I saw this over on
NeoGAF in response to the news that Europe might get Xenoblade, TL & Pandopra's Tower and the US may not. It seemed like a straight forward easy to follow guide for first time soft-modders so i thought I would store it here for safe keeping.
1st Time Soft-Modders Only Guide.
What you need:
- A US Wii, updated to the current official firmware, and with no homebrew installed.
- A US Copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl or Lego Indiana Jones for Wii.
- An SD card less than 2GB that you can format.
FAQ Part 1:
Q: Is this safe?
A: Yes.
Q: My Wii is not on current firmware, can I still go region-free?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: My Wii is not a US Wii, can I still go region-free?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: I already have some level of homebrew stuff installed, where do I go from here?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: I do not have access to SSBB or Lego Indiana Jones. Are there other games I can use?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: I do not have an SD card available.
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: I want to do anything other than play EU games on a US Wii from the disc
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: Can I install Wii games to a hard drive?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: Did you know that you can also do this with Lego Star Wars or Lego Batman?
A: This guide is not for you.
Guide, using Indiana Jones:
- Delete any Indiana Jones save games you have on your SD card or Wii.
- Plug your SD card into your computer.
- Download this: http://static.hackmii.com/indiana-pwns.zip
- Unzip the zip, drag the private folder onto your SD card.
- Download this: http://bootmii.org/download/
- Unzip the zip, drag boot.elf to your SD card. Do not put it inside any folder. Just drag the boot.elf file and have it on your SD card.
- Plug your SD card into your Wii.
- Boot Wii
- Wii Options > Data Management > Save Data > Wii
- SD Card > Indiana Pwns US Save > Copy to Wii's memory.
- Boot Lego Indiana Jones
- Load the save game.
- You will be in the college. Walk to the Art Room (through the courtyard). Inside the art room, approach the left character standing on a podium.
- When it zooms in on the character, choose the "Switch to" option.
- Lego Indiana Jones will now launch the Homebrew Channel installer.
- Wait while the installer runs tests.
- Press 1 when you are told to press 1 to continue.
- Your Wii will reboot, and you will see a "Homebrew Channel"
- Continue to Guide Part 2 below.
Guide, using Super Smash Bros Brawl:
- Plug SD card into Wii.
- Boot Super Smash Bros Brawl
- Go to Save Builder
- Delete any custom stages or move them to your SD card.
- This includes any sample stages for new save files.
- This includes stages downloaded from the Smash stage service.
- Wait at least 24 hours.
- Plug SD card into computer.
- Rename the folder named "private" to privateold
- Download this: http://wiibrew.org/w/images/4/4e/Smashstack.zip
- Unzip the zip, copy the private folder to your SD card.
- Download this: http://bootmii.org/download/
- Unzip the zip, drag boot.elf to your SD card. Do not put it inside any folder. Just drag the boot.elf file and have it on your SD card.
- Plug your SD card into your Wii.
- Boot Wii
- Boot Super Smash Bros Brawl
- Go to Stage Builder
- Super Smash Bros Brawl will now launch the Homebrew Channel installer.
- Wait while the installer runs tests.
- Press 1 when you are told to press 1 to continue.
- Your Wii will reboot, and you will see a "Homebrew Channel"
- You can now plug your SD card into your PC, delete the private folder, and rename privateold to private if you want your Wii data back.
- Continue to Guide Part 2 below.
Guide, part 2:
- Turn off Wii
- Plug SD card into computer
- Make a directory called "apps" on your SD card if one does not already exist.
- Download this: http://geckodownloads.googlecode.com.../gecko1931.zip
- Unzip the zip.
- Go into Gecko1931 > Gecko1931 > HBC
- There is a folder called Gecko1931 here. Drag the folder to your SD card's apps folder.
- So your SD card will look like (as an example using drive letter J): J:\apps\gecko1931\
- Inside that folder, there should be three files. Boot.elf, icon.png, meta.xml
- Plug SD card into Wii
- Boot Wii, Homebrew Channel.
- You will see Gecko OS. Click on it. Load it.
- Use "Launch Game" to play the import game
- If you have video trouble, you might need to select the "Force NTSC Mode" option in Gecko OS.
FAQ, part 2:
Q: What are some other options I can use while playing my game?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: Can I use cheats while playing a game?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: What else can I do with homebrew?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: Are there other methods for launching PAL games?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: Can I put Gecko OS on my main Wii menu instead of inside homebrew channel.
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: How do I update Gecko OS in the future?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: I ran into trouble or don't have experience using SD cards with my computer.
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: I don't want to delete or deal with copying my Smash Bros or Lego Indiana Jones saves. Do I have an alternative?
A: This guide is not for you.
Q: Can I copy/paste this guide somewhere else? Do you need credit?
A: This guide is not for you. Do not republish it, it would take you ten minutes to write a better guide. Do not link to it. Do not credit me.
Q: I have some further questions, can I contact you for support or help or anything else
A: No.
But I do have a question for anyone that would know.
The Guide says an SD card less than 2GB.
would that be a SD card that is 2GB or less -or- specifically a card that is smaller than 2GB?
-I ask because the original FW for Wii could read 2GB SD cards, so I figured that was the reason you need a card that is 2GB or less.-
Topic: Wii Homebrew Channel (Read 40459 times)
