonna get pissed she can't play Dr. Mario, lol

I'm actually waiting for LostWinds, it looks awesome!

 

[jaxxster]

just run it through freethewads which can be found in the common download links thread in wii-hacking. It's got enough english to make it playable

 

[oligore]

I can't get the ping pong game to work on pal, even in 60hz and it went through free the wads but it could be different on NTSC.

 

[zidane_genome]

Japan and North America use NTSC (29.9fps), while the rest of the world use's PAL (23fps)... so even with Freethewads, you'd need to down convert from NTSC to PAL. Have you gotten any other NTSC (NA/J) games to work?

 

[jhoff80]

Japan and North America use NTSC (29.9fps), while the rest of the world use's PAL (23fps)... so even with Freethewads, you'd need to down convert from NTSC to PAL. Have you gotten any other NTSC (NA/J) games to work?

PAL video is actually 25fps, and NTSC video is closer to 30 (29.97) fps. Movies are generally done in 24 fps. He's also saying his Wii is in 60hz mode, which uses the same framerate as NTSC from what I understand.

 

[fischju]

There is also a resolution difference

 

[zidane_genome]

PAL -- 625-line/50 Hz
NTSC -- 525-line/60 Hz
SECAM -- don't even worry about SECAM, lol

So, to go from NTSC to PAL, you'd have to add 100 lines, and lose 10Hz... very difficult to do with most video games.

If you really want to play Japanese/North American games, your best bet is to get a U/J Wii, and a U/J TV. that's about the only way it'll work...

 

[bootmonster]

PAL -- 625-line/50 Hz
NTSC -- 525-line/60 Hz
SECAM -- don't even worry about SECAM, lol

So, to go from NTSC to PAL, you'd have to add 100 lines, and lose 10Hz... very difficult to do with most video games.

If you really want to play Japanese/North American games, your best bet is to get a U/J Wii, and a U/J TV. that's about the only way it'll work...

You do realise that the pal wii supports 60hz. also, it's not difficult to do, many ntsc games do in fact work fine in pal mode, albeit slower and with some of the screen missing.

 

[HowardC]

PAL -- 625-line/50 Hz
NTSC -- 525-line/60 Hz
SECAM -- don't even worry about SECAM, lol

So, to go from NTSC to PAL, you'd have to add 100 lines, and lose 10Hz... very difficult to do with most video games.

If you really want to play Japanese/North American games, your best bet is to get a U/J Wii, and a U/J TV. that's about the only way it'll work...

Not sure where you are getting your info, but this is misleading for a number of reasons.

#1, NTSC is actually 720x486 and has been for some time (referred to as NTSC d-1) The old ntsc format was 648x486 btw, not 525. It essentially made for a 640x480 visible area. The only time you still see classic ntsc is on analog broadcasts (which will soon be a thing of the past) and the wii definately doesn't have to worry about this with 480p composite output.

#2. Pal is actually also 720x486 at this point with d-1 pal. (Technically it's 720x586, but visible area cuts it down somewhat.) It used to be 625 though.

#3. None of the nintendo consoles prior to the n64 had games running even close to ntsc or pal resolution anyway. I think the nes ran at like 240p.

They were all scaled up for the various region's format. You shouldn't see any visible difference other than the refresh rate.

#4. If you have a wii, you should be using component out at this point, which is 480p at 60+ hz regardless of where you live. That is, unless you have an old, busted tv, at which point I wonder why you didn't buy a new tv first.

#5. These games are running on an emulator so it doesn't matter. Now what DOES matter is the quality of the original title. Pal ports are inferior to us NTSC people because, while the resolution is the same and they'll play perfectly fine, it's only outputting the display at 50hz, which sucks compared to a nice, smooth 60hz. Now for you pal users, you shouldn't see any difference. The vc emulator will output 60hz, your tv just won't pick it all up (again, assuming you are using a busted tv.) Any issues you are seeing likely aren't directly related to resolution or refresh rate issues. Also it should be noted that many earlier titles didn't do 30 fps anyway, so 60hz isn't required so again, it mostly doesn't matter. It mattered on the real, physical consoles, because the game's timing was "locked" at the format's refresh rate and resolution. This is simply not the case on the wii.