Hardware There's no reason why the Wii U can't be compatible with gamec

[Bryon15]

Look at the early models of the playstation 3. It was backward compatible with both ps1 and ps2 games. The Wii U should be like that too. It doesn't need the gamecube controller ports or the memory cards. They could have made the wii u pro controller work with the gamecube games. The games could save data internally to eliminate memory cards. And to transfer old save data, nintendo could have made an adaptor to plug gc memory cards into (I think there's one like that for the PS3). And think about the possibilities if they had made the gamecube games work with the wii u gamepad. We'd essentially have a handheld gamecube! Man this would have been so awesome. Why didn't nintendo do it? Also do you guys think the Wii U will able to emulate gamecube games after it gets hacked?

 

[Veho]

Why didn't nintendo do it?

Because it would require additional hardware, and that would be expensive.

 

[Rydian]

And it'd require a lot of additional development, something like a translation layer or wrapper that the gamecube mode runs in that virtualizes all the old hardware to the new one.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Look at the early models of the playstation 3. It was backward compatible with both ps1 and ps2 games. The Wii U should be like that too. It doesn't need the gamecube controller ports or the memory cards. They could have made the wii u pro controller work with the gamecube games. The games could save data internally to eliminate memory cards. And to transfer old save data, nintendo could have made an adaptor to plug gc memory cards into (I think there's one like that for the PS3). And think about the possibilities if they had made the gamecube games work with the wii u gamepad. We'd essentially have a handheld gamecube! Man this would have been so awesome. Why didn't nintendo do it? Also do you guys think the Wii U will able to emulate gamecube games after it gets hacked?

Guess you didn't know that PS1 games were running under emulation, and that early PS3 units literally had PS2 hardware under the hood to allow PS2 playback. Plus, the PS3 at that time cost a lot of money. You really want Nintendo to take that road?

 

[Deltaechoe]

Look at the early models of the playstation 3. It was backward compatible with both ps1 and ps2 games. The Wii U should be like that too. It doesn't need the gamecube controller ports or the memory cards. They could have made the wii u pro controller work with the gamecube games. The games could save data internally to eliminate memory cards. And to transfer old save data, nintendo could have made an adaptor to plug gc memory cards into (I think there's one like that for the PS3). And think about the possibilities if they had made the gamecube games work with the wii u gamepad. We'd essentially have a handheld gamecube! Man this would have been so awesome. Why didn't nintendo do it? Also do you guys think the Wii U will able to emulate gamecube games after it gets hacked?

Guess you didn't know that PS1 games were running under emulation, and that early PS3 units literally had PS2 hardware under the hood to allow PS2 playback. Plus, the PS3 at that time cost a lot of money. You really want Nintendo to take that road?

To reiterate what discostewsm just said, backwards compatibility requires more development (and possibly extra hardware under the hood) which is directly proportional to the cost per unit manufactured which will increase the price of the system. You know what I do when I want to play gamecube games, I pull out my gamecube. Really if you want to expect to play games on legacy systems you really should keep said legacy systems and if you don't like it, well tough, that's how the video game industry works.

 

[Thesolcity]

Look at the early models of the playstation 3. It was backward compatible with both ps1 and ps2 games

*Points to how much PS2 support sucked ass and was quickly pulled and how a lot of PS1 games don't work right still*

That's why they didn't do it.

 

[Bryon15]

So.. do you guys think the Wii U will be able to emulate gamecube games after it gets hacked?

 

[Bryon15]

^ Well if the Wii (hacked) can load gamecube games from the front SD card slot, I don't see why the Wii U wouldn't be capable of doing the same thing.

 

[Eerpow]

And it'd require a lot of additional development, something like a translation layer or wrapper that the gamecube mode runs in that virtualizes all the old hardware to the new one.

Exactly, I don't see them doing this because of the process of creating an emulator. They've discussed it and said that theres a possibility iirc.
However the Wii U already has Wii hardware included for BC, the Wii was very similar to the GameCube so maybe it's possible to use some of that hardware for semi-emulated VC? I think it's doable at least, even more so after seeing how they handle DS games on a 3DS.

The Wii handles N64 emulation much better than PC for many games, so in Nintendo's hands the Wii U should be perfectly able to emulate a GameCube.

 

[Deltaechoe]

^ Well if the Wii (hacked) can load gamecube games from the front SD card slot, I don't see why the Wii U wouldn't be capable of doing the same thing.

Because the Wii U doesn't have that layer of abstraction that allows for the gamecube to play "natively" (note the quotes). Some homebrewer would have to code the emulator from scratch with the limited knowledge that we have about the internal workings of the system. Long story short, probably not gonna happen

And it'd require a lot of additional development, something like a translation layer or wrapper that the gamecube mode runs in that virtualizes all the old hardware to the new one.

Exactly, I don't see them doing this because of the process of creating an emulator. They've discussed it and said that theres a possibility iirc.
However the Wii U already has Wii hardware included for BC, the Wii was very similar to the GameCube so maybe it's possible to use some of that hardware for semi-emulated VC? I think it's doable at least, even more so after seeing how they handle DS games on a 3DS.

The Wii handles N64 emulation much better than PC for many games, so in Nintendo's hands the Wii U should be perfectly able to emulate a GameCube.

If you are talking about the virtual console games, Nintendo has made changes to the game so it runs very well on the specific hardware that it is being re-released on (I would explain further but it quickly becomes complicated). The Wii U does not have the same hardware as the Wii, more likely than not the instruction sets for the system are going to be very different which means that games not designed for the Wii U have to be "emulated" in sorts (once again, complicated)

 

[tueidj]

And it'd require a lot of additional development, something like a translation layer or wrapper that the gamecube mode runs in that virtualizes all the old hardware to the new one.

Not as difficult as you might think.

The Wii U does not have the same hardware as the Wii, more likely than not the instruction sets for the system are going to be very different which means that games not designed for the Wii U have to be "emulated" in sorts (once again, complicated)

Nope, the Wii U cpu is almost exactly the same - it just has a couple of extra cores and runs at a higher clockspeed.

 

[Rydian]

Meaning it'd be another virtual console scenario since the original versions couldn't be used (barring some complex on-the-fly patching scheme where you purchase a "license" and the "patch code" for each game as it's developed, but that wouldn't fly well).

---

 

[tueidj]

While that is nice, it's not what the OP is talking about, as I assume that's still using GC controllers and all that jazz.

No it doesn't. It uses SD or USB instead of the disk and/or memory cards and work has begun on adding wiimote support. All hardware with the exception of the graphics card is virtualized (which could also be done but there's no need for it).

 

[Bryon15]

^ Actually I would be perfectly okay with that. As I said in the OP I didn't expect the Wii U to have gamecube controllers or ports. The wii u pro controller would be fine.

 

[sentinel5000]

Yeah... and on top of that it should also be a microwave, a dish washer a fridge and a car so it can take me to work.... Kids these days... Son if u want to play GC games either buy a used GC with used games (pretty cheap by now) or try to emulate them on pc if u can... First the guy who wanted to emulate the ipad (my god...) and now this... whats next? ps3 emulated on the wiiU???

 

[Rydian]

While that is nice, it's not what the OP is talking about, as I assume that's still using GC controllers and all that jazz.

No it doesn't. It uses SD or USB instead of the disk and/or memory cards and work has begun on adding wiimote support. All hardware with the exception of the graphics card is virtualized (which could also be done but there's no need for it).

What's the difference between this and DIOS MIOS?
Does this need any per-game tweaking?
What about the feared audio streaming jazz?

Do you think this would be feasible for nintendo to do?

 

[tueidj]

While that is nice, it's not what the OP is talking about, as I assume that's still using GC controllers and all that jazz.

No it doesn't. It uses SD or USB instead of the disk and/or memory cards and work has begun on adding wiimote support. All hardware with the exception of the graphics card is virtualized (which could also be done but there's no need for it).

What's the difference between this and DIOS MIOS?
Does this need any per-game tweaking?
What about the feared audio streaming jazz?

Do you think this would be feasible for nintendo to do?

Did somebody say audio streaming?

DIOS MIOS runs in gamecube mode, scans for a bunch of specific functions when the game starts and patches them. Devolution runs direct from HBC like any other homebrew app and executes the game in a virtual environment - all wii hardware is still available and any patching is dynamic (as the code is executed).
It would be completely feasible for nintendo to do it, especially with the extra "mini" cores on the new CPU. Plus I'm sure they'd have more than one guy working one day a week on it.

 

[Veho]

In light of this new information about the Devolution project and its feasibility on the WiiU, I would like to change my answer to "because Nintendo wants to sell those games as Virtual Console titles".

 

[tueidj]

In light of this new information about the Devolution project and its feasibility on the WiiU, I would like to change my answer to "because Nintendo wants to sell those games as Virtual Console titles".

While that would be nice, a lot of the great gamecube games came from third parties and there's no guarantee that Nintendo would be able to resell them ().

 

[tronic307]

Compatibility has only gone one generation back with Nintendo in the past. Older games would probably be relegated to Virtual Console, sort of like GBA games on the 3DS. Who knows, maybe BC is more trouble than it's worth? I mean the Wii was essentially a more competent Gamecube, and now there are rumors that the Wii U CPU has three overclocked Wii cores with a bigger cache. If Wii BC wasn't essential, Nintendo could have completely broken free of the Dolphin architecture they've been using for over a decade. That said, I nearly expect there to be Gamecube games on the Wii U VC, but you'll probably have to play them with the Pro Pad, as the Classic Controller seems to be abandoned.