[ # ] SNES9x SD Front Loading Emulator on the Wii

/* Posted April 8th, 2008 at 1:44pm */
/* Filed under Mods, Nintendo, Wii */

Donkey Kong Country

Previously, we mentioned that Wii owners would be able to run the SNES emulator for their Wiis through the SD card without needing to burn anything to DVD. Today, we’re going to go through step by step the instructions for getting your favorite classics like Donkey Kong Country and Final Fintasy III up and running from the SD card.

Preface
This guide assumes you already have the Twilight Hack installed. Nobody involved with the creating of the Twilight Hack, the SNESGX emulator, or the frontloading emulator mod is responsible for any damage done to your Wii, memory card, or SDCard.

Requirements

Wii
Gamecube controller
2gb or less SD card formatted FAT16
Copy of Twilight Hack installed
Copy of SNESGX frontload SD v4

Setup
Download the emulator and extract the .elf file to the root directory of your SD card and rename to boot.elf. If you use the elf loader just extract to the elf folder (no need for renaming).
You should now be able to boot the emulator, however you most likely want to play some games. To do so create a folder in your SD card’s root directory called “roms” and copy any roms you want to play into it. Filenames for your roms must be under 50 characters and not contain any tags (I.E. [!], [beta], [b1], (U)). After copying your roms you are now set to play them on your Wii.

Starting the emulator and loading a rom
Now that your SDCard is setup and ready to go insert it into the front SD slot of your Wii. Now run the Twilight Hack and the emulator will boot up (if you use the elf loader you will need to choose “snesgx” from the menu to boot it).
To load a rom choose “Load New Game” from the main menu. Now choose “Load from Front” to access the rom list. The rom list is split into pages of 8. To switch page press left and right on the D-pad. Rom names are displayed 13 characters total due to the FAT16 limit. Choose the rom you want and press A. You can also press B to return to the previous menu and not load a new rom.
After choosing the rom you want return to the main menu and choose Play Game to begin.

Saving and loading SRAM
SRAM is the game’s internal memory, this is where the save game is stored, not a save state as some people mistake it for. Not every game has save abilities (e.g. Contra, Jeopardy, Zombies Ate My Neighbors).
To save your SRAM you will need either an SDGecko (why would you be using this build if you had one) or a 3rd party Gamecube memory card (official Nintendo ones DO NOT WORK). When playing a game that has SRAM support (e.g. Zelda, Secret of Mana, Donkey Kong Country) you must first save in-game (whether in a menu or a savepoint). After you do that press Z+R on your Gamecube controller to access the SNESGX menu. Go to the “SRAM Manager”, choose your save slot (A or B), your device (MCARD for memory card, SDCARD for SDGecko), then choose “Save SRAM”. After a second or two you should receive a message stating how many bytes were written. Now return to the main menu and choose “Play Game” to resume where you left off.
To load your SRAM a previously save SRAM file must exist. Load the rom you want to resume playing. Enter the SRAM manager and choose your slot and device. Now choose “Load SRAM”, it should show a message stating the number of bytes loaded. After that choose “Play Game” from the main menu and your savegames should be available.
Note: If you do not save SRAM after saving in-game and turn off the Wii you will lose any progress made since the previous SRAM save. If you play a game with a previously existing SRAM without loading the SRAM, and then save SRAM it will overwrite the previous file.

Advanced
Take it a step further and consider installing a dedicated channel to run your SNES emulator on the Homebrew Launcher. This way you won’t have to constantly be loading the Twilight Hack just to run the emulator.

Troubleshooting
The emulator does not load

Most likely you forgot to change the name to “boot.elf” (if not using the elf loader)
Make sure it isn’t called “boot.elf.elf”
Make sure you are using a full SDCard and not a microSD to full SD converter

My rom doesn’t work

Check that all tags are removed from the file name. Tags are things like: [!], [beta], [b1], (U)
Check that the filename is under 50 characters in length, including extension.
If it still doesn’t work you may have a bad rom or the emulator may not be able to run it

Can I make the analog stick more responsive/use diagonal

Yes, goto “Configure Joypads” on the main menu and set your analog clip to 40

The emulator is in black and white

Most likely your Wii is PAL. First try switching the refresh rate between 50 and 60 hz to see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn’t, download the PAL fix. You will need to play with the settings if the game runs too fast.

When saving/loading SRAM to my memory card I get a mounting error

Is your memory card Nintendo brand? Most of these will not work.
Reinsert it and try again.

I got “Error create: -7 0″ when saving SRAM

You may not have enough space on your memory card
There may be a problem with your rom header. If your rom is pre-patched (translated) try applying the patch to the original rom yourself.

Can I use SRAM on the frontSD?

No, not yet. Maybe when the new toolchains are released.

(credit: Vicious1988)

Update: The emulator requires a third-party Gamecube memory card (for some reason, first-party Nintendo ones don’t work) to save game states to SRAM. If you’d rather be able to save to your SD card, use this alternative SNES9xGX emulator instead.