Java On Wii Internet Channel

There is a great Java based tool for roleplaying (and can also be used for intenet card game playing) called MapTools (in the RPTools suite).

My Wii is hooked up to a projector and thus using MapTools via the Wii (due to the fact that you use the wireless Wiimote as a pointer) would be ideal for both roleplaying and/or card games.

However, when I tried to use MapTools on the Wii using the Internet Channel, it fails because the Wii's Internet Channel does not seem to recognize (support) Java files. Note that I am talking about the Java Runtime (not Javascript).

On the Java home page, you can download Java for all kinds of platforms but, obviously, Wii is not one of them.

Is it possible to get Java running on the Wii? I would think that one might be able to run a light Linux on the Wii (I believe this has already been done) and then could possibly use a Linux based browser (e.g. Firefox) to browse the page. Then it should be possible to download the Linux version of Java, am I right?

Or can you get Java support directly for the Wii Internet Channel some other way?

I've been trying to get a Linux OS running on the Wii but have not managed it.

When I used the whiite installer, it creates the image on the SD card but when it comes to loading it, it just gives me a black (blank) screen.

I tried Boot It with the Bliight image but it seems this does not work correctly (returning me back to the previous menu)...unless I am entering the filename incorrectly. I have both bliight and bliight.img but neither seems to take.

Does someone have a SD card image that I can just take and run from HBC?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2011 11:48PM by LordAshes.

Well I found a work around for now.

The only reason why I wanted to to do this via the Wii (as opposed to my PC) is because of the ideal controller that the Wii provides (i.e. the wireless Wiimote). Since my computer does not have Bluetooth support, I could not use one of the many PC programs to connect my Wiimote to the PC. So this is what I did.

I connected my PC (a laptop) to my projector. I could have used the Wii output but using the PC output gives the advantage of a higher resolution (since the Wii only supports standard resoultion). Then I downloaded WiiVNC (available on WiiBrew.Org). Lastly I downloaded UltraVNC for the PC. In my case, I ran it as an application (not as a service) so that I could only run it when I needed to (as opposed to wasting CPU when I don't need it).

Voila! I run my Java application on the PC and then use WiiVNC, on the Wii, to control my PC desktop. Since VNC causes the remote desktop mouse to move (at least it does on a PC), I can be looking at the PC projected screen and seemingly control the mouse with the Wiimote. In reality, the Wiimote is controlling the WiiVNC screen which is causing the remote (PC) mouse pointer to move. Works like a charm.

If the PC you are using is a makeshift server (e.g. you could use an old laptop whose display is damaged or a old computer without a monitor) then you can use the Wii video output instead. In that case the Wiimote zoom functions (provided by the WiiVNC software) will be very useful since the Wii resolution will be lower than the PC resolution (in most cases)...meaning the zoomed out view will be hard to read and you will have to zoom in to read it.

The solution work for my particular problem but it is not a substitute for Java platform on the Wii.

Yup, VNC is a great tool I use it for server admin. Just don't try playing any games or videos over it :P

RDP I've found is better (on windows) as it's a low level driver and does not require outputting a screen on the real computer it also provides audio pass through. Hmmm maybe an RDP client could be ported. like [www.rdesktop.org]

Don't even bother.

With RDP ?