Emulation Rom streaming on the Wii

[Yabadaba]

I'd like to play some custom Genesis ROMs on the Wii that are too large for the system's memory. I believe that a work around was created for Neogeo ROMs in Final Burn Alpha using virtual memory. I thought maybe something similar has been attempted with Genesis Plus GX or another emulator.

 

[Exidous]

You are correct that Neogeo and FBA have a virtual memory feature for larger roms in Wiimpathy's build https://gbatemp.net/threads/large-neogeo-games-support-and-cps3-tests.493767/

There is also a virtual memory feature in the N64 emulators, like Not64.

I'm not aware of a similar feature in any Wii Genesis emulator though - it's not a high priority feature to add when the official library has no application for it.

 

[Yabadaba]

I guess that explains my lack of progress in researching this. I'm mainly interested in running the Sega Channel Revival roms. While they run fine on PC emulation, I really was hoping to play them on a CRT with component video input. A man can dream can't he?

 

[Exidous]

Well, it's not impossible. The rom file sizes are within the range of games that work on Wii in vm. Wiimpathy's vm implementation was open source. The creator of that project used Genplus GX on PC.

Maybe you could put a bounty on it? It sounds straightforward: port this project creator's bigger-rom Genplus GX (edit: see https://www.timeextension.com/news/2023/07/the-sega-channel-revival-project-is-coming-to-an-end) to Wii, and add in some kind of (probably ready made) vm.

 

[Yabadaba]

It does seem tantalizingly achievable, and no doubt is, for someone with programming skills (sadly not me). There's also the custom core for Retroarch required to run the roms which have to be adapted/converted to a .dol. I'm not sure how labor intensive that process is. Maybe someone else with a Sega Channel fetish will make the effort on a rainy Sunday afternoon.