Wii ROMs

The Wii has various software available for download, MarioCube is recommended for downloading GameCube, Wii and Nintendo DS games. This document will give you download links and essentials.

Essentials

Get access to MarioCube

There is a public repository that contains WADs but most games (Wii & GameCube) are on the private drives. Join their Google groups and you can see their drives in shared hidden drives.

Quick Channel Download Links

The WiiLink Patcher by default always excludes certain channels, here are quick download links to their WADs. If you are on vWii you will need to download an extra hidden channel for vWii's EULA.⁴

Channels Downloads Service
Forecast Channel WiiLink
News Channel WiiLink
Check Mii Out Channel
(also known as Mii Contest Channel)		 WiiLink
Everybody Votes Channel WiiLink
Nintendo Channel WiiLink
Internet Channel
Kirby TV Channel WiiLink
Food Channel²˒³
The Domino's version only works in US and Canada.		 WiiLink
Domino's
Demae Channel²
(referred to as Food Channel)		 WiiLink
Digicam Print Channel²
(referred to as Photo Prints Channel)		 WiiLink
Wii Speak Channel Wiimmfi¹
Get Connected Video
(sometimes called Wii + Internet Channel)

¹This channel also technically makes use of WiiLink with the Address Book integration, this means that to get this channel online you will have to use the WiiLink Mail Patcher.

²These channels require the hidden WiiLink Address Setings app, by default you need to set an email addresss.

³This requires a special link with a real Wii console and a Discord bot. Using the Get Console ID app, input your console ID with the /dominos command in WiiLink's #bot-commands channel.

⁴vWii will likely try to update, but will fail or not get anything. The System Channel Restorer app can download the EULA among some other things.

Setting up the storage device

Whether you use an SD Card or a USB Drive, you'll have to set the storage device exactly as shown. WAD-based files do not need to have that much attention to the structure, but it is still recommended to use it.

Wii and GameCube games

💾 Storage Device
 ┣ 📂 wbfs
 ┃  ┣ 📂 Mario Kart Wii [RMCE01]
 ┃  ┃  ┗ 📜RMCE01.wbfs
 ┃  ┣ 📂 Wii Sports [RSPE01]
 ┃  ┃  ┗ 📜RSPE01.wbfs
 ┃  ┗ 📂 Super Smash Bros. Brawl [RSBE01]
 ┃      ┣ 📜RSBE01.wbfs
 ┃      ┗ 📜RSBE01.wbf1
 ┗ 📂 games
     ┣ 📂 Mario Kart Double Dash [GM4E01]
     ┃  ┗ 📜GM4E01.ciso
     ┗ 📂 Luigi's Mansion [GLME01]
         ┗ 📜GLME01.wbfs

This example uses 3 Wii and 2 GameCube games, with North American title IDs. You can always search for your game on GameTDB. Games files over 4 GB have split ROMs, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is here for an example of how split ROMs should be structured.

WiiWare, Virtual Console, and Channels

💾 Storage Device
 ┗ 📂 WAD
     ┣ 📜 My Aquarium (WiiWare).wad
     ┣ 📜 Forecast Channel [WiiLink].wad
     ┗ 📜 Super Mario World (SNES) (VC) (NA).wad

WADs can have any name formatting but it is recommended to put them in the WAD folder because that is what most WAD managers look for, simplifying the install process.

Questions

My games don't have any covers for them!

Press 1 on the Wiimote to open the cover download dialog

My games have black banners!

This may be due to a bad ROM, you can possibly try to download the ROM from a generic ROM website and see if it has a good banner

I can't find any games I want with the MarioCube links.

You can also search your shared hidden drives for the game's name with Google Drive's search tool. If not you can use a generic ROM website, see the file types above to know what you should be getting.

What do these file types mean?

Extension Usage Best Used With...
.wad Wii software YAWMME
.wbfs Wii disc ROM USB Loader GX
WiiFlow
.gcm GameCube ROM Nintendont
Dolphin
.iso Generic disc image USB Loader GX
WiiFlow
Nintendont
.ciso Generic compressed disc image Nintendont
.nkit.iso Generic scrubbed disc image Nintendont
.rvz GameCube/Wii ROM for Dolphin Dolphin
.gcz GameCube/Wii ROM for Dolphin Dolphin