Nintendo's finally patching WiiWare's biggest hangup: storage. Not only can you back up titles to SD, but games can now be played straight from the cards, so there should be very little hassle to data management going forward. The "SD Card Menu" can be accessed straight from the main Wii System Menu 4.0, an update that's being pushed out as we speak, which also enables the Wii to work with memory cards larger than 2GB, all the way up to 32GB -- which should make room for a good many NES carts. Nintendo's also pushing out the new Virtual Console Arcade, which brings old school arcade titles to the Wii. Hit up the read link for Joystiq's walkthrough of the SD card functionality, or just fire up your Wii and find out for yourself -- the water's warm!

Retro game lovers, don't ever say Nintendo isn't looking out for you. Only months after hearing that the Wii's Virtual Console would be getting Sega Master System and Commodore 64 games, in flies word that at least one heralded SuperGrafx title is on its way, too. Granted, the Ghouls 'n Ghosts (or Daimakaimura, as it were) port is only slated for release in Japan at the moment, but we're keeping our increasingly less limber fingers crossed that it'll head to other parts of the world in short order. There's also no telling if any other titles from the console's library will be headed to the Wii, but given that we could count 'em all on two hands, we'd say chances are decently high.

[Via Joystiq, image courtesy of ClassicGaming]

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!

We'll be straight with you -- it's a bit of a mystery what exactly is going on here, but famed Wii hacker Waninkoko has apparently figured out a way to take Virtual Console titles and play them on another Wii. The good news? There's a video -- which many aren't hesitating to blast with "fake!" -- of the trick posted after the jump. The bad? There's no how-to in sight.

[Thanks, Craig]

Just when you think all of your nostalgic fantasies have all been fulfilled, along comes Nintendo with a little extra joy for your retro heart. That "little extra" in this case happens to be Commodore 64 games for your Wii. You read that correctly, people -- C64 games are headed to the system's Virtual Console, starting with International Karate and Uridium, which will run you 500 Wii points apiece. Right now, the rollout appears to be taking place in Europe only, though we suspect it'll head over to our shores sooner rather than later. While you're waiting for that to happen, maybe now is a good time to exercise your digits and polish up on your IK trash talk.

[Thanks, Nico]

Read - Virtual Console: C64 is back! [Finnish site]
Read - C64 on Wii Virtual Console

Finally, you can relive your really good youthful memories via the Wii and its latest Virtual Console addition: the Sega Master System. That's right, if you happen to be nostalgic for a certain Z80A kind of action -- and you live in Japan -- you need only look to Nintendo's cash-cow for help. Starting this February, you can play Fist of the North Star and the hallucination-inducing Fantasy Zone to your heart's content, though just like other VC offerings we expect to see more games and more territories included later on. What's important for Nintendo to know is this: the sooner we're deep in a game of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, the happier everyone will be... so step on it.

[Via Digg]

We have to believe that the name of this arcade-style joystick was chosen more for hype and less for, well, anything else, but nevertheless, it's yet another way to add even more retro to the virtual console experience. Slated to arrive just in time for the holidays, The Shaft will be available in arctic white, coral pink and midnight black, and it will darn near take up your entire lap, too. The oversized creation sports a customizable turbo function along with six control buttons, but we could certainly see this thing becoming an excellent chew toy for Fido if left unattended for an extended period of time. The 'stick can be pre-ordered right now for $39.95, or you can appear infinitely wise by snapping up two for "just" $69.95.

[Via Digg]

Although the Wii's Virtual Console channel has been a smashing success, there's always a price for fame: quite a few gamers are running up against the storage roadblocks of Nintendo's console and starting to wonder about expansion options beyond SD cards -- like, say, a hard drive. Sadly, however, Ninty's not having any of it, with Nintendo of America PR manager Eric Walter saying that "we really don't want people storing every single game they buy on their drive." Sounds silly, but since VC titles are yours for keeps, Nintendo's position is that you can delete games and "go back and get them any time," or, presumably, build a small library of SD cards. This odd line of reasoning also led Walter to say that he likens the situation "to putting music on your iPod; you listen to it for a while, and then you get tired of it, and you pull it off, and you put some new stuff on." Clearly Walter does not know how often we listen to the Clash on our iPods -- or how often we rock Super Mario Brothers 1 through 64. Either way, it looks like the mothership has spoken for now -- looks like it's up to the third parties to figure out a way to make it all better.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We're not certain how many people are clamoring for Virtual Console controller that apes the look-and-feel of the 360 controller, but Thrustmaster's got you covered with its new T-Wireless NW controller. Eschewing the need to plug into the Wiimote, the NW comes with a receiver dongle that plugs into the Wii's GameCube ports -- a design decision that doesn't seem quite right to us. On the other hand, it's just $19.99, the same price as a Classic Controller, so we'll see how gamers respond when these things ship in October.

[Via IGN]

Sure hope you didn't spend too much in a bidding war over that homegrown Wii joystick back in December, as it looks like accessory maker extraordinaire Hori is planning to unveil something mighty similar real soon. According to Play-Asia, the firm's Fighting Stick Wii controller will be hitting the Japanese market in August, giving virtual console gamers a swank alternative to the Wii Classic Controller. Additionally, IGN has supposedly confirmed that an American release "is planned," and while a US pricetag has yet to emerge, those overseas can get their order in now for $52.90.

[Via IGN]

It's literally been ages since we've held a piece of Sega hardware in our hands -- even our trusty old GameGear finally made the trip to gadget heaven -- but we'll never forger the first time we picked up a Genesis controller and were floored by the future of gaming. Its name? Altered Beast. Well as we all know, Sega ended up getting lost in the shuffle during the 20th century console wars, and all that's left today is a steady stream of new games and some classics that have found their way onto the Virtual Console. Isn't it appropriate, then, to get into the Sega spirit by playing these retro titles with genuine Sega controllers? Well you ain't gonna find them on shelves anymore, but if you've got an old gamepad lying around like Daniel Hearn did, its not all that difficult to roll your own wireless pad. All the parts you need -- save for the controller body itself -- can be found at the Sparkfuns and and RadioShacks of the world, and the linked guide gives you all the programming / construction resources you'll need. Big ups to the first reader who combines this project with the Mega Drive controller MP3 mod, creating a DAP whose functionality even the iPod can't touch.

[Via Wii Fanboy]

We realize there are still only a select few of you who actually have Wiis at this very moment (although those on the Eastern seaboard will have theirs in just a few short hours). But you might like to know that our Wii finally got its system update (huzzah) and is able to access the Wii store. The points are valued at a cent per, so 1,000 Wii points will set you back $10 US. Which is also what N64 games cost; SNES games will run $8, while NES and Genesis games run $5. Click on for a tour of the store!

The word is out, and it's not looking too bad for retro gamers in search of a fix. Nintendo's own president, Saturo Iwata, has announced that pricing for downloadable games in the Wii's Virtual Console will range from 500 to 1,000 Yen, about $4.50 to $8.99 in USD. This is in comparison to Microsoft's "points" system, which has you spending somewhere between $5 and $12.50 for a title, and whose library is considerably more limited than what Nintendo has planned for the Wii at launch -- which should include those tasty 1st party titles. Iwata also mentioned some of Nintendo's plans for DS integration, which could include use as a touch screen controller for the Wii, DS game play on the Wii (ala GameBoy Player), and demo downloads via the Wii. It's not hard to see why Nintendo would want to closely tie the two consoles together, given the crazy success of the DS, we just hope Nintendo isn't thinking they can get by with the retro and DS dollars without giving us a next-next-gen gaming experience on top of it.

Update: As pointed out in the glad-to-have-them-back comments, this announcement was only for the pricing of new games available on the Virtual Console, with no word as to what retro titles will go for. We'll keep our eyes peeled, but for now just chalk this one up to some mistranslation and as a decent indicator of pricing to come.

[Via Slashdot]