Apparently I have a Wii now. After finding this out I immediantely became interested in the virtual console. The selection is so limited I fear my favorite games would never make the cut... and what I want to know is if someone cracked Wii yet so we could play any game we wanted (specifically for the snes). Psp is nice and all... but I'd love to be able to use a TV screen for old school games once in a while.

This is a novel idea, but to my knowledge I don't know if anyone's done that yet.  I don't really follow the hardware hacking scene though, and usually jump on bandwagons (like PSP hacking) after a few years when all the kinks have been worked out.

From what I remember... the Dreamcast hacking scene came out of nowhere. Operating systems... video players... emulators... they made everything for it within a few months time. With the Wii... we already have an internet connection... a file transfer system... and native emulators. Even though searches revealed nothing... I was kind of hoping that someone took advantage of what we already had for the Wii and got crackin.

If anyone knows anything about anything... please... let me know.

It's not stealing if they don't have have the games available for VC. I wouldn't mind paying $5-10 per game if they had games I wanted to play... but for whatever reason, the lists are severely limited. If it's all about the money, why don't they give us an option to pay to convert/ upload/ transfer files (with their servers as the middleman or something) to make our roms into playable VC games? That would make both of us happy, right? But alas... Nintendo is only 'innovative' in the marketing department... so we would never see this happen.

It's not stealing if they don't have have the games available for VC.

Besides the fact that "stealing" is a rather lousy metaphor anyway, I do not see how lack of distribution makes IP infringement more "legitimate". The entire purpose of IP laws is to create artificial scarcity.

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Aside from that, the technical implementation of hacking the virtual console seems rather unnecessary, considering that you could just hook up the emulator video output to your TV and hook up a controller somewhere...

It's not stealing if they don't have have the games available for VC. I wouldn't mind paying $5-10 per game if they had games I wanted to play... but for whatever reason, the lists are severely limited. If it's all about the money, why don't they give us an option to pay to convert/ upload/ transfer files (with their servers as the middleman or something) to make our roms into playable VC games? That would make both of us happy, right? But alas... Nintendo is only 'innovative' in the marketing department... so we would never see this happen.

What...this is the worst logic I've ever heard.  It IS stealing, just as much as pirating anything else.  I'm not judging the morality of piracy (that's been done often enough as it is), but I never act like it's not essentially stealing.  roms have always been that way.  That is the same reason why your idea to pay to convert files would never work, because Nintendo doesn't want you to have roms in the first place!  Why would they want to convert them for you?  They're illegal as it is, if anything Nintendo would just use that AGAINST you, not help you with it.  It's not their fault, it's just how things work.  If you want these games so bad, either play them on a PC or try to convince Nintendo to put it on the VC.  Or wait.  If they're more mainstream games they'll end up on the VC after a while anyway, it's not like Nintendo is done adding games.

You missed the point entirely. I'm not trying to argue about the legitimacy of roms or a potential workaround of legal issues.

why would they open up avenues that let people steal the things they're selling instead of buying them

I was saying that one could not be stealing something if they are not selling it. The VC library is severely limited, and most of the games I want to play are not listed (some of which where never officially licensed for the US). Give me an option. Something... anything... official or not. I don't care.

So does that mean if you go into a used video game store and steal the original games, it's okay because they aren't being sold new anymore?  They are still being sold, there's your official option.  Just because they aren't on the VC (yet) doesn't mean they aren't for sale.

And what the fuck does that have to do with the Wii or Virtual Console?

AFAIK there is currently no way to run unsigned Wii code on the Wii.  You can however get a mod chip that will allow you to run unsigned Gamecube code on the Wii.  That really is your only option.  Also, the virtual console isn't a general purpose emulator.  Each game is specifically tweaked and coded to run as fast as it can, that is why Nintendo isn't just releasing games left and right.  It is also why there is no real option to just convert random roms into VC games.

I had no idea about this for the GC (Don't use it much, the library isn't that great)..... and that explains why they only release 2-3 games per month for the VC. I guess will look into GC homebrew then. I don't hear much about it.... but I hope I can find a way to play my old school games on the tv screen again.

The original XBOX has some wonderful capabilities for emulation. I use mine for NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Gear, GBA, Master System, PSX, N64, Mame and a whole load of others I forget.

Odds are the PC you are on is powerful enough to run SNES and older consoles under emulation. It wouldn't be too hard to find a device or a video card that would output the signal to svideo, component, or even RF. The emulation would be more configurable, you would have more choices for input, and you would even have netplay.

Actually, the Wii is capable of loading roms... just not from the internal harddrive or memory cards yet.  The Virtual Console games you download are literally roms; the copy of Super Mario World you can download is the exact same copy as Super Mario World [US] rom you can download off any rom site. 

By burning a copy of the rom image onto a dvd and using a hex editor called WiiFree, you can select and load roms individually.  Unfortunately, this requires you to modchip your Wii and Nintendo made it so that any alterations to the Wii's source code instantly voids your ability to connect online.  There's only one stealth chip in existence that lets you avoid the online checking process but it's compatibility isn't that great and can brick your Wii.

My best advice is to wait.  Soon there'll be an auto-loader/boot disc.  It took a year or so for the Dreamcast and Xbox to come out with one so it's only a matter of time before one comes out for the Wii.  Nintendo spent a lot of money making the Wii uncrackable but there's a lot of work getting done.

Actually, the Wii is capable of loading roms... just not from the internal harddrive or memory cards yet.  The Virtual Console games you download are literally roms; the copy of Super Mario World you can download is the exact same copy as Super Mario World [US] rom you can download off any rom site. 

Except that this just isnt true at all.  If you save any of the Virtual Console games to an SD card you would notice that there is a marked difference in file size from the actual ROM.  This is because the Wii packages the specialized emulator with the game, along with other data to tie that copy of the game to your Wii console.  You cannot just load a rom on an SD card and get it to run.

The Wii IS capable of loading ROMs, from a Gamecube emulator.

Edit:
Case in point:
Size of F-Zero ROM: 512 KB
Size of VC F-Zero: 3.8MB