this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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Steam Deck

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I used the Sunshine game streaming software and the WiiU homebrew port of Moonlight to get game streaming working on a WiiU gamepad. It's sort of like a bootleg Steam Deck, and it works surprisingly well, but it mostly just made me want a Steam Deck.

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[–] HouseWolf@pawb.social 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Now the real question is.

Can I emulate WiiU games on my Desktop PC while using the Steamdeck as the pad/2nd screen?

I believe MattKC is working on emulating WiiU game pads, but I don't think it's possible yet.

[–] k0mprssd@pie.bumbum.lol 9 points 1 day ago

its so cursed... I love it

[–] Turret3857@infosec.pub 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

LMAO, I just set this up on my Wii U myself! Crazy coincidence.

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's a fun little hack! I like how it's alllllllmost practical, but not quite :-) The biggest limitation for me right now if that I have to stay within 10 feet of my WiiU console or it has a bad time.

[–] Turret3857@infosec.pub 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Idk if you have one already, but the Wii LAN adapter helps a lot with latency and bitrate. It won't help the limitations of the Wii U Gampads poor Signal strength, but its something :P

Also, moonlight works pretty alright on the 3DS and Switch if youre looking for more projects lol

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

If you can't find an original adapter, I can confirm this one works. Most of the other ones I had laying around wouldn't work. I had to search for this one. It was only $15 when I got it in January 2025, not sure why it's $25 now

[–] Turret3857@infosec.pub 2 points 21 hours ago

Its any Ethernet adapter with the AX88772 chipset. I would also go for getting it from any other online seller :P

[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 70 points 2 days ago (4 children)

The WiiU was ahead of its time.

Great little console.

[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 3 points 11 hours ago

I'm a bit confused why it never really caught on. It had so much potential. I loved playing a game while having the map on the little screen for example. Or the inventory or whatever.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 51 points 2 days ago

The WiiU crawled so the Switch could walk so the Deck could run

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 32 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Looking back, it almost feels like a Switch prototype. It's a goofy little thing, but I love it. That said, I also love the Nintendo Virtual Boy, so my judgement might be questionable.

[–] TeddE@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

At the time, Microsoft and Sony were playing this "more graphics = more better" game and Nintendo decided it couldn't compete on that front. You can see a bit of the "compete on anything but graphics" mentality in the Wii and Wii U, then they took what worked and refined it into the Switch and Switch 2.

[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 days ago

Yeah, it did so many things wrong and had so many little annoyances regarding the gamepad.

Still, great games and a wonderful charm to it.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The virtual boy was ahead of its time, too. Teleroboxer is still my favorite game that no one played.

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's one of my favorites, too! Almost like a Punch Out!! spinoff. VB Wario Land is worthy of the praise it receives, but I also really like the Virtual Boy's StarFox-like, Red Alarm.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Red Alarm is definitely my Number 2 on VB, Followed by Wario. I need to search my basement and see if I still have them...

Teleroboxer reminds me of a cross between Punch Out & Metal Combat for the Super Scope, another underrated gem.

At least that one got a sequel!

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Super deep cut (this might be my most obscure bit of Nintendo trivia as I couldn't find any images of it online), but have you ever seen the hidden wireframe models in Red Alarm? If you shoot very specific places in game, you can reveal low-poly 3D models of a Virtual Boy, Game Boy, and even a girl in a bikini... for some reason. I wonder if Nintendo's top brass were aware of that one when it shipped :-)

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

Ha!

I was about to mention those in my last comment! I remember it was like weird bits of terrain you had to shoot so many times in certain levels to get the Easter egg. Pretty sure I saw the locations in Nintendo Power...

A low poly wireframe bikini girl had to be hidden back in the day, and now there's porn games on the Switch Store!

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I agree. I think the problem with it is that it was just too complicated. With most Nintendo system what you see is what you get - with the Wii, those people having a good time swinging around their little Toblerones really are playing a game; the Switch really is a home console grade portable handheld thing; the WiiU manages to look like both those things without being either.

[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The forced gamepad integration didn’t help, like why tf do I need the gamepad to connect to WiFi.

[–] afaix@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It doesn’t need wifi though, PlayStation portal does. But yeah, the second screen was a questionable idea - too hard to implement in an interesting way, makes all local multiplayer games asymmetrical, makes porting difficult… Even Nintendo gave up

I mean connecting the console itself to WiFi, you are required to use the gamepad for most settings.

There’s no controller/wiimote fallback option.

actually the gampad does need WiFi*, it's just that the Wii U is the access point to its slightly non compliant WiFi ac network.

[–] iamdisappoint@reddthat.com 5 points 1 day ago

This is really cool! I have an old WiiU, adding this to my project list... :)

[–] Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh it looks cool! Great way to recycle something👍

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Thank you! I think the impracticality of it all adds an extra layer of fun :-)

[–] cardfire@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago

Always, this. :)

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Hey neat! I did the same thing a few months ago! Not sure how to link things on here.

Did you also swap the charger for USB C?

Edit: This is the streaming post. And this is the USB C mod.

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Neat! Nah, I haven't done the USB C mod, but that looks pretty slick. I just use the charging cradle that came with the black WiiU deluxe set.

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's fair. The box that held all my wiiu stuff was mysteriously missing the pad charger. I think I used a dock before too? At any rate, I didn't want another charger laying around. I've got four 6 foot USBC cables coming out of a pair of chargers under my couch that I use for everything. It only made sense to change it over 🤷‍♂️

So far it works great. Though I about to not using very often, I've got an actual steam deck, and recently got a better laptop, so I primarily use those 🤷‍♂️

If someone wants to buy it for whatever the going rate of an unmodded wiiu is, I'm game. My ADHD enjoyed the process of modding it, now is back in a box lol

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I think the white sets (at least in the US) might have shipped with a non-charging stand? Pretty sure there were white sets released in Japan that included one, though. Sounds like a nice setup! Maybe I should start USBC modding some of my stuff, if only to pare down my Big Drawer of Cables.

[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 18 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Wii U is one of the best consoles of all time and hardly anyone knows it

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 14 points 2 days ago

Eeeehhhhh...

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

There are dozens of us!

[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I would definitely not push it that far, but it was just good enough. I liked the tablet, and a lot of the games that were showcased on it were fun. All it had to be was a little more powerful, and not be absolutely destroyed by the horrible branding

[–] viral.vegabond@piefed.social 9 points 2 days ago

'super wii'

it was right there...

[–] FRYD@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What’s the latency like on that? I have a dusty wiiU and this seems like a fun little project

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Slightly perceptible, but totally playable. Considering all the hops it has to make, it's surprisingly good. I have both my WiiU and my desktop hooked up to ethernet, which helps. Games like Portal 2 work well because they don't usually require split second inputs, but anything requiring precision (like a rhythm game) would probably be a struggle.

[–] Akip@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

negligible compared to the pal display and jet engine noise?

[–] FRYD@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I have no idea what you’re talking about.

[–] Akip@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

the wii-u console, required to run the gamepad is loud, and the display is 854 x 480 pixels

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

480 would be NTSC. PAL was higher resolution. But, yeah, the latency was basically imperceptible but the fan noise was real.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] defaultusername@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

No. NTSC is 525 lines and PAL is 625. This includes the overscal lines.

NTSC has a visable line count of 480, hence 480i. PAL has 576 lines visable, or 576i.

[–] FRYD@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ohh yeah it’s been a really long time since i used it

[–] Akip@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 days ago

Last time, when I used it, to take my save games over to cemu I was really appreciative how quiet my gaming pc was in comparison haha. I miss fire hopping in Mario kart :(

Holy bezels, I remember having a Wii U

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 days ago

Pretty cool, I didn't know about the moonlight fork.

Probably going to see a lot of memes about Wii u running the newest most demanding games.