sean.aaron
September 9th, 2008, 19:00
Well, if anyone saw my posts in the the Wii News section for AnyRegionChanger, you'll know that I a couple of dumb things:
1. I ran a poorly documented hack without a clear understanding of what it did.
2. I didn't ensure I had a way out if things went wrong, i.e., ran through Twilight Hack using WiiLoader instead of installing the Homebrew Channel.
I made what seemed to be two small changes that I didn't realise were actually in the firmware:
Game Region: Japan (from Europe -- I have a PAL Wii)
Video Mode: NTSC
My hope was to play the Japanese-only Gamecube game Mr. Driller Drill Land and be able to use saves, unlike my XenoGC-equipped Gamecube. This worked brilliantly and I think AnyRegionChanger is a useful piece of software for this reason alone.
However, it became quickly apparent that this rendered my Wii incapable of playing any PAL Wii disc-based games or VC/WiiWare Channels. I had thought I simply could run Japanese games and presumed to fix this by buying a Japanese copy of Twilight Princess. In the meantime I received a Japanese import Wii game, Wii Shanghai, which refused to boot. I have since received Twilight Princess JPN, which also won't boot, so it seems that in order to use AnyRegionChanger to run Japanese Wii games you need to change Game Region as well as Area and load up the Japanese Wii firmware.
So, now I have a Wii that can basically run the built-in Channels and play Japanese Gamecube games, since it appears the Gamecube games only use the Game Region and Video Mode settings to determine if they can run or not. Any attempt at booting Wii Disc games of any kind fails with a "Unable to Load Disc" message and a superimposed "?"
I'm hoping for guidance on what to try next.
I will check with the shop around the corner from my office, Gametex, to see if they can re-flash the firmware.
I'm also considering getting a clip-in drivechip like the D2Pro, however, I'm uncertain if this will work -- unless anyone can say if it will override the firmware settings whose incompatibility is presently preventing me from running any Wii games whatsoever. This would hopefully allow me to either run one of my copies of Twilight Princess or run a Wii Recovery image as published this year (and which I have downloaded) -- thought I'm uncertain of the latter because I'm running 3.3 firmware which is the most current and I'm not sure how the recovery iso works.
If all else fails I can try phoning Nintendo support and hope they have the ability to reflash my firmware.
Any explanations or suggestions are welcome, but please no speculations because I've gotten in enough trouble by doing that on my own already!
Update: I've just gotten back from GameTex. No surprise but they don't do firmware. The guy did ask if I was running 3.3, to which I said yes; he advised just waiting for the next firmware update with the notion that this would overwrite my existing firmware and changes. This was after asking if my console was modded, which suggests to me the idea of using the Recovery ISO to attempt a forced reinstall of the firmware.
Seems pretty reasonable, assuming attempting to run a DVD-R doesn't rely upon any region checks -- ditto for whatever the Recovery image actually does. I've ordered a D2Pro 9-wire + WiiClip from Pinpoint Games. Hopefully I'll have it by the week-end. With any luck my games will load again and I won't need the recovery image, but I've burned it just in case.
I did actually try running the Update System option yesterday and it went ahead and seemed to do it without giving me an error saying the system was up-to-date, but this had no effect -- this is probably a good thing because it didn't bork at the Game Region. I do notice that entering the System Menu seems to take a few seconds longer than it did, but that could be in my mind. Languages and country lists look normal, so no corruption apparent.
Newest update:
Well, I got a Wii Clip with a pre-soldered D2Pro 9-wire chip in it (I have a D2C Wii). Installation was fine, but no surprise, there was no change. It appears the region mismatch means the boot never gets far enough for the chip to become active; since I cannot successfully boot an own-region disc, the region-free never comes into play to allow the Japanese disc to boot and vice versa. The recovery DVD ISOs are region-specific and presumably have the same issue.
So, I've written to Nintendo support and explained my situation in the hopes that they have the ability to do a simple firmware reflash on the system. Hopefully that will be the case; otherwise I'll have to wait for the next firmware update before finding out if my Wii is destined to be a Mr. Driller machine and just keep it for spare parts until I get a new one (which will mean repurchasing my WiiWare, joy).
I should think Nintendo of all people would be able to force a system update, but I guess I'll have to wait for them to get around to responding to me...
More news as it becomes available!
1. I ran a poorly documented hack without a clear understanding of what it did.
2. I didn't ensure I had a way out if things went wrong, i.e., ran through Twilight Hack using WiiLoader instead of installing the Homebrew Channel.
I made what seemed to be two small changes that I didn't realise were actually in the firmware:
Game Region: Japan (from Europe -- I have a PAL Wii)
Video Mode: NTSC
My hope was to play the Japanese-only Gamecube game Mr. Driller Drill Land and be able to use saves, unlike my XenoGC-equipped Gamecube. This worked brilliantly and I think AnyRegionChanger is a useful piece of software for this reason alone.
However, it became quickly apparent that this rendered my Wii incapable of playing any PAL Wii disc-based games or VC/WiiWare Channels. I had thought I simply could run Japanese games and presumed to fix this by buying a Japanese copy of Twilight Princess. In the meantime I received a Japanese import Wii game, Wii Shanghai, which refused to boot. I have since received Twilight Princess JPN, which also won't boot, so it seems that in order to use AnyRegionChanger to run Japanese Wii games you need to change Game Region as well as Area and load up the Japanese Wii firmware.
So, now I have a Wii that can basically run the built-in Channels and play Japanese Gamecube games, since it appears the Gamecube games only use the Game Region and Video Mode settings to determine if they can run or not. Any attempt at booting Wii Disc games of any kind fails with a "Unable to Load Disc" message and a superimposed "?"
I'm hoping for guidance on what to try next.
I will check with the shop around the corner from my office, Gametex, to see if they can re-flash the firmware.
I'm also considering getting a clip-in drivechip like the D2Pro, however, I'm uncertain if this will work -- unless anyone can say if it will override the firmware settings whose incompatibility is presently preventing me from running any Wii games whatsoever. This would hopefully allow me to either run one of my copies of Twilight Princess or run a Wii Recovery image as published this year (and which I have downloaded) -- thought I'm uncertain of the latter because I'm running 3.3 firmware which is the most current and I'm not sure how the recovery iso works.
If all else fails I can try phoning Nintendo support and hope they have the ability to reflash my firmware.
Any explanations or suggestions are welcome, but please no speculations because I've gotten in enough trouble by doing that on my own already!
Update: I've just gotten back from GameTex. No surprise but they don't do firmware. The guy did ask if I was running 3.3, to which I said yes; he advised just waiting for the next firmware update with the notion that this would overwrite my existing firmware and changes. This was after asking if my console was modded, which suggests to me the idea of using the Recovery ISO to attempt a forced reinstall of the firmware.
Seems pretty reasonable, assuming attempting to run a DVD-R doesn't rely upon any region checks -- ditto for whatever the Recovery image actually does. I've ordered a D2Pro 9-wire + WiiClip from Pinpoint Games. Hopefully I'll have it by the week-end. With any luck my games will load again and I won't need the recovery image, but I've burned it just in case.
I did actually try running the Update System option yesterday and it went ahead and seemed to do it without giving me an error saying the system was up-to-date, but this had no effect -- this is probably a good thing because it didn't bork at the Game Region. I do notice that entering the System Menu seems to take a few seconds longer than it did, but that could be in my mind. Languages and country lists look normal, so no corruption apparent.
Newest update:
Well, I got a Wii Clip with a pre-soldered D2Pro 9-wire chip in it (I have a D2C Wii). Installation was fine, but no surprise, there was no change. It appears the region mismatch means the boot never gets far enough for the chip to become active; since I cannot successfully boot an own-region disc, the region-free never comes into play to allow the Japanese disc to boot and vice versa. The recovery DVD ISOs are region-specific and presumably have the same issue.
So, I've written to Nintendo support and explained my situation in the hopes that they have the ability to do a simple firmware reflash on the system. Hopefully that will be the case; otherwise I'll have to wait for the next firmware update before finding out if my Wii is destined to be a Mr. Driller machine and just keep it for spare parts until I get a new one (which will mean repurchasing my WiiWare, joy).
I should think Nintendo of all people would be able to force a system update, but I guess I'll have to wait for them to get around to responding to me...
More news as it becomes available!