Wiikey – Testing the Nintendo Wii Modchip

Martin — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 13:45:30 +0000

Wiikey is one of the modchips that are available for Nintendo’s Wii gaming system. The modchip Wiikey is able to play backups from the same region which means Wiikey can play backed up PAL games on European systems and backed up NTSC games on Japanese and US Wii systems. It is possible to play Japanese games on US Wii systems and vice versa but it is currently not possible to play all NTSC games on European Wii systems with Wiikey. You can also play backed up and imported Gamecube games with Wiikey as well as Gamecube homebrew discs.

Wiikey is working. I thought I just share that information before I begin explaining what I tested so far. I have a friend who is one of those geeks who likes to import his gaming systems to play the original version of the game instead of a localized version. Forgot to mention, I do own a Wiikey modded PAL Wii gaming system, my friend owns a US Wii system with some US games. I was not able to test Japanese games at all but I doubt that this is interesting for most users anyway. He owns a US Gamecube as well and brought over some Gamecube games that I could check if they would run on the Wiikey modded Wii system.

The first thing everyone using a Wiikey should do is to burn a Wiikey Setup ISO to DVd and load it into the Wii system. This lets us test if the modchip is working correctly. You have to set region override to ok to be able to play games from a different region. You can also increase drive speed here.

It works great with backups from the same reason but many games, like SSX Blur US do not work on my Pal Wii system. I was able to play some US Gamecube games though, namely Outlaw Golf and Tales of Symphonia.

The conclusion is simple. If you only want to play PAL / NTSC games with the Wiikey you should go and buy it immediately. If you would like to play different region games with the Wiikey you should try and find someone who tested those games before you buy a Wiikey or wait for a new version of Wiikey or a new modchip that supports region free games.

One way to get at least a partial compatibility would be to use so called region free patcher that patch backups of games from other regions to look like the correct region for your Wii system. I found a Wii region patcher compatibility list, take a look at it here.

Tags: modchip, nintendo-wii, wii, wiikey, wiikey-modchip

Wii Modchip Comparision (Wiinja, Cyclowiz, Wiikey)

Martin — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 17:58:51 +0000

It is currently possible to buy two modchips for the Nintendo Wii gaming system with another one becoming available every day now. The available modchips are called Wiinja and cyclowiz, the one that comes out soon Wiikey. All three are connected to the Wii drive and prevent that the drive reports whether a original or copied disk has been entered. This however has the disadvantage that those chips will not be able to defeat the region code of the games.

Wiinja, Cyclowiz and Wiikey are able to play Wii and Gamecube backups from the same region and the Wiikey seems to have a good success rate to play games from other NTSC regions. This means that it could be possible to play Japanese games on a US Wii system. It is however not likely that you can play NTSC games on a PAL system with those modchips.

While the wiinja modchip is not upgradeable the other two modchips Cyclowiz and Wiikey are. This is a big advantage for them and with the availability of the Cyclowiz chip I can’t see why someone would still buy a Wiinja. Sure, the Wiinja is not that expensive but it should be noted that you would have to replace the Wiinja chip if Nintendo would decided to upgrade the firmware of the Nintendo Wii to defeat current modchips.

The Wiikey chip seems to be the best solution for those gamers who like to play original games from other regions. No one has seen the chip in action yet and everything announced at the official Wiikey site should be taken with caution until some reviews are out.

Other more advanced modchips have been announced that have the features the gamers are waiting for. The modchip Wizard for Nintendo Wii for instance is able to defeat regional encoding and is supposed to be able to play games from any region. This would be a major factor for gamers who like to import games due to several reasons.

All chips are running in stealth mode which should make it impossible to detect them and use countermeasures.

Tags: cyclowiz, nintendo, nintendo-wii, nintendo-wii-modchip, wii-modchip, wiikey, wiinja, wizard

gHacks technology news » wiikey

Wiikey – Testing the Nintendo Wii Modchip

Related posts

Wii Modchip Comparision (Wiinja, Cyclowiz, Wiikey)

Related posts