What is a Wiikey? Have a Wiikey and not sure what to do with it? And unanswered questions? This guide will tell you everything you need to know about the Nintendo Wii's Wiikey.
Before you start to panic in confusion, over the period of the Nintendo Wii's lifespan, Nintendo has changed the way the Wii works, internally that is. At one stage making modding harder, then having to change the way things were modded completely. There are only 2 main modchips for your Wii:
- The WiiKey Chip
- The D2CKey Chip
These both do the same thing, they both offer the same features, except the D2CKey is designed for the newer Nintendo Wii's since Nintendo changed how the hardware worked. And the WiiKey is about half as expensive to buy as well, because it's much less complex then the D2CKey.
| Serial Numbers |
Wii Chip Needed |
| Lah10000000 - Lah10159999 |
Wiikey |
| Lah10160000 - Lah10215999 |
Wiikey (more complex) |
| Lah10216000 - Current |
D2CKey |
Note: For the duration of this Article when we refer to the 'WiiKey' we will also be referring to the 'D2CKey' as they both do the same and are owned by the same company.
The official website for the WiiKey is Wiikey.cn, this has been down since 2007 and since the 5th of January this year we see an Apache default server page. Due to some security issues the site has been indefinitely shutdown, although we are certain they still continue to produce the chips.
Note: There are clone sites out there, so be careful to get the real chip, not a clone.
A WiiKey is a Modchip for the Nintendo Wii Console. A mod chip is an electronic chip that get attached to the DVD drive of the Nintendo Wii to "hack" it and allow the owner to have accessability to many functions and features that the WiiKey offers.
The Wiikey also has a special feature called "Stealth" mode. This basically means that the WiiKey will work in 'write only', so that it's not able to read the settings on the chip. This means that there is no response from the chip, as if it wasn't there thus meaning it cannot be detected.
An official WiiKey Modchip
Installing and owning a mod chip is 100% legal in Australia. And so are some of the Features that the WiiKey allows you to do. But please note; it will void your Warranty (this is because the Nintendo Wii case is opened during the installation process).
With a Modchip installed into your Nintendo Wii, it gives you access to the following things:
- You can direct boot:
- NTSC Wii imports on NTSC consoles
- PAL Wii imports on PAL consoles
- PAL Wii imports on NTSC consoles
- NTSC Wii imports on PAL consoles
- Homebrew in GameCube mode
- Different NTSC region Wii games/backups on US and JDM consoles
- Allows you to support:
- All currently available console/drive versions
- D2B chip sets
- DVD-R / true DVD+R and +RW support
- Multi-disc games for both Wii and GameCube
- Full size 4GB discs for GameCube homebrew
- Other features include:
- Update mechanism via DVD
- NTSC region Wii games/backups on PAL consoles (Partial support)
- Boots different region GC games/backups (Partially without swapping)
- Improved read settings for recordable media
- Built-in audio fix
- Stealth mode
- 512 byte EEPROM to store configuration
- Quick-solder interface - no wires required
- Unique disc backup application via SD card
- Compact design
- Professional ESD packing
- Recovery mode - Can recover from a bad flash
There is also a Firmware update, version 1.9b. This give's you extra features like:
- Working audiofix
- Dual layer support (no bitsetting required)
- Improved media support (all supported chipsets)
- Full Gamecube regionfree (no-swap/video setup)
- Various "smaller" improvements/fixes
- Workaround for FW 3.0 gameid limitation
- "On the fly" settings for gc games (by holding buttons)
The Nintendo Wii's game have "Region Coding" which splits all the games into 2 categories, NTSC and PAL (and SECAM). They are spread over different parts of the world by the gaming industry to have more control. The WiiKey allows you to import games from other places.
E.G. Importing a game from America (NTSC) and playing it on an Australian console (PAL).
Getting a chip in your Wii console, there is never a 100% guarantee that there will not be consequences for getting a WiiKey installed. Things such as the soldering/install process could go wrong, or possibly down the track Nintendo might find a way to fight against the chip, causing dilemas with your console (this is highly doubted though).
One big one you might have heard is trying to play some types of games that weren't designed to be played on your console. Some may have heard of the Super Paper Mario dilema back when it was first released. When trying to play the NTSC version on a PAL console, this "Bricked" the users console.
"Bricking" is a term used that means that the console becomes unusuable and just about broken. If your console is bricked, you will almost certainly have to buy a new one. Although these things won't happen if you take caution.
Nothing is lost on your Nintendo Wii upon install of the modchip. All your game saves, files, VC games, and channels will be there before, and after the install. The only thing that get's affected when your Wii get's modded is your clock, which get's reset because the battery is taken out during the installation process.
MyWii does not condone Piracy
For more information on MyWii's stance on piracy, read our Rules on Piracy
15/04/2007
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