gremlin.neocities

The Wii's Legacy

The Wii has a reputation for being a "casual" console. This perception mostly comes from the fact that everyone seemed to have them at one point in time and the amount of people that used it exclusively for Wii Sports Bowling. On top of those two, the wii had a shovelware problem. There are reasons for all of these however, the wii supposedly sold 101.63 million units. Motion controls being a new and novel concept did not help this notion. Today, there is still a dedicated fanbase for the Wii! A lot of the concepts were ahead of its time and the community truly appreciates it. Groups like Wiimmfi and RiiConnect24/WiiLink have returned online services such as online multiplayer, the weather + news channels, and much more.

Hardware Specifications

RVL-001

Backwards Compatible
480p Resolution
CPU: IBM PowerPC Broadway 729 MHz
GPU: ATI Hollywood 243 MHz
Ram: 64 MB GDDR3 SDRAM + 24 MB PSRAM
Storage: 512 MB NAND Flash Memory
GameCube Memory Card
SD Card Slot for expansion
Wireless: 802.11b/g
Bluetooth 2.0
Misc: 2 USB 2.0 ports
Optical Disc Drive
Notes:
There are 5 different kinds of motherboards for RVL-001, newer is better.

RVL-101 "Family Edition"

480p Resolution
CPU: IBM PowerPC Broadway 729 MHz
GPU: ATI Hollywood 243 MHz
Ram: 64 MB GDDR3 SDRAM + 24 MB PSRAM
Storage: 512 MB NAND Flash Memory
SD Card Slot for expansion
Wireless: 802.11b/g
Bluetooth 2.0
Misc: 2 USB 2.0 ports
Optical Disc Drive
Notes:
GameCube Ports are removed along with the ability to play GameCube games. This also renders certain Wii games incompatible with this model. RVL-101 is not backwards compatible without homebrew gamecube loaders like Nintendont or hardmodding. This model is meant to be placed horizontally.

RVL-201 "Mini"

480i Resolution
CPU: IBM PowerPC Broadway 729 MHz
GPU: ATI Hollywood 243 MHz
Ram: 64 MB GDDR3 SDRAM + 24 MB PSRAM
Storage: 512 MB NAND Flash Memory
Wireless: Bluetooth 2.0
Misc: 1 USB 2.0 port
Optical Disc Drive
Notes:
On top of having the same issues as RVL-101, the Wii Mini also removes internet connectivity, a USB Port, 480p (stuck with 480i), and the SD Card Slot. I do not recommend this model unless you have no other option or want a hardmodding project. You can hardmod all the removed features back if you so choose. Even without any hardmodding you can softmod this wii by using BlueBomb.

Modding

All Wii models can be softmodded, not all of them are easy to softmod. Below is a up to date guide.

https://wii.hacks.guide/get-started

Homebrew

The homebrew scene on the Wii has seen better days but it is still very much alive! The amount of community made applications sorta makes the wii into a mini pc. While you can't easily browse the web anymore (you still can view a lot of http sites) you can still get connected to the internet, look at the forecast, read the news, watch videos, listen to music, write text documents, run a web server, and do many more things.

It's your hardware, run the software you want!

Wii Homebrew Sites:

WiiBrew
GameBrew
Open Shop Channel

Gremlin's Recommendations

WiiMC-SS
This is a updated version of WiiMC, a multimedia player for the wii. This version brings back YouTube functionality via RiiTube.

Game Backup Loaders
Wiiflow Lite and USB Loader GX are homebrew applications that allow you to load backups of your games from a external storage device. I don't care what your stance on piracy is, using one of these will increase the lifespan of your Wii because you are not using the disc drive to play. It's also super convenient to have all your games on one hard drive or SSD.

Nintendont
GameCube Backup Loader

CavEX
A port of Minecraft Beta 1.7.3

Space Cadet Wii
A port of 3D Pinball - Space Cadet

FCE Ultra GX
NES / Famicom / Dendy Emulator

Snes9x GX
Super Nintendo Emulator

Visual Boy Advance GX
Gameboy / GBC / GBA Emulator

Genesis Plus GX
Genesis / Mega Drive / Sega / Mega CD / Master System / Game Gear / SG-1000 Emulator

Recommended Purchases

Component Video Cable

The video cable that came with the Wii at launch is whats known as composite. Composite only allows for 480i when the wii is fully capable of 480p. The i in 480i stands for interlaced which means each frame being displayed is only showing half of the video at a time via lines across the screen. Each frame has empty space between each line so what you get is two seperate 240p frames being displayed with each other and filling in the empty spaces to make 480i. The p in 480p stands for progressive which means each frame fills all the lines leaving no empty space. This is better for video quality so you should use component instead of composite if you care about these things.

SD Card

Used for homebrew

Crucial X6 Portable SSD

Finding portable SSDs and flash drives that work with the Wii can be hard. I have tested the 2tb version of the drive above and it works with the homebrew channel and USB Loader GX. Within Wii Backup Manager you can format the drive so you can use it on the Wii.

Tips and Tricks

Within USB Loader GX you can disable the deflicker filter if you are using 480p instead of 480i. This removes that blurry effect that plagues all games by default.

You can still play a ton of online multiplayer games with Wiimmfi

WiiLink brings back functionality to channels such as the Forcast, News, Nintendo, and Everybody Votes channels. They have also brought back originally region exclusive channels for everyone to enjoy like the Food, Kirby TV, and Wii Room channels.

Image Credits

Supersonic 101, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
SamStation, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Fandom

The Nintendo Wii