Wii:Emulators: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:16, 16 February 2024

An emulator is a piece of software that uses computing power to simulate another device, such as a video game console or a personal computer. As a general guideline, the Wii is capable of emulating most popular home consoles up to around the fifth generation (the N64/PS1 era).

The Wii has hardware that allows for native backwards compatibility with the GameCube, meaning such software can run at full speed as they would on the original hardware. While this is not actually emulation, methods that use this hardware will be included here due to the ubiquity of the term.

Handheld video game consoles

Nintendo DS

Barely possible through DeSmuME Wii. A partial compatibility list can be found here; most games are incompatible or run very slowly.

Game Boy Advance/Game Boy Color/Game Boy

Posssible through mGBA, this is the recommended option. Another option is Visual Boy Advance GX

WonderSwan

Possible through WiiMednafen.

Home video game consoles

Wii U/Switch

Not possible. While some Wii games are ports of GameCube games, these consoles require too much computing power to be emulated by the Wii.
Also note that due to these computing power requirements, ports of Wii/Wii U/Switch games are also extremely unlikely.

PlayStation 1

Barely possible through WiiStation or WiiSX. compatibility lists for both WiiStation and WiiSX can be found.

Nintendo 64

Possible through Not64, this is the recommended option. Another option is Wii64.

Super NES

Possible through Snes9x GX.

NES / Famicom Disk System

Possible through FCE Ultra GX.

Sega Genesis / CD / 32X / Master System / Game Gear / SG-1000

Possible through Genesis Plus GX.

Arcade cabinets

You can play most arcade games via the MAME-Wii emulator.

Home computers

DOS / Win9x

Possible through DOSBox Wii. Windows 3.1 and 95 technically work, albeit slowly; this emulator is much more practical for older DOS games.

Commodore 64

Possible through Frodo.

Overview chart

WIP

Emulators that don't exist

These are consoles or devices that will not work on the Wii, usually due to computing power requirements.

PlayStation 2 and newer
PlayStation Portable and Vita
All Xbox consoles
Dreamcast
Windows NT (XP/Vista/7/etc)

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 === PlayStation 1 ===
-''Barely'' possible through [[osc:WiiStation]] or [[osc:WiiSX]]. compatibility lists for both [https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/WiiStation_Compatibility_List WiiStation] and [https://wiibrew.org/wiki/WiiSX/Compatibility WiiSX] can be found.
+''Barely'' possible through [[osc:WiiStation|WiiStation]] or [[osc:WiiSX|WiiSX]]. compatibility lists for both [https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/WiiStation_Compatibility_List WiiStation] and [https://wiibrew.org/wiki/WiiSX/Compatibility WiiSX] can be found.
 === Nintendo 64 ===