Hacking Wii Game Language Patcher

ReturnerS

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I spent a couple of days on investigating why some NTSC-U/PAL games display Japanese on my NTSC-J Wii, and finally found out that most games share the same code to detect the system's language. So I made a versatile patcher to make those games display any language they support on my single-language console.

What is it:
This utility patches the main.dol to cheat the game's language detection mechanism. We can force a multi-language game to use specified language rather than the system's language with this utility. This could be useful when we play multi-language games on NTSC-U/NTSC-J consoles, which come without a language option in the system.

How to use it:
- Open ISO with Trucha Signer
- Extract Partition2/SYSFILES/main.dol
- Drag&drop the main.dol to wglp.exe
- Select a language (For example, if you patch an NTSC-U game, please select [1] en)
- Replace Partition2/SYSFILES/main.dol with the patched one and re-sign it
- Burn and play
smile.gif


I tested it with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicle (U). When I set the language code to 1(eng), everything is in English, including the home button interface. But when I try some European language codes, it still displays English except the health warning screens and home button interface. This is because it is an NTSC-U game. It re-overrides the language code on top of the common detection mechanism. Of course we can still hack it with additional asm code patches, but this utility won't do this for you
smile.gif


Rayman Raving Rabbits (PAL) works perfectly for me, because this is a real multi-language game.

Super Monkey Ball should also be ok.

Cooking Mama (U) can run on NTSC-J Wii after being patched.

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UPDATE (03/15/08):

While the patcher was initially intended to merely change the language a multi-lang game uses, a lot of people tried to use it to region-free NTSC-U games for NTSC-J Wii and found that there were still some games refused to work.

So here comes the V2 update. It enables more NTSC-U games to run on NTSC-J consoles and vice versa. Please note that this new hack has no effect for PALNTSC-U. It only works for NTSC-JNTSC-U, and maybe NTSC-JPAL with the help of VMC.

You still need to WBB a game if necessary since this patcher has nothing to do with the firmware update partition!

Download Here
 

mwaddoups

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You deserve a medal. An awesome one. With loads of shiny bits and shit. This is the news I've been waiting for!
 

stormyuan

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Tested with wiikey1.9g + Wii JP version (3.2J)

1.DQS us version work fine
2.FE us version work fine
3.family ski jp version show eng subtitle
4.big brain jp version show ent subtitle
...and more !!!
 

mwaddoups

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@dwierdo: Thats unlikely - I *think* its more for playing English games on a JAP wii, rather than the other way round - you'd have to try it and see, as the JAP version may not have the english language on the iso.
 

stormyuan

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Hi,
I tested SMG and bomberman land US version
both worked fine on my JP wii console !!!!!

so ... It works !!!!
 

mwaddoups

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@dweirdo: Its not for changing the language to Japanese - its for a small subset of games where the US versions failed to load on JAP consoles, or loaded with the JAP language and no option to change. This allows US games to load in English on a JAP console (or whatever other languages you choose).
 

stormyuan

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according to the article from ReturnerS

some game like SMG would detect your wii region.
IF your console and game are not the same region, then the game fail .

We can modify the game ISO , and cheat the game

So, we can play SMG US version on JP Wii console(maybe you can play JP SMG on us console ^^
wink.gif
 

vv_

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Nice tool, successfully tested with Family Sky (J) on Wii Pal, to put Automatically the game in english whatever the console language.
Thanks.
 

dweirdo

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according to @vv_ you can patch ntsj game to make them english am i correct?
@mwaddoups i understand but according to the post above me your not right.
 

nerubii

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stormyuan said:
Hi,
I tested SMG and bomberman land US version
both worked fine on my JP wii console !!!!!

so ... It works !!!!


u change the lang from [No Override] to [0](jp) or [1](en)?

possible to make these games playable?

PAL:
Gottlieb Pinball Classics
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Totally Spies Totally Party
King Of Clubs

NTSC-J:
Crayon Shinchan Saikyou Kazoku Kasukabe King
Simple Wii Series Vol. 2: The Minna de Bass Tsuri Taikai
Tamagotchi no Furifuri Kagekidan
 

wii909

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Just tried Super Mario Galaxy USA version on my JPN wii, and it works perfectly, with of course English text.
Absolute massive respect to you ReturnerS for this extremely quick, and simple method
smile.gif
 

Cocytean

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I NEVER comment on these forums - love reading them, but never writing, but this is just the greatest thing I've ever seen. I just followed the instructions for Umbrella Chronicles, not really expecting much, and it works perfectly. Utmost respect to you ReturnerS - may your loins be truly fruitful!
grog.gif
 

stormyuan

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QUOTE said:
Hi,
I tested SMG and bomberman land US version
both worked fine on my JP wii console !!!!!
so ... It works !!!!

u change the lang from [No Override] to [0](jp) or [1](en)?

" patch to [0]jp " means to cheat the game you play with JP (lang.) console
"pathc to [1]en" means to cheat the game that you play with US/EN (lang.) console

so....I change the lang to [1]en (because I already have JP console ^^
wink.gif
 

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