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Thread: Need advice on softmodding an older wii

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    Default Need advice on softmodding an older wii

    I've never modded a will before, and this particular wii is from when the wii was first released. I know there are some guides out there, but I'm a bit nervous about what mods are compatible with this earlier model. The goal would be to play wii/gc backups from discs, and possibly wiiware/vc from an sd card. Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere before.

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    all mods are compatible it's the newer models that have issues

    http://modmii.zzl.org/ is the easiest way to do it, it will download everything needed by your Wii firmware version

    It's self guiding, anther words it will produce instructions for your specific setup

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    Thank you, and Merry Christmas.

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    Hint for HDD formatting

    For GC loading make sure the first partition is FAT (this is important for GC ISO loading)
    Next partition can be for Wii games (I still use WBFS format though nowerdays you can use other formats)
    You might want a second fat formatted partition for roms and iso's of emulated systems (I'm guessing this is optional if the first is FAT formated)

    Not got round to testing GC games so my drive is WBFS/WBFS/FAT you can only have 500 Wii games per partition so I have 2 partitions on my 2 TB USB HDD for Wii games and a single FAT partition for Roms ect... but for me to use GC games from HDD I need to split the first WBFS partition into 1 FAT and a WBFS partition because GC loading can only use the first partition and so far only with FAT formatted partitions (for me to do this I would loose that first partition that at the moment has apx 500 on it, so I would need to back those up first before splitting and reformatting because WBFS is not a common windows format so I couldn't use any specialised tools to just resize it without loosing the data like you can with FAT and NTFS or similar)

    If your drive is in good condition like my own that is also a first gen Wii you can load DVD+R's including GC and Wii games but loading from HDD atleast for Wii games they tend to load quicker and run smoother than DVD+R later releases of the Wii can't read DVD+R's or DVD-R's

    If you do use DVD-/+R's though go with DVD+R for the quality of the discs, DVD-R's are only really better if a system is older than DVD+R like the first run of PS2's this is because those Consoles had been made before DVD+R had been created do not support DVD+R media so only DVD-R's will work, DVD+R is the better quality media though in general (even the first GameCube supported DVD+R media as does Wii hardware except Nintendo found a way to prevent there newer build Wii's from reading DVD-R and DVD+R)
    Last edited by Zorlon; 25th-December-2012 at 17:43.

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    That's some useful info. I don't have a spare HDD, which is why I was planning on just using discs for now. Although, I'm wondering if reading burned discs would wear out the laser quicker than normal.

    If I were to get an external HDD, if it matters, which USB version would be best? I've read that some people had hard drives that didn't work, but they got it to work with another one. Also, since you're guessing as to whether or not a second FAT partition would be needed (one for GC and one for ROMs), is it because there is a limit to how much can be in an FAT partition like the 500 wii game limit for WBFS?
    Last edited by gennes; 26th-December-2012 at 21:09.

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    quicker wear that would be yes that's the same with every drive though and the reading speed is slower than retail discs this is the same with DVD players and CD players, they can still last years and years, but any R media will put extra strain on the laser more so for RW media

    I'm guessing because I have not personally tested it

    No there is no 500 limit on FAT partitions

    USB2 or above USB3 is not supported but will work at the same speed as USB2 USB1 is too slow, most drives will be USB2 at least nowerdays
    Last edited by Zorlon; 27th-December-2012 at 13:46.

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    Just to give my results, the softmod was successful, and I was able to get a OoT Master Quest VC inject working as a test. Also, I found a spare usb flash drive I can mess around with later. Modmii was a big help, so thanks again for pointing me in that direction.

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    Recently I fixed a botch up mod that left the user with a very unstable Wii so I think ModMii is the best option for anyone that is a first time modder as it does provide you with ever thing needed for the initial mod including a whole bunch of updated ios's that without can cause all sorts of issues.

    Updated my own as well while I had ModMii to hand, as mine was a lil out of date by a few years lol so there was a few updated ios's I had missing.

    Anyway let us know if you require further help down the line when you are ready to use a USB drive

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    GTA San Andreas - Real Car Names extra content mod [WIP] [Back burner, just won't have the time ]
    Please can all ESR users post your results here to help with the project and others wanting to use ESR

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    Hello again. Everything has been great so far, except I'm having trouble playing Gamecube games from a disc. The Wii recognizes that there is a Gamecube game in it, but when I use NeoGamma to load the game, the screen turns green for a second before the whole system resets. My first attempt was to make a multi-iso disc. NeoGamma was able to recognize the games on the disc, but loading the games lead to the green screen. For my second attempt, I just burned a single, untouched game, which also turned the screen green.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gennes View Post
    Hello again. Everything has been great so far, except I'm having trouble playing Gamecube games from a disc. The Wii recognizes that there is a Gamecube game in it, but when I use NeoGamma to load the game, the screen turns green for a second before the whole system resets. My first attempt was to make a multi-iso disc. NeoGamma was able to recognize the games on the disc, but loading the games lead to the green screen. For my second attempt, I just burned a single, untouched game, which also turned the screen green.
    Sounds like you did the multi-boot disc correctly, but your Wii is not updated with the appropriate files to run them.
    Let me see if I can find taht IOS that you need for GC backups...In the meantime, link me to the guide you used to make the multi-disc.

    EDIT: Here it is: cMIOS
    Follow this and let us know how it goes.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jazzmarazz View Post
    Sounds like you did the multi-boot disc correctly, but your Wii is not updated with the appropriate files to run them.
    Let me see if I can find taht IOS that you need for GC backups...In the meantime, link me to the guide you used to make the multi-disc.

    EDIT: Here it is: cMIOS
    Follow this and let us know how it goes.
    Pointing out that the problem was the cMIOS helped a lot. I was able to figure out where I went wrong. I was using that guide you linked to, but because of ModMii, I already installed RVL-mios-v10.wad using Multi-Mod Manager. I re-installed it with cMIOSWiiGator and the disc works now.

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    Also a note about NGC games (but maybe you already know this):

    Games with audio streaming may seem partly functional.
    You're just missing some audio though, the games are still playable.

    Spoiler warning:

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    Quote Originally Posted by deadlegion View Post
    Also a note about NGC games (but maybe you already know this):

    Games with audio streaming may seem partly functional.
    You're just missing some audio though, the games are still playable.
    I read a couple posts about that. Does that have anything to with the 'streamfix' option of fstfix.exe? Also, if you know anything about fstfix.exe, how important is the 'Force 32k align files' option? I might have forgotten to turn that on while making the multi-iso disc, so I was wondering if there would be any noticeable differences.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gennes View Post
    I read a couple posts about that. Does that have anything to with the 'streamfix' option of fstfix.exe? Also, if you know anything about fstfix.exe, how important is the 'Force 32k align files' option? I might have forgotten to turn that on while making the multi-iso disc, so I was wondering if there would be any noticeable differences.
    Don't know to be honest, I don't have a softmod myself.
    I use WODE.
    With WODE you just get silence (instead of the audio streaming) instead of static (which can happen with other methods iirc)...but the games don't crash with WODE.
    Ikaruga was the only game I never got to work properly, it will only run in demo mode.


    Edit:

    Some random quotes from various places, and I can't confirm anything:
    Wode is a good solution for game cube but the lack of streaming audio leaves a bad taste in the mouth - especially considering it could be fixed.
    But don't forget you can play all GC games on wii now too via DIOS MIOS and an SD card. Again there is no audio streaming with that either.
    Looks like the GC IDE-EXI Adapter does not play streaming audio after all - it uses Swiss to play games and swiss doesn't support streaming audio.
    I remember with other modchips on the GC if you play games with streaming audio like the worms game, instead of getting music, you get static noise. Loud, annoying, static noise.
    Old stuff anyway, from last year.
    Last edited by deadlegion; 26th-January-2013 at 08:45.

    Spoiler warning:

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    The best solution for GameCube games is Dios Mios. There's also Dios Mios Lite if you want to load from an SD card.

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