WiiLoaded.com - Wii Forum and News

After being very quiet and practically disappearing out of the picture there has been a major update for the Wiikey and you can find out all the information below.

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Weeks ago, we told you about Wiikey - a modchip which claims to be the first and only upgradeable modchip for the Wii. Just to give you a bit of a background about it, this creation is apparently made by the same folks who gave to us GameCube's XenoGC.

Aside from that, they also divulged that the expected shipping date of this contraption - February 7. Well, February 7 had passed and so did a scam alert, what's up with the Wiikey now?

Checking their site, we found an image of a Wiikey prototype and a new release date - February 20. And just to give you an idea what it does, here we go with the specifications again.

* Direct boot of wii backups
* Direct boot of GC backups
* Direct boot of homebrew in GC mode
* supports all currently available console/drive versions
* Supports D2B chipsets
* Sophisticated (true) update mechanism via DVD (future proof, expect cool features to come)
* Direct boot of different NTSC region Wii games/backups on US and JAP consoles
* Partial support for NTSC region Wii games/backups on PAL consoles
* Boots different region GC games/backups (partially without swapping)
* Supports multi-disc games for BOTH Wii and Gamecube
* Supports DVD-R / true DVD+R and +RW support (no bitsetting required!)
* Improved readsettings for recordable media
* built-in audio fix
* supports fullsize 4GB discs for gamecube homebrew
* Stealth mode
* 512 byte EEPROM to store configuration
* Quicksolder interface - no wires needed for installation
* Recovery Mode - can recover from a bad flash
* Compact design, best quality components, rock solid high speed controller
* Professional ESD packing

Courtesy of QJ.Net

MBX,

Are you under the impression that once the Mod chip is in the Wii that online capabilities are then lost?
I know the mod chaps in the past have prevented the Mod-System from accessing online materials of said system.

No, I don't think that the Mod chip will deny the Wii internet access. Since the MOD is upgradeable they could fix any patches from Nintendo with an update of their own. Some people may be afraid to use it online though because they may fear Nintendo will know about it and take action but many are saying that it would be undetectable by Nintendo. There are so many mod chips out there now but only one will be on top and the others will perhaps go away. Only time will tell.

apparently you can backup wii and gc games with it.

Yeah, you can play backup copies of both along with DVDs as well according to the site. I don't own it so I can't verify the details.

no, it says you can BACKUP the games. you know, transfer them to sd cards pieces at a time, rebuild on pc, then burn onto a dvd disk?

* Supports DVD-R / true DVD+R and +RW support (no bitsetting required!)
* Improved readsettings for recordable media

This is what I'm referring to. Also on the website before they had an article about it that said they could play DVDs. Also some of the other mod chips allow it as well. We'll have to wait and see when a final version comes out. I may go check out a shop I know tomorrow that normally knows a lot about this kind of thing and if I find out anything then I'll post it back here.

Unique disc backup application via sdcard


that's what I saw, anyway.

I went to visit a friend's shop today and he has three different mod chips for sale. The most expensive one can play all Wii games from all regions, all GameCube Games from all regions, all backed up software, as well as all DVDs. I should be able to verify this for myself by Wednesday. I'll let everyone know.

whats it called?

What's what called? If you are talking about the mod chip they have more than one. They buy all the different mod chips and then add about $25 dollars to the price and they will install it for you and if you ever have any problems they'll fix it for free. Here there are so many games that I'd love to play but can't because of the region lock. Yesterday I saw Fire Emblem for Wii but it was Japanese. I believe they have the three biggies for modchips here such as the Wiikey, Cyclowiz and Wiinja. I'll find out more soon and report back my findings.

Ok, here's the update I promised. I went to my friend's shop today and he had two mod chips to see how they worked. The first one was Cyclowiz. It was version 1.0, not sure what version it is on now. It could play Wii backups and Gamecube backups but only of the region of the system. The Wiikey could play Wii backups and Gamecube backups from all regions. The Wiikey has a separate menu that will be expanded in the future to include more things and to run homebrew from. This is all I had the chance to check out but these are facts that I saw first hand.

I already knew all about the chips, but what is this I hear about your friend having a 'shop'?

I live in Thailand and in Thailand piracy is everywhere. You can see it on the streets, in department stores, everywhere. There are so many places/buildings that only sale pirated goods. I'm not saying that I support it though. I'm just saying that I have a friend that has a shop and yes he does sell consoles, real games, copied games, accessories and everything else.

On a side not I can tell you that copied games here are sold for between $1.50 to $5.00 U.S. The cost of living here is very cheap and some people only make around $100 per month and that's before taxes. The PS2 was and still is the biggest selling console ever here simply because it has copied games. Following that the XBox360 was the first "next generation" console that sold well here for the same reason, copied games. Now the Wii has been hacked and it will also do well for that same reason. PS3 has not been hacked here that I know of but I don't follow any information about it.

Just wanted to give everyone a glimpse of how it is in other places around the world and to review the modchip. Hope this information helps everyone out and if you have any questions feel free to ask.