Help building Wii into arcade machine

[Nimbus]

I've got a spare Wii that I use occasionally. I would like to built an arcade cabinet to house the Wii and play games. Specifically, I want to set up a 4-player machine so my nieces and nephews can play Super Mario Wii on it at the same time. I want to use regular balltop joysticks for the controls.

I am stumped trying to figure out how to hack/set up joystick controllers for the Wii. I have searched searched a few times, but I got nowhere fast. There is hardware that can be used for other gaming consoles, but I can't find a Wii option. Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully there is a simple adapter to buy so I can just wire them up, but I doubt it.

Thanks for the help, and sorry if this is redundant.

[CoryBee]

Hmmm, it would be cool to see the thing be a docking station for the wii. Just shove your wii into a slot and there would be ports lined up to plug in A\V cables. Then a place to dock your wii-mote on the Control Panel, which is connected to one of those classic controllers. The classic controller I assume could be easily soldered to and made into an interface to your arcade joystick and buttons....BAM!!! 

[Well Fed Games]

The issue I keep running into as I brainstorm this kind of project is game compatibility. Unfortunately, some games, like NSMBwii, have a non-re-assignable controller input mapped to an action (such as shaking the remote for the jump spin) that would make a sweet 4 player NSMBwii cab a lot more complicated than interfacing arcade controls to classic controllers (or that Tatsunoko vs Capcom stick I have that is just collecting dust).

Too bad since wiis are dirt cheap and are only going to get cheaper.

[paigeoliver]

The Wii is essentially the least cabinet friendly game console ever made.

[Lilwolf]

they have the classic controller that you might be able to hack.  (and if it was done well, you could have the wiimotes plug into the controller to activate the classic controllers, then unplug them for other games that use the wiimotes.)

Trouble is, not sure how many games use the classic contrller (never bought one)...

I would spend my time on hacking a dreamcast instead.  Or other console.

[CoryBee]

they have the classic controller that you might be able to hack.  (and if it was done well, you could have the wiimotes plug into the controller to activate the classic controllers, then unplug them for other games that use the wiimotes.)

i....i just said that.... 

There has to be a couple of good Wii games that are cabinet friendly

[jammin0]

What about making it into a kiosk like they have at the game stores?  Wire in power to the wiimotes and just use those in a holster.

[DarthMarino]

The games supporting a Gamecube controller would work fine but there aren't a ton of those (see list below). If you just want to play New Super Mario, you can try the Dolphin emulator though it would probably defeat the purpose of what you are trying to do.  The program can map the controller shake to a button press.  I've never tried the specific game so I can't vouch for how well it would work.  You would need a pretty decent computer as well.


Games Supporting Cube Controller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_games_that_use_the_Nintendo_GameCube_controller

[jammin0]

I ran that game at 1080p on a dual core e6600 with 2 gigs of ram and a geforce 210 512mb ddr3 card and it was decent.  There started to be some slowdown when there were lots of people on the screen.  Get a more modern gaming rig and I bet it would run it just fine.  That kind of defeats the purpose of using your wii though.  A shooting cab with wiimotes might be worth it.  You could hack the wiimotes to fit into a cooler form factor airsoft gun or something.  Wire them so you don't have to worry about the batteries.

[paigeoliver]

But then you have lost the point! 

Modern consoles just keep getting less and less friendly to cabinet adaptation as they gain more and more buttons and analog controls and the Wii is the absolute worst one of the bunch, having controls that really have no real arcade equivalents.

Although even the X-Box 360 would be a nightmare, looking at my controller here it has two analog sticks, 1 digital stick 2 analog triggers (would be pedals on a cabinet), and 11 more buttons, two of which have a logical left-right association in many of the games that use them.  Not only does it have all that but it seems that most titles try to use them all. I don't actually have an Xbox 360 but I have the controller and most PC games that have Xbox versions seem to use every button and stick on the thing.

What about making it into a kiosk like they have at the game stores?  Wire in power to the wiimotes and just use those in a holster.

[HaRuMaN]

Although even the X-Box 360 would be a nightmare, looking at my controller here it has two analog sticks, 1 digital stick 2 analog triggers (would be pedals on a cabinet), and 11 more buttons, two of which have a logical left-right association in many of the games that use them.  Not only does it have all that but it seems that most titles try to use them all. I don't actually have an Xbox 360 but I have the controller and most PC games that have Xbox versions seem to use every button and stick on the thing.

There are TONS of games on Xbox 360 that don't use analog at all, and plenty on XBLA as well.  80% of my controller hacking business is Xbox 360.

[rCadeGaming]

Yeah, the 360 is the number one console for newer Shmups, especially with all the region free Japanese titles that have come out.  These are meant for arcade controls.  There's also tons of arcade fighters between new games on disc and downloadable stuff, and also a good amount of 2D platformers and things like that.  Super Meat Boy could really benefit from arcade controls.

Same thing on the Wii with all the stuff on virtual console.  Most if it is things I'd rather play on the real hardware, but it's there.  Also the Wii is super easy to hack.

New Super Mario Brothers is a problem though, with that one jump move where you have to shake the Wiimote ruining everything.  I wish it could be played with a normal controller.  I think someone could emulate the signal from the accelerometer or whatever with a custom PCB and wire a button to trigger it.

[paigeoliver]

I guess I wasn't really looking at that stuff, most of those don't immediately stick out as X-Box titles to me, most are on PC as well.

I put Super Meat Boy on my cabinet, but I do a lot better with the gamepad than I do on the cabinet. Howver VVVVVV is absolutely awesome on my cabinet.

[rCadeGaming]

Not sure what you mean by most are on PC.  Maybe Street Fighter IV, and others through emulation.

[sharpfork]

I have a wii I picked up free (replaced fried BT module)so I added it in my 27" CRT TV cab for netflix.  I was doing some testing for KADE and decided to hook the up the Wii to arcade controls.  I went the classic controller route because it should work with the WiiU.
This cheap thing + KADE in PS2 mode works fine on the Wii:
http://dx.com/p/playstation-2-ps2-to-wii-controller-adapter-13-5cm-cable-23206

I remapped some of the controls and everything worked as I expected.
All that being said, I still really only use the wii for netflix. I don't have any emulators on my wii so I'm not sure if it would really work as the main"brain" in a cab.  If you want me to test anything with the arcade controls on the wii, let me know.