AnyRegion Changer

[wraggster]

New release from Tona (http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_apps/AnyRegion_Changer)


This program will let you edit any and all of the region information on your
Wii, and allow you to install System Menu 3.2 from any region if you so
desire. The setting changes are the result of a setting change library I've
been working on for a while called sysconf.c. The System Menu Installer
uses patchmii as a simple base for web installations. It also uses some
IOS patches (by bushing/waninkoko) in the event that the system menu
or IOS30 needs to be downgraded. The Setting changes have been
tested again and again, and the worst you can do to your system is
cause a semi-brick. The System Menu Installer is done in a way even
safer than Waninkoko's Downgrader, so there's certainly no worries there.

Country Codes:
A near-complete listing of country codes can be found at:
http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Country_Codes

Precautions:

This software comes with NO WARRANTY WHATSOEVER. You may use this
software at your own risk. I can take no responsibility for any damage
caused by this application.

Please take note of the following:
-If setting.txt is corrupted for any reason, it is entirely possible that
your Wii will no longer boot.
-Be careful not to change Video mode to a mode unsupported by your
display.
-If you change your Country code, you will be unable to receive any
pending gifts you have in the Wii Shop Channel. (The shop will also
warn you of this)
-If you set the EULA to Read, you may be accessing Nintendo
Network Services illegally. You should only change this setting to
"read" if you have actually read and accepted the EULA for the
Country code you have set.

Compiling:

To compile this, you will need libogc cvs with the patch in libogc_patches
applied, and you will have to provide System Menu identification items
in the data directory.

License:

Patchmii is licensed under the GPLv2, and as such a copy of the license is
included. The non-patchmii material is under a BSD-like license.

Credits:

bushing, svpe, and everyone else for their wonderful work on patchmii.
Waninkoko for his title_version check IOS patch, and for inspiring me to
do a better job.
Anyone brave enough to test for me. ChipD, SoraK05, crediar.
And a shout out to SquidMan who fights many of the same fights I do.

Have fun guys :)

(c) 2008 tona / the internet

http://www.youtube.com/v/bXu648BLgXQ

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments

[mappy123]

yeah ntsc n64 games now at 60hz progressive on
a pal wii:thumbup:

[The_Ultimate_Eggman]

Just need a permanent version that's 3.3 compatible

[ddrkhat]

Just need a permanent version that's 3.3 compatible

Tested with 3.3E . I changed the consoles game region to japanese, managed to load my sisters Naruto 3 japanese Gamecube game.

I did however have to set video mode to NTSC before it worked properly.

p.s as your console believes it's a different region, it will say your memory card is corrupt and need formatting to its region!

Brilliant however, it works! finally something that works.

[Deepthought360]

This sounds great.

I just a have a question before i run this. Will I have to install the Custom Firmware on my Wii first or can this just be run from the Homebrew Channel "out-of-the-box" ?

Thanks in advance

[The_Ultimate_Eggman]

Via hbc out of the box

[Deepthought360]

Just did the procedure on my 3.2E Wii. And it works perfectly. NTSC Paper Mario in 60hz 480p is FANTASTIC!

THANKS!

[Deepthought360]

My Wii is however having problems identifying game discs.

It wont recognize any of my Gamecube og Wii games.

When I insert my imported Super Mario Sunshine (US/NTSC) or my Euro/PAL version of Metroid Prime nothing happens. When I insert my Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition (PAL) nothing happens.

I can however run my wii games if i start them from within GeckoOS (a bit of extra work but if it works I can live with it).

But I am a bit sad that my gamecube games wont start anymore.

[Deepthought360]

OK, did some more testing.

As soon as i changed my consoles region and location back to Europe. All my discs booted up perfectly.

But the BEST part :) I left the Video setting as NTSC which allowed me to run my Super Mario Sunshine in 480p NTSC without the need for Gecko OS to change videomode to NTSC.

So, my Wii has a Infectus2 chip installed wit Wiiktus firmware (if this is relevant to anyone).
And what I have gathered from my tests is this:
* If I want to run a NTSC Virtual Console game, I just change the location and region of my console to NTSC. This only takes a few seconds.
* If I want to play Gamecube games, I just change the region back to its original PAL. (This also goes for Wii games because I would otherwise have to use Wii GeckoOS to run Wii games)

Fantastic program. Thanks again to the developer.

[sean.aaron]

Okay, I'm going to test this tonight on my unmodded 3.3E PAL Wii to see if Mr. Driller Drill Land will successfully save after changing Game Region to Japan and Video to NTSC.

Will AnyRegion load 3.3U or 3.3J firmware as well? I cannot see any reason to change my Area or System Menu (unless that's the only way to get Mr. Driller Drill Land to succesfully save and load), but I'm not too keen on the idea of downgrading my firmware if that's what's required to do this.

[sean.aaron]

Okay, it worked great, Mr. Driller Drill Land comes up as if on a Japanese Wii with normal language font and all; in-game initial screen which prompts for card formatting and then does it; completed 1st level on Drill World and got the stamp; exited and went in and loaded it up again successfully.

Brilliant!

Problem is I didn't realise this change lasts after powering off the system and I loaded the hack using Twilight Princess -- I don't have the Hombrew Channel installed on my system and now I cannot load my PAL Twilight Princess anymore.

So any way to get my system back without buying a Japanese version of Twilight Princess to run the hack again?

[h2923j42n2]

Okay, it worked great, Mr. Driller Drill Land comes up as if on a Japanese Wii with normal language font and all; in-game initial screen which prompts for card formatting and then does it; completed 1st level on Drill World and got the stamp; exited and went in and loaded it up again successfully.

Brilliant!

Problem is I didn't realise this change lasts after powering off the system and I loaded the hack using Twilight Princess -- I don't have the Hombrew Channel installed on my system and now I cannot load my PAL Twilight Princess anymore.

So any way to get my system back without buying a Japanese version of Twilight Princess to run the hack again?

sean.aaron, is your Wii modified with a drive chip. If so, you can use the Japanese disc image of the Homebrew Channel (http://hbc.hackmii.com/download/) to install it onto your system. This does not require Twilight Princess in any way. At that point, you can run AnyRegion Changer again, and change the settings back to what they should be.

If it is not modified with a drive chip, you will probably need to get a Japanese version of Twilight Princess to change it back. I am not certain on this at all, but maybe the Datel Wii Freeloader could also work for you.

[sean.aaron]

No drive chip and I'm running 3.3 firmware so the Wii Freeloader won't cut it. Looks like I'm gonna have two versions of TP -- temporarily at least!

Update:

I found an eBay shop based in Hong Kong that has a 2nd-hand copy of TP from Japan for only £23 incl. P+P, so hopefully this will all be behind me soon. My SD is all ready with HBC boot file and Japanese TP Hack save ready to be copied over.

Good thing is I'll be able to eBay both copies of TP and my chipped Gamecube which will more than offset the irritation of this lesson.

I would say that it needs to be stated more explicitly in the documentation with this that ANY change being made in this application is to system firmware and cannot be backed out except by using the application. I was under the mistaken impression that any change short of loading different firmware regions was only to the running system and would be reset with a simple poweroff.

Having said that I think this is a superior solution for playing multi-region games; the fact it's good for even traditionally problematic imports like Mr. Driller Drill Land is an outstanding result given that I was going to buy a Japanese Gamecube to mod originally. You just need to be willing to do the HBC install; if you're not avoid this hack and use Menu Loader or GeckoOS instead.

[____anders____]

i'm with gecko os cus i only have one "imported" game.. SSBB :D
but still, this is very good news for the scene:)

[sean.aaron]

but still, this is very good news for the scene:)

Totally, it's the next best thing to having a native Wii for that region.

[skel28]

I've copied the Dol file into a folder in my Apps folder on my SD card.
My Homebrew channel doesn't show it up.
Do I need to do anything different?
Can anyone offer any help please?
Many thanks
J

[sean.aaron]

Do you have the supporting data and libogc_patches directories into the subfolder of apps? Have you renamed the file boot.dol?

I don't know if any of these are necessary, but I would try those as that's how I had it set up in the root of my SD card when I ran the Twilight Hack and it launched no problem.

[skel28]

I didn't rename it boot.dol (doh) and yes I have the other files.
WIll do that now and report back.
Thanks very much for you help :)

[skel28]

Yup, that's sorted it thank you.
One thing that might have helped you is if you knew anyone with a chipped Wii you could have swapped drives to boot your ZTP disc mate.
Cheers

[sean.aaron]

Yeah, a lot of things could have helped, but I've got a Japanese Zelda coming, so hopefully all will be well soon and I'll have the HBC installed and enjoying some multi-region GC goodness on my Wii.

In the meantime being only able to play Mr. Driller on it isn't so bad ;-)!

[ciper]

Problem is I didn't realise this change lasts after powering off the system and I loaded the hack using Twilight Princess -- I don't have the Hombrew Channel installed on my system and now I cannot load my PAL Twilight Princess anymore.

I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune but I laughed when I read your post. Im curious - why would you not install the homebrew channel but feel confident to run an app that has a high possibility of bricking your system? Even the Wiki page has a huge warning banner at the top!

Good luck with the JP version of Zelda:TP

[idan2468]

i have wii jap in jap white this i can patch my wii and the lenguge can be english or have something to do this ?

[sean.aaron]

Im curious - why would you not install the homebrew channel but feel confident to run an app that has a high possibility of bricking your system? Even the Wiki page has a huge warning banner at the top!

Good luck with the JP version of Zelda:TP

Well, the docs weren't terribly explicit. I was under the impression that anything short of loading a different version of the system menu on the system was just making a temporary change to the running Operating System and not to the firmware. The main thing putting me off about the Hombrew Channel has been that it is not completely removed by deleting the channel (still leaves log files, etc.), so I was concerned about warranty violations from installing it.

My Wii is nearly a year old now, so that's less of a concern and this application seems rock solid and does what chipping my Gamecube couldn't: let me play NTSC games full resolution and get Mr. Driller Drill Land successfully save game data and load it again, so once I get my game region switched back using the JP TP hack I'll get the HBC installed and it will be like having the Wii I always wanted without taking it apart!

[sean.aaron]

i have wii jap in jap white this i can patch my wii and the lenguge can be english or have something to do this ?

I have a PAL Wii and just using this hack without additional downloads I got system text in Japanese characters in Mr. Driller Drill Land during the screen which asks about formatting the memory card; this wasn't true on my Xeno-chipped PAL Gamecube, so I'm guessing that all languages are in there, but not all accessible depending on what region the Wii is set to.

It cannot hurt to try it, but as noted be sure to run from the HBC and not via other methods lest you cannot change it back; also do not change the Area setting without also loading a matching System Menu (this part I'm not sure about; I don't know if the application comes with alternate firmware versions and don't plan on touching it myself).

If I were you I'd try changing the language setting only and see what that does. That's what makes this application so brilliant is that you can change the game region without changing menu or shop settings.

[k0sm0s]

ok i have a question regarding this warning:

CHANGES MADE TO THE CONSOLE AREA SETTING SHOULD ALWAYS BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SYSTEM MENU CHANGE TO THE SAME REGION!

by "System Menu Change" does it mean I have to install the japanese IOS when I change the "language setting" to japanese (i like reading in japanese)?

[sean.aaron]

ok i have a question regarding this warning:

CHANGES MADE TO THE CONSOLE AREA SETTING SHOULD ALWAYS BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SYSTEM MENU CHANGE TO THE SAME REGION!

by "System Menu Change" does it mean I have to install the japanese IOS when I change the "language setting" to japanese (i like reading in japanese)?

If you change the System Menu, you MUST change the IOS as well or it sounds like you're system will at least be a semi-brick. System Menu is the Wii firmware, so it's more than just changing the language setting, though I expect that would change the language in the Wii Setup menus -- if that's your intent then that's what you need to do.

Having said that, Language appears to be a separate setting from Area; from the docs a change of Area needs to involve loading the matching IOS (System Menu), but the Any_Region Language setting doesn't appear to be linked to that and I think the Language setting affects in-game/channel language from looking at the video, so you could try that to see what happens.

Note that there's a new version 1.1, so be sure to use that.

[tona]

Hi,

A little clarification on that warning:

If you change the AREA (Console Area) setting to a value that does not correspond to your System Menu's region, it will cause a semi brick.

e.g. AREA = JPN, System Menu = 3.3U is a semi brick.

So, if you want to change the AREA setting (Which really only affects the system menu), you should install a System Menu which corresponds to that area at the same time. I don't really like to restrict people in my programs, so I haven't forced this change.

@sean.aaron:
I'm sorry to hear about your disc booting incident. I have to ask, though, why didn't you have the Homebrew Channel installed? :/

I'm going back through and adding more warnings, although I thought the name "Region Changer," the word "Save," the description as a "complete region modification utility," and the fact that it was editing two files on the Wii would be sufficient.

[sean.aaron]

@sean.aaron:
I'm sorry to hear about your disc booting incident. I have to ask, though, why didn't you have the Homebrew Channel installed? :/

I'm going back through and adding more warnings, although I thought the name "Region Changer," the word "Save," the description as a "complete region modification utility," and the fact that it was editing two files on the Wii would be sufficient.

I had been hoping to find a solution that would work via Wii Loader and therefore not involve installing anything in my firmware as my Wii is still under warranty (albeit only for another couple of months) and because I wanted to be able to apply firmware updates worry-free (since there are games that force them upon you which I may not want to miss out on).

With regard to the latter, I think USE ONLY WITH HBC would have sufficed, though I have to say I might not have tried it; given the fact that my alternative to using it was going to be buying a Japanese Gamecube and modding it, I'm happy to put up with a little inconvenience. I'm not upset at all with my predicament since I should have my Japanese Twilight Princess next week and I've been spending more time playing on my Gamecube anyway. The break in my Wii Fitness schedule is unfortunate, however...

[SimmySim]

i successfully installed a 3.2U on my Jap Wii 3.2J. and all region changes works, i even flashed my wiikey to 1.9s USA and all my backup works, but what i did later really odd to get myself shot in the ass.

i went to update to 3.3U just to get the new and forecast channel back. i used duplicate channel remover to remove the old JAP channel and when i use anyregion_changer to downgrade back to 3.2U again... i encountered a error after the CIOS patch.
picture below :( i am very lost now and i can't downgrade back to 3.2U... i even tried waninkoko's downgrader as well, but also get a error at ret=-1. i really hope i didn't screw up my wii :(

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/8186/dsc00816jo5.jpg

[tie]

i'm kinda new to this scene, but i have a japanese Wii and i want to change the system language to english can anyone help me?

wraggster said something about in order to use it you need to compile it with libogc cvs. but i have no idea what that is

[HunterK]

i'm kinda new to this scene, but i have a japanese Wii and i want to change the system language to english can anyone help me?

wraggster said something about in order to use it you need to compile it with libogc cvs. but i have no idea what that is

I also have a japanese wii and i want to change the system language to english permanently if possible.

[sean.aaron]

I think people who want to change language should qualify where they want the language changed.

It appears there are different aspects of the Wii that have localisation settings, but it's not clear which of the changes in Any Region affect those.

Area and System Menu must match, but this looks like the highest risk potential for your system. You'd need to have a copy of the firmware for the region you want to install, so if you're running 3.3 firmware a downgrade to 3.2 would be in order for the same region you're Wii is presently in and then changing Area to Europe and loading the firmware for that area, say 3.2E.

The Language appears to be settable outside of that, but doesn't involve a wholesale firmware swap and is therefore less risk, but it's not clear what this affects.

If I was in your situation I would try changing the Language setting (note, NOT the Area or System Menu) and see if that achieves the desired result. If not, think about installing a different menu and changing the area. I don't think either of these things would change the built in channels unless they're part of the system firmware.

Maybe the dev can give some more information on what the different settings actually affect?

[sean.aaron]

Well, looks like this app isn't quite the end-all and be-all for region-free gaming that I thought it was. I figured my system was set to Japanese Region and that would mean I could play Japanese games on my Wii of all kinds, however I just got Shanghai from Success/Sunsoft in the post today and it won't load at all; I just get a message saying "Unable to Read Disc."

The game is from 2007, so I shouldn't think it would pose any particular challenge, but there you are.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the Japanese Twilight Princess to load I've ordered or I'm going to be in a bad way and probably looking at chipping my Wii just to run this utility to change my system back to Europe/PAL mode so I can try running Gecko OS instead.

I'm running 1.0, so I don't know if 1.1 offers better compatibility or not. Here's some information from the inner ring on the disc; I don't know if this will be relevant to getting a release out that will run it: 307K0305 (not sure what that is) RVL-RS8J-0A-0 (I think that's the SKU for the game) JPN.

I'd also like to state generally that better documentation for this is probably in order. By that I mean documentation on how to actually use it. There are people here asking how to make the language on their Japanese Wii something other than Japanese; there's people like myself that just want to run games from other regions, but there's no instruction for this and if changing my Game Region code to Japan and video mode to NTSC doesn't allow me to run all Japanese Wii software, then clearly it's not that obvious what exactly the settings do or how they work.

I sincerely hope this will be rectified. As-is I'd have to say I cannot see a the risk-benefit ratio of AnyRegionChanger; throwing dice to figure out how something works that makes changes to firmware isn't something I think most people want to do.

[sean.aaron]

Okay, I've got an update on my current status.

I've opened a separate thread in the Help section here (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=2148126513#post2148126513).

Just posting here for visibility.

Bottom-line is that Game Region only seems to work for playing Gamecube games; if you want to play other region Wii games you need to go whole hog and change Game Region, Area and load up the firmware of the region your import game is from -- much further than I want to go, but I'll still use the hack to run Mr. Driller Drill Land; hopefully I'll get my Wii sorted so I can play Wii games too!

If the author would please indicate what Game Region is actually changing, that would be a big help. I'm uncertain if a drivechip is going to allow me to run a recovery disc or not; at this point I'm thinking I'll just go to Nintendo with the whole story in the hopes they can re-flash my system...

[muddy]

Hello all, wonder if anyone can help, but I am a bit noobish. I'm about to buy a unmodded Japanese Wii console for a damn good cheap price (on 3.3J), but I'm going to buy it depending whether I can clear a few doubts about Anyregion Changer app.

I intend to permanently change the JAP region to PAL, i.e. change Video Mode to PAL, Country Code to UK, Console Area Setting to PAL, Language to English and the System Menu to 3.2E so that I can get a full, permanent European conversion (i.e. get rid of the Japanese language)

Ok, so in order to get Anyregion Changer I need the Homebrew Channel. Lets say I've opted to chip my Wii and install HB via the DVD method. Note, and I assume, that the modchip will probably be set as JAP upon being soldered (with region free setting obviously)

After installing HB Channel I'd then open the anyregion changer app, and change all to the settings to Europe as stated above. Download 3.2E, reboot and it should be ok.

1) When I successfully get 3.2E, will the HB channel still be there?

2) Will there be duplicate channels (the Jap ones) that I have to get rid of?

3)I've heard problems of not being able to boot up discs (for example, PAL) after all is done, since the modchip would be, in my case, set as JAP. Obviously, the modchip needs to be set to PAL.

4) What is a good manageable modchip (d2c since the Wii was bought in June) that can easily be changed from JAP to PAL, without opening my Wii? Modchips that can only be managed via DVD would be useless in my case--it just won't boot any disc apparently. Anyways, I've heard people doing this successfully with WiiKey.

5) Is it perfectly OK if I then upgrade 3.2E to 3.3E?

6) What does the developer mean when you have to "compile" it? Isn't it enough to execute the AnyRegion_Changer1.1.dol file?

7) In general, is there anything wrong with this method I outlined above, i.e. is the best way? Or maybe is it enough just to change the language? I wouldn't mind playing NTSC games--as long as its in English

[sean.aaron]

The Eurogamer forum has one member who has a Japanese Wii; purchased my Japanese Twilight Princess and used that to install the Homebrew Channel; he then successfully used AnyRegionChanger to set Video to PAL and changed everything else from Japan to PAL; only issue was he ended up with duplicates of the stock channels which then needed to be removed via other methods.

Installing different firmwares doesn't appear to affect the Homebrew Channel at all.

With regard to the modchip query it depends on what you use. All the new ones like the D2Pro require you to boot a local region game in order to activate multi-region function, so if you were to do as described, you probably wouldn't be able to boot anything.

Personally, I'd abandon the modchip idea and track down a copy of Twilight Princess from Japan and stick with that for installing Homebrew.

Hope that's helpful!

[muddy]

sean.aaron, thanks for your feedback, fact is that I had this doubt concerning the modchip method and it isnt the right way forward. Looks like I need to get myself a copy of TP then from Japan...but thats too much of a hassle :P

[sean.aaron]

sean.aaron, thanks for your feedback, fact is that I had this doubt concerning the modchip method and it isnt the right way forward. Looks like I need to get myself a copy of TP then from Japan...but thats too much of a hassle :P

Your modchip method might work if you used a WiiClip -- that way you could install the chip to load the HBC and then remove it; but using it for region-free purposes wouldn't work without a Japanese game.

It's really up to you. I think it would be cheaper and involve less risk to the system to buy a Japanese Twilight Princess.

If you decide to try the modchip method you can find reputable dealers from the WiiClip website. I happen to have a D2Pro 9-wire pre-soldered into a WiiClip that wouldn't fix my problem (outlined above and in another thread) because my system wouldn't boot any games at all. This should work out of the box with a D2C system (mine is as well).

If you're interested I'd be happy to sell it to you, just let me know via PM.

[maikeruk]

I have a big issue with this, as it says in the disclaimer do not change to unsuported video v ersion, and now my wii only works in one display version de MPal

i have a wii NTSC with wiikey 1.9s
i have an old projector with MPAL option so i use this program to change to mpal and works good, the color came up and it looks nice the game too but the problem comes when i try to get into the homebrew channel.
1. the screen looks ugly for a second and then disapear telling me that i have no signal.
2. if i restart the wii it works to the normal, but i still can't get into the homebrew channel to change it to ntsc as is use to.
note: the games works and looks fine even coppied but cant get to any application with
is there anyway o restar the wii to the original f orm? i tried to use the configuration key of the wiikey but doesnt work either.
i formated the wii with the utility of the wii and after that i was able to install he homebrew channel again but without luck yet.
i will appreciate if someone knows how to fix that or how to contact the designer of the program to hear any advice.

any help is really appreciated