¶ Technical data
- Manufacturer: Nintendo
- Year of release: 2006
- Units sold: 101.63 millions
- Best-selling game: Wii Sports
- CPU: IBM PowerPC "Broadway" @ 729 MHz
- RAM: 88 MB (24 MB of 1T-SRAM + 64 MB of GDDR3)
- Video: ATI "Hollywood" @ 243 MHz
- Resolution: 640x480 (480p in 4:3 or 16:9)
- Sound: built-in DSP, stereo output and Dolby Pro Logic II
- Media: proprietary 12 cm DVD, 4.7 GB (and 8.5 GB dual layer)
¶ Presentation
The Nintendo Wii is Nintendo's seventh generation console, released in November 2006. Faced with the power race started by the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, Nintendo took a radically different path: an inexpensive machine, barely more powerful than a GameCube, but fitted with a revolutionary controller, the Wiimote, able to detect motion and pointing thanks to its accelerometers and to the infrared sensor bar placed under or on top of the television.
The bet paid off historically. Bundled with Wii Sports in most regions, the console reached an audience far beyond regular players and sold more than 101 million units. The Nunchuk, the Wii Balance Board, the Wii MotionPlus and the Wii Wheel expanded the concept, while the Wii Shop Channel popularised downloadable WiiWare games and retro Virtual Console titles.
Backwards compatible with the GameCube (early models accept its discs and controllers), the Wii offers a very broad catalogue: Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, Metroid Prime 3, Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Xenoblade Chronicles, plus an impressive amount of family games and party games.
¶ Emulators
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dolphin-gui | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| dolphin | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Libretro dolphin | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
The Wii is only available on RPi5/500 and on PC. It is offered neither on RPi3, RPi Zero 2 and RPi4/400, nor on the OGA/OGS/RG351 and RG353 handhelds: those machines do not have the power required to run Dolphin.
The three entries are the same emulator, Dolphin, in three different forms. Dolphin GUI, the standalone emulator with its full graphical interface, is the one used by default on this system: it is the most convenient for configuring Wiimote emulation. Dolphin is the same standalone version, launched straight into the game. Libretro Dolphin is the core embedded in RetroArch, which brings shaders, save states and the RetroArch overlay.
Netplay is supported by Dolphin GUI and Dolphin; the libretro core does not offer it. CRT output is possible with all three. Softpatching and RetroAchievements are not available on this system. No BIOS is required.
Many Wii games rely on Wiimote pointing and motion. Without a real Wiimote paired over Bluetooth (with a sensor bar or a DolphinBar), those games have to be played with pad-based Wiimote emulation, which is not always comfortable — and can be unplayable for titles requiring MotionPlus.
Wii emulation is demanding. Even on RPi5, not every game runs at full speed; on PC, a graphics card with an up-to-date Vulkan driver is strongly recommended.
¶ Roms
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/wii/
Supported extensions (identical for all three emulators):
| Emulator | Extensions |
|---|---|
| Dolphin GUI | .ciso .elf .gcz .iso .rvz .wad .wbfs .wia |
| Dolphin | .ciso .elf .gcz .iso .rvz .wad .wbfs .wia |
| Libretro Dolphin | .ciso .elf .gcz .iso .rvz .wad .wbfs .wia |
The recommended format is .rvz, Dolphin's modern compression format: it dramatically reduces image size without any data loss. .wbfs is still very common and works perfectly; the older .gcz is read but no longer brings anything compared to .rvz. .wad files correspond to WiiWare and Virtual Console titles.
.zipand.7zarchives are not supported: extract your images before copying them.