What do you use your WII for...?

[nut-ed]

I was "forced" to get involved in the kid's WII after GAME p...ed me off by not exchanging a WII disk that gave read errors after 9 months, I was motivated to explore the murky subject of backing up games.

 

This may be old hat to everyone else but I was amazed how easy this was and also what else the WII could do without too much effort - and hey, we're all Geeks aren't we....?

 

1) With a bit of work you can bung a USB disk on the WII USB port and copy all your games onto the hard disk. Not only does this provide a good backup - the games load much quicker and you can change games without having to walk across the room! The application (USB launcher) is pretty cool, all the games are shown with their box covers on a rotating carousel and you just click to load.

 

2) On the same disk but different partition you can load .avi .mpg .jpg .mp3 files and play from the WII, (using embedded Mplayer). Also play the same from a FAT32 memory stick

 

3) You can also play movies and listen to music over wifi link from files stored on a remote PC, (using Mplayer/samba).

 

4) You can load a BBC Iplayer client onto WII and watch (not store) BBC TV via wifi link. Iplayer is a free app from the on-line Nintendo store

 

5) There is an embedded browser and Youtube - but these seem too cumbersome to effectively use as there is no proper keyboard

 

6) Wii-Earth - similar to google earth

 

 

Has anyone else found any other interesting uses for their WII....?

[teddybear]

Here's a few other uses :-)

 

YouTube - wii remote whiteboard

[PiqueABoo]

This may be old hat to everyone else but I was amazed how easy this was

 

I haven't got to that bit yet, does it survive system updates etc? We've got a cheap, probably 27th hand game that is a bit scratched and although it works so far, it would be nice to know if everything on there is readable i.e. it won't choke at some point.

 

I did add and use the iPlayer, although sorting the wi-fi annoyed me coz after lots of getting nowhere I had to tell the AP to do TKIP in addition to AES. iPlayer video and sound has a habit of getting out of sync sometimes and annoyingly just pausing it for a bit doesn't seem to help. I think YouTube looks crap in non-expanded mode on even a moderate sized telly (28"), so gave up on that.

 

you can change games without having to walk across the room!

 

You mean you're not jumping all over the room smashing the furniture in the first place? Are you sure you got the right console?

[Craggus2000]

Here's a few other uses :-)

 

YouTube - wii remote whiteboard

 

We use Wii-mote whiteboards in 2 of our class rooms. One of the kids made the software better too...

[eejit]

I was "forced" to get involved in the kid's WII after GAME p...ed me off by not exchanging a WII disk that gave read errors after 9 months, I was motivated to explore the murky subject of backing up games.

 

This may be old hat to everyone else but I was amazed how easy this was and also what else the WII could do without too much effort - and hey, we're all Geeks aren't we....?

 

1) With a bit of work you can bung a USB disk on the WII USB port and copy all your games onto the hard disk. Not only does this provide a good backup - the games load much quicker and you can change games without having to walk across the room! The application (USB launcher) is pretty cool, all the games are shown with their box covers on a rotating carousel and you just click to load.

 

Not old hat to me - hadn't heard of it at all. We currently have two games that the disks are very noisy while playing - I guess they are not perfectly flat.

 

Can you give a link to the product you used? Google throws up a few links to USB Launcher and USB Loader, but most of them seem fairly dodgy.

 

Thanks - good thread!

[Abaddon]

I'd be interested to see that info too.. I thought I was the only lazy WII owner!

[Jamie_a]

started backing mine up after little un tried putting mario kart and wii sports in at the same time and scratched my mario kart beyond repair.

 

It doesnt survive updates although it is possible to download the parts of the update you need ie just the shopping channel on your pc then install it.

 

Tend to mainly use mine to watch films with geexbox and for the iplayer, have just installed mame to relive some of my mispent youth.

[jamesb]

Has anyone else found any other interesting uses for their WII....?

 

Well, there's obviously Wii Fit as an exercise machine, and as a yoga trainer in the morning to help me wake up.

 

On the occasions that I have family or friends up for a party I usually have the Wii acting as a digital photo frame, or one of the WiiWare little games running on it for people to pick up and put down.

 

Since I don't have a television, or a television license, iPlayer's a handy feature to have and the updated channel is far, far better than the old one.

 

The weather forecast or the news are quite pleasant to just leave running in the background.

 

On occasion, a music center, though usually the XBox is hijacked for that.

 

House noticeboard on the calendar. It saves having one hanging on the wall.

 

Message center - since I now live quite a distance from family, I get pictures and messages about my nephew and niece sent to me via the messaging, as well as organising family Bomberman tournaments every few weeks. Nice way to keep in touch when I don't feel like having the computer on (most evenings) or phoning for a long chat.

[pscott]

USB Loader GX, work for every game I have tried! But as well as the actual loader program, you need to install the correct cISO's...

I am currently writing up a little guide with the files that should make this very very easy for people if anyone is interested?

[sparkeh]

USB Loader GX, work for every game I have tried! But as well as the actual loader program, you need to install the correct cISO's...

I am currently writing up a little guide with the files that should make this very very easy for people if anyone is interested?

 

Yeah definitely interested in that

[pscott]

The only "issue" with USB Loader GX, is that the USB Hard Drive must be formatted to WBFS, and AFAIK this must be done on windows

 

You can do it directly on the Wii, I have just tested... But it will format the entire drive

[pooley]

USB Loader GX, work for every game I have tried! But as well as the actual loader program, you need to install the correct cISO's...

I am currently writing up a little guide with the files that should make this very very easy for people if anyone is interested?

 

Another interested party

[eejit]

USB Loader GX, work for every game I have tried! But as well as the actual loader program, you need to install the correct cISO's...

I am currently writing up a little guide with the files that should make this very very easy for people if anyone is interested?

 

Yeah, me too. Thanks

[nut-ed]

I'd be interested to see that info too.. I thought I was the only lazy WII owner!

 

I blindly (but very carefull!) followed the instructions on:

 

New 3.1-4.1 Softmod for ANY Wii

 

Parts were a bit scary, it's unfamiliar territory, ie loading and replacing WADS, cIOS, DOLs, IOS, stubs etc - so it was a bit of a leap of faith, luckily it worked fine first time. I haven't updated the WII since - but feel no need to.

 

It is a great solution, GX Loader is very professional looking, its surprising Nintendo don't provide this functionailty - albeit with some sort of copyright protection...!

[pscott]

http://www.filedropper.com/wiisoftmod42

 

There it is, the readme.txt file has the walkthrough

Original source was mike&heth, website disapeared, so have rewritten it so hopefully makes sense to people!

 

Works perfect on 4.2!

[CHR1S]

Shame the wii dont support 1080p/i otherwise it would be a great little media streamer!

[Jawloms]

Here's a few other uses :-)

 

YouTube - wii remote whiteboard

 

I may be missing something blatently obvious here and end up looking silly, but he appears to be using a Wii remote to identify whereabouts on a projected image an infra-red light is. I get the concept, but exactly how is the Wii remote connected to the PC? And what is the software he is using to calibrate etc?

 

Thanks

 

Stuart

[plexer]

It's connected via bluetooth.

 

Ben

[PiqueABoo]

have just installed mame to relive some of my mispent youth

 

I tried that years ago with and discovered I was now a very small fraction of a tiny percent as good, which was sad

 

I used to be able to do things like wrap around the Asteroids max score. Got outvoted, but I didn't want a WII because I was genuinely *still* sulking over the time several eons ago when I'd been playing one game of arcade Donkey Kong for a few hours(!) and on the n100th time around instead going "Tada! You're Terrific! Game Over [now please go away so I can make some money]" it gave me around 5 seconds to get Mario all the way up those ramps. You couldn't even get up the first ladder in 5 pigging seconds... and when I'd let my bloated collection of lives die, it just crashed and lost my lovely record high score.

 

Mame? It's just not the same as when: a) you're paying, b) you can't flick pennies up the reject slot to mitigate a.

Edited February 1, 2010 by PiqueABoo

[RingOfFlame]

To collect dust.

[CHR1S]

To collect dust.

 

Sell it then

[pooley]

http://www.filedropper.com/wiisoftmod42

 

There it is, the readme.txt file has the walkthrough

Original source was mike&heth, website disapeared, so have rewritten it so hopefully makes sense to people!

 

Works perfect on 4.2!

 

I assume you just Unrar everything onto an SD card and work through your destructions ?

[mattx]

I tried that years ago with and discovered I was now a very small fraction of a tiny percent as good, which was sad

 

I used to be able to do things like wrap around the Asteroids max score. Got outvoted, but I didn't want a WII because I was genuinely *still* sulking over the time several eons ago when I'd been playing one game of arcade Donkey Kong for a few hours(!) and on the n100th time around instead going "Tada! You're Terrific! Game Over [now please go away so I can make some money]" it gave me around 5 seconds to get Mario all the way up those ramps. You couldn't even get up the first ladder in 5 pigging seconds... and when I'd let my bloated collection of lives die, it just crashed and lost my lovely record high score.

 

Mame? It's just not the same as when: a) you're paying, b) you can't flick pennies up the reject slot to mitigate a.

 

Paying ?

What I used to do [ and please rememebr this was a LONG time ago when I was a kid ] - I used to bunk off school with my mates, get the train up to Heathrow - [ one of the terminals ] - go to the arcade [ which had all the games etc on a nice carpet ] - you know whats coming next.... We used to rub our feet on the carpet, build up a static charge, and then stick our fingers on / in the metal slot where you had to stick your 10p in. 8 times out of 10 instant credits !!

Or...........circular knitting needles make great devices to stick down the slot, locate the micro switch / hook which the 10p used to knock, once latched on a quick up and down movement used to create instant credits !!!

Or.......a bar magnet when playing on the fruit machines so the reels didn't move when you got a winning line.....FREE money !! These days you can't even stick a hanky up a reject slot in the phone boxes.....no fun.

Still I grew up ok in the end didn't I ?

[Jawloms]

Been mucking about with a Wiimote and the interactive whiteboard idea today. Everywhere I found it said you can't use MS's bluetooth stack to pair the devices, but they were all using Windows XP. I've been playing today using Windows 7 and paired the Wiimote without installing anything extra. Then just ran the WiimoteWhiteboard software and I had an interactive wall! Thought it may be useful for some to know.....