Emulating on the Wii

thetwaz

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So - I've been out of the game for a while on this. I home-brewed my Wii around 2018 I think so have the Homebrew channel installed, and an SD card. I haven't updated the firmware or software of any type since 2020. Dusting it off yesterday, and looking at some of the community comments it seems there have been a few updates and new loaders to consider, so had a couple of questions:

  1. If I am using one of the newer loaders, do I need a 'clean' stock Wii to do this, or will it work with an older home-brewed one?
  2. Does the 4gb limit on SD cards still apply with the new loaders? Can you use any other larger options (USB sticks or drives for instance?)
  3. I have seen a lot of people writing different things over the years about emulation options, I would like to specially do NES, SNEs, N64, Genesis, Master System and and PS1 emulation - what are the best options for that on the Wii at the moment (I have a Classic controller already). For PS1 particularly, the storage situation is also quite important - though I could probably burn some CDs if I had to as well as use some of my original games.
  4. I have a couple of Virtual Console games from the old days installed that work quite well and I would ideally like to keep, would doing any of the above endanger then?
 
gbatemp Nintendo Wii forum is your best reference.

Probably no need to update homebrew channel. The apps have all been updated so I suggest replacing your apps one by one and cleaning up your SD card. I use a 256GB SD card. What systems do you want to emulate.
 
gbatemp Nintendo Wii forum is your best reference.

Probably no need to update homebrew channel. The apps have all been updated so I suggest replacing your apps one by one and cleaning up your SD card. I use a 256GB SD card. What systems do you want to emulate.
Thanks man - I want to emulate NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, Master System and PS1 ideally.
 
Thanks man - I want to emulate NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, Master System and PS1 ideally.
console:

Usbloadergx - Wii, virtual console, virtual arcade, wiiware (Note: N64 channels can be installed via the EmuNand feature.)
Nintendont - GameCube, triforce arcade
FCEUGX - NES, Famicom Disk System
SNES9X - SNES, Satellaview
Genplus-gx - Genesis, Sega CD, master system, CD+G
Wiistation - PS1
Mgba - GB, GBC, GBA
Neocdrx - neo geo CD
Not64 - Nintendo 64
Wii64 Rice - Nintendo 64 (refer to the compatibility list)
Wiimednafen - PC Engine CD, PC Engine, PC-FX, neo Geo Pocket, wonderswan, Atari lynx

PC games:

Qrevpak - Quake, Quake 2
Wii-blood - Blood (requires classic controller)
Scummvm - Microsoft windows and ms-dos

Retroarch specific emulators:

Final Burn Alpha 2012 - arcade (v0.2.97.24 romset)
Mame 2003 plus - arcade (2003 plus romset)
Cannonball - Outrun arcade enhancement
SNES9X - Sufami Turbo
Picodrive - Sega 32X/32XCD, Sega Pico
PrBoom - doom 1, doom 2, mods (boom compatible)
ECwolf - Wolfenstein 3D, ECwolf mods
Stella - Atari 2600
NeoCd - neo geo CD

Homebrew ports:

NewoZero
Sonic CD (decompilation)
Sonic Mania (decompilation)
Pissed by Genesis Project
 
As an update here, I managed to after some tinkering get most of the emulators working pretty well with the old homebrew channel. The issue I had previously was that my Wii wasn't connecting to the internet, as we had changed wifi since I last booted it up and had an old parental controls password that we had forgotten that needed dealing with! I also had the old homebrew stuff on a 2GB SD card, which I've kept for the time being (you can fit the vast majority of 8-16bit console libraries on under a GB if you're using a curated romset that doesn't have every regional variation) but will look to get a bigger one for the PSX roms particularly - I haven't yet tried PSX emulation as a result - one rom would pretty much wipe the free space I have at the moment.

My conclusions are that things seems to work pretty well so far - I've had good results on the SNES, Genesis/Megadrive, and N64. My main gripe so far is that there is a fair bit of audio stuttering, which I don't get on my Steam Deck (unsurprisingly by comparison) or my phone, but the games are still very playable. Weirdly, so far the best results seem to have been on the N64 - though Not64 occasionally renders things pretty darkly. The emulators are also pretty easy to configure for display filters if you need as well, and so are the controllers (which for the Wii Classic Controller is a bit of a must for the N64 - the buttons are all in the wrong place) - though I've had some problems with my settings being stored.
 
Raiden DX for the PS1 is one i recommend. The whole disc is about 30MB and you'll need the Japanese bios. Not64 and Wii64 have framerate problems on some games. I avoid those. I don't recall which emulators had audio issues. It's been a while since I turned it on. I wish I kept my classic controllers. I still have a GameCube controller.
 
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