Homebrew SNES emulator released for the Wii

Finally, Engadget editor Paul Miller's prayers have been answered -- in the form of a homebrew SNES emulator for the Wii. It's no secret that Paul is eerily obsessed with the SNES, and now he can get access to all his favorites (import or otherwise) with another Wii tweak. The well known emulator SNES9X has been ported to Nintendo's money maker, and it even includes support for the Wiimote (there are plans for future implementation of the Classic controller and two-player game modes). We're assuming this is all part of the much-loved Twilight Princess exploit, though they're a bit short on detail. Hit the read link and start breaking Nintendo's heart ASAP!

[Neeko @ Apr 20th 2008 4:19PM]

Wow if i could actually find a Wii this would be exciting.

[Mike @ Apr 20th 2008 5:22PM]

lol i'll sell you mine after i beat mario kart :)

[m-p{3} @ Apr 20th 2008 4:20PM]

Would be even better if they could find a way of using the Virtual Console itself to run those SNES roms.

Who could be better at emulating those games than Nintendo themselves ?

[peshue @ Apr 20th 2008 4:22PM]

VC games are well on their way to being pirateable, it's a little tricky right now, but it can be done. asfaik you can't use roms though.

[o29 @ Apr 20th 2008 10:04PM]

True, but the selection of titles would be quite limited.

[dasguy @ Apr 20th 2008 10:20PM]

I read somewhere the other day that the emu is packaged with each VC file, now that these have been decrypted, is there anyway these official emus can be reverse engineered in some way to improve the unofficial emus (Snes9x, Project64 etc)?

[JohnnyW @ Apr 20th 2008 4:21PM]

Correction: Does NOT include classic controller & mutipad support.

[Tid @ Apr 20th 2008 4:33PM]

Yeah, somebody completely misread the forum post. Clearly says those features are "coming soon"

[fischju @ Apr 20th 2008 6:01PM]

Lopst has released a version of Snes9x the Snes emulator for Nintendo Wii with Classic Controller and WiiMote Support and also 2 player support.

If you didn't know, there is more than 1 forum for wii hacks.

[craig @ Apr 20th 2008 4:32PM]

Theres been a ton of stuff released for Wii Today

New Snes emu with Classic Controller Support
New Genesis /Sega CD Emu for Wii
New Master System /Game Gear Emu for Wii
New PC Engine Emu for Wii
Rin Gameboy Channel for Wii
Emuloader for Wii
Wii Paint

All at Wii News (DCEmu Wii Site) - http://wii-news.dcemu.co.uk/

[iofthestorm @ Apr 20th 2008 10:03PM]

Yeah, DCEmu rocks for keeping up with homebrew.

[Karl @ Apr 20th 2008 4:33PM]

Um, thats NOT the dev for snesgx. He simply modified other's work.

[iofthestorm @ Apr 20th 2008 10:01PM]

Yeah, also there's about 900 unofficial forks of SNES9X and some don't even include the source. I'm waiting for an official build to come up with all the features from the random unofficial builds.

[ethana2 @ Apr 20th 2008 4:43PM]

Yeah, it would have to be snes9x, 'cause zsnes is written mostly in x86 ASM for high performance...

Behold the glory of portable code.. and linux, its epitome.

[Samphex @ Apr 20th 2008 8:18PM]

Yeah.
All hail snes9x.
It's even been ported to palm OS.

[Josh L @ Apr 20th 2008 10:19PM]

And behold the F/OSS freak, who bafflingly favors portability over performance.

[ethana2 @ Apr 20th 2008 10:25PM]

I happen to think powerpc can outperform x86.
..and it's not like its written in java or python.

Compiled C/++ is probably hugely easier to maintain and debug than ASM.
There are better things to do for performance than hugging the metal, like multiple threads, openGL acceleration, and so on and so forth, generally speaking.

[rockintom @ Apr 21st 2008 1:56PM]

Zsnes runs at full speed on a pentium 1. Hooray for asm!

[|Geektorious Maximus| @ Apr 20th 2008 4:44PM]

Man F-Zero...I use play that **** til' all the time. Til' my report card came in and all I got was F's n Zero's.

[coolbho3000 @ Apr 20th 2008 4:49PM]

RobertFC did NOT do the porting! He only added Wiimote/Classic Controller support.

[2Shea @ Apr 20th 2008 4:50PM]

If only there was another way besides the twilight princess thing, it's really a pain to have to do.

[Shaflugi1 @ Apr 20th 2008 5:10PM]

Actually, you only really need to run Twilight Princess once. Once you get in there, you can install a homebrew channel so you can boot stuff right from the Wii Menu.

[Fernando @ Apr 20th 2008 5:13PM]

SNES? pff, Sega does what Nintendon't!

[Aparoid @ Apr 20th 2008 8:37PM]

Actually, it think it goes "Genesis does what Nintendon't."

:)

[Chebwa @ Apr 20th 2008 5:57PM]

Like fail.

[Neeko @ Apr 20th 2008 5:26PM]

@Mike

Id take you up on that offer. year later and ive only seen the Wii actually in stock once...SAD JUST SAD.

[Jake @ Apr 20th 2008 5:47PM]

Nice, but I have had a SNES, MAME and a Spectrum emulator on my PS3 for over a year now.

Get with the programme please...

[Jonathan-DBOSS @ Apr 20th 2008 6:06PM]

*applause*

[Tony Rayo @ Apr 20th 2008 8:07PM]

Only because Sony let you (in a limited way using their hypervisor at that). Also don't call fanboy on me because I only own a PS3 atm, no Wii or 360. You gotta (or rather you should) respect some good coding/hacking.

Also I'm sure regardless of exploits, that Engadget's editors are aware of the modchips available for the Wii (but might be disregarding it for legal reasons). But legal (well, partly legal) solution are always ideal.

[TavisJohn @ Apr 20th 2008 9:27PM]

Oooo arn't you impressive....

I have had them on my XBOX for over 2... You Fail!

[Jhongerkong @ Apr 20th 2008 5:55PM]

Virtual Console games have already been dumped in .wad repacks. The thing about these are that you can run them even without a chipped wii AND you can still download them from the shop channel after deletion.

[Kawaiipikachu @ Apr 20th 2008 7:42PM]

What is this sick thing ?
Piracy no doubt about it .
Piracy can send company's into bankruptcy & force them to shut down .
Think it will never happend you are dead wrong as that allready happened a few times & i have no doubt that it will happen again if this piracy doesn't stop which i'm doubtful it wont be anytime soon .

[Tony Rayo @ Apr 20th 2008 8:11PM]

Considering how popular the Wii is and how many units have been sold (not to mention the handheld market, which has been strong and growing regardless of rom carts that have been available for the DS for years at this point), I don't think you have to worry about Nintendo or anyone that produces a well marketed and fun game for their system.

Also for kicks, I'd be interested in knowing which companies you believe have been closed down solely to piracy.

[andrew wilson @ Apr 21st 2008 1:04AM]

sega.

[Protoz @ Apr 21st 2008 9:25AM]

Yep, playing SNES games of long dead developers sure is going to put a dent in their bottom line. Data East is going to be so mad at those pirates...

[Chidoku @ Jun 26th 2008 3:16PM]

No company has ever had to shut down because of illegal copying of their games.
SEGA died as a console company due to their own fault. Lack of titles at release with the dreamcast was the thing that killed them. Lack of titles of the Saturn release was also one of the things, and same with their flops MegaCD and Sega 32x.
SEGA killed itself, it wasn't killed by "piracy". Look at Sony! And Microsoft!
XBox and Playstation 1 are the most pirated Consoles ever...are they dead? Nope. Why? 'cause Piracy don't kill companies.

You are one missinformed person.

[Jake Maheu @ Apr 20th 2008 9:44PM]

What the hell?

This is OLD news, Engadget!

You've been able to get this for, what, at least a week?

Come on guys, catch up!

[o29 @ Apr 20th 2008 10:08PM]

Prepare to be low ranked.

[Dan Bugglin @ Apr 20th 2008 10:13PM]

This is a new version it seems, which adds Wiimote support. Not too many homebrew releases support it so far (AFAIK they're either tech demos or pr0n).

I hope it also supports loading roms from the front slot. 0.1.1 didn't.

[swingin' dick hero @ Apr 21st 2008 3:50AM]

- Oh my god, Jake! Oh my god!
- What's the matter Rick?
- I've just heard about global warming on the tellie! We're doomed I tell you, doomed!
- That is OLD news, Rick! You've been able to get this for, what, at least a week?
- Oh.. Fair enough. Want to make out?
- You know I do.

[Craig Tucker @ Apr 21st 2008 10:30AM]

Nobody has yet mentioned that the Gamecube-based emulators have been working for a while now. NES, SNES, Genesis, and Turbografix were compiled on one DVD a while back. Every US-released rom, all playable with your GC controllers.

[Russ @ Apr 21st 2008 11:00PM]

ah.. the golden era of game packaging illustrations that try look nothing like the actual game!