My wife wants a Wii - any advice on modding?
 

I haven't done much research yet (only browsed a few site for a couple of minutes). It looks like you just pop in a modchip, buy a certain type DVD burner and go to town. Anyone have any advice/experience with this?

Well if you don't get one of the early ones used, the new ones are proving to be quite difficult to mod, only a handful of chips support the new chipset in the new Wii and there are many more solder points than previous chipsets. The solder points are about the size of abraham lincolns nose on a penny and you need to use 30awg wire for it. Obviously you need some soldering skills and a steady hand as well, not for the faint of heart. D2C Key I believe is the hot new chip out, and no, you don't need a special burner, just make sure you use quality media. I'm lucky enough to have gotten a Wii right at launch, built a PIC chip programmer, got some free PIC chips, and programmed it with some hex code I found online.

i just run mine bone stock while blasting corrupted space pirates and leave the media up to media devices :dunno:

I've never ran anything bone stock in my entire life! I just can't seem to keep from taking stuff apart...

I am the same way.
That is why i built my PC from scratch.
But when it comes to the wii, i actually recommend leaving it stock.
It is a tough one to mod, with little to no real benefit.

Well make sure the wife plays naked like the models on the net.

You want to make the investment pay off. ;)

Mark

The ability to play backups and homebrew programs is no real benefit???

I'm a shaky handed fool, I managed to mod my xbox without a problem and it also uses 32 awg jumper wire. Unless the Wii is drastically smaller than what I was working with it really shouldn't be that hard. Besides, if you buy it at walmart the odds of them checking the case seals when you return it are very low.

The big thing in Wii modding is more using the Wii-mote for other than intended purposes. like as a motion sensitive drum kit, to controll robots, or as a G-tech. There seems to be a fair bit of case modding too.

Modding the wii really isn't too bad, it is difficult, but by far the most difficult system I have ever modded is a PS2, having to solder 30awg wires directly to the legs of an IC chip, one right next to another. But the benefits of modding a Wii are fantastic, at the same time you now have a modded Gamecube and whether you believe it or not, the Gamecube had a library of great games. Best part of that is, since the Wii accepts full size DVD's (unlike the Gamecube) there is software out there that lets you put multiple Gamecube titles on a DVD, letting you select them through a boot menu.

Checkout www.wiinewz.com for info, or www.tehskeen.com

Good luck!

Wow, get out the soldering iron!

http://www.iso420.org/wii/d2ckey/solder1_small.jpg

I have a new wii and my friend modded it for me. He said it's a lot harder than the older ones because Nintendo actually cut off the legs on the chip. He was still able to sodder it on though but he said I have to becareful with it because if I drop it the chip might fall off...

The newer Wiis have the D2C (I think) chip which takes more wires to mod, but it's still not bad if you have a good soldering iron and a fine tip, just tin the wire then touch it to the board point, don't bother with extra solder otherwise you'll make a mess. I run a WiiFree with an external socket in my older Wii (D2A I believe, can't remember I modded it so long ago). I have a PIC programmer so if you need a chip coded let me know and I can dig it up for you. Have you checked out www.wiinewz.com ? I've also done a TSOP split on the original xbox with an external switch to switch between banks, and a slim PSTwo. The PSTwo was difficult, took me about two hours to do it.

Yep, check it out and I am working on a game plan. It looks like it costs about $550 to get started on this. Pretty expensive so my wife can play "ride the cow" or whatever screwed up game she came home freaking out over...

$550 for the system and modding it? I sold Wiis pre-Christmas on ebay. Made an easy $1500 for about 4 hours work. You should be able to find more on Craigslist new for ~$300 if you can't find one at Toys R Us or Walmart for $250. Just call the listings for $350 and offer 'em $300. There was a glut 2 weeks ago and people were selling them new for $300 in the Baltimore area.

She can ride the cow for the price of the system and a WiiPlay (extra remote and cow game) for ~$300 if you can get it retail.

Frank

Wii - $350 (I guess I have to buy a used one to get an easy one to chip)
DVD burner - $90 shipped (only looked 1 place so far)
Blank DVD's - $30
Extra controller - $50 (not sure what they really cost)
One month membership to Blockbuster - $20
Total Cost = $540 to play ride the cow


FWIW, I bought a pre-Xmas Wii 13 months ago when they first came out. Paid $700 or whatever for the huge sports package with 15 games. Ended up breaking even on it. There were so many of them on Ebay that prices were actually down. I posted it forsale in the local newspaper and only got one offer in 10 days. I spent 20 hours trying to buy one on the internet and thought I was going to get rich on it...

I used wiialerts.com to send a text to my cell phone whenever Amazon got them in stock. Since I sit on a computer for a living, I had the wii page on Amazon up when I got the alert. I'd simply go and add 3 and have them shipped for free with no tax. Did this twice, plus the two I lucked out on at Toys R us. I sold one with a WiiPlay and extra nunchuk for $670 shipped on ebay and the rest between $540 shipped and $620 for the same "bundle". I got these prices 2 weeks before Xmas at the peak of the selling frenzy.

Not bad since I did this from work. Just had to hit Staples to UPS 'em.

Frank

I use a NEC dual layer burner, real old, something like the 3540A or something. I burn games at 2x on Prodisc media and haven't had any problems at all.

Hmmm, I keep seeing this list floating around as the only drives that work:

Compatible IDE/USB DVD-ROM Drives:

* LG-8164b
* LG-8163b
* LG-8162b
* LG-8161b

I think you're prices are a tad skewed, $90 for a DVD burner??? Maybe if it was made of solid gold!!! Look, if you know where to look, games are free to download, and you can't just pop a retail game in your drive and copy it, so no go there. Really, if you aren't too computer literate, modding a system may not be for you. If your computer was built within the last couple of years, I would be really surprised if your computer didn't already have a DVD burner in it. If not, they cost like $30 on www.newegg.com

If you have any electronic knowledge you can build your own chip programmer for under $10, and get the blank chips for free as samples from large companies.

Overall, unless you think you can figure out the whole thing and willing to do some reading on it, maybe this isn't for you.

As I said before, I have seen that list of 4 compatible DVD burners on several Wii hacking sites as the only ones that should be used. One was listed as $90 and people have said they are pretty hard to find. I'm guessing that is why the price is so high. I have 4 or 5 DVD burners over here but use one exclusively for 360 games (the one that everyone said must be used for 360s).

Amazon lists the LG 8162b for $79:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...9918050&sr=8-2


I have modded 10+ XBoxes and 4 XBox 360's and have been building computers for 17 years. I've hacked just about everything I have ran across for most of my life. This definitely IS for me <G>.

Ok, those DVD burners you listed, you don't need. What you're misinterpreting is you need a specific LG drive (such as the ones you listed, but you don't need the burner, you can get a specific model LG DVD reader instead) to burn the games. You don't, any dvd burner can burn the games, those drives are special because apparently they are able to read the Wii discs themselves. But, for me, I find its much easier to just download whatever game I want, than to try to rent it and actually have to spend money on it.

To sum it up, any DVD burner will burn Wii games or Gamecube games, IMO shelling out that much money just to read retail games is a waste.

Also, the blank DVD's that Fry's sell (the Great Quality brand) $10 for a 50pack, work great in the Wii. I burn all my games at 8x and have zero problems.

Yes, I need one of those $90 DVD readers, not writers (my bad). I'll take your advice on the blanks when I order some. With the 360, you have to buy DL-DVD's and I have been paying $35 per 20 discs for the Verbatims that everyone says work better.

As far as renting vs dl'ing - I've tried both ways. I find that when you first get a system and want to build up a collection the best way to do it is by spending $20 at Blockbuster and getting 30 games in 1 month. I can't imagine an easier way of doing it if you have a BB 4 miles away like I have. It still amazes me that I can rent 30 games and only find 2 or 3 that are even worth playing!

Newsgroups, get games before they're even released on blockbuster's shelves :)

I just fired up my burner computer and I have an NEC ND 3540A. I've burned 20+ games and use a WiiFree without a problem. Are you sure your list is legit?

This is one place I saw the list of readers (not burners as I incorrectly said):
http://modyawii.psx-scene.com/index....ping.php&token

I don't know what games are available for the Wii so I will use 360 games as an example. If I built my first 360 this week and wanted a copy of Halo#1 newsgroups would not help me. BB should have a copy on the shelf (I can't be 100% sure of that though).

Yes, I do use NGs and have a subscription to astraweb.com newsfeeds. I also use bittorrents. I have found BB to be better than either for the first 30 games of your collection.

rmcelwee let me know how you like your moded wii once you get it done. I am thinking about modding mine but have not decided yet. Also there is a store that has one of the specific dvd drives you need for like 40$. I will see if I can find a link to it tonight.

I can already tell you having a modded wii is excellent. I mainly use it for all the Gamecube games I downloaded, you can typically fit 3-4 per disc. As much as I like my Wii, there really is only a handful of good games out for it right now, so its nice to play some of the games that suck without paying for them. I've come to the decision that unless a title is Wii exclusive, it usually sucks because the transition from a controller based control system in a game to the Wii-mote, makes the game much more difficult and less fun.

pics of wife?

I have about 30 Wii games burned...on a modded Wii...I dont see the big deal with modding...I bought it that way...but cant see why you would stress over it...FWIW

Are you talking to me? Where do you detect the stress in my post?:

I haven't done much research yet (only browsed a few site for a couple of minutes). It looks like you just pop in a modchip, buy a certain type DVD burner and go to town. Anyone have any advice/experience with this?

I understand the difficulty using newsgroups to get older stuff, it's really hit or miss. For new stuff it's great though. If you're trying to READ games from blockbuster, then burn them, I cannot help you with what drives will make a good Wii ISO, sorry.