AnyRegion Changer

[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.

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