Gaming Controller advice

[Dodgexander]

I just inherited an original Wii and discovered the wonderful world of Homebrew and emulation! I didn't imagine how cool it can be running some of my old favourites all on one console!

Whilst the console came with the Wii controllers I do find it a bit weird playing N64 or Playstation 1 games with the Numchuck and WiiRemote.

On top of the Wii I saw there are old Nintendo (Gamecube?) connectors where you can connect controllers.

My questions are, for anyone kind enough to answer:

1. Is it really good enough to the point where it will be worth me buying a controller or two to use with emulation? I mainly want to use it for N64, Gamecube, Wii and Playstation 1 games more than the old titles and the N64 emulators seem to be quite buggy with some games. I like playing Turok the dinosaur hunter (N64) for instance and comparing it on the Wii to on my PC using Retroarch there are weird bugs like crashes when dying or invisible walls when you get up close. Is anyone using the Wii as their sole device for emulation? Or is it better just to use a PC?
2. Then on to controllers specifically, I understand how you will never beat the original console controller but have searched a few threads on here and via google to find out the only controllers that work with both Gamecube, Wii and emulators are the ones designed for the Wii itself, the classic and classic pro controllers. Is this right?
3. If i understand right if I were to buy instead a Gamecube controller, it wouldn't work for Wii games, but it would work for everything else?
4. If the console is too unreliable for N64 emulation compared to a PC is there a controller I can buy that works with both the Wii AND for the PC? At the moment I use an Xbox 360 controller on PC but that doesn't work with the Wii and I believe never will work with Gamecube/Wii games even with an adaptor.
5. What are peoples setups like with controllers, is it really worth buying second hand controllers for each platform you wish to emulate?

I am eager to persue the best emulation platform I can and try to keep things as simple as possible, before I invest in controllers for this Wii, I want to make sure its the right path to take or whether realistically I should consider focussing instead on the PC platform.

Thanks for any help in advance!

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

3.If i understand right if I were to buy instead a Gamecube controller, it wouldn't work for Wii games, but it would work for everything else?

Yes.For example Mario Kart Wii.It maybe CAN happen that your 2nd Party Gamecube controller won´t work correctly.I´ve tried this one:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B003PZC67C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They don´t work correctly.Menu is ok,but on driving i can´t steer/control my Character.

 

[Maeson]

1. Emulation on the Wii is quite respectable or downright great up until N64 and PS1, as those systems are more complicated for the limited power of the system, even if you can play a number of good games on them with decent performance. For portable systems, it can play well systems up to the GBA, and that is pretty well emulated thanks to mGBA being a great fit for the Wii.

You have dozens of systems playable through Wii homebrew, I think it's well worth the time, it gives you access to generations and decades of gaming at a very cheap price, the device is small and quite quiet compared to other systems, and of course, you also get GameCube and Wii games running natively, so in my opinion still beats things like RetroPies and such.

Of course, PC will always be considered the "best" place for emulation, but I personally don't think it's fair or intelligent to compare a closed machine such as a console with a "platform" that is always changing and can wildly vary in its technical specs.

2. Controller support varies with Homebrew. Certain applications can use controllers outside of the Wii's officially compatible controllers, such as PS3 or Xbox controllers, but I never used them, I have no need for it.

Now, about native controllers for the Wii, you have the Wiimote, Wiimte + Nunchuk, the Classic Controller and the GameCube Controller, depending on what you're going to do (or what you'replaying) you can use one or several for said task. Third party controllers may or may not work depending if they were too cheaply made or not. I have a third party GC controller that works, for example, but other one that doesn't. Cheaply made Classic Controllers may not work well with Homebrew, too.

3. GameCube Controller can work with Wii games, if they support it. The amount of games is not very high (after all, not everyone that bought a Wii, had a GC), but usually can be used with fighting games, retro game collections, some driving games, etc. Classic Controller is much more widely supported.

4. As I said, what controllers can be used with emulators on Wii depends on if the emulator was compiled with support for HID controllers and such. I have no idea about this subject besides this.

5. What do you mean by "each platform"? Having a NES, SNES, Mega Drive controller and such? If it's that, I personally see no point in that. While I understand why would one to play with the "proper" controller, one of the cool things about emulation is being able to play games with controllers with a bigger number of buttons for customization and comfortability.

But with that said, the Wiimote sideways resembles the NES PAD, the Classic Controller is already mimicking the SNES pad, and it acts as a PS1 pad easily because of the analog sticks. For emulation I'm personally more than satisfied with the GC and CC Controllers myself (and maybe Wiimote for those Light Gun games).

----

Anyway... If you have a good computer and you only care for "the best", use that because that's the only way. Emulation will always be kept improving on PC, as it is not one single physical object. I personally have been using my Wii as a "main" source of gaming (I play mostly retro stuff, I can't bring myself to care that much about current gaming with the state medium, specially big stuff) and I'm quite happy with it, which is commendable specially considering it's over a decade old hardware what we're talking about.

The Wii is humble but it does a great job as an emulation machine with a low investment, plus access to two entire libraries natively, with other little things sprinkled around such as the ability to output 240P for people that want to play on CRTs, having a variety of controllers you can use and such.

Also I rather enjoy that "disconnected from the world" feeling it gives me, compared to constantly get bombarded with alerts, warnings and such as usually happens when playing on PCs and modern consoles, but that's just me.

 

[Heran Bago]

Get a Classic Controller Pro. Works with all emulator homebrew.

There are a lot of controllers that plug into the Wii remote and behave as a Classic Controller or Classic Controller Pro. The Hori Battle Pad and PDP Fight Pad, both of which are still sold as Wii U stuff, are fantastic Gamecube replicas.

 

[Dodgexander]

thanks guys. My concern buying a controller or two for the Wii is that a lot of the games I want to emulate come from the N64 & PS1 and it seems the Wii excels more as an emulator for everything else.

Yes I play the occasional older game, but not often.

The N64 in particular seems a real pain to emulate successfully even on my computer which has mid to high range specs, yet as already mentioned the computer is a lot bigger, a lot noisier and not as convenient as turning on a console.

I love what you can do with the Wii but I am trying to figure out whether for me, its worth buying controllers to use it or if I am best just sticking to my computer instead.

Not a lot lost either way I guess, just would be nice if the most compatible controllers for the Wii were also PC compatible.

 

[Maeson]

Well, I think you can buy USB adapters for Classic Controller and GameCube. You have 8Bitdos' GBros. for example, which can connect your NES / SNES / Wii Classic Controllers and your GC Controller through bluetooth to both Nintendo Switch and Windows 7 and up.

But anyway, as far as Wii and N64, besides emulators, you also have the Virtual Console releases, 21 games in total with quite a few heavy hitters. And also, I didn't mention it, but there's also several N64 emulators available. You have Wii64, Wii64 Rice and Not64. Each one is better for different games.

For PS1 I can't say much, though. I played a few things with it, but I got myself a PS2 a year ago and that's what I use since then. Although, funny enough, the PS Classic may be a decent choice.

While Sony completely embarrassed themselves with it (seriously, it was so easy to get it right, yet they screwed up in such a gigantic way, who puts 50hz games on anything anymore?), once hacked, it can work pretty well. In fact as far as I read is better than a RetroPie hardware wise, and because it failed so hard at attracting people, it can be bought much, much cheaper than its original price of 100 dollars/euros, now it can be found around 30 and probably keep going down, and the homebrew scene seems to be growing, it may end up being a decent emulation box too.

 

[slaphappygamer]

Just for Nintendont and mario kart wii, I got one of these. The rumble doesn’t work, but I don’t use that anyway. I did have to open the controller and shave the plastic around the C stick and analog stick. No biggie though. Awesome controller. I’d try to get a legit wave bird if I was to do it all over again.

As far as emulation goes, the wii is great. N64 and psx are out of the scope of what the wii can handle. The knockoff wavebird works with lots of emulators that support the controller.

 

[Heran Bago]

thanks guys. My concern buying a controller or two for the Wii is that a lot of the games I want to emulate come from the N64 & PS1 and it seems the Wii excels more as an emulator for everything else.


...

Not a lot lost either way I guess, just would be nice if the most compatible controllers for the Wii were also PC compatible.

N64 emulation via homebrew is bad, but via Virtual Console and injection works well for many titles. Look for custon .wad or injected .wad files.
Forget about PS1 on Wii.


Wii remotes can be connected to a PC with bluetooth and you can continue to use it and any controllers you plug in with your PC. If you on-board bluetooth doesn't support it or doesn't exist, you can buy a very cheap USB bluetooth dongle for your PC.

Personally, I recommend the PC connected to your TV for emulation.

 

[Maeson]

Has the VC Injection evolved in some way? Because the "compatibility" list here shows that very few games do actually work well that way, it can be outdated (wouldn't be the first).

 

[Dodgexander]

Hi guys I just wanted to say thanks for you good advice I bought a couple of Wii pro controllers second hand on eBay.

The main draw has been the virtual console titles, my wife is a big Zelda fan and she's even been playing a lot of wario 3 on gba for nostalgia.

We will keep our laptops for any games that don't run so well emulated on the Wii and potentially invest in a designated box in the future.

PC emulation is looking up with vulkan support and N64 emulation is a lot more impressive when using software emulation. That will only get better as CPUs get more powerful.

I can't wait for the day I can play Goldeneye without any glitches or frame drops, presently it's still too choppy using software rendering on pc (i7 7700) and for some reason retroarch dropped the vulkan accelerated rendering.

 

[Maeson]

If she ends up liking Wario Land, maybe it would be worth her time to check Wario Land: Shake It! for the Wii. It's a fantastic title with a very charming presentation, great music and fun gameplay, specially the challenges each stage offer. It ended becoming my favourite game in the series.

 

[SnackJr]

In my experience, N64 and PS1 emulation is near unplayable but to be fair that was years ago so it may have improved.

On the topic at hand, You can't go wrong with the classic controller. I got mine in a bundle with the Goldeneye special edition and have put some insane miles on it. the drawback is of course being connected to the Wiimote and worrying about the battery. The Gamecube controller might be a little funky (at least to me it is) but you can put in some long hours without worrying about batteries and all that jazz.

 

[Maeson]

I personally don't see the problem with batteries on the Wiimote. Since I started using rechargeable batteries it became a non-issue, and I use pretty average 2400 mAh ones. They last me a good number of hours, but because the controller can do many different things it depends on what you're playing, and I couldn't really give you an exact number of hours (pressing buttons is not the same as using motion or aiming controls plus buttons plus rumble and the speaker, of course).

In my experience even when the battery icon on the Wii home menu only has one bar it can still take a couple of hours to actually drain entirely, although I usually have the speaker and rumble turned off.

If the Wiimote had an internal battery; that would be a bigger issue. Internal batteries are pretty bad choice for long term use, as they start losing power and over time they charge less and lose charge faster, which is a very common issue with the DualShock 4 for example, which already uses a disappointingly small 1000 mAh battery. The Wii U Gamepad is another example.

Of course, using a wired controller makes you not have to worry about battery, which is cool (and I use the GC controller for many retro games that don't require the diamond shaped layout for buttons), but wires have also become an annoyance for most people nowadays. That's why the Wavebird back then was also a really well liked controller, it was wireless yet it lasted a really long time, although it didn't have rumble.

I guess it depends on how you want to see things.

 

[Dodgexander]

If she ends up liking Wario Land, maybe it would be worth her time to check Wario Land: Shake It! for the Wii. It's a fantastic title with a very charming presentation, great music and fun gameplay, specially the challenges each stage offer. It ended becoming my favourite game in the series.

I will try it and see if she likes it, thanks!

In my experience, N64 and PS1 emulation is near unplayable but to be fair that was years ago so it may have improved.

On the topic at hand, You can't go wrong with the classic controller. I got mine in a bundle with the Goldeneye special edition and have put some insane miles on it. the drawback is of course being connected to the Wiimote and worrying about the battery. The Gamecube controller might be a little funky (at least to me it is) but you can put in some long hours without worrying about batteries and all that jazz.

I got lucky with the two controllers, both used but you could barely tell. Very happy with them and how comfortable they feel. Took some getting used to the analogue sticks being in different spots but we love em.

I personally don't see the problem with batteries on the Wiimote. Since I started using rechargeable batteries it became a non-issue, and I use pretty average 2400 mAh ones. They last me a good number of hours, but because the controller can do many different things it depends on what you're playing, and I couldn't really give you an exact number of hours (pressing buttons is not the same as using motion or aiming controls plus buttons plus rumble and the speaker, of course).

In my experience even when the battery icon on the Wii home menu only has one bar it can still take a couple of hours to actually drain entirely, although I usually have the speaker and rumble turned off.

If the Wiimote had an internal battery; that would be a bigger issue. Internal batteries are pretty bad choice for long term use, as they start losing power and over time they charge less and lose charge faster, which is a very common issue with the DualShock 4 for example, which already uses a disappointingly small 1000 mAh battery. The Wii U Gamepad is another example.

Of course, using a wired controller makes you not have to worry about battery, which is cool (and I use the GC controller for many retro games that don't require the diamond shaped layout for buttons), but wires have also become an annoyance for most people nowadays. That's why the Wavebird back then was also a really well liked controller, it was wireless yet it lasted a really long time, although it didn't have rumble.

I guess it depends on how you want to see things.

Yeah, and I have two Nyko remotes that are rechargeable anyway so having the controllers into them isn't a big deal. It seems weird being wireless but wired but there you go, its the way it is. For my stock Nintendo remotes I just use cheap batteries and will probably get rechargeable ones eventually.

Thank you all for the help, its been great.