Anybody here have a modded Wii U?

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Calavera
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Anybody here have a modded Wii U?

Post by Calavera »

I've been looking into picking up a cheap used Wii U to mod. I've found one locally for $75. I haven't looked too much into how to mod it but I imagine it is as easy as the original Wii. So I guess my question is how hard is it to mod the Wii U to play Wii U games from USB?
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pixel
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Re: Anybody here have a modded Wii U?

Post by pixel »

It's pretty easy to softmod.

The only catch is that you'll need to purchase a Virtual Console title to act as an automatic payload each time the system boots up. The alternate is doing a browser exploit each time you boot, which I wouldn't recommend because it's a pain in the ass.

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melancholy
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Re: Anybody here have a modded Wii U?

Post by melancholy »

It’s not as easy as a Wii, but it’s not too bad. Only downside is that there is no permanent mod that isn’t super risky, so you’ll have to reactivate the mod every single time. Your best bet is to use an exploit in the DS Virtual Console, which requires purchasing a single DS game and gives you a one-click solution to rehacking. Otherwise you’ll be doing an annoying browser exploit every time you boot your console.

There’s a website that breaks down the entire process *EDIT: looks like Pixel beat me to the link*. It’s a good guide, but as I said earlier, you don’t want to do the permanent mod as the risk of killing your console is very high if you accidentally erase or overwrite the DS game used for the hack.

The biggest challenge is not modding the Wii U, it’s installing Wii U games on a hard drive. It’s a convoluted process of having the Wii U format a HDD, using a computer to dump the games on an SD card, and then using the Wii U to copy the games from the SD card to a HDD. There’s no direct way to do it, so it’s massively time consuming if you have a big Wii U library to install.

Still, once it’s all set up, you can theoretically run the entire Nintendo console history (minus 3DS) all on one console. There are injectors for every Virtual Console system and since it has the Wii hardware built into it, you can also inject GameCube and Wii games too. It’s pretty cool when it’s all done, just anticipate its going to take a lot of setup to do it.

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Calavera
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Re: Anybody here have a modded Wii U?

Post by Calavera »

Thanks to both of you for the information. I read through that guide and it doesn't seem that difficult to get it modded. I've got some Wii U games that I was using with Cemu. The link pixel posted shows how to install games from an original disc but not from a download, so I'll have to look into that. I don't imagine I'll end up with too huge of a Wii U library. There are a handful of games I want to play but I probably won't go crazy with it like I did with the Wii and end up with a couple hundred games that I never play. It looks like I'll also have to buy a new external hard drive. I was hoping I could use the drive I am currently using for the Wii but according to that guide you need a separate drive for Wii and Wii U games. It is a 1TB drive and the Wii games don't even use half of it so I was hoping a could just add a second partition for Wii U games. So it'll be about $50 for another external HD, around $10 for the virtual console game and $75 for the console itself. So around $135 total and I'll have a system that can play all Gamecube,Wii and Wii U games plus a ton of emulators. It is more than I'd like to spend but not really a bad price for all it will be capable of once it is modded. *edit add $7 for a usb y-cable so $142 total.

One more quick question when it is modded will I still be able to play online? For example if I install Mario Maker from a download will I be able to play it online? I'm guessing probably not. Second question, if I mod the Wii but play Super Mario Maker from the original disc will I be able to play online or is it not possible at all with a modded console? Mario Maker is pretty much the only game I'd be interested in going online with.

*edit One last question. I assume just a USB stick would be ok to install the games onto? I'd like to try out the mod before I go buy another external HD. Would a 16gb usb stick work for installing games? I know it would only be able to hold maybe 3 games but I'd be happy with that to start off with.
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melancholy
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Re: Anybody here have a modded Wii U?

Post by melancholy »

So one thing about the hard drive. While it’s true it requires a dedicated drive and cannot be partitioned, if you want more of an all-in-one solution, look up Wii VC Injection. Similar to injecting ROMs into VC WADs, Wii Injection allows you to inject ISOs so that they are bootable from the Wii U menu instead of having to boot to the vWii every time. This means you will be installing Wii games directly to the Wii U HDD, removing any need for 2 HDD’s. Not to mention the other added benefit of allowing you to play Wii games on your Gamepad (as long the game supports the classic controller). This method also works with GameCube too. Check out the utility here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-wii ... rt.483577/

When it comes to putting this stuff on the HDD, that’s where it gets annoying. You have to put the games you want on an SD card. Then in the Homebrew Launcher, fire up the program WUP Installer (if you followed the hack guide, you’ll already have it). From there it allows you to install stuff from the SD card to the HDD. You cannot put stuff on the HDD directly, so you’ll be spending lots of time dumping to an SD card, firing up WUP Installer, installing your stuff, and then deleting off the SD card to move more stuff over.

As for online, I never tried it after modding my Wii U mainly because I don’t want to risk a ban.

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melancholy
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Re: Anybody here have a modded Wii U?

Post by melancholy »

One other thing: from my experience using a HDD with a Y cable has always resulted in games crashing. It’s better to use a HDD that has its own AC adapter.

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pixel
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Re: Anybody here have a modded Wii U?

Post by pixel »

Looking around the GBATemp forums, most say cheating during an online game is the best way to get banned on the Wii U. I don't remember Nintendo having a very robust detection scheme on that system for detecting whether a game copy was legitmate or bootleg.

That said, I owned the two titles I used online (MK8 and Mario Maker), so I don't have first hand knowledge on playing pirated games online.

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