gc-forever - Gamecube/Wii Forums

The only one I've seen in Australia without GC support is the blue Wii bundled with Donkey Kong Returns
Still good to know there's others, usually says on the box

This is... just awful. Damn cheapskates trying to cut down production costs, I suspect.

Yes, and they did the same move with the GameCube then by removing the digital port.

Just to let everyone know I have opened up one of these wii's and softmodded it and added a wode chip. I then added the original controller ports and memory card ports. Theb loaded a gamecube iso a.d voila it worked.

The wii unmodified will spit out original gamecube discs so it will only work with hdd loading.

Also the small filter components on the 2,3 and 4 gamecube controller ports have been removed. You just have to bridge the 3.3v, 5v and data line and they all work 100%

Thought I share that bit of information.

pictures please

emu_kidid wrote:pictures please

i second that!

I wonder if its the drive mechanism detecting an 8cm disc and rejecting it or the drive firmware.. would be nice to swap out the drive and see if an older one works (pretty sure it would)

when a wode is working with gamecube images then it should be the drive which rejects the mini dvd because if its the wii software then it would the GC image loaded with a wode also.

sm4rty wrote:when a wode is working with gamecube images then it should be the drive which rejects the mini dvd because if its the wii software then it would the GC image loaded with a wode also.

look at what emu said again
"...drive mechanism or drive firmware..."

Thanks for the update on the new hardware. I soft-modded one for a friend a few weeks ago.

Apparently the drive board for the new GC-minus Wii lacks the square chip in the upper right of this picture, which is necessary for loading GC discs:



So, it looks as if it has the ability to play GC games, but won't read GC discs.

This picture shows the difference between the new (no GC) and old D4 drives:

I totally hate Nintendo for that..

@LOCtronics: Good find

Sorry didn't take any pics of the motherboard. It looks exactly he same as the last previous wii revision except the missing components and ports. When I get another one to modify I'll take pics and show it working with gamecube games. When that is however I can't say.

I also know that the software on the wii is unchanged. Only the dvd drive which has physically removed the gamecube disc feature and the controller/memorycard ports are the only hardware changes made to the device to stop you playing gamecube discs.

_Nold_ wrote:I totally hate Nintendo for that..

Sony did something similar with the Playstation 3. I think backwards compatibility is only added to persuade existing customers to upgrade. Presumably by now most customers only buy a Wii to play Wii games. I will be angry with Nintendo too if they do not put a big red warning on the box like "WARNING: this console will NOT play GameCube games!".

Someones done it.

GameCube returns

http://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/grab-you ... o-the-wii/

This forum also gets a heads-up.

Nice hack

pr0ton wrote:Yes, and they did the same move with the GameCube then by removing the digital port.

I don't think it's quite the same thing as it was early in the GameCube's life and the digital port saw very little use (in part thanks to Nintendo hoarding the required cable...).

HomelandReloaded wrote:

_Nold_ wrote:I totally hate Nintendo for that..

Sony did something similar with the Playstation 3.

Nintendo kept GameCube compatibility for... 5 years? That's a lot longer than the PlayStation 3's compatibility with PlayStation 2, which didn't even last one year. Not to mention that the PlayStation 2 compatibility had several different implementations with varying degrees of compatibility. To make matters worse, the early models compatible with PlayStation 2 tended to die after a couple years, if not sooner.

Good news, everyone!

I was in the Media Markt yesterday for a job and at the end of my break I took a quick look in the video game section. I saw an Inazuma Eleven Strikers bundle, which must be pretty new. The interesting thing was that you could see on the box that the Wii was standing vertically. Looking at the list of contents, I saw the console listed with a model code of RVL-001. The GameCube's first version, with the digital port, also had 001 as the number, while the second version, without the digital port, had 101. I then looked at a bundle with a horizontally positioned Wii, saw the "doesn't play GameCube games" note, and found the listing of the contents. The Wii console had a model code of RVL-101, which confirmed my model code theory and by extension that the Inazuma Eleven Strikers bundle has a Wii that is backwards compatible with GameCube games.

Looks like there are going to be GameCube-compatible Wii consoles for some time to come!