Wii U Newbie looking for advice and resources

[bfollowell]

So, I'm a longtime AA user, mainly in the A8 & ST forums. I've never been overly big into consoles, especially since my kids all left he nest. I've recently been given a Wii U by a neighbor and want to tinker with it. He stated that everything worked with it the last time he turned it on except for the motion sensor. It wasn't in the original box and had no documentation but it had the base unit and it's PSU, the control pad with screen, it's charging dock and power cable, and a couple of nunchuck controllers. It came with no physical games but he said Mario Cart and another game or two were downloaded onto it. Of course, I'm assuming those are only through their account, so who knows if they'll still work or not, especially if I wipe the system.

 

Let me start off by saying that I'm not a collector for any system and never will be. Collecting holds no interest for me. I'm a user/player/tinkerer. It seems like I've heard that this is a decent little retro/emulation machine though and I do love to tinker. So, what can I do with this thing other than pickup a few physical Wii U games? Where is a good place for me to turn for information and resources for someone who's last foray into the Nintendo world was when the GameCube was new and hot?

 

Thanks.

 

[Asaki]

Games are probably tied to their accounts, yes.

I haven't tried doing anything nefarious with the WiiU itself, but if you look up how to soft mod a regular Wii, the same thing applies to a WiiU running in Wii mode. You'll just be missing the GameCube support (can't read the discs or plug in controllers or memory paks).

If by "motion sensor" you mean the sensor bar, there's another smaller one built into the Gamepad itself, but sometimes it doesn't let you use it. You will need some Wiimotes, though, you can't enter Wii mode without one.

 

Also big tip, there's a certain revision of the Wiimote (with the Wii Motion Plus builtin) that doesn't work with homebrew. I have a green Luigi themed one that doesn't work, but my black one that came with FlingSmash works just fine.

[bfollowell]

2 hours ago, Asaki said:

If by "motion sensor" you mean the sensor bar, there's another smaller one built into the Gamepad itself, but sometimes it doesn't let you use it. You will need some Wiimotes, though, you can't enter Wii mode without one.

 

 

I'm not really sure what he meant. I guess I need to look up more about the system. If it's a separate device like the original Xbox Connects, then I don't even have that anyway. I just remember that he said the motion sensor thing didn't work. It's probably not something I'd ever really use anyway, so probably not a big deal for me.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

[Asaki]

2 hours ago, bfollowell said:

It's probably not something I'd ever really use anyway, so probably not a big deal for me.

It is required for the Wiimote's pointer controls.

There are a lot of WiiU games that can be played without a Wiimote, but AFAIK, there is no way to access Wii mode without a Wiimote, some kind of sensor bar, and a TV.

[bfollowell]

2 hours ago, Asaki said:

It is required for the Wiimote's pointer controls.

There are a lot of WiiU games that can be played without a Wiimote, but AFAIK, there is no way to access Wii mode without a Wiimote, some kind of sensor bar, and a TV.

I'll have to look into it and see if I can pick one up off of ebay or something.

 

Thanks for the heads up.