Hacking Hey! Going to buy a Wii for the holidays.

[VIStrings]

I live in Europe and I plan on buying a Wii. In fact, I'm probably going to check out which bundles are being sold near me and decide which one to buy.
I have a few questions, though.

Does the Wii come unupdated? Can I choose to update it JUST until 4.2? Or are the updates mandatory? I don't feel like buying one of the two games needed for the softmod.
Secondly and more importantly, I'm not asking for ANY links, but what exactly CAN I do post-softmod?


A friend told me that I'd be able to play not only ISOs, but games from the Virtual Console. Is this true?

 

[skinneyb]

the system menu will be set to 4.3 i would think if your buying now but may depend on the mfd you can play game boy games sens games using emulator

there is not a lot you can do before you buy it goggle modmii and have a look

 

[Deleted User]

Does the Wii come unupdated? Can I choose to update it JUST until 4.2? Or are the updates mandatory? I don't feel like buying one of the two games needed for the softmod.
Secondly and more importantly, I'm not asking for ANY links, but what exactly CAN I do post-softmod?


A friend told me that I'd be able to play not only ISOs, but games from the Virtual Console. Is this true?

The wii will mostly be pre-updated to 4.3 so you will need indiana jones or yu-gi-oh.


after softmod you can: Homebrew, backups, vc/wiiware

 

[Nintendo_Chick]

You can play backups, but not from discs, only from an external hd

 

[PsyBlade]

1 Does the Wii come unupdated?
2 Can I choose to update it JUST until 4.2?
3 Or are the updates mandatory?
4 what exactly CAN I do post-softmod?
5 play not only ISOs,
6 games from the Virtual Console.

1 Most likely 4.3 but not neccesarily
2 online can only update to newst but games can carry a older update
3 yes but not anymore if you softmod
4 run backup or import form dvd (with old drives) and from usb, run homebrew media players games and tools, backup your wii, ...
5 yes
6 yes

Id suggest installing hbc+cios19 and then updating and installing hbc(again)+cios20
but there are many guides

 

[Taleweaver]

Those new bundles (black or red wii's) all come with 4.3. For older firmware, it's probably better to find a second hand wii. If not, you have to have one of those games to softmod it (perhaps renting is an idea...you won't need the games anymore after doing the softmod).

The updates aren't mandatory. The wii doesn't have one internal BIOS thingy like a PC, but multiple (called IOS'es). A "firmware" is usually a collection of updates for those IOS'es as well as a few programs that use it (the system menu and the shopping channel come to mind). However, it's perfectly possible to update 'just' those things without harming anything else (an official firmware update automatically sweeps softmod stuff).

What you can do: a LOT. Playing backups from USB drive (so no more disc swapping), multimedia, emulators and other homebrew are the most popular choices.


It's possible to play virtual console games, yes. Though it might be better to check out emulators (a type of homebrew): they allow you to easily play all sorts of games for previous consoles (including the virtual console games that nintendo released on the shopping channel).

 

[Magsor]

+1 for second hand wii. Old wiis are better than new wiis. Keep your money to buy a couple extra wiimotes (brand new).

 

[smash_brew]

there is no problem with purchasing a new wii unless you want to run your backups from disc. any new wii is going to come with the d3-2 drive which is incapable of reading dvd-r's. you can still run your backups from usd or sd but not from dvd. if you want to burn discs to play then get an older used wii or an older replacement drive for the new wii. if you don't mind running backups from usb/sd then any new wii will be just fine. you can do anything on a new wii that you can on an old wii other then read from dvd.

 

[Magsor]

If you want to play gamecube backups...

 

[smash_brew]

If you want to play gamecube backups...

thats the only drawback. swap the drive or just wait for emukids sdboot then....or buy a wode.

 

[Fudge]

If you want to play gamecube backups...

thats the only drawback. swap the drive or just wait for emukids sdboot then....or buy a wode.

No BootMii either. Also on newer Wiis (LU64+) you cannot downgrade lower than 3.4 or else you will brick your Wii.

 

[smash_brew]

If you want to play gamecube backups...

thats the only drawback. swap the drive or just wait for emukids sdboot then....or buy a wode.

No BootMii either. Also on newer Wiis (LU64+) you cannot downgrade lower than 3.4 or else you will brick your Wii.

you can still install bootmii, but not at boot2. you'd have to back quite a while to get a wii that you can install bootmii at boot2. and there really is no reason to downgrade at all. down grading isn't a good idea but if you know what your doing you can do it manually without a problem.

 

[ToneEQ]

I recently picked up a third Wii console at my local Cash Generator (UK cash trade in) shop. Only cost £60, 1/3 of the cost of a new one. It was on firmware 3.4 and BootMii could be installed to boot2, couldn't be happier!