Ok guys, get comfortable, get a drink and a snack or a bong if that's your thing.... but I've deciphered the logistics that explains why certain games run on certain region/video/language systems. It's gonna take some space to explain and of course I'll ramble a lot but I think the situation will be understood by most when I'm done.
For starters let me just say I'm going to be using my own system (NTSC(USA) 3.2U, PreLoader & ARC M5 Starfall Hacks, CIOSCORP) as reference but the information applies in reverse to EUR(PAL) systems. I am also talking about native launching backup discs from Disc Channel as that has been the goal most recently. Now on to the technical.....
First let's address a game's Language. Games can support many languages, however many games do not. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for Instance is a Japanese game which seems to only have Japanese support. The only way I have found to run this title from Disc Channel is to use Any Region Changer 1.1b M5 and change the Region Language setting to Japanese. This says to me that there must be a match between the specific games language and the console's language. The Wii console is only set to 1 language at a time, so that language must be present on the game. Since all US games and most PAL games have English language this explains the high level of compatibility. Yet some games are very region specific and don't have english language on them. They will not run from disc channel unless the console's language is changed to match a language on that game. Don't forget here that we're only talking about Disc Channel. This information does not apply to gamma. Using this information we can declare:
Condition #1: The game disc must include the language or language code to match the console's language setting.
Secondly let's address a game's Video Mode support. Games can support many video modes, however many games do not. You can view/change your console's Video Out mode with Any Region Changer 1.1b M5 also. When you run a game from the Disc Channel your console's Video Out setting is forced. So for a USA console that is set to NTSC Video Out you must have NTSC video support on the game disc. The compatibility provided here would be 100% of all USA games and a High percentage of PAL games since EUR/PAL games tend to also have NTSC video support. Now by using ARCM5 if we change the Video Out mode of the console to PAL and save it we would attain the following compatibility. Now with video out set to PAL I have near 100% compatibility with EUR/PAL games but lost compatibility with many of my USA games. This proves that there must be a match between the Console's Video Out mode setting and support for that mode on the game. Using this information we can declare:
Condition #2: The game disc must include video mode support or code to match the console's video out setting.
Both of these conditions have to be met for a disc to run correctly from the disc channel. I don't know if a tool exists that can read this information from the .ISO or the Discs themselves but It would be a really handy utility to catalog compatability with.
There is also a third factor that comes into play, and that is a game's Region. The disc channel requires a match between it's console's region and the game disc's region for it to display. This however has been overridden by applying region free hacks to the disc channel so we're not forced to meet this condition. We also know this to be fact because with the recent hacks we no longer have to region patch out of region discs for them to show up in disc channel.
So now that we know we have to meet two conditions, we have to examine what they really are. For instance, the languages supported by a game.... is it just a byte or a few bytes of code the Wii reads off the disc (which would allow it to be patched) or does it have to actually have that language present in the games program code? This I am unsure of and would appreciate someone explaining the actual method the Wii uses to determine if that condition is met.
Also concerning the Video mode support on the game disc. We know we can force video modes and run pal games in ntsc and visa versa, but does there actually have to be seperate program code to support both video modes, or is it just a byte or a few bytes of data like a tag that can be patched?
Regardless of whether it's tags or program code, because of the wide variety of language/video modes on the game discs we would never be able to attain 100% compatibility without some kind of on the fly patching of these settings. I guess there could be other ways, but currently I don't think they exist. At least not with softmod and disc channel use.
So where was I going and what are my conclusions from this.... I investigated these settings to clearly show why so many incompatibilities still exist. The culprits are Language and Video Mode. I personally have no idea how this would be addressed, but without source code for Disc Channel/System Menu it would really be tough.
As a final thought let me state that by changing Video Out and Language settings with ARCM5 I believe I am able to get every one of my 110 1:1 backups to run from disc channel. Even Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and that Pikmin or whatever it is game. Or course I'm not able to get them to all load with a single configuration though. And also remember that it's a lot easier just to launch a game from Gamma or Softchip than to change console settings to run it.
Now if someone will just explain the actual logistics of the settings on the discs and which ones can be patched or spoofed and which can't I would be happy. I mean could I patch a Japanese language game to spoof it as english even though the english language doesn't exist in the game?
So next time you get a black screen with a game with this Wii Mod setup, you'll know it's because you are not meeting one of the two conditions I've stated. This of course assumes you have the Region Free hacks installed.
Please correct me on any statements I've made that are incorrect as I do not want to spread misinformation. There's plenty of that going on already. Also please feel free to clarify any of my statements as my only purpose for these types of posts is to help spread knowledge. Thank you for listening. Goodnight Gracie.
