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Modder turns a Wii U controller into a PC that still plays Wii U games

WIIU COMPUTE STICK FINISHED

Most video game fans aren’t using their Wii U consoles as much as they did a few years ago — if they ever bought the system at all — but Nintendo’s underwhelming machine still has a few uses, it seems. A modder has managed to turn the system’s GamePad controller into a PC with Windows 10, and he didn’t sacrifice its gaming functionality to do it.

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Using the GamePad as a shell, modder Banjo Kazooie added several other parts, including an LCD screen, 4GB of RAM, a 64GB SSD, an Intel m5 processor, and a copy of Windows 10. Upon booting the system up, it runs just like any other Windows 10 PC, with icons and menus available to select with a stylus.

The hilarious kicker, however, is what else he had the Wii U do: Play Wii U games. Through an emulator and a small board containing a copy of Super Mario Bros. U, the game is still fully playable while being run through Windows. It looks just about identical to the version running on a standard Wii U, with very little input lag. Pressing the Wii U’s “home” button brings up the Windows menu, from where the game can quickly be closed.

It’s a bit of a misnomer to say the Wii U was modded for this project — the console itself remained untouched. However, with the price for the GamePad currently at about $200 on Amazon, you probably shouldn’t try this unless you really hate your Wii U.

We’re not sure what would bring someone to turn a Wii U GamePad into a fully functional PC, but chances are pretty good that your Wii U is currently sitting in storage as it collects dust. Perhaps having an extra portable computer wouldn’t be such a bad thing!

Just recently, hackers have managed to get another program, the GameCube and Wii emulator “Dolphin,” running on a Nintendo Switch. The ability to do this was discovered after an exploit was found in the Switch, which couldn’t be fixed with a simple software patch. Though games aren’t running too well on the emulator at the moment, it’s only a matter of time before the kinks are worked out.

Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Nintendo is shutting down online services for 3DS and Wii U next April
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Nintendo confirmed it will widely shut down online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games in April 2024, which will be just over a year after it discontinued the Nintendo eShop on those systems.
This deactivation of most of the online services for those platforms was revealed on X (formerly Twitter) and Nintendo's support site early Wednesday. "In early April 2024, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. This also includes online co-operative play, internet rankings, and data distribution," the message says. "We will announce a specific end date and time at a later date. Please note that if an event occurs that would make it difficult to continue online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software, we may have to discontinue services earlier than planned. We sincerely thank players for using the online services of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software over a long period of time and apologize for any inconvenience."
Essentially, this means that after April 2024, you won't be able to use any online features in things like 3DS Pokémon games or Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U anymore. Nintendo does say in the Q&A section of its support article that people will still be able to play games offline and redownload updates and games from the Nintendo eShop for the foreseeable future. Pokémon Bank will remain unaffected, so it'll still be possible to transfer Pokémon from Ruby and Sapphire all of the way to Pokémon Home. However, SpotPass support and other online-focused applications like Nintendo Badge Arcade will stop working entirely.

Just like the Wii U and 3DS eShop closure that caused a ruckus earlier this year, this move is a blow to game preservation and will forever harm some games not available anywhere else. While it's understandable that Nintendo might want to move on from these systems' dated online infrastructure, it's still a disappointing move for those of us who spent a lot of time playing games offline and online on these systems.

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There is, and it's called Special K from developer Kaldaien. It was originally created as a tool to fix the issues in the PC releases of Fallout 4 and Batman: Arkham Knight, the latter of which is one of the worst PC ports of all time. Since then, it has grown tremendously into a self-proclaimed "Swiss Army Knife" for PC game modding.

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Dolphin, a popular video game emulator for Wii and GameCube games, is currently set to hit Steam Early Access later this year.
The emulation software's Steam store page went live today. Although the page's software description can't directly name Nintendo's consoles, Dolphin Emulator's Steam description boasts about how it can play "classics from the big N's cube-shaped and motion-controlled consoles" in 4K with modern controller support, hacked widescreen and HD texture packs, better frame rates, local multiplayer, save states, slow motion, and turbo button presses.
It also reiterates that Dolphin itself doesn't come with or pirate any Nintendo games, instead positioning itself as a "tool to run legally obtained copies of these games" after someone has converted them into a compatible format. It'll certainly be interesting to see if that framing is good enough to prevent Nintendo from taking Dolphin Emulator off Steam.

When Dolphin Emulator is added to Steam in the second quarter of 2023, it'll be free, but also in early access. Its volunteer developers are aiming to exit early access by the end of 2023 after adding "better Steam integration and a more streamlined UI for Steam Deck users." Valve's Steam Deck handheld has already proven itself to be a haven for video game emulation, and Dolphin Emulator being available on Steam will only make that process even easier. While most GameCube and Wii games aren't available on Switch, the company has long been against emulation of its titles. As such, we'll definitely be keeping an eye on this to see if Dolphin Emulator makes actually launhes on Steam.
Dolphin Emulator will be released on Steam in the second quarter of 2023. 

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