Hacking Thank you: how strangers helped me softmod my Wii (and exactly how I did it)

Lionbro

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The other month, I decided to try and bring some additional functionality to my Nintendo Wii by slapping some homebrew on it. I missed the online features Nintendo dropped for a few games and I'm getting a little tired of storing the ~50 disc cases for the Wii and GameCube games I still have.

Given the plague slowly creeping across the planet and keeping us all indoors 24/7, my timing couldn't have been more perfect.

It's been a little finnicky but overall, I've enjoyed great success in large part to the thorough and persistent efforts of the community. The people who discovered the exploits and who made them usable by nitwits like me, the individuals who reverse-engineered file formats and console functionality, the folks who tirelessly answer the same questions over and over on forums like this one, and the many end-users who've tried methods X, Y, and Z with varying degrees of success to help refine the process, all amaze and humble me.

Your spirit of collaboration is admirable and I am incredibly grateful that I have been fortunate enough to benefit from it. To all the hard-working individuals I've mentioned, and all the ones I'm sure I've overlooked or forgotten, I offer a sincere thank you!


...great. So why the rest of this post? LEEEEAVE

I don't have the technical skills to contribute to the modding scene but I would like to share my results with other people also trying to softmod their Wiis. Here's the software I used, information about my Wii console, information about the hardware accessories I got working, the loader configuration I use, and a list of games I've ripped and experimented with along with my individual results for each and any observations I've made along the way.

I hope somebody finds this handy.

Maybe it'll serve as a concrete, well-documented example of someone who got all of this working off a USB flash drive that people can link to the next time someone posts a new thread to ask which USB flash drive they should use-- or at the very least validation that someone out there is listening to all those repeated answers! :P

COMMUNITY CONSENSUS STATES THAT FINDING A WORKING USB FLASH DRIVE IS THE EXCEPTION, NOT THE RULE. YOU ARE ADVISED TO USE AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE INSTEAD.




Software

Homebrew, etc.ModdingUtilitiesCommand Line Shenanigans


  1. * I don't recall where I got Wii Backup Manager 0.4.6 build 79, honestly, but it wasn't as an installer. Note that Cyan doesn't trust the installer version floating around out there, so be wary and use 0.4.5 build 78. I'm only stating that I used it for maximum disclosure. In retrospect, I may have taken an unnecessary risk here.

    Will I share my copy of 0.4.6 build 79? Not unless someone with more clout and know-how than I have is willing to look it over and make sure it's actually safe or legit first! Here's the VirusTotal report of a scan of an unencrypted ZIP archive of what I used, but seriously, just use 0.4.5 build 78.
  2. For putting Super Smash Bros. Project M together (tutorial here). Ignore these if you don't care, but people who are interested in Project M might be happy to hear I got it working. Well, mostly-- I've not tested Wiimmfi connectivity yet.

  3. Miscellaneous tools I used.

  4. When using CleanRip to rip games that come from dual-layer discs, like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, either rip them to an NTFS-formatted storage device like a sane person with a functioning brain or rip them to your FAT32-formatted USB stick and then merge the individual parts later like I did:
    Code:
    copy /b part1.iso+part2.iso combined.iso
    This produced the ISO of Super Smash Bros. Brawl that I successfully used to create a playable ISO of Super Smash Bros. Project M, for example, so I know it works.

    All my disks were MBR to begin with so I didn't need this, but here's how to convert a GPT disk to MBR via command line (run as Administrator, use a valid disk number in place of #):
    Code:
    diskpart
    list disk
    select disk #
    convert mbr
    exit



Wii Console & Accessories

NTSC-U Wii running System Menu 4.3, nothing out of the ordinary. It was made after Nintendo stopped manufacturing the Wii consoles that would let you install BootMii as boot2.

I own a few regular Wiimotes and GameCube controllers but nothing fancier. Lost my WiiMotion Plus adapter many years ago. Don't have or use any other controllers.

SysCheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline    Double_A    R2-D2199    and Nano
...runs on IOS58 (rev 6176).

Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v513)
Priiloader installed
Drive date: 02.13.2007
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x11
Console ID: 114374141
Console Type: Wii
Shop Channel Country: United States (49)
Boot2 v4
Found 85 titles.
Found 47 IOS on this console. 14 of them are stubs.

IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 1034): No Patches
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 256): Stub
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS16 (rev 512): Stub
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 256): Stub
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 2816): Stub
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 3072): Stub
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS48 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 5120): Stub
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 6400): Stub
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS62 (rev 6430): No Patches
IOS70 (rev 6912): Stub
IOS80 (rev 6944): No Patches
IOS222 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS223 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS249[56] (rev 65535 Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS250[57] (rev 65535 Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS251[58] (rev 65535 Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS254 (rev 65281): BootMii
BC v6
MIOS v10
Report generated on 04/08/2020.



Hardware Accessories

I very tentatively tested my ideal setup (homebrew and GCN games on SD card, Wii games on USB device, loading games through USB Loader GX) with a cheap 8GB USB stick my brother's workplace gave me and the micro SD card/SD card adapter I use in my New! Nintendo 2DS XL and it worked for Super Smash Bros. Project M, so I went ahead and invested in something nicer at my own peril, knowing ahead of time that USB flash drives are not the most ideal hardware for loading Wii games. I needed the USB storage space, anyway; I really would only have lost out on the price of the SD card that I bought.

I took a risk, and it paid off.

COMMUNITY CONSENSUS STATES THAT FINDING A WORKING USB FLASH DRIVE IS THE EXCEPTION, NOT THE RULE. YOU ARE ADVISED TO USE AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE INSTEAD.


That said, I have included as much information as I can about the hardware I used, since it all seems to be working quite well together. My budget for this project was $30 and I spent around $25USD with taxes and shipping included on the SanDisk USB flash drive and SD card that currently power my Wii setup. Not a bad deal to extend the life of my old console and make my game library a bit more portable!

SanDisk 64GB USBSanDisk 64GB SD??? 8GB USBSamsung 64GB SD

  1. SanDisk 64GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive - SDCZ430-064G-G46

    Where to buy:


    Bought mine on Amazon through SanDisk.

    In my opinion, this is a nice little drive except for one problem: heat. It became merely warm after several hours of continuous use in the Wii itself (as much as anything else probably would), so I don't anticipate any issues there, but this thing gets hot while writing a lot of data to it from a computer. I was alarmed. Turn the air conditioning on and aim a fan directly at this thing when you fill it up.

    Big games take a bit to load sometimes-- maybe 30 seconds or so-- and the Wiimotes usually turn off in the process, but that's a minor inconvenience.


    Details:
    • Vendor ID: 0781
    • Product ID: 5583
    • Firmware Revision: 1.00
    • Partitions: 1 (MBR; FAT32 with 32k clusters)
  2. SanDisk 64GB Ultra SDXC UHS-I Memory Card - SDSDUNR-064G-GN6IN

    Where to buy:


    Bought mine on Amazon through SanDisk.

    Good, solid card for anything that it'll fit into. Not much more to be said. No heat problems, decent write speed. Leave the write lock switch in the unlocked (topmost) position.

    In retrospect, the 64GB size was overkill for me, as my GameCube collection is maybe 22GB in size so far and the rest of the homebrew I've got on this thing isn't all that large. At least I'll never run out of storage for game saves!


    Details:
    • Partitions: 1 (MBR; FAT32 with 32k clusters)
  3. ??? 8GB USB Flash Drive - No Known Model Number

    Where to buy:
    • Good luck with that!


    Brother's workplace handed me three of these 8GB silvery metal drives with his company's logo printed on them.

    Some cursory research suggests they were manufactured by Silicon Motion, Inc. - Taiwan (formerly Feiya Technology Corporation) but if they still make USB flash drives, they don't sell them to the layperson in individual quantities. That said, if you can find one... it might work. It'll be tiny, but it might work! It ran Super Smash Bros. Project M for me!

    I keep one on my keyring to cart around the portable apps I use on the regular. I might plunk a few smaller Wii games on another.


    Details:
    • Vendor ID: 090c
    • Product ID: 1000
    • Firmware Revision: 11.00
    • Partitions: 1 (MBR; FAT32 with 32k clusters)
  4. Samsung EVO microSD Memory Card 64GB - MB-MP64GA/AM

    Where to buy:


    Bought mine on Amazon through Samsung Electronics.

    I originally bought this for my New 2DS XL and it has served me well for over a year. Since it was the only SD card I had at the time, I took a backup of its contents, formatted it, and popped the thing and the SD card adapter it shipped with into my Wii. I used this to run the Letterbomb exploit and install the Homebrew Channel and such onto my Wii.

    I did not try to load any GameCube games off of this and I don't know how well it would work for that purpose. Probably not great, given the adapter sitting between it and the Wii. Get a regular SD card instead. I later transferred the contents of this card onto the SanDisk SD card I bought specifically for the Wii, put my 2DS stuff back on, and it still works perfectly.


    Details:
    • Partitions: 1 (MBR; FAT32 with 32k clusters)




USB Loader GX Configuration

Loader SettingsGameCube SettingsDM(L) + NintendontDIOS MIOS (Lite)NintendontDevolutionHDD SettingsFeatures

  1. Video Mode                Disc Default
    Dol Video Patch OFF
    480p Pixel Fix Patch OFF
    Sneek Video Patch OFF
    VIDTV Patch OFF
    Aspect Ratio System Default
    Game Language Console Default
    Patch Country Strings OFF
    Ocarina OFF
    Private Server OFF
    Loader's IOS IOS58
    Game's IOS IOS250
    Quick Boot OFF
    Block IOS Reload Auto
    Return To USB Loader GX
    Nand Saves Emulation Partial
    Nan Chan. Emulation Full
    Hooktype None
    Wiird Debugger OFF
    Debugger Paused Start OFF
    Channel Launcher Main DOL
  2. GameCube Source           SD Path/Main Path
    GameCube Mode Nintendont
  3. Video Mode                Auto
    Progressive Patch OFF
    Force Widescreen OFF
    Debug OFF
    Disc-Select Prompt OFF
  4. NMM Mode                  OFF
    PAD Hook OFF
    No Disc+ OFF
    Screenshot OFF
    LED Activity OFF
    Japanese Patch OFF
  5. Auto Boot                 ON
    Settings File No Change
    Video Deflicker OFF
    PAL50 Patch OFF
    WiiU Widescreen ON
    Video scale Auto
    Video offset 0 (-20-20)
    Remove Read Speed Limit OFF
    Triforce Arcade Mode OFF
    CC Rumble OFF
    Skip IPL OFF
    Memory Card Emulation ON (Multi)
    Memory Card Blocks Size 251
    USB-HID Controller OFF
    GameCube Controller 4
    Native Controller OFF
    LED Activity OFF
    OSReport OFF
    Log to file OFF
  6. Memory Card Emulation     OFF
    Force Widescreen OFF
    LED Activity ON
    F-Zero AX OFF
    Timer Fix OFF
    D Buttons OFF
    Crop Overscan OFF
    Disc Read Delay OFF
  7. Game/Install Partition    FAT32(57.30GB)
    Multiple Partitions OFF
    USB Port 0
    Mount USB at launch ON
    Install Directories Gamename [GAMEID]
    Game Split Size Split each 4GB
    Install Partitions Remove update
    GC Install Compressed OFF
    GC Install 32K Aligned OFF
  8. Titles from GameTDB       OFF
    Cache Titles ON
    Force Titles from Disc OFF
    Wiilight ON
    Rumble ON
    AutoInit Network OFF
    Messageboard Update OFF
    Wiinnertag OFF




Games

Wii GamesGameCube Games

  1. All of my Wii games were pulled off of NTSC-U discs by CleanRip and I did not pare them down with any trimming or compression tools (except for Wii Backup Manager when it transfers ISOs over to the USB drive). Maybe this matters, maybe not, but it is what it is. The ISOs all load up on Dolphin just fine. All of the ISOs and the transferred .wbfs files can be verified by Wii Backup Manager with no issues.

    Unfortunately for me, I own more Wii game dumps than I have space for on my USB stick even after Wii Backup Manager's trimming magic, so I can't have them all on at the same time. This suits me fine, as I don't enjoy some of what I've got.


    Not Ripped

    Still working on finishing getting these off their disks. They take a long, long time.

    • [RNYEDA] Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2
    • [RSPE01] Wii Sports
    • [RYWE01] Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
    • [S75E69] Monopoly Streets


    Untested

    I haven't tested any of the following Wii games at all yet, for one reason or another.

    • [R3ME01] Metroid Prime Trilogy
      • Not exactly certain how to launch this successfully. Any pointers?
    • [ROWE08] Okami
      • Recently played the HD remaster on PC and I don't want the beautiful memories tarnished by the far-and-away inferior Wii version's muddy visuals and bad controls.
    • [RSBE01] Super Smash Bros. Brawl
      • Worried the game saves for this will conflict with Project M somehow. Can anyone confirm?
    • [RZDE01] The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
      • The brownest Zelda game. No burning desire to see it again so quickly when I get brighter colors from the desert where I live every time I go outside.
    • [SOUE01] The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
      • Played it, beat it, hate it. Mostly saving a copy only for younger family members, who might one day be able to enjoy it. No longer have the WiiMotion Plus adapter this game was bundled with, anyhow-- lent it to a friend who kept it. Not gonna drop $40-60USD on hardware to test a single game that I despise!
    • [SX4E01] Xenoblade Chronicles
      • Probably next on my list!


    Boots and Writes Save Data

    I've played these Wii games for 20-30 minutes at most, and I don't feel confident stating that they'll work flawlessly. But so far, the results are promising!

    • [R7PE01] Punch-Out!!
    • [R9IE01] Pikmin
    • [R92E01] Pikmin 2
    • [R96EAF] Klonoa
    • [RHAE01] Wii Play
      • Had one crash after completing the target practice minigame before switching the game's loader from IOS 250 to IOS 249. Hasn't happened again since.
    • [RK5E01] Kirby's Epic Yarn
    • [RMCE01] Mario Kart: Wii
    • [RMGE01] Super Mario Galaxy
    • [RMKE01] Mario Sports Mix
    • [RODE01] WarioWare: Smooth Moves
      • Seems to require IOS 249 to boot.
    • [RWSE8P] Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
    • [RYQE69] Trivial Pursuit
    • [SB4E01] Super Mario Galaxy 2
    • [SF8E01] Donkey Kong Country Returns
      • Had issues transferring to USB drive with Wii Backup Manager at first: ISO got corrupted first time. Second time worked fine. Probably a fluke?
      • Only works if USB Loader GX sets both the loader cIOS and the game cIOS to 250. This is the only game I've tried so far where this seems to be required.
    • [SKJE78] You Don't Know Jack
    • [SMNE01] New Super Mario Bros. Wii
    • [SOJE41] Rayman Origins
    • [ST7E01] Fortune Street
    • [STEETR] Tetris Party Deluxe
    • [STKE08] Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars
      • Seems to require IOS 249 to boot.


    Played

    I've played these Wii games for about two hours or so without noticing any issues. I'm more confident about these being playable, but I can't say for certain that one could fully complete them without issue.

    • [RSBEPW] Super Smash Bros. Project M
      • I haven't yet tested the online/Wiimmfi functionality but the rest (except Subspace Emissary, which I excluded during the build process) runs great!
    • [RSME8P] Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
      • Seems to require IOS 249 to boot.
      • There's some weirdness with a strange texture of YanYan popping up before the Wiimote safety message, but the rest plays fine so far.
  2. Again, all of my GameCube games were pulled off of NTSC-U discs by CleanRip and I did not pare them down with any trimming or compression tools (the raw ISO files are just sitting on my SD card). Pretty sure this matters for Nintendont, because the official thread recommends clean ISO dumps.

    All of the checksums matched the expected values for clean dumps on redump.org. Once again, all of them load up on Dolphin with no issues.

    There were some naming issues with only a few of my GameCube games in USB Loader GX, even after I double-checked the GAMEIDs in the path and such:

    • Super Smash Bros. Melee was mistitled Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis
    • Mario Kart: Double Dash!! was mistitled Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
    • Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was mistitled Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was mistitled Robots

    Updating titles.txt from Nintendont wouldn't download the file (it sat doing nothing in perpetuity), but manually updating the file didn't resolve the issue anyway even though the names and first 3 characters of each GAMEID were correct.

    Updating WiiTDB.xml and enabling GameTDB titles from USB Loader GX didn't resolve the issue (the games all have the correct GAMEIDs in the XML file, too, but the correct names aren't being used?). In fact, not using the GameTDB titles feature gives me the correct titles for all four of those problem games, but it messes with a few of the others (notably, Trivial Pursuit on the Wii). Deleting TitleCache.bin didn't help here, either.

    The solution, as it turned out, was to disable "Titles from GameTDB" and "Force Titles from Disc" and enable "Cache Titles" in USB Loader GX's features settings. Then, go into USB Loader GX's GUI settings and switch "Game Window Mode" to "Rotating Disc", select the name at the top of each game (for GameCube and Wii), and manually rename every single one. When finished, put "Game Window Mode" back to "Banner Animation".

    The things I do for universally-correct, human-readable names and correct alphabetical sorting!


    Not Ripped

    Still working on finishing getting these off their disks. They take some time.

    • [GXSE8P] Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut
      • Picked my copy up at a garage sale. Disc looks kinda scratchy and I recall it stuttering even on the GameCube...
    • [GYFEA4] Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom
      • I remember this being ruthlessly difficult, slow as, and not much fun. Will probably give it a pass.
    • [UGPE01] Game Boy Player Start-Up Disc
      • Pointless, as Nintendont doesn't support the Game Boy Player (and what would I plug my Game Boy cartridges into, anyway?). If I get the itch, maybe I'll try out Visual Boy Advance GX instead.

    Boots and Writes Save Data

    I've played these GameCube games for 20-30 minutes at most, and I don't feel confident stating that they'll work flawlessly.

    • [GAFE01] Animal Crossing
    • [GALE01] Super Smash Bros. Melee
      • Was mistitled as Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis initially, even though the original name and GAMEID were correct.
    • [GEDE01] Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
    • [GF7E01] Star Fox: Assault
    • [GGEE41] Beyond Good and Evil
    • [GGSEA4] Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
      • Was mistitled as Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie initially, even though the original name and GAMEID were correct.
    • [GIKE70] Ikaruga
    • [GLME01] Luigi's Mansion
    • [GM4E01] Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
      • Was mistitled as Metal Arms: Glitch in the System initially, even though the original name and GAMEID were correct.
    • [GMSE01] Super Mario Sunshine
    • [GRSEAF] Soulcalibur II
    • [GVJE08] Viewtiful Joe
    • [GWWE01] Wario World
    • [GZLE01] The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
      • Was mistitled as Robots initially, even though the original name and GAMEID were correct.
    • [PZLE01] The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition
      • The Legend of Zelda (NES) and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES) will boot and write save data, but I lost all signal to the TV after they started. No audio, no video. Resetting and exiting with the Nintendont controller key combinations still worked. Guessing it's a config/display issue with ye olde NES emulator meant for GameCube but running on Wii and being output to a modern TV.
      • Didn't test the 20-minute Wind Waker demo, since I own the full game.



Conclusion

So what did I learn?

  1. Use the guide. That's what it's there for.
  2. Google is your friend.
  3. No, seriously, Google is your friend.
  4. Forum search tools aren't bad, either.
  5. 99% of the time, your problem isn't unique. Somebody at sometime has had the exact same issue you're experiencing now. Learn from them.
  6. If my USB flash drive stops working on my Wii, I should probably shell out the cash for an actual HDD to replace it with.

It's been a pleasure, but now if you'll all excuse me, I got some games to enjoy. Best of luck loading your backups! Oh, and one more time for the people in the back of the room--

COMMUNITY CONSENSUS STATES THAT FINDING A WORKING USB FLASH DRIVE IS THE EXCEPTION, NOT THE RULE. YOU ARE ADVISED TO USE AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE INSTEAD.
 

Lostbhoy

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Congratulations on becoming a fully fledged member of the modding community and well done on the tutorial, maybe request a sticky if the admin can approve all content but looks good to me on a quick read through.

Enjoy your games!
 
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Cyan

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I didn't read all yet, but for a new member to already write that much (and even use forum's features like tabs), to give back to the community that's really nice of you :)
I understand it's your setup and steps you did, sharing your experience, more than a guide, but it can help others.

I see you provide USBLoaderGX settings but they should already be fine with all default, so there's no real use to share that. except you use slot250 for games (because your cIOS with base57 is in slot250)

Just a thing I noticed :
USBloaderGX > Features :
you are not using Wiitdb/gametdb (which is the default, because by default you don't have the needed database)

this option is used to rename games based on their real titles, and not using the internal one (sometime code named).
First, go to Settings > Update > there's a "update wiitdb.xml" option. do that to download the game database.
then, enable the option in the features menu.
you'll have nicer and full game's title.
you'll also have full game description, number of player, proper parental control (pegi, cero, etc.)
press 1 o 2 on the wiimote, X or Y on gamecube controller) to open either the Cover download, or the Game info window.


The only issue is with Ōkami, which the "Ō" is not part of the internal font of the Wii so it appears like "Kami", and as the "Ō" is not a real O letters it's located after "Z" when sorted alphabetically.
there are two method to fix it, I recommend editing the xml to rename Ōkami to Okami. You won't be updating the database that often (if not at all) so editing the xml in a text editor is a good idea.
the other option is to rename the game inside the loader (but sometime that change is lost) or not use default font (but the non-system included font is ugly)
 
Last edited by Cyan,

Lionbro

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Congratulations on becoming a fully fledged member of the modding community and well done on the tutorial, maybe request a sticky if the admin can approve all content but looks good to me on a quick read through.

Enjoy your games!

Thank you! Not looking for a sticky, just seen a lot of posts asking the same things over the course of several years while I was browsing here looking for resources and a couple of them aren't that old, so I figured it might help to make a post like this...

I see you provide USBLoaderGX settings but they should already be fine with all default, so there's no real use to share that. except you use slot250 for games (because your cIOS with base57 is in slot250)

Yep-- the guide currently instructs folk to put base 57 in slot 250. Is that unusual?

I also use "Partial" Nand Saves Emulation which I think was "OFF" by default, but you're right, not a whole lot is goin' on there. Might bury that section under a spoiler to save some vertical space.


Just a thing I noticed :
USBloaderGX > Features :
you are not using Wiitdb/gametdb (which is the default, because by default you don't have the needed database)

this option is used to rename games based on their real titles, and not using the internal one (sometime code named).
First, go to Settings > Update > there's a "update wiitdb.xml" option. do that to download the game database.
then, enable the option in the features menu.
you'll have nicer and full game's title.
you'll also have full game description, number of player, proper parental control (pegi, cero, etc.)
press 1 o 2 on the wiimote, X or Y on gamecube controller) to open either the Cover download, or the Game info window.


The only issue is with Ōkami, which the "Ō" is not part of the internal font of the Wii so it appears like "Kami", and as the "Ō" is not a real O letters it's located after "Z" when sorted alphabetically.
there are two method to fix it, I recommend editing the xml to rename Ōkami to Okami. You won't be updating the database that often (if not at all) so editing the xml in a text editor is a good idea.
the other option is to rename the game inside the loader (but sometime that change is lost) or not use default font (but the non-system included font is ugly)

I had so many problems with this and four GameCube games in particular. Don't get me wrong, it worked fantastic for literally all my Wii titles (after I made those edits to fix Okami for the Wii font; I've seen this reply before!), but I could not persuade either Nintendont's title listing or GameTDB's XML file to recognize a handful of the GameCube ISO images I ripped and transferred over to my SD card. In the end, I had to rename them all myself because I am a picky son of a gun and I don't want to think about Spongebob Squarepants when I am booting up Metal Gear Solid instead. Any insights about that?
 
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Cyan

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Yep-- the guide currently instructs folk to put base 57 in slot 250. Is that unusual?
no, not at all unusually. it's historically what has been done.
some guides (me, modmii, other users) might suggest to install base57 directly in slot249, which is the default slot used by the loader, so you don't have to edit the loader's settings later.

but keep in mind that you'll have to edit that setting based on the game you'll have to play.
some games work only with base56, some only with base57, some with other base (53 for example, that no guide tells users to install).

I also use "Partial" Nand Saves Emulation which I think was "OFF" by default,

Might bury that section under a spoiler to save some vertical space.
ah, yes, I didn't notice.
if you want to display the settings you modified it's maybe more interesting to list only those than listing all of them even the default ones.

EmuNAND save : not everyone would want to redirect savegames to their SD.
maybe we could explain what each options you edited are actually used for, so other users can decide whether they'll want the same or not.

remember that some games don't like emuNAND save (metroid Prime 3, Zelda skyward sword).


I could not persuade either Nintendont's title listing or GameTDB's XML file to recognize a handful of the GameCube ISO images I ripped and transferred over to my SD card. In the end, I had to rename them all myself because I am a picky son of a gun and I don't want to think about Spongebob Squarepants when I am booting up Metal Gear Solid instead. Any insights about that?
are these games present on gametdb website?
you are saying games are actually renamed wrong ?

the loader uses the TitleID to determine which game you have.
if it detects one TitleID it search in the xml, and use that name.
maybe the xml is wrong? we can fix the database for everyone to use :)

we will need proper check of game + titleID + folder the loader created when you dumped the disc and the TitleID is created + info in wiitdb.xml
 
Last edited by Cyan,

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Good point about the config. That bit really needs editing, since you're right, it's just the default config. I was broadcasting too much noise, I guess.

you are saying games are actually renamed wrong ?

the loader uses the TitleID to determine which game you have.
if it detects one TitleID it search in the xml, and use that name.
maybe the xml is wrong? we can fix the database for everyone to use :)

we will need proper check of game + titleID + folder the loader created when you dumped the disc and the TitleID is created + info in wiitdb.xml

Neither the TitleID of the dumped discs, nor the TitleID of the games information in wiitdb.xml, were incorrect (just verified against both the copy of wiitdb.xml on my SD card and the one available for download here).

Attached is a screenshot of the directories of the games on my SD card, with the four problem ones underlined:

gamecube_games.png


Because a few of my discs are a little scratchy, I even went the extra step when I was dumping and did checksum comparisons for all my dumps against redump.org's known clean dump checksums to make sure nothing went amiss and all my dumps were perfect matches, even the problem four.

It was only the titles of the four GameCube titles I mentioned-- literally everything else worked flawlessly. Very peculiar. I'm pretty confused about this, so if I can provide any more information, please let me know and I'll certainly try!
 

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thank you for coming back about that problem.
So you are saying all your games are properly named inside USBLoaderGX when using Wiitdb feature, except these 4 games?

You also said there are no problem in the folder, titleID, and wiitdb info.
GZLE01 is really your Zelda disc dump (not another game generating a wrong ID "GZLE01" and therfore using zelda as title, right?)
so, to be sure what you are saying:
you dumped zelda wind waker disc, it created zelda wind waker folder, with correct ID. Wiitdb.xml has that TitleID, and it also matches Zelda wind waker
So, all 4 are a good match.

You didn't tell me what you got inside the USBLoaderGX interface.
you said you had wrong names, but I'm currious whether it's random, always the same, which one, etc.
Could it be duplicate game? I saw users having multiple time the same game displayed in the loader. changing the layout and setting it back resolved the issue. I think this is a memory issue, or a bug in the loader.


but then, it's not a problem in wiitdb.xml and shouldn't be a reason to not use that feature nor suggest it to users in your "guide". the problem doesn't seem to be that feature, not the database. probably the loader itself.

do you have a screenshot of the problem?
did you notice repetitive patterns? like "the game before the bad one being always the same" (you can change that using favorites or rank order, etc.)
 

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