Dolphin - playing Wii on your PC

smalltownguy2

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I've been busy building a new system for my Mame cabinet this winter. Just for kicks, I thought I'd try to see if there was anything out there that worked for emulatng current consoles on the market. I'm not really seeing anything useful for the PS3 or Xbox 360, but PS2 is well emulated, which is cool.

Then I found Dolphin for the Wii / Gamecube.

I gotta say, VERY COOL.

I've been able to successfully pair wiimotes and nunchucks to my core i7 rig as well as getting IR tracking to work with a wireless wii sensor bar. Very cool stuff. Kinda neat to be able to play the entire Wii library without having to add another gadget to my home theater setup.

I'll be interested to see if I can get the balance board to work for WiiFit.

Just thought I'd share....
 
Yeah, I initially sought out the emulator just because I thought it would be cool to add it to my lineup in Mala. I got it working great with a controller (think: using a Gamecube controller on a Wii) connected to the PC via USB. When I got the wiimote working via bluetooth and the tracking via IR, all kinds of possibilities presented themselves, like shooters, Wii Bowling, etc.

The deal-breaker for me ended up being the fact that the bluetooth pairing between the PC and the wiimote doesn't remain after rebooting the PC. So, it's not quite cab friendly yet. But it works great for games you can play using a standard gamepad controller. New Super Mario Bros Wii, for example.

So, I'll browse the Wii games library, and see what's out there that would be gamepad friendly, and throw the games on my cab. Kinda neat.

On a side note, I HAVE decided to go forward with setting up Dolphin on my Home Theater PC. It's pretty cool that I can set up a Wii on a device that's already connected to my HDTV, and the only hardware I needed to get it set up was a bluetooth dongle, a wiimote and wireless sensor bar. $25 invested and I've essentially got a Wii available to me.

Plus, Dolphin outputs to 1080p resolution, which is pretty friggin cool.
 
Yeah I mentioned it in a Wii thread earlier. It's impressive that Dolphin works so well. I've been playing the latest Zelda, but I got to the point in the game where it's basically FetchQuest 2012. Kinda boring.

I got that one game "The Last Story" that's supposed to be pretty good but I haven't played it much.
 
Yeah I mentioned it in a Wii thread earlier. It's impressive that Dolphin works so well. I've been playing the latest Zelda, but I got to the point in the game where it's basically FetchQuest 2012. Kinda boring.

I got that one game "The Last Story" that's supposed to be pretty good but I haven't played it much.

I've been itching to play The Last Story. I think it's slated to be "officially" released in June.
 
Its funny that the Dolphin emulator runs BETTER then the actual Wii console itself. Dolphin can run full speed at 1080P while the Wii can only go up to 480P. Of course not all games work on Dolphin.
 
Well it does run gamecube games in 1080p which is more than the Wii can do. Have you played the wind waker in 1080p? I have and its awesome.

that PS2 emu PCSX also runs games better on my PC than the ps3 remasters.
 
Well it does run gamecube games in 1080p which is more than the Wii can do. Have you played the wind waker in 1080p? I have and its awesome.

that PS2 emu PCSX also runs games better on my PC than the ps3 remasters.

I need a better PC. Playing in 1080p causes major slowdown for me. :(
 
Bumping an old thread, but I have some updates.

I finally got around to soldering a USB cable on to my wireless wii sensor bar, so I now have a fully functional wii setup without having to use batteries on the sensor bar.

I'm going to invest in a charging cradle and a few rechargable batteries for the wiimotes, because my kids are burning through AA batteries like there's no tomorrow.

In other news, my kids just found Mario Kart wii, and it's pretty much all over - they are locked in. I need to get a 2nd wiimote and a pair of driving wheels, STAT.

Definitely a good platform for kid gaming, for sure. Dolphin takes a few minutes to get set up properly (pairing wiimotes, etc) but once it's up and running, the kids just go to town on the HDTV. Great stuff.

New Super Mario Bros Wii has some fantastic world music. The Arabian desert world music is just a hoot - nice mashup of Indian and SMB themes. :D

Thumbs up on this.

You think I could get them playing my Atari 2600 any time soon?
 
BUMP!

Now that I have an i7 laptop courtesy of my work, I'm able to play some heavier games with no issues (I've been playing Batman Arkham Asylum on Steam before I move on to Arkham City Wii U). Games on MAME like Strider 2 and SFIII3S are running with no issues as well. Love it.

I was excited to finally play GCN games in HD, specifically Windwaker. I can't believe how much detail drops off on standard resolution when you hook it up on your TV. I've never tried the rare component cable, but I'm not about to spend $150+ on one. Here are some pics I took with my phone, it's definitely more noticeable in person.

LCD TV with GC standard resolution (pixelation and blurry textures):

image1zp.jpg


Dolphin emulator (smoother cell shading and detailed textures):

imagekrzr.jpg


Another plus is that they have a separate Dolphin build for Triforce so I got Mario Kart GP2 running great as well. Not the arcade experience, but it's Mario Kart, so it's still enjoyable.

photoaed.jpg
 
Last edited:
indecks said:
Quality > quantity.
It's not better quality when it doesn't run the game as smoothly as a real Wii. The above screenshot does look impressive, but it's unfair to compare it to a screenshot which was using composite video.
 
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