Wii Region hack status, AnyRegion Changer / Gecko OS / GC Booter / Starfall

[elaniel]

I ended up just doing the update and the channel is still fine. (I'm a risk taker).

I'll look a little more into DOPMii.
Thanks.

[egparadigm]

Did you update both the shop Channel to v20 and IOS56 as mentioned by monomaniacpat 3 posts down?

As above. It's caused by not having the relevant IOS. I know for a fact, because I made the same mistake!

[Soundwave]

Sorry guys, had to remove the links.

Sorry Charles my fault didn't realise they were against the rules

Neil

[KIT786]

I did update a few IOS's might have missed IOS56. Will give it a try and post back

[egparadigm]

I *think* IOS56 is the only one you need to update for shop v20, because it took me a while to find out which one I needed and this was the only one that did the trick. I say I think because it was a month ago and my memory may have failed me.

[KIT786]

Yeah it was IOS56 that had not been updated, done that and now working fine. Thanks for the help

[mmmonkey]

Just had to say thanks to all the posters in here recently, inspired me to do something with my softmodded wii, and now running Config USB Loader to pop my discs on (great for jumping between just dance and just dance 2 for a laugh), very impressed that a cheapy USB 2.5" caddy I had hanging around worked straight away, ooh and priiloader to make it region free, block updates, remove the annoying Health and Safety screen.

Is there an advantage to using priiloader over starpatch, took me bloomin ages to get a hacks.ini file to work with priiloader, no idea why. Yet starpatch was easy to download with the right file for my 4.3e firmware.

Don't even remembering updating to 4.3e, I don't think I'm missing anything being on it though am I? I've already got the softmod installed from yonks ago, including bootmii which pops up quickly on startup should i need to backup/restore NAND.

ta
Pete

[Link83]

Is there an advantage to using priiloader over starpatch, took me bloomin ages to get a hacks.ini file to work with priiloader, no idea why. Yet starpatch was easy to download with the right file for my 4.3e firmware.

Priiloader can be very useful if you have a system menu brick, since you can load it before the system menu and use it to launch other homebrew programs to repair the system files. Startpatch does not have this option, it just applies specific patches to your system menu.

However if you already have bootmii/boot2 installed with a NAND backup for brick protection then startpatch and priiloader are probably about equal in terms of their other features. No harm in having both bootmii/boot2 and priiloader installed as a 'second failsafe' (Note that you cant have both priiloader and startpatch installed at the same time, but there is no reason to do this. Also you must completely remove one before installing the other, otherwise they conflict)

For people with newer Wii consoles who cant install bootmii/boot2 and can only install bootmii/IOS then priiloader is usually recommended over startpatch due to the added brick protection it offers (It can't fix low level bricks though like bootmii/boot2 can)

Don't even remembering updating to 4.3e, I don't think I'm missing anything being on it though am I? I've already got the softmod installed from yonks ago, including bootmii which pops up quickly on startup should i need to backup/restore NAND.

The main(only?) disadvantage with 4.2 onwards is that Nintendo improved disk region checking, but if you use priiloader/startpatch to remove region checks then 4.3 is just as good as any other version (This is assuming you already have the latest homebrew channel installed, since 4.3 also deletes old versions of the homebrew channel and disables the easy bannerbomb exploit)

Also note that 4.2 and 4.3 offer no benefits over 4.1 which was the last update to include any sort of real improvement, 4.2/4.3 were only designed to combat homebrew/piracy. If you are comfortable using DOP-Mii to manually update your IOS's/Channels etc then there is currently no good reason to update past 4.1.

[mmmonkey]

lovely, cheers for the info/confirmation.

[Soundwave]

Just out of curiosity does anyone know of any issues running newer PAL games with the softmod??

Fancy picking up Epic Mickey, Donkey Kong & Kirby but want to make sure they wont cock up the softmod before I do.

Thanks

Neil

[endo]

I got Donkey Kong at Christmas and only played it last week for the first time, having not used my Wii for about a year (and so having not updated my Homebrew Channel for the same period of time).

Loaded it up via Gecko, which told me it needed to extract various IOS's for the game to run - which it promptly did - and the game runs perfectly.

Got the internet connection finally sorted in our new place last week, so I updated the Hombrew Channel just for the craic, and everything's groovy.

[bowser123]

Just out of curiosity does anyone know of any issues running newer PAL games with the softmod??

Fancy picking up Epic Mickey, Donkey Kong & Kirby but want to make sure they wont cock up the softmod before I do.

Thanks

Neil

PAL Kong and Kirby play perfectly on my US Wii which is soft modded. I'm certain Mickey will play fine too given it's the same firmware requirements as Kirby.

The thing to remember is to never update from the disc, always update your version of HBC and Gecko through the online Wii application "homebrew browser", then and only after you have the latest Homebrew Channel, update the Wii through the system menu on the Wii.

[sj33]

The thing to remember is to never update from the disc, always update your version of HBC and Gecko through the online Wii application "homebrew browser", then and only after you have the latest Homebrew Channel, update the Wii through the system menu on the Wii.

Actually, to be extra safe, it's best not to update the Wii through the System Menu at all. If you have a problem game, it's best to look online and see if you need to update any IOS files in order to run that game. Nintendo don't release new updates that frequently anyway.

Gecko is supposed to obtain required IOS files from the disc anyway, so you shouldn't even need to do that.

[Soundwave]

Thanks guys.

I'm currently using Priiloader for my PAL loading & most things seem ok through that but I just wanted to check.

Will see what version I'm running on Gecko & the HB Channel just to make sure I'm bang up to date & then start the hunt for cheap Kirby & Donkey Kong.

Thanks again

Neil

[charlaph]

Crikey! after not needing to update my wii in a long time, I bought the missus Just Dance 2 this week. Naturally it didn't work, but who knew that making it work would be such a pain the ass! All I wanted to do was get my 3.3u US wii up to date and let it play the latest PAL games, I ended up installing umpteen homebrew apps, IOSes, cIOSes, overwriting homebrew channel and eventually neogamma and IOS58 and after all that it seems to work. It took hours of going around in circles following various guides and it not working, so trying something very similar but slightly different and it not working, not being able to find the specific app they refer to so trying the latest release of the same and it not having the same options and not working, rinse and repeat. Got there in the end though.

So now I've done all this, I need to know - what's the 'best' way of setting up my US wii to play the modern PAL games - something like priiloader, or is there something better now? I'm a bit fed up of going through homebrew channel to launch stuff and having to teach my 3 yr old which apps to launch which games, so would USBloader and an external HD be the best? if so what do I use to rip my games and does it matter that they're a mix of US and PAL - does that just load everything straight off without having to mess around with settings?

tbh, I'm half tempted to sell my US setup and buy a PAL wii and be done with it, but to do that would be to admit defeat! this is NTSC-UK after all!