Emulation of console games and Wii virtual console....

[BORIStheBLADE]

I haven't played with my arcade cabinet for a while because I'm a lazy SOB and I like gaming on my couch.
For the longest time I have been wanting to play the old NES, SNES and N64 games, but don't really know what to do.

At first I was thinking about picking up a Wii and playing them through the V.C,but some friends of mine told me they noticed controller lag when playing the old games on their new tv's. This kind of bothers me and don't know if its just them or for everyone?

I also considered using my HTPC in the living room to play these old games, but not sure how seamless I can make it with three emulators and a frontend.

What do you think??

[Howard_Casto]

Depends upon the tv, the hookup used and the gaming system (or pc) they are played on. 

In general, VC titles are spot-on perfect.  Any delay would be caused by the tv... (flat panel tvs with low refresh rates, especially plasma can be laggy.)

I've played the vc games on various tvs and never saw a problem. 

HTPC is a viable option... I don't see many issues with either setup and trust me... if there were serious issues I would be the one to point them out. 

[DJ_Izumi]

It's actually likely not controller lag but TV lag.  Some LCD TVs have filtering options which result in lag between when the TV gets the signal and when it actually renders it on screen.  Some TVs like this has a 'Video game' mode to basically disable it but not all.

[hypernova]

Any CRT should be fine regarding any input lag.  It's only when the TV has to convert the lower resolution signal to a higher one is there an issue.  There is some lag, but it's small, and only truly noticeable on timing issue games.  Most flat panel TVs anymore have a "gaming mode" as well to minimize the lag.

[Malenko]

I used my Wii for most SNES games, classic controller plus into a wiimote so its kinda cordless. Never had any issues with any game, other then not being able to figure out how to select the secret cars in CruisnUSA. Now I use an xbox1. If you already have a PC hooked up to the TV, I'd prolly go that route.

[BORIStheBLADE]

Thanks guys, I think I will try emulation on my HTPC first and if I don't like it I'll go with the Wii. I can get more games I like if I go with emulation.

I just with I could get one of those Wii classic controllers to work easily with a Windows computer. I will probably run the Xbox 360 controllers in the end.

[WhereEaglesDare]

The Wireless Logitech PS3 controller is perfect for emulators, it is better than the classic controller and WalMart usually has it for  20-30 bucks.  It is plug and play with your PC.

[BORIStheBLADE]

The Wireless Logitech PS3 controller is perfect for emulators, it is better than the classic controller and WalMart usually has it for  20-30 bucks.  It is plug and play with your PC.

Right on, I'll check them out when I get close to needing controllers.

[Howard_Casto]

The same goes for 360 controllers btw.... madcatz and a few others have a whole line out for around the same price.

[BORIStheBLADE]

The same goes for 360 controllers btw.... madcatz and a few others have a whole line out for around the same price.

Ya the wireless adapter can hook up 4 xbox 360 controllers to a pc. Since I have a 360 already I was considering this idea.

A part of me really wants to get a Wii and hack it, but the last two days I have been reading info on a wii site and these hacks seem way over my head.

I wish they would have more games in V.C 

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Thanks guys, I think I will try emulation on my HTPC first and if I don't like it I'll go with the Wii. I can get more games I like if I go with emulation.

I just with I could get one of those Wii classic controllers to work easily with a Windows computer. I will probably run the Xbox 360 controllers in the end.

you can do a complete software mod on the Wii using an SD card which will allow you to install a Homebrew channel where you can install emulator's for NES, SNES, GENESIS etc... It's pretty nice. You can use the Wii controllers, and still have the convenience of the couch and TV. Easy menu's too.

[BORIStheBLADE]

So your saying put some magic on a card and it runs off the card or flashes the Wii?
Like I said I spent some time reading, but it seems a bit overwhelming.

All I figured out so far is if I want to do this I need to have homebrew installed then install emulators?

I'm also worried if I buy a new Wii its software being the newest one. Then maybe needing to try and downgrade.

[Vigo]

Getting homebrew on your system is the only hard/scary part. The method to install varies depending on the console version you are running. Once you have that beautiful homebrew channel on you wii, it's smooth sailing. just find and download the homebrew apps and put them on the sd card, Start the homebrew channel and it will find all the applications you have on the SD card. No flashing of the wii to get these programs working.

I was a nervous wreck when I install homebrew. I was terrified I was gonna brick my wii. Everything turned out just fine. My Wii is a bit older, so I can't comment on the current process though.

[Bootay]

There are guides for the newest firmware which I believe is 4.3U.
Installing Homebrew is quite simple really. It doesn't get complex until you decide to play the game isos from HDD. Then you need to install all of the cisos...I am not even sure if I needed all of the ones the guide I followed told me to install. I just installed them anyway and everything works great. I have 4.2U..

[Malenko]

the newest wiis including the red and black ones wont let you play back ups from a DVDR only from a HD, for now.

[WhereEaglesDare]

Getting homebrew on your system is the only hard/scary part. The method to install varies depending on the console version you are running. Once you have that beautiful homebrew channel on you wii, it's smooth sailing. just find and download the homebrew apps and put them on the sd card, Start the homebrew channel and it will find all the applications you have on the SD card. No flashing of the wii to get these programs working.

I was a nervous wreck when I install homebrew. I was terrified I was gonna brick my wii. Everything turned out just fine. My Wii is a bit older, so I can't comment on the current process though.

I just did it on mine using the Lego Indiana Jones hack.

[BORIStheBLADE]

For the guys that emulate old consoles on their Wii. Do you need to go through a bunch of settings in the emulators for setup or are they optimized for the Wii already?

[WhereEaglesDare]

For the guys that emulate old consoles on their Wii. Do you need to go through a bunch of settings in the emulators for setup or are they optimized for the Wii already?

They are "optimized" for the wii, I dont think they respond as well as a PC based emulator.  The N64 one works really good though. I dont like the Genesis or the SNES one.

[Bootay]

the newest wiis including the red and black ones wont let you play back ups from a DVDR only from a HD, for now.

Mine doesn't allow DVDR backups either but I prefer to play from HDD anyway, and 1TB externals are so cheap it's well worth it.

[Vigo]

the newest wiis including the red and black ones wont let you play back ups from a DVDR only from a HD, for now.

Mine doesn't allow DVDR backups either but I prefer to play from HDD anyway, and 1TB externals are so cheap it's well worth it.

I prefer using a HDD as well. Games generally load much quicker from a HDD. It's great for those games with frequent load screens.

You can also use a USB flash drive as well to hold small batches of games at a time. I almost prefer to do that since I can easily pull it out to add new games.

[Bootay]

the newest wiis including the red and black ones wont let you play back ups from a DVDR only from a HD, for now.

Mine doesn't allow DVDR backups either but I prefer to play from HDD anyway, and 1TB externals are so cheap it's well worth it.

I prefer using a HDD as well. Games generally load much quicker from a HDD. It's great for those games with frequent load screens.

You can also use a USB flash drive as well to hold small batches of games at a time. I almost prefer to do that since I can easily pull it out to add new games.

I did that with an 8gig flash drive for a while until I got too many games. The portable drives are nice to use too because they are external hdds with no ac power. They get the power from the Wii.

[hypernova]

Just get a WD Passport.  They require no external power source.

Wii64 is a good emu, but the one game I want it to play, it can't handle quite yet.  It can't do Goldeneye multiplayer.  Speed is only about 25%.

[Bootay]

Just get a WD Passport.  They require no external power source.

Wii64 is a good emu, but the one game I want it to play, it can't handle quite yet.  It can't do Goldeneye multiplayer.  Speed is only about 25%.

The WD Passport is a "portable" drive. So yes...the portable drive like the WD Passport is cool because it requires no ac block. heh

[Red]

There are guides for the newest firmware which I believe is 4.3U.
Installing Homebrew is quite simple really. It doesn't get complex until you decide to play the game isos from HDD. Then you need to install all of the cisos...I am not even sure if I needed all of the ones the guide I followed told me to install. I just installed them anyway and everything works great. I have 4.2U..

Do you have a link to the guide you used?  Thanks.

[ray_slup]

i used this one http://www.wiihacks.com/recommended-faqs-guides-tutorials-only/60921-guide-softmod-any-wii.html

[WhereEaglesDare]

just make sure you follow the directions to the letter and dont do anything out of order

[chuck the american]

For the best controller to play retro-games on Wii, you can use it  :










I find a video too  :

 


But i don't know where we can buy them, sorry......