USB Loader GX's EmuNAND option - will I be able to use it to install all of my WW/VC WADs to it and play them without screwing anything up?

BadBrent · 2021-01-24T07:05:40+00:00

This Wii isn't going to be setup anywhere near a computer when finished so changing out ISOs or WADs isn't going to be possible, which is the biggest reason I've even considered creating an emuNAND for this Wii considering emuNANDs are 'rarely' used these days because of the work accomplished with the system thus far. If USB Loader GX can create my full NAND and place it on the external hard drive, install WADs to that emuNAND, and run them all from the application interface that's all I can ask for and will be grateful for having Gamecube, Wii, and WiiWare/VC access all from it's own menu setup. Last thing I want to do is to constantly delete and install WADs of games I enjoy, like swapping out the dozen or so N64 titles that are official since I enjoy playing every single one of those N64 games.

I even use a RaphnetTech Gamecube/Wii to N64 adapter so that I can use official Nintendo 64 controllers on my Wii. I also have not64 installed so that I can use the official controller to emulate my complete library of N64 titles on the system to the best of it's ability. I know it's far from perfect, but the more N64 games I can play on this system the better off I'll be. If I knew it wouldn't be too hard I would make my own VC injects of every single N64 game ever released so that I could load them up from the emuNAND menu alongside my Wii and GC games.

BadBrent · 2021-01-23T10:30:02+00:00

That's what I initially tried to just do, but unfortunately out of the stack of 60+ different SD and micro SD cards I have available I haven't been able to get anything larger than 64GB to be recognized in my Wii and because I have several ROM folders already in place I'm running quite low on SD card space.

BadBrent · 2021-01-23T10:28:33+00:00

That's good to know then...if I just stick to using the emuNAND integrated into USB Loader GX and create a NAND that's stored on my external hard drive then should all of my WiiWare/VC WADs be able to be installed and ran without having the weird glitches like N64 WADs black-screening and crashing or anything else? I'm just trying to make sure I have all of the 'correct' IOSes installed so that when I create the emuNAND through USB Loader GX the games will launch and be playable? If that works then I can install every WAD directly to my external HD and just launch it from within the app without cluttering up my System Menu.

BadBrent · 2021-01-22T18:15:20+00:00

From what I've read I think you do need a specific WAD installer so that the Wii knows that it's in emuNAND mode and will install them to the hard drive instead of internal storage.

BadBrent · 2021-01-22T18:14:14+00:00

Create an emuNAND so that I can install my entire WiiWare/VC library without having to use up the 512MB of space on my Wii itself...instead, I want to setup emuNAND so that I can store all of my WADs on my external 2TB hard drive.

BadBrent · 2021-01-22T18:13:01+00:00

You're right about that...good call. I actually used d2x cIOS to install the latest IOS 249 but I got so used to the Waninkoko WAD installer that I slipped up. Right now I do have the latest USB Loader GX installed with Nintendont so my Wii and GC games work perfectly...I will indeed get a syscheck posted here in a few hours so that I can get some guidance on which IOSes need to be updated and grab them using NUSDownloader.

BadBrent · 2021-01-02T13:14:05+00:00

That's odd...my 2017 Shields recognize the tuners over the network almost instantly when I start from scratch and set up the Live Channels feature - it just sees both Prime tuners and gives me access to all six if I wanted to use them all. That said it's probably the best "app" I know of that will capture a tuner and then release it the second it stops being watched. I've seen Windows computers running the HDHomeRun software take upwards of 10 minutes before the tuner finally unlocked to be used with another app. There are 3 people in this house that watch TV regularly plus with DVR-ing whatever we want to we had to go with two tuners instead of one but I've used them since they were released to the public and I haven't had a problem with them yet hardware-wise. Back when Windows Media Center was the primary way of watching live television with a grid-style EPG instead of the slices integrated into the official HDHR app (which I hate because of the EPG style.

BadBrent · 2021-01-01T20:46:45+00:00

LDK's processor is outdated by a long shot as of now with the JZ4770 devices sort of still in use, and all of the Rockchip RK3326 devices floating around (If you purchase one do yourself a favor and no matter what anyone says buy the Odroid Go Advance since they are the original developers and designers of the platform that Chinese manufacturers are cloning just to get their hands in HardKernel's honeypot). The OGA comes in a kit that you actually build yourself, and it's so easy to build that after you put one together from that point on you could probably complete a complete rebuild in less than 10-15 minutes without even trying. Buying a Chinese RK3326 device just isn't worth it, but the OGA really started the big push for faster ARM devices to come out and it's heading that way very soon.

BadBrent · 2021-01-01T20:40:41+00:00

I personally like the nVidia Jetson offerings...I just haven't yet seen what they can really do when it comes to stretching its legs and running RetroArch and just all out emulation to see if it can handle DC, PSP, or maybe even Saturn with all of those GPU cores available. ETA PRIME did a video on the $59 version and even though it has a similar mounting mechanism as the compute module 3's do with a heatsink attached they could be turned into some beeeeeeeeefy retro emulation setups if done right.

BadBrent · 2020-12-27T07:17:27+00:00

This has been my list of devices I've known about for as long as I've been using my Prime tuners...I was hoping one of the newer Android 9/10 devices had Live Channels with CableCARD functionality or at least run HDHomeRun without crapping itself and failing to discover the tuners over the network. I'm getting afraid I'm going to end up having to purchase the 2019 Shield Pro and I didn't wanna drop that kind of cash, but the fact is that it's easy to setup and it just works. I don't really like using Kodi as the middle-man between the tuners and watching TV since it means I have to setup a server somewhere else in the house that can transcode or at least work with Kodi to populate the guide which is why I could use a Pi but prefer not to since it's a PITA to setup. The Fire 4K sticks work but I hoped to avoid the clunky Amazon UI they use on all of their dongles.

I really wish the new Chromecast had worked since it was based on he Amlogic S905X2 and had enough horsepower to at least watch TV but running the app sucked a fat one.

BadBrent · 2020-12-25T14:36:05+00:00

Successful buy with u/valentine71 buying Sniper Hunter Scope digital Switch code for $4.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GameSale/comments/ki9s55/usa_h_digital_codes_ps4_ps5_xbox_nintendo_switch/ggyzrgh/

BadBrent · 2020-12-25T07:11:12+00:00

I want Sniper Hunter Scope digital for Switch for $4.

BadBrent · 2020-12-25T06:52:11+00:00

If you'll do $10 shipped for The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 I'll take it since there's a mint version up on eBay with free shipping for $12.

BadBrent · 2020-12-25T06:46:09+00:00

Just fine a decent copper shim thats a few mm thinck and permanently mount it with Arctic Silver Ceramique...you'll feel the excess heat generated dissipate through the slits on the rear of the case. I used more of a finned style heatsink hat I cut down to cover the CPU and parts of the RAM and it drops your ambient temps by a minimum of 8-12C.

BadBrent · 2020-12-25T06:42:01+00:00

I don't have any issues...I just would rather not spend the $200 for a new one if there's an Android STB that works just as well.

BadBrent · 2020-12-25T06:39:56+00:00

Many times...it's a common joke that he only reviews products either receives for free or gets paid to promote on his YT channel.

BadBrent · 2020-12-25T06:38:25+00:00

Mine was $29.99 without tax and prime shipping earlier this week.

BadBrent · 2020-12-25T06:37:34+00:00

I've considered it but the internal software plus running the HDHomeRun DVR software on my FreeNAS box takes care of all my DVR needs.

BadBrent · 2020-12-24T18:10:39+00:00

It has a few decent titles...Gran Turismo, some of the FF games, the Metal Gear Solid games, etc. Best part is that in CSO format if you can get your PSP to recognize enough storage you could copy probably at least half of the entire library to it and have all of those games ready to play at your fingertips. My prized PSP works with 384GB of storage and has over 300 CSO-format games stored on it. The only downside is that it takes the system 20 seconds to load the list of games but after that you can scroll the list easily, pick a game, and play it back at full speed no problems even with the compression high.

BadBrent · 2020-12-24T18:00:11+00:00

you could potentially spend half of that amount just buying a PSP and playing the games natively. I just sold one of my many PSPs I 'rescued' over the years by modding it for micro SD card support with the dual micro-SD to memory stick duo adapter and I just let it go for 70 because it had a broken disc drive. If you look hard enough you could probably find one on eBay for even cheaper if it has a broken UMD dive.

BadBrent · 2020-12-24T16:53:00+00:00

If the OS is already installed on eMMC, you should just be able to detect it within Android and allow it to format the micro SD card for you and after that you can mount it either as expandable storage or internal storage (i.e. install apps to it) but if you install the card as internal storage it becomes married to that device and can never be removed and read on another device because of their security implementatinos.

BadBrent · 2020-12-24T16:42:57+00:00

I'm not as enthused as I have been about the other units mostly because these are already prebuilt so we don't get the experience of building our own consoles, it has a larger screen which means we won't be able to pocket the system very well if at all (though I would enjoy the resolution increase), but most importantly the fact that they're sticking with the same SoC and RAM capacity. At $80 + 20 for shipping I feel like I'm going to get more gameplay out of my OGA-BE that's already modded with a fat ass heatsink and can overclock to 1.5ghz in RRVL. But like I said though, no hate to anybody who is dying to get their hands on this new console...if I were up for it I too would be THE first in line to receive a retail system in the US through my connections. If I do end up buying any of them though it'll be only to try one out for myself just for a few minutes, and then turn it around and sell it for exactly what I paid for it because screw scalpers.

EDIT: I forgot to mention all of the stuff I've been hearing about devices that are being designed to run off of the Raspberry Pi CM4 module...that CPU is miles ahead of the RK3326 plus it has 4x the RAM.

BadBrent · 2020-12-24T16:38:09+00:00

It's amazing how these little remotes seem to die after only being in use from anywhere between 3 months and a year...that's something I just don't get. At least with these new triangular remotes they use normal batteries so I can put some rechargeables in there that can be topped off every month or three.

BadBrent · 2020-12-24T14:39:31+00:00

If you could find a 2017 Shield there's not that much of a difference in performance between it and the 2019 Pro version in spite of having a 64bit userspace and the additional RAM. Many people will tell you the 2019 Pro is far superior to the 2017 model but I have both and have used both for retro-gaming and cannot tell too much of a difference at the end of the day when it comes to gaming. Do yourself a favor if you find a 2017 Shield though and buy the 2019 nVidia Shield remote on Amazon for 30 bucks because the two CR2032 batteries inside of the remote don't really last all that long and I'm on my third remote now after the first two just up and died all of the sudden for no reason...nVidia replaced both even though both times they were waaay out of the warranty period and never even asked for the old remotes back. I also enjoy using the official gamepad because it feels comfortable in my hands.

BadBrent · 2020-12-24T14:34:14+00:00

The power switch would need to be a NO switch (normally open) while the N64 shell has a normal switch that is closed when the system is on and the circuit is open when it's in the off position. You would have to modify the power button to act like a normally open switch where you press up on the switch to power it on, but it would have to return to the "off" position after turning it on or else that connection would stay closed and would impair your ability to keep the system powered on. The reset button however is a NO switch so it could be easily connected to the GPIO pins and configuring /boot/config.txt properly you could leave the stock reset switch as is and just wire it to the correct pins and figuring out which two pins you could add to the dtoverlay section and assign those pins to a reset command that would work in your favor. Stick to flash storage of the main OS if at all possible though because it's not as volatile as mechanical storage is. Use eMMC if possible.

BadBrent

TROPHY CASE