I play Melee and Project M competitively, and I wanted my Wii hacked to perfection. Many of the guides I learned from were difficult to track down and somewhat confusing. The purpose of this guide is to make Wii hacking simple, and to have a guide dedicated to competitive smashers. In writing this guide I have also tried to help with some errors you might encounter and anticipate some concerns you might have.
The author of this guide is in no way responsible for anything that may happen to any of your hardware, software, or data from use of this guide. Read carefully and exercise common sense. For example, formatting a SD or USB device will delete all the data. Backup your data accordingly. If you think your power might go out, it is probably best to hack your Wii another day. This guide does take measures to protect your Wii from bricking, but in the end you are using this AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Abbreviations:
HBC – Homebrew Channel
GC – Gamecube
VC – Virtual Console
HDD – Hard Drive
Color Labels:
–IF statements – From the first few words you can tell if you need to keep reading.
–EXPLANATION: These tell you whats what and help address concerns.
–IMPORTANT: – Definitely read these. Enough said.
– Alternate instructions – Ignore these unless you know what they are about. This guide is designed so you don’t need to read the whole thing.
IMPORTANT: If your disc drive isn’t broken or giving you read errors, we will run GC games off an SD or SDHC card (and Wii games off USB). If your disc drive is having issues you will need to run all your games from a USB stick or an external HDD. However, the USB ports of about 5% of Wii Consoles have compatibility issues with running GC games under Dios Mios. Issues with Dios Mios can include black screens, shutdowns while loading, and system freezes. Wii games will load fine to my knowledge, but I could be wrong. (Alternatively, you can have your disc drive cleaned or replaced or get a new Wii for under $50.)
If you will be using an SDHC card:
Get a 16GB PNY SDHC Performance Card from your local Walmart. It’s only $14 after tax and will run Melee flawlessly. (If you can’t go to Walmart, look on Amazon.)
IMPORTANT: If you buy an SDHC card, you will need an SDHC port or adapter. Most laptops made within the last few years can read both SD and SDHC.
EXPLANATION: 16GB is reasonable assuming you have 1GB of setup files and each GC game or version of Melee will take up 1.5GB of space. If you have a big enough SD or SDHC card sitting around, go ahead and try it. Otherwise, just go with my suggestion. 32GB is fine too if you want lots of games, but you won’t be saving much money by buying something smaller than 16GB.
IMPORTANT: If your disc drive is broken or you want to run Project M or other Wii games, keep reading. Otherwise, skip to “Hacking Your Wii.”
In addition to an SD/SDHC card, you will need a USB storage device. Project M is just over 8GB and normal Wii games are almost 4GB each. For this reason, 16GB is the smallest you should get. PNY Micro Attache drives and most external HDDs work really well. A 16GB PNY Micro Attache is around $16 after tax at Best Buy or Walmart, while a 32GB PNY Micro Attache is around $26.
IMPORTANT: USB sticks can only load one type of game (GC or Wii) while an external HDD can have multiple partitions so you can have both types of games available at the same time. THIS MEANS IF YOUR DISC DRIVE IS BROKEN AND YOU WANT TO LOAD BOTH GC AND WII GAMES, YOU WILL NEED AN EXTERNAL HDD.
If you are going with the HDD method, follow the rest of this guide but pay close attention to the instructions in BLUE.
Update Your Wii
-If it says “4.3U” in the top right corner of “Wii Settings,” you won’t be able or need to update.
Go to Wii Options (bottom left of the Wii menu) > Wii Settings > Internet > Connection Settings
Connect to your router (even if you can’t update.)
Once it says “connection test successful”, say YES to the update.
-If the update fails, go back to Wii Setting, then Wii System Update, and try again.
-If you have Priiloader, you may need to change your settings to allow updates. To do this, turn off your Wii, then turn it back on while holding the reset button. When Priiloader comes up, go to System Menu Hacks, then switch “Block Online Updates” to “disabled.” After that, hit “save settings” at the bottom, then restart your Wii and try to update again.
Once the update is finished, go to Wii Options > Wii Settings > See “4.3U” on the top-right.
EXPLANATION: Everything can now be done on the 4.3 firmware. 4.3 is also required for Letterbomb.
It is also good to have the last firmware that Nintendo will ever make, as a system update can delete your hacks.
Format your SD Card
Download and install: http://download.cnet.com/EaseUS-Partition-Master-Free-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html
EXPLANATION: The goal is to format your SD card as FAT32 and Primary and give it a 32kb cluster size. If you don’t do this, GC load times will be awful, the music will skip around, and the games will freeze.
Go to Start > My Computer > triple check the drive letter of you SD card. (ex: G)
Open your newly installed EaseUS Partition Manager (This may take a minute.)
Find the letter of your SD card (ex: G) and make note of what disk number it is under (ex: Disk 4)
Right click on your SD card > Delete partition
It should say “ * unallocated” under whatever disk number you had.
Right click where it says “unallocated” under your disk number > right click > Create partition
In the window that opens, choose the following setup options:
Create as: Primary
File System: FAT32
Hit “OK”
Right click on your drive letter again > Format Partition
In the window that opens, set cluster size to 32kb > ok
IMPORTANT: A cluster size of 32kb is important if you want to run GC games (Melee, etc.) off your SD. The 16GB PNY SDHC Performance card will have this option. *See “What Type of Storage Should I Get” for more info.
Hit the big blue check mark that says “Apply,” then hit “Yes.”
When it says “operations executed successfully,” close EaseUS Partition Manager.
IMPORTANT: If you do not select “Primary” you will be frustrated for at least a good hour trying to figure out why the hell Bootmii won’t start. This is a common reason for the “blue flashing light error.”
Go to Start > My Computer > Double click on your SD card to open an empty window.
Open the “SP File Pack” in another window. (Download from the requirements section of this guide.)
Open the folder “Copy Contents to SD”
Highlight and drag everything from “Copy Contents to SD” into the empty window for your SD card.
After the transfer is finished, go to My Computer > right click on SD card > “Eject”
Take the SD card out and put it in your Wii.
Letterbomb
Turn on your Wii, then Press A on your Wiimote to pass the health screen.
Click the mail icon (bottom right) > go to “yesterday” > click the red envelope with the bomb.
-If you do not see the mail with the bomb, reformat your SD card again, or try another SD card.
Give it time to load
You will see Hackmii Installer V1.0. This will install BootMii and Homebrew Channel. Hit “continue.”
Install HBC > Yes > Continue
Bootmii > Prepare SD card > Yes > (You should see “Success”) > Continue Install Bootmii as IOS > Yes > Yes > (You should see “Success”) > Continue > Return to Main Menu > Exit
NAND Backup
Select Homebrew Channel (HBC) from the Wii Menu.
Once it has loaded, press the “home button” on the Wiimote
Select “Launch Bootmii.”
Using the D-pad, select the gears icon >select the green arrow icon.
Go do something for 10 minutes while Bootmii backs up you NAND.
When it says it is completed, press start to exit, then turn off your Wii.
EXPLANATION: Your NAND is now backed up to your SD card. Having a NAND backup is essential in case your Wii becomes bricked somehow. You will be able to use Bootmii to restore your NAND and therefore restore your Wii’s functionality.
cIOS Made Easy
Remove your GC Memory Card. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! (Not sure why, but better safe than sorry.)
EXPLANATION: There is so much confusion about IOSs and cIOSs. cIOS just stands for “custom IOS.” This part of the guide was the most difficult to figure out. Basically what it comes down to is: cIOS236 is a custom version of Nintendo’s IOS36. cIOS236 makes it easy to install other cIOSs. cIOSs let us do cool stuff. What we are going to do next is install the updated versions of all necessary cIOSs. Rest assured you are going to have everything you need for Smash and any other game.
Note: if you encounter errors in this section, reboot your Wii and start over from this section.
Go to the HBC.
Launch “IOS236 Installer.” (Once complete it will take you back to HBC.)
If it fails, go to HBC > Multi Mod Manager > IOS Manager > highlight “236” and press “home” on the Wiimote.
Press B and then “home” again to get back to HBC.
Launch “Priiloader.” Press A or “+” to install. (Once complete, it will take you back again.)
Verify Priiloader installed by rebooting the Wii and holding the “reset” button when it is powering up.
(It should say Priiloader 0.7 and have a bunch of options.)
In Priiloader, go to System Menu Hacks > Change “Block Online Updates” and “Block Disc Updates” to “enabled”
Hit “save settings.” (It should say “settings saved.”)
Hit B to go back to Priiloader home.
In Priiloader, go to Settings > Change “autoboot” (at the top) to “disabled” > save settings.
Reboot your Wii, and Priiloader should load automatically now. (No more Wiimote, yay!)
Plug in a GC controller in controller port 1. (We will use D-pad to navigate from now on.)
Go to HBC > Launch “Multi Mod Manager” > Select “Wad Manager”
Mark each of the 6 cIOS .wads by hitting the R button on the GC controller when next to each one.
(A little green “+” will appear if you did it right.)
Press A twice.
It will say “OK” for all six > press any button to continue > press “home” TWICE to return to HBC
EXPLANATION: Dios Mios lets you play Gamecube isos and Wiiflow organizes everything (all types of isos) beautifully.
EXPLANATION: You SHOULD still be able to play original GC and Wii discs through Wiiflow by selecting the disc icon, but you will not be able to play them under the disc channel. That is fine though, because you won’t be on the Wii System Menu ever again after you finish this guide.
EXPLANATION: “Root” is the bottom level of your SD/USB where all the folders/files go. A folder would be one level separate from the root. A folder within a folder would be two levels separate.
Dios Mios Lite
IMPORTANT: Skip “Dios Mios Lite” and go to the subsection “Dios Mios Normal” if you want to try to use an external HDD.
Go to HBC
HBC > Launch Multi Mod Manager > Wad Manager > hit the “….” (to move towards the root directory of your SD card.)
Select “Dios Mios”
Select “Dios Mios Lite 2.9”
Select DIOSMIOSLite_2.9.wad
Press A to proceed
Press A to continue
Press start TWICE to exit to HBC
Dios Mios Normal
Go to HBC
HBC > Launch Multi Mod Manager > Wad Manager > hit the “….” (to move towards the root directory of your SD card.)
Select “Dios Mios”
Select “Dios Mios 2.9”
Select DIOSMIOS_2.9.wad
Press A to proceed
Press A to continue
Press start TWICE to exit to HBC
You can now load GC games from a USB device.
Adding GC Games
The first thing to do is download backups of your GC games via torrent.
If you don’t how to torrent or extract files, this is a great time to learn some Google Fu!
Gather all of your .iso files in a folder named “games.” If any are .gcm just change “.gcm” to “.iso”
Go to http://gametdb.com
Type the name of a game you downloaded in the search box on the upper left.
Hit the enter key.
Example: I typed “smash melee” and it gave me results with the code “GALE01” (try it yourself to see)
Within the “games” folder, you need an individual folder for each GC .iso
Create a new folder within the “games” folder, and rename it “GALE01”
Place the Melee iso inside the newly created “GALE01” folder.
Inside the “GALE01” folder, rename the .iso to “game.iso” (Note the “.iso” part may not show up after)
You need to do this for each game you downloaded. Your folder tree should look like:
Games (This folder should be on the root)
-GALE01
-game.iso (this is Melee)
-GFZE01
-game.iso (this is F Zero GX)
And so on.
Once you are done labeling folders in the “games” folder, transfer the “games” folder to the root of your SD card.
Eject your SD card from your PC and put it in the Wii.
Nice job, you are ready to play some GC games.
If you are trying to use external HDD, you will do the steps listed above except you will put your “games” folder on the Fat32 partition of the external HDD. Hook your external HDD up to your PC and open EaseUS Partition Manager. The goal is to make the first partition Fat32 and Primary (for GC games) and the second partition NTFS and Logical (for Wii games). I recommend allocating at least 15GB for GC games. Refer to the subsection “Format Your SD Card” if you forget how to do this.
Delete all partitions on your external HDD until you see ” * Unallocated”
Right click “Unallocated” > create partition
From the menu that opens, select “Primary” and “Fat32” and then make “Partition Size” at least 15000MB.
Hit Ok > you will see your Fat32 partition with 15GB or more
Right click “Unallocated” (under your new Fat32 partition) >create partition
From the menu that opens, select “Logical” and “NTFS” and don’t change the partition size.
Hit Ok > now you will see both your newly created partitions
Right click “Fat32” > format partition > set the cluster size to 32kb > hit Ok
Right click “NTFS” > format partition > set the cluster size to 32kb > hit Ok
Hit the big blue check marke that says “Apply” > hit “Yes”
Eject your USB from your PC and plug it into the USB port on your Wii that is nearest to the edge.
Adding Wii Games
If you are using an external HDD, make a folder called “games” on the root of the NTFS partition. Drag all your downloaded Wii .iso files to that folder. (No folder labeling BS for Wii games and they can be named whatever you want, ex: “ZeldaTP.iso”)
Eject your USB from your PC and plug it into the USB port on your Wii that is nearest to the edge. You can skip the rest of this subsection.
This part is really easy.
If you want to play Wii games, you need to download Wii .iso files via torrent too. Do that now.
If you are using a USB stick, you will be formatting it to NTFS with EaseUS Partition Manager.
Go to Start > My Computer > triple check the drive letter of your USB.
Open EaseUS Partition Manager (This may take a minute or two.)
Find the letter of your USB (ex: G) and make note of what disk number it is under (ex: Disk 4)
Right click on your USB stick > Delete partition
It should say “ * unallocated” under whatever disk number you had.
Right click where it says “unallocated” under your disk number > right click > Create partition
In the window that opens, choose the following setup options:
Create as: Primary
File System: NTFS
Hit “OK”
Right click on your drive letter again > Format Partition
In the window that opens, set cluster size to 32kb > ok
Hit the big blue checkmark that says “Apply,” then hit “Yes.”
When it says “operations executed successfully,” close EaseUS Partition Manager.
Go to Start > My Computer > Double click on your USB stick to open an empty window.
Create a new folder called “games” on the root of your USB stick.
Drag all your downloaded Wii .iso files to that folder. (No folder labeling BS for Wii games and they can be named whatever you want, ex: “ZeldaTP.iso”)
Eject your USB from your PC and plug it into the USB port on your Wii that is nearest to the edge.
Testing Functionality of GC and Wii Games
Put any random GC or Wii game in your Wii disc drive if you used Dios Mios Lite (for SD and SDHC). This is not important with Dios Mios Original
Turn the Wii on and go to HBC
Launch Wiiflow. (It is normal for Wiiflow to take 20-30 seconds to load.)
Hover the pointer over the very bottom of the screen and you will see little circle icons (bubbles) come up at the bottom.
Select the GC icon bubble.
Hover down at the bottom again and select the gear icon bubble.
Change “game partition” to SD if your GC games are on the SD, change it to “USB1” if your GC games are on USB.
Go to settings page 4/6
Path Manager > Go
Go to path manager settings page 2/2
Gamecube Games > Set
Hit the “….” to move towards the root directory.
If your GC games are on the SD, make it say “Path = sd:/games/”, If your GC games are on the USB, make it say “Path = usb1:/games/
Hit “back” 3 times.
Press the start button
Hit “reload cache”
(Your GC games should appear)
Congrats, you can play Gamecube games now.
IMPORTANT: If Dios Mios displays an “apploader error” you forgot to put in an original GC or Wii disc.
IMPORTANT: By having multiple “GALE01” folders, you can have multiple versions of Melee. The Wiiflow text on each one will be the same, but With a custom cover for each one you will be able to tell them apart. You can download covers for most games, but I will provide custom Smash covers in a later section of this guide.
To run Wii games, keep reading. Otherwise skip to the next numbered section.
EXPLANATION: This part assumes that you have your Wii game .iso files in the “games” folder on the root of the NTFS partition of your USB device.
Click on the bubble in the same position as the GC bubble icon. (It changes when you click it.)
Keep clicking until you see a USB bubble icon (it looks like a fork with bubbles), then click it.
Select the gear bubble icon again.
Change “game partition” to “USB1” if you have Wii games on a USB stick, change it to “USB2” if you are using a HDD with two partitions.
Go to settings page 4/6
Path Manager > Go
Go to path manager settings page 2/2
Wii Games > Set
Hit the “….” to move towards the root directory.
Make it say “Path = usb1:/games/” if you are using a USB stick with only a NTFS partition, change it to “Path = usb2:/games/ if you are using an external hdd with your Wii games on the second (NTFS) partition.
Hit “back” 3 times.
Press the start button
Hit “reload cache”
(Press B to go back if you need to)
Congrats, you can play Wii games now.
If you have problems with a specific game, try to get another iso. If you have problems running GC or Wii games in general, come to http://reddit.com/r/wiihacks for help.
Open the SP file pack.
Open the folder “PM Iso Maker”
(You should see three folders: “banners, patch, and wit”)
Go here: http://projectmgame.com/en/download
Download the Riivolution Option Zip (Full Set)
Open the Riivolution.zip
Extract the two folders inside (Brawlmods and Riivolution) to the folder “PM Iso Maker”
(There should now be five folders in the “PM Iso Maker” folder.)
Get the latest build_iso batch file and put it in the “PM Iso Maker” folder.
(Current version: 2.6b is included and I will update with version 3.0 ASAP)
Note: I will update the build_iso ASAP, but I may have to wait a couple weeks after 3.0 comes out. Sorry.
Get your legally backed up brawl iso and put it in “PM Iso Maker” with the five folders and the batch file.
Double click the “build_iso” batch file
Press any key to continue
Press 1
Press Enter
Press 1
Press Enter
Press 1
Press Enter
Press 1
Press Enter
Press 1
Press Enter
Go do something for the next 30 minutes or so because it takes awhile to build the iso.
About halfway though, it will come up with an error saying “the program can’t start blah blah.” Just hit OK.
It should generate an iso called ProjectM_xxxxx-sav.iso (if it has a .tmp extension it isn’t ready yet)
When it’s done, the command prompt will say “All done!”
Close the iso builder. (It’s the thing with the black background and all the white text.)
Copy this Project M iso to the “games” folder on the NTFS partition of your USB device.
Eject your USB device and attach it to the USB port on your wii that is closest to the edge.
You can now boot the Project M Wii iso through Wiiflow!
Go to the HBC > Load Wiiflow > Click the bubble until the USB symbol appears (fork with bubbles)
Click the USB symbol
Press start and hit “Reload Cache”
You should now see your newly added Project M!
How to Hack and Optimize Your Wii for SMASH! 