Not sure if this should be posted here or even if its allowed sense Wii is a 'newish' system, but had some questions for those in the know about doing a Wii softmod. Basically can the Wii softmod make it region free for Gamecube games as well as Wii games? and is it possible to change it so can navigate the system menu via the gamecube or classic controller instead of the wiimote?
I have my US Wii softmodded and it plays jpn wii games and jpn gamecube games just fine. You cant use a gamecube controller to navigate the system menu but yes you can use the classic controller as its plugged into the wii remote.
Is it a simple process to do a soft mod? I've really been debating between getting a Wii and softmoding it vs importing a jpn wii. This way I can still nab up cheap USA wii games i'm curious to try along with the imports I want to play.
Depends on the firmware thats installed on your wii as the newer versions close the security holes to install the homebrew channel. Google wiibrew.org & read the homebrew channel section it will guide you through everything. It's pretty easy to do & well worth doing.
old units = better. means bootmii is installable as boot2, which means you can always repair the wii if you screw it up
If you just want to play imports and don't care about "Backups" simply install homebrew channel and copy "Gecko OS" onto a memory card, it will play games(GC and Wii) from all regions but wont play "backups". As for homebrew channel , you can install it onto all the current wii's and system menus, anything below 4.3 will work with bannerbomb (a software expliot,as in it doesnt need anything els except for the software) , 4.3 needs a game to run the expliot(lots of lego games work), check the wiki for more info: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Main_Page The only console I wont touch is the korean imports there all nightmares to get working,brick on the whim. If you do want to play "backups" then please use modmii (google) as it will mod any wii, download the files , and create instructions tailor made for your current wii system. PS Some of the newer consoles actually have different Disc drives that wont accept the "debug" commands needed to play backups, or any DVD-r media, but they will play imports fine or from usb hard drive (usbloader gx) or external usb DVD drive (uloader)
Korean boards are not really a nightmare - but if you updated to 4.2 onward without taking some preventive action, you will brick the console. I wouldn't recommend them, but they are not as bad you as make out.
I havent done any for the past 2 years or so,it could be easyer by now, but the last one I did you had to try and mod ios 36 then install a lot of other ioses just to get HBC to work ,it did have a high possibility to brick the console while doing that,and they dont have a exploitable boot2 to install bootmii to(not that it was out back then), so unbricking was difficult if you made a mistake, and like you said upgrading to 4.2 would result in a instant brick,people do that by mistake,I only did a few. It might have gotten easyer by now, but I just dont like them.
I agree, I dont like them either. But as long as you know what you are getting into (i.e. DONT UPDATE) they aren't that bad. Its not really that hard to convert them into a EUR or USA Wii really. Just change the region and install all the ios's/channels/system menu. With the way I do things, they end up a EUR or USA Wii that you shouldnt update to 4.2 or above. Rather than a "modded Korean Wii". I repair tons of Wiis - including completely bricked ones, lifting the NAND and reprogramming etc.
Ill have a look at them again, it could be easyer by now, read somewhere that you could install 4.3 if you install a version of cios 50,60,70, or something like that. We get a few bricks in from time to time, normally just use the infectus to reprogram the nand so I dont need to remove it, but it takes long time and people dont like waiting etc...
I dont use the infectus - as you said its slow and its just not very good. I have this: http://www.elnec.com/products/universal-programmers/beeprogplus/ Removing the chip and refitting it, is a million times faster than messing with wires (once you know how to remove/refit those type of chips at least) edit: and yes, 4.3 on a korean wii is just using ios60 with the slot changed to 70 (4.2) or 80 (4.3) as IOS60 didnt have the check in it that causes the problems.
Thats a nice programmer, just wish I could justify it with the boss Edit: but I think where going a bit off topic now LoL
fyi I passed on the wii since I got 3 Ps3 games instead (Yakuza 4, vanquish & enslaved, all for $50). I'm sure by end of year or early next year it will be easy to get a new wii for $100 again.
