Written by Brakken
March 2007
Introduction
Welcome to my review of the Wiikey, the third professionally produced solution for booting
unsigned code on the Nintendo Wii. Long before the competing chips were announced rumor had
it that the XenoGC Team had been working on a chip and low and behold they finally released
one. Is patience a virtue? In this instance, yes. This little chip sure packs a punch when
it comes to features, functionality and performance. Is all you need to mod your Wii with?
Let’s find out…
Features
Direct Boot of Wii backups
Direct Boot of GC backups
Direct Boot of Homebrew in GC Mode
Supports all Currently Available Console/Drive Versions
Supports D2B Chipsets
Sophisticated (true) Update Mechanism via DVD (future proof, expect cool features to come)
Direct Boot of Different NTSC Region Wii Games/Backups on US and JAP Consoles
Partial Support for NTSC Region Wii Games/Backups on PAL Consoles
Boots Different Region GC games/backups (partially without swapping)
Supports Multi-Disc Games for BOTH Wii and GameCube
Supports DVD-R / True DVD+R and +RW Support (no bit setting required!)
Improved Read settings for Recordable Media
Built-in Audio Fix
Supports Full-size 4GB Discs for GameCube Homebrew
Stealth Mode
512 byte EEPROM to Store Configuration
Easy 6 Wires to Solder
Unique Disc Backup Application via SDCARD
Compact Design, Best Quality Components, Rock Solid High Speed Controller
Comes in Professional ESD Packing
Installation
Installation the Wiikey is a straightforward process. First you’ll need to obtain a Triwing
screwdriver to disassemble your Nintendo Wii with. Once this is done you’ll need to take it
apart until you reach the DVD-ROM controller board. After you’ve located this board you can
solder the Wiikey directly onto the Serial Port or use wires if you think you’ll be removing
it sometime soon.
Overall the soldering job is pretty simple and can be compared to the GameCube in terms of
difficulty. You’ll be soldering onto six points two of which are rather large and the other
four are pretty simple to solder onto. Due to the fact you can solder the chip directly onto
the serial port you’re looking at a quicker job. Even though you can solder it using the
“Quicksolder” method I choose to use wires in case I would need to remove the chip down
the road.
If you’re soldering it directly onto the Serial Port I would suggest tinning the solder
points on the chip first and then applying a small amount of flux on the tinned points
before soldering the Wiikey into position. Doing so will help all of the points form a
solder joint properly.
Of course you can get away with just using a bit of solder, but having flux and the points
pre-tinned will aid in the process. I would try to make sure to keep the iron off of the
four points as if you keep it on one too long you can lift the pad. I did and had to
follow the trace from the pad to the DVD-ROM’s IC and solder it directly onto one of
it’s legs. You’ll notice that in the pictures.
Usage
Once you have the chip attached and you’ve put your Nintendo Wii back together it’s time
to test out the chips features. The first thing I did was run the Configuration Disc,
which unlocked the Region Free settings and set the Read Speed to 6x. Once this brief
setup process was done I started testing the chips features.
The first feature I tested was the Wii’s ability to boot backup games. I started with
a GameCube backup and then tested a few Wii backups. All of the titles booted and even
a problem game that gave me disc read errors (DRE) with other chips worked flawlessly
without getting any DRE. The Wiikey so far has superior booting capabilities compared
to the other two chips on the market.
Next I tested booting NTSC-J (Japanese) games and they worked without a hitch. Both
GameCube and Wii imports booted successfully. Sadly, all I had to test with were backups,
but I’ve been reassured that import originals will also boot without a hitch. So far
everything is working out great!
Next I tested out the Wiikey’s ability to read from different media types. DVD-R, DVD+R
and DVD+RW all worked out great. Sadly, if you’ve already set the bitsetting of your
DVD+R to DVD-ROM and burned some discs these DVD+R discs will have to be reburnt as
normal DVD+R as they fail to boot. So all three media types work just fine!
Next came the homebrew tests. All of SoftDev’s emulators loaded without any issues,
but sadly none of them could load ROM images from SD Card. However, all of them except
the NES emulator could load ROM images from DVD. MFE, the front end for Mplayer also
loaded fine and with a little trick played back a full sized disc filled with media files.
Of course due to internal changes with the Broad Band Adapter GC-Linux failed to boot.
Conclusion
Overall I’d say the Wiikey is on top when it comes to its compatibility with backups and
imports. Additionally, the quality of the chip plus the fact it can be upgraded is good
enough reason for me to say the Wiikey is the chip to get if you’re in the market for a
Nintendo Wii modchip! Should you get a Wiikey instead of the competition – at the time
of writing this hell yeah!
Negatives
Quicksolder Method Makes Harder to Remove
No Instructions and/or Documentation Included
Positives
Ease of Installation/Operation!
You Can Really Upgrade it!
The Price is Right!
Links
Official Wiikey Website
Mod-Chip.com - Official Worldwide Reseller
-=[ Wiikey Review Discussion Thread ]=-
Product(s) were received from the website above. ISO-420 will always link back to whomever sent the
product(s) *respect*, but please remember that the reviews are independently written by our staff
and are not subject to alteration by whomever supplies us with the review product(s).
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