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Post by oldskoolboarder on Apr 16, 2010 12:26:21 GMT -5
Not promoting piracy, since this method can use your unmodded Wii and games you own. I KNOW many of haven't touched our dusty Wiis in a while. But it's been some time since I hacked something so I was in the mood. If you have a spare HDD lying around, this is actually kinda useful. I started playing around w/ the Softmod after some coworkers got it to work. www.wiihacks.com/recommended-faqs-guides-tutorials-only/16970-new-3-1-4-1-softmod-any-wii.htmlBasically, you follow the tutorials and it shows you how to add a Homebrew Channel on your Wii. With this, you can add emulators, homebrew games, and most importantly, the ability to put your games onto a HDD and then play them from there. Why? So you can store your entire library on an HDD and never have to pull out that disc. I had a 4.2u f/w version and it seems to work fine. I had a free 1 TB HDD so I started playing around. Even though a Wii disc is about 4.7GB, some are padded to fit, so a game could be as small as 1 GB. That means you could use a 100GB HDD and still have quite a few games stored. There are different game loaders, and some even look like Coverflow on a Mac. You scroll through the box art and pick the game you want to run. Click it and it runs off the HDD. Very cool. You can also partition the drive (which I'm trying to get working) so that the 2nd partition 'emulates' your SD card. That way you can pretty much have unlimited channels. You can even store (allegedly) your Wiiware stuff there. There are some Mac tools to set up the system, but I think PC tools are the easiest, since the partitioning is the most confusing part. It took me a few hours to get the drive right but my buddy used Gparted and his windows machines and from start to finish, it took him under an hour. Not bad.
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Post by UsualNoise on Apr 19, 2010 18:15:25 GMT -5
Nice, I may actually have to try this. I have the CycloDS flashcard for my DS Lite and I can't tell you how much I love having all my DS games (and tons of emulated games) available on a single card. I'll post again if I actually do it...
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Apr 19, 2010 18:31:12 GMT -5
Got it working. Pretty cool.
So far, I've got about 20 games on there. You can auto download the cover art and then use the various cover flow viewers to sort through your library. You can even do a text search. On the main channel viewer, it adds the USB loader so you don't have to go into the HBC.
It loads pretty fast and it is nice to have quick access to your library w/o having to swap discs all the time.
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Post by fatty on Apr 20, 2010 23:01:49 GMT -5
I have my Wii modded with the Homebrew channel but haven't tried the USB loader thing yet. I knew about being able to use it as a way to store your games on HDD but didn't know about also being able to partition some of the drive to emulate your SD card. I've always contemplated making a HTPC with my movies on it or using something like the USB loader to store my Wii games but I came to the conclusion that I'm still to lazy to go through the effort of ripping my games or movies. With the DS and PSP it works out great since they are portable but I don't game and watch movies at home enough to take the time to do it. It's bad enough that I'm still on f/w 2.3U and I need to upgrade and figure out how I can access the Nintendo Store again. I do love being able to use the Wii's emulator to play the VC games that I own. Yeah, I know Nintendo isn't a fan but there is no way I'm buying the exact same games that I already own for the SNES and N64 again. That being said Super Metroid is the only WAD I've installed so far...
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Apr 20, 2010 23:32:46 GMT -5
You know, it doesn't take that long to rip a game. The biggest one was SSMB at 6GB. That took maybe 20 min. Some take only 5 min.
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Post by fatty on Apr 21, 2010 13:03:03 GMT -5
Yeah, I need to look into it a bit more. I'm guessing it can support my portable USB HDD but hopefully I don't have to use it for the Wii alone as I want to have my other back-up files on there. That and I'm still in the process of backing up my PSP and DS games. FYI, it looks like user minus_273 is working on an app that will automatically update your gamecards (which I am assuming is the game art and stuff for the usb loader) automatically from your playlog: www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=20839415&postcount=6655"not ready for general public consumption yet, but ah what the heck, im quite proud of this thing right now. We still need to slap on a nicer UI and fix some update and sync issues before this goes out in the wild. Thought you guys might enjoy seeing what in the homebrew pipeline. Also thinking of adding friends list to wii code mapping and live like online notification and messaging functionality in future releases.
I suppose if you think you might use this in the future you should go an secure your username by registering at messageboardchampion.com
Gamercards for the Wii that auto update from the wii's game play logs like PSN cards."
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Apr 21, 2010 13:24:23 GMT -5
I can take a pic of mine later if you want.
But w/ the USB loader GX, you can easily upload 2D and 3D boxart via wifi, no probs.
You can do what I did w/ your HDD. Partition it for WBFS (Wii format) and FAT32. The Wii will only use the WBFS for games and the FAT32 for SD card stuff. You could share the FAT32 w/ your normal HDD use OR, triple partition it and for Wii, SD and standard HD usage. Bear in mind that the virtual SD card doesn't have to be that big. I only did mine as a 40 GB, you could get by w/ only 8GB or 16GB.
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Post by fatty on Apr 21, 2010 14:14:13 GMT -5
From doing a bit more research I believe that the Wii Games can also be placed on FAT32 instead of the WBFS format, it will just require the Hermes' IOS222/223 to play the games. That way I can use FAT32 for both the games and the SD card storage. The only downside is FAT32 doesn't support file sizes larger than 4GB but the USB Loader Configurator will automatically split the game files for the partition. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding anything, though.
I have an old Seagate FreeAgent 500GB hard drive that I plan on using but I'm not sure if it is formatted NTFS or FAT32. But I'm going to add two extra partitions on it, one for the Wii games and one for the SD card and I'm guessing that the software on the Wii will recognize each partition that it is either for the games or the SD card?
I'm going to try this out this weekend.
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Apr 21, 2010 16:15:56 GMT -5
From doing a bit more research I believe that the Wii Games can also be placed on FAT32 instead of the WBFS format, it will just require the Hermes' IOS222/223 to play the games. That way I can use FAT32 for both the games and the SD card storage. The only downside is FAT32 doesn't support file sizes larger than 4GB but the USB Loader Configurator will automatically split the game files for the partition. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding anything, though. You may be right. I use IOS249, haven't tried 222/223. Honestly, there's only 2 games I've run into that are bigger than 4GB. Would you believe that Zelda was on 1.4GB? Then again, the graphics weren't that stellar. W/ 500 GB, you have WAY more space than you'll need even if you partition it. I have over 24 games and it's barely 65 GB or so. And even then, how many games do we use in high rotation anyways?
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Post by dschroll on Apr 22, 2010 8:24:01 GMT -5
Normally I might get more into the whole modding thing, but I just don't play my Wii often enough that I'm changing discs all that frequently. Heck, I remember I spent all this time modding my original XBOX and uploading like 5k games on there so I had access to every console game ever. I can count on one hand how many times I've actually booted up my XBOX to play them
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Post by UsualNoise on Apr 23, 2010 20:52:29 GMT -5
Well, I've soft-modded my Wii. I never thought I would see the acronym IOS as much as I have. Anyway, I've got things working fine and I'm about 1/3 through ripping my collection. It's pretty sweet being able to go disc-less. The only hitch I've found so far is WiiFlow won't play New Super Mario Bros Wii. I know that's a problem title in general, but it plays fine through USB Loader GX so I'm not going to worry about it too much. My largest title so far is Metroid Prime Trilogy at 7.45 GB. You can't say they didn't pack as much as possible into that game. I'm also going though my 20+ GameCube discs and ripping them as well. There isn't yet any way of playing them from the USB hard drive, but I'm hoping I can squeeze them onto 2 dual layer DVDs so I can eliminate as many discs as possible.
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Apr 23, 2010 23:11:44 GMT -5
Cool.
Yeah, I haven't tried WiiFlow, I got lazy after a point. GX seems to work fine for me. Took me a few hours a night for a week and I've got 49 games on about 100GB. Weird how some games are big and others are small.
I never had an Xbox so I never did the HDD mod. This is kinda cool.
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Post by fatty on Apr 27, 2010 16:11:31 GMT -5
I probably spent more time trying to figure out how to format a portion of my USB drive to FAT32 instead of actual installing the USB loader on my Wii. I'm almost to where UsualNoise was in his post and I have about 1/3 ripped so far. Didn't realize how slick it actually is, though my wife didn't share in my excitement when I was showing it to her. Of my 500GB drive I only had 140GB free going into it so I allocated 100GB for my Wii games and 30GB for the SD slot. I haven't looked into how to get the SD slot working yet, though. I'm using CFG Configurator as my USB loader since it supports FAT32 and though it has a lot of options it doesn't look as nice as Wii Flow does. I also wish the interface with the box art and text was a bit higher resolution but I can't be picky. Glad I took the advice of oldskool and ripped the games, it also finally made me update my Wii so I can access the Shop Channel again. I heard the game Swords and Soldiers is supposed to be very good.
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Apr 27, 2010 19:38:21 GMT -5
In your USB loader, there is a settings option that directs the path on the SD card where everything is stored. You have to move that path to point to the USB drive.
I haven't done it yet, but I'd take the SD card and USB drive and copy the SD contents over to the USB partition on a computer first. Then when you move that path pointer, your environment is all intact, including game saves and artwork.
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Post by UsualNoise on Apr 30, 2010 2:02:49 GMT -5
I forgot to update ... I have all my games ripped now, about 30 of them, and it only took up about 60 GB of my available 300. I ended up scrapping the GameCube disc-reduction project, primarily because it is much more complicated to play a GC backup multi-ISO disc than it is to just put in the original disc (especially for my 7-year-old). Plus, the results are not always reliable depending on the game. If someone comes up with a way to run GC games off the USB drive then I'll revisit it ... but I'm not holding my breath on that one.
My next task will be to attempt putting some emulators on the Wii.
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Post by fatty on Apr 30, 2010 8:13:25 GMT -5
Thanks oldskool, I'll give it a shot later today.
UsualNoise, I was curious on how the Gamecube ripping was coming along since I wasn't even aware that you could play the games off of even a disc (you mentioned that USB drive play is not yet available). Pleas keep us updated if you find out anything else.
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Post by UsualNoise on Dec 29, 2010 17:47:40 GMT -5
Just wanted to provide a quick update now that I've been running a soft-modded Wii for 8 months now. Overall, it's been fantastic. Much easier to switch from one game to another, especially since the games are stored on a separate floor from the Wii. Very nice to be able to transport my Wii and an external 2.5" drive around and have access to everything. There have been a few hitches, mostly when new games come out that require a newer firmware on the Wii. However, that only affects disc-based playing. As long as I rip the game to the HD it plays fine. I also recently went though the manual update of some internal IOSes to bring it up to 4.3 compatibility (or at least fairly close). Also, I'll occasionally hit a glitch while playing a game off the HD that will cause it to freeze or stop working. Generally this is caused by ripping the game incorrectly the first time around, and when I re-rip with optimal settings the problem goes away. That's about it for the issues I've encountered. The coolest part (for me) was installing NES, SNES, GBA and N64 emulators. While the N64 one is still buggy, all the rest have been rock solid so far and have support for almost every controller config you could want (Wii Remote, Wii Remote + Nunchuk, classic controller, etc.) as well as the ability to remap buttons however you want. Having the ability to use save states is a huge advantage over the Virtual Console versions IMO, especially for certain games. At least now I have the option of playing some of the games that have yet to be released on VC, and now I don't have to mess with my PC to do it. Here's a link to an easy-to-follow tutorial regarding all currently available emulators if anyone is interested: www.wiihacks.com/emulators/77210-tutorial-ultimate-emulation-guide-part-1-consoles.html
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Dec 29, 2010 22:42:04 GMT -5
Yup, love my USB loader.
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Post by fatty on Dec 31, 2010 15:48:38 GMT -5
Yep, me too. And if it wasn't for you and UsualNoise I wouldn't have gone that route. It is just so nice to not have to get out your games and it works great for my daughter as well. Still haven't gotten around to adding the emulators yet.
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Post by dschroll on Dec 31, 2010 16:08:32 GMT -5
Its tempting for me to try this, but I honestly, don't play my Wii often enough that I'm feeling the pinch of changing out the discs. Its probably my least played system in the house right now. Plus I have a modded XBOX that has over 5k games that I don't play either This might be something I might try down the road when my daughter gets a little older and more interested in videogames. For now though, I'll just be the lazy guy in the group and swap discs
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