Help: Issues with running NTSC-U GC games on a PAL Wii

[dannyb0yy21]

I have a GC-compatible PAL Wii which I have softmodded with Homebrew Channel and Priiloader. The OS running on my Wii is 4.3E and there are no hardware issues. On Priiloader, I enabled " region-free everything " assuming that it would accept Wii and GameCube games from any region.

Soon I purchased NTSC-U copies of Resident Evil 4 ( RE 4), SSX 3 and NBA Street Vol. 3. My seller is legit and he assured me that every game is working. The game discs are visibly in excellent condition. However, upon testing the games, every title behaved differently.

1. NBA Street Vol. 3 booted up perfectly and I was able to play and save my game. No issues with it so far.
2. SSX 3 appeared readable on the Disc Channel but did not boot after selecting " play ". It only showed a black screen. Pushing Reset on the Wii did not help.
3. With RE 4, Disc 1 did not appear readable on the Disc Channel at all, but Disc 2 did and it booted. However the tile screen and the opening cinematic on Disc 2 played at about 60% vertical resolution. Swapping out Disc 2 for Disc 1 did not help, since the screen displayed " The game disc could not be read ".

I'm at my wit's end here. Since one game played correctly, I cannot say that Priiloader doesn't work at all. I'm not sure on the GameCube compatibility rate of a Priiloader-enabled Wii and whether NTSC-U titles ( at least ) are a hit-or-miss deal.

Kindly help me with this baffling situation.

 

[Sypherone]

There are threads within here with similar problem also here, but without solution. This one on external forum seems to have a working solution. Else @CoolMe might have some idea.

 

[CoolMe]

I assume you're using composite cables and maybe a crt too? If so, out of region (GC) games will not display correctly (in b&w).
The black screen could be a result of forcing video mode to PAL60 or 50, if you have such setting enabled it might be the cause of it. Or it could be defective/corrupted discs? Not likely, but you should dump them and verify their hash if they're original discs..
You can launch discs from Nintendont instead of the home menu, and disable force video mode if you have enabled, and test again..

 

[dannyb0yy21]

I assume you're using composite cables and maybe a crt too? If so, out of region (GC) games will not display correctly (in b&w).
The black screen could be a result of forcing video mode to PAL60 or 50, if you have such setting enabled it might be the cause of it. Or it could be defective/corrupted discs? Not likely, but you should dump them and verify their hash if they're original discs..
You can launch discs from Nintendont instead of the home menu, and disable force video mode if you have enabled, and test again..

Actually, my Wii is hooked up to a Smart TV via a Wii2HDMI adapter I found on Amazon on the cheap. I'm unsure as to whether forced video mode would be an issue in my case.

 

[CoolMe]

Post a syscheck here.
Then the GC discs should launch from the home menu, without the need of any Priiloader or Nintendont hacks.. I'd rip them and compare their hash with a known good dump..

 

[Sypherone]

NTSC-U uses 60hz (480p) with progressic scan and PAL uses 50hz (576i) or 60hz (480i) frequency with interlaced to display a pictureg on the screen. This are two different standards where are the games in the specific region are designed for.
So in first case its a config problem. If for example the Wii is set for standard Pal it tryes to display the game with 50hz or 60hz (50/60 pictures per sec per interlaced) and the NTSC game will use 60hz (60 fullpictures per sec), so you will get a display problem.

 

[CoolMe]

NTSC-U uses 50hz with progressic scan and PAL uses 60hz frequency with interlaced to display a pictureg on the screen. This are two different standards where are the games in the specific region are designed for.
So in first case its a config problem. If for example the Wii is set for standard Pal it tryes to display the game with 60hz (60 pictures per sec per interlaced) and the NTSC game will use 50hz (50 fullpictures per sec), so you will get a display problem.

That's quite incorrect. NTSC = 60Hz while PAL can be either 50 or 60Hz depending on the game.

 

[totakeke95]

The priiloader hack doesn't always work, maybe it works in some games but not others. Also even if you have the adapter connected the games will output an interlaced image (480i). Try launching your discs through NIntendont, I'm not sure if Nintendont can manipulate the video modes using disc games. If so, you can force the video mode to NTSC 480p.

 

[dannyb0yy21]

Here is the syscheck CoolMe.

The site did not load for me, so I had to type it out and double check lol.


Syscheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, and Nano
...runs on IOS58 (rev6176).

Region: PAL
System Menu 4.3E (v514)
Priiloader installed
Drive date: 12.08.2008
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 1401827814
Console Type: Wii
Shop Channel Country: India (169)
Boot2 v4
Found 76 titles.
Found 47 IOS on this console. 17 of them are stubs,

IOS3 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 1034): No Patches
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 256): Stub
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS16 (rev 512): Stub
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 256): Stube
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 2816): Stub
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 3072): Stub
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS41 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 5120): Stub
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 6400): Stub
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS62 (rev 6430): NO Patches
IOS70 (rev 6912): Stub
IOS80 (rev 6944): No Patches
IOS222 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS223 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS249 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS250 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS254 (rev 65280): BootMii
BC v6
MIOS v10
Report generated on 10/08/2022.

 

[Sypherone]

Ios 249, 250, 251 are stub. There need to be patched ioses. And Priiloader need this patched 249, because there is a option in Priiloader settings to force disc games to use ios 249. And in case you will use any homebrew or USB Loder you will need them, too.
Please follow this guide https://wii.guide/cios.html

 

[CoolMe]

Here is the syscheck CoolMe.

The site did not load for me, so I had to type it out and double check lol.


Syscheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, and Nano
...runs on IOS58 (rev6176).

Region: PAL
System Menu 4.3E (v514)
Priiloader installed
Drive date: 12.08.2008
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 1401827814
Console Type: Wii
Shop Channel Country: India (169)
Boot2 v4
Found 76 titles.
Found 47 IOS on this console. 17 of them are stubs,

IOS3 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 1034): No Patches
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 256): Stub
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS16 (rev 512): Stub
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 256): Stube
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 2816): Stub
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 3072): Stub
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS41 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 5120): Stub
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 6400): Stub
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS62 (rev 6430): NO Patches
IOS70 (rev 6912): Stub
IOS80 (rev 6944): No Patches
IOS222 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS223 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS249 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS250 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS254 (rev 65280): BootMii
BC v6
MIOS v10
Report generated on 10/08/2022.

You are missing the cIOS 249, 250 & 250. Either use ModMii to download them, just drag & drop your syscheck onto and it'lk tell you what to do.. Or get them from the Wii.guide website.

 

[dannyb0yy21]

I have patched the required IOSes as per the cIOS guide provided by Sypherone. syscheck reveals:

IOS249[57] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS250[56] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS251[38] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access

Kindly advise me on the next step.

 

[Sypherone]

Try the game disc again. Else go into Priiloader settings and activate "Force Disc Games to run under IOS249". Then try again. If still dont work please provide us a screenshots of the Priiloader settings.

EDIT: Or get Nintendont and try running the game disc through it. Maybe force then in Nintendont to use NTSC for the game disc.

 

[totakeke95]

I forgot to say that you can also use Neogamma and load your discs. This loader can force different video modes. Also I think GC games don't use cIOS... someone correct me if that's the case. Only Wii games use them.

EDIT

The hack "Force Disc Games to run under IOS249 only works for Wii games, not GC.

 

[Sypherone]

Ya, Nintendont only uses ios 58.

 

[dannyb0yy21]

SSX 3 and RE4 Disc 1 do not boot regardless of enabling " Force Disc Games to run under IOS249 ". I have shared a screenshot of the Priiloader system hacks.

Post automatically merged: Oct 8, 2022

I forgot to say that you can also use Neogamma and load your discs. This loader can force different video modes. Also I think GC games don't use cIOS... someone correct me if that's the case. Only Wii games use them.

EDIT

The hack "Force Disc Games to run under IOS249 only works for Wii games, not GC.

Kindly guide me on installing/running Neogamma, Totakeke95.

Somehow I'm not able to make Nintendont appear on my Homebrew Channel. Perhaps there's an issue with the meta.xml file. Since I cannot see the option of downloading the file, I've tried copying the code onto Notepad and saving it as " meta.xml " but to no avail.

 

[CoolMe]

Forcing NTSC video mode will not help with anything, since he is using a Wii2hdmi adapter and hdtv, the ntsc signal will displayed natively. It can be case of region locking because he already tried a ntsc game and it "worked" for him. The only thing's left is the discs themselves, unless he dumps them there's no telling they're corrupted.

 

[Sypherone]

For Nintendont normaly, it just needs to be downloaded and the loader.dol, meta.xml and icon.png must be put into /apps/Nintendont/ on your SD-Card . Then it should appear like other homebrew in homebrew channel. There is nothing to edit in meta.xml.

Forcing NTSC video mode will not help with anything, since he is using a Wii2hdmi adapter and hdtv, the ntsc signal will displayed natively.

Ok, but the Wii2HDMI is a converter. So first the Wii must be able to output a correct signal, then the adapter recognizes the used displayformat and converts it to a progressiv hdmi signal (upscaled HD displayformat)
Converter input: 480i, 480p, 576i (all Wii formats)
Converter output: 720p (HD ready), 1080p (Full HD)
So first it may need to force the Wii or app to use a signal that matches the one of the out of region game.

And ya, in last case its the region lock because priiloader cant unlock it, or disc corruption.

 

[totakeke95]

https://wiidatabase.de/downloads/usb-und-disk-loader/neogamma/

Put it in the apps folder along with the other homebrew apps. Start it and a menu will appear, then go to region options > Force video and choose NTSC 480p, go back to menu and load the disc. If there is still no image, change the video mode to NTSC. Maybe you should need composite cables because most GC games don't support progressive.

 

[Sypherone]

@dannyb0yy21 Iam interested, did you get finally run the NTSC game disc on the Pal Wii?

The way around this would be to install that game disc onto an external USB hard drive. Put the disc in and run USB Loader GX and click on the round button bottom left. Providing there is enough space on the drive it will make an image of that game disc onto the drive then you run the game from USB Loader GX.