Is there a Wii emulator so I can test homebrew Wii on the PC

I have lots of homebrew games I have downloaded that I want to use on my Wii. But before I do, I want to test them (to see if it is worth putting on the Wii). This way I wouldn't waste time putting something on my Wii that later I wouldn't want anyway. So do you know if there is a Wii emulator that will let me test homebrew Wii games on my computer?

The dolphin emulator can mount dol and elf files, although still in development I believe there is a release.

[en.wikipedia.org])

No, not yet.

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WiiPhlex
The dolphin emulator can mount dol and elf files, although still in development I believe there is a release.

[en.wikipedia.org])

I've tried Dolphin, and while it will load GC games into memory, the window which is supposed to display an image displays NOTHING. I've used it to load an SNES emulator for GC (an emulator running from an emulator, because this was the only homebrew that was for GC and not Wii that I could find). And it didn't display any image. If it can't run GC homebrew (which it should do), it will NEVER run Wii anything (after all it is NOT a Wii emulator).

Actually, Dolphin does support Wii games, and is fairly good at it so far.

[www.dolphin-emu.com]

You need to check out source from SVN and build it.

I haven't tested it myself, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was useful for testing homebrew.

The regular version doesn't work right on my computer. And the SVN (or whatever) is UNOFFICIAL and UNSUPPORTED and it DOESN'T even work on my computer when I installed it (I found the binaries not the source, so it didn't even need compiling).

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Videogamer

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WiiPhlex
The dolphin emulator can mount dol and elf files, although still in development I believe there is a release.

[en.wikipedia.org])

I've tried Dolphin, and while it will load GC games into memory, the window which is supposed to display an image displays NOTHING. I've used it to load an SNES emulator for GC (an emulator running from an emulator, because this was the only homebrew that was for GC and not Wii that I could find). And it didn't display any image. If it can't run GC homebrew (which it should do), it will NEVER run Wii anything (after all it is NOT a Wii emulator).

I built the SVN binary, and see the same thing. What I do right now is maintain an the older r14 devkitPPC/libogc version and build for gc and test in Whinecube or Dolwin , doesn't seem to work in Dolphin though . Not the best setup, but when not near my hardware, I can at least do limited coding.

Troy(GPF)

I don't care so much for testing my own code. I care more for trying out homebrew apps I've downloaded, to see if it is worth the time to put on my Wii.

Well then you wont have any luck. The wii menu isnt working on Dolphin yet so id think you wouldnt be able to run any channels, so no HBC. But you might try running them through twilight hack on Dolphin. I dont know if it would work though.

Dolphin can run the Wii menu if you have the latest from the SVN and know how (I don't but I've heard...)

Dolphin seems to have improved a lot!

I do have one general question if anyone has every done this :)

To shorten my development time I'm going to use dolphin to test my code. My question is has anyone figured out where the emulator puts the Wii SD card (is it even supported). For example I want to load /apps/myproject/test.bmp what folders/settings would I need to change on dolphin?

Thanks :)

All my apps that use libfat crash, so I don't think it's supported.

I wonder if you could brick your emulator.

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Godofrock72
I wonder if you could brick your emulator.

That's impossible. Think about it... Of course, you can crash your emulator though :D

You could probably temporarily brick it, just like any other virtual machine, but when you restarted it/reset it, or went back to save state, or just uninstalled it and reinstalled it would cause no physical harm.

Dolphin (SVN build) has a LOT of problems. Also, it requires you to have a controller connected to your PC; a mouse will not work!

I would REALLY like to see someone develop something that will run homebrew DOLs! This would be a GREAT way to prevent "bricks"!


=)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2009 06:29PM by TiMeBoMb.

Dolphin has some homebrew .dol and .elf support.

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scanff
Dolphin seems to have improved a lot!

I do have one general question if anyone has every done this :)

To shorten my development time I'm going to use dolphin to test my code. My question is has anyone figured out where the emulator puts the Wii SD card (is it even supported). For example I want to load /apps/myproject/test.bmp what folders/settings would I need to change on dolphin?

Thanks :)

You should probably create image of SD card ant mount it to emulator
see this topic on dolphin forum:

[forums.dolphin-emu.com]

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Slappy

You should probably create image of SD card ant mount it to emulator
see this topic on dolphin forum:

[forums.dolphin-emu.com]

Thanks for the update Slappy.