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This page explains how to rip GameCube and Wii games and/or saves to be used on Dolphin. Ripping games and saves using a Wii or Wii U console will require you to have homebrew software installed. See Homebrew Channel for instructions on how to use it, and see Homebrew setup for installation instructions. The term "vWii" means a Wii U console running in Wii mode.

Ripping Discs Using a Computer

Certain old models of PC DVD drives are able to rip game discs with Rawdump or Friidump.

It's generally easier and faster to rip game discs via a Wii console, if you have one:

Ripping Discs Using CleanRip

CleanRip can rip a game disc to an SD card or an external USB storage device. Running it on a Wii or vWii system requires the Homebrew Channel to be installed. CleanRip can also run on a GameCube, but running homebrew on a GameCube is more complicated and is beyond the scope of this guide.

GameCube Discs

GameCube discs can be ripped using a GameCube or Wii, but not using a Wii U.

GameCube discs always have a size of 1.36 GiB, so the entire ISO can fit on a FAT or FAT32 drive. Simply follow the instructions on-screen and you'll be able to put the game straight from the SD card or USB drive into Dolphin.

Wii Discs

Wii discs can be ripped using a Wii or a Wii U running in vWii mode.

In order to rip a Wii disc, a storage device with more than 4.38 GiB of free space is recommended for single layer, and 7.93 GiB for dual layer. However, by dividing the rip into chunks, an SD card with even a single gibibyte of free space is sufficient.

At the CleanRip setup screen, setting Chunk Size to "Max" and New device per chunk to "No" is recommended with SD cards or external USB storage devices large enough to hold the entirety of the ripped disc file at once. Otherwise, set Chunk Size to the largest size that fits on the device ("1GB", "2GB", "3GB", or "Max") and set New device per chunk to "Yes". CleanRip will then ask for the next device in the middle of ripping. Remove the device from the Wii and move the first part of ISO file off of the device to free up space, then reinsert the device.

  • If the storage device is formatted with a FAT, FAT16, or FAT32 file system, CleanRip will split the ripped disc file into 4 GiB parts when "Max" is selected due to limitations of these file systems. To remedy this, it is recommended to rip discs to an NTFS formatted storage device. The NTFS file system has a theoretical max file size of 16 EiB (Exabyte), or 16,777,216 GiB.
  • Certain Wii discs are dual layer (or DVD9) instead of single layer (or DVD5). CleanRip will need to be configured in order to rip those kinds of discs. At the CleanRip setup screen, set Dual Layer to Yes. The rip will take roughly double the time than usual Wii discs of 4.38 GiB as the dual layer ISOs are 7.93 GiB in size.

After Ripping

Once CleanRip has finished running, you will have an ISO file either in one part or multiple parts. Dolphin 5.0-18861 and later can read ISO files even if they're in multiple parts.

Optional: You can add the game to Dolphin's game list, right-click on it, and select Convert File in order to convert it to the RVZ format (to save space) or to convert a multipart ISO file into a single ISO file (for use with other programs).

Ripping Discs Using USB Loader GX

A Wii or vWii with the latest version of USB Loader GX and certain cIOS (such as d2x-cios) installed can rip Wii game discs. The Wii system may also be able to rip GameCube game discs as long as DIOS MIOS is installed. Wiis sold after late 2011 and Wii Us lack the GameCube controller and memory card ports, and can make no use of DIOS MIOS. CleanRip is recommended over USB Loader GX for not requiring any cIOS and it does not leave out any data when ripping (USB Loader GX leaves out unused data).

The USB Loader GX will ask the user two options when inserting a game disc: Install or Mount DVD drive; choose "Install". It will begin the ripping process to the storage device:

  • For Wii: X:\wbfs\GAMEID_*\GAMEID.wbfs (and GAMEID.wbf1 as continuation file, if source is over 4,194,272 KiB)
    • Dolphin build version 3.5 and later can accept Wii games in WBFS format.
  • For GameCube: X:\games\* [GAMEID]\game.iso (NOTE: file system must be FAT32)

Extracting discs from the Wii U eShop

To dump an eShop Wii title, you'll need a Wii U running homebrew, a NAND dump from that Wii U (specifically the OTP and SEEPROM), an external hard drive formatted by that Wii U, and DumpsterU.

  1. Insert the drive into a computer with DumpsterU installed. Do not format if prompted.
  2. Open DumpsterU. Select your drive and OTP/SEEPROM locations.
  3. A game list should appear. Double-click the Wii game you want to extract and select a safe location in 'Output Folder'.
  4. Select 'Dump Game'.
  5. After DumpsterU finishes, copy the entire resulting folder (the folder whose name is 8 numbers and letters) to where you keep your Wii dumps.
  6. In Dolphin, ensure that Search Subfolders is enabled in Config > Paths and that the folder where you keep your Wii dumps is listed in Config > Paths.

If you try to verify the rip, it will most likely be missing its UPDATE partition and have some minor errors. This is normal.

You can also dump the Wii game to your computer using another program such as Dumpling or DDD, however DumpsterU is the fastest method and is fairly straightforward.

Exporting Wii Channels

You can use Yet Another BlueDump MOD to turn channels installed on a Wii or vWii into WAD files that you can run in Dolphin.

Alternatively, if you don't want to use WAD files, you can copy the whole NAND memory of a console into Dolphin by following the NAND Usage Guide. This not only copies all channels that are installed on the console, but afterwards, you can also transfer channels between the console and Dolphin by using an SD card and the Wii Menu's data management screen.

Running Yet Another BlueDump MOD

  1. Launch Running Yet Another BlueDump MOD from the Homebrew Channel.
  2. Press A.
  3. Navigate to the channel you want to dump. (Most channels are under "00010001 - Installed Channel Titles".)
  4. With the cursor at the channel you want to dump, press 1 (Wii Remote) or Y (GameCube controller).
  5. Select Backup to WAD.
  6. Select "No" for all three of the questions "Do you want to fakesign the ticket?", "Do you want to fakesign the TMD?", and "Do you want to change the output WAD region?".

Retrieving Game Saves

GameCube Memory Card

A homebrewed Wii with GameCube memory card ports or GameCube with SD Gecko is required.

Download GameCube/Wii Memory Manager (GCMM for short) and launch it through Homebrew Channel on the Wii. It's a homebrew app that can transfer save files between a real GameCube Memory Card and an SD card. It can extract an individual save as .GCI file or dump the entire contents (RAW or batch dump .GCI files) from a real memory card to the root of SD card. For the purpose of this guide you should extract what you need for Dolphin onto the SD card. Then they should be placed into \GC\ for Dolphin to use while emulating a game. It is also possible for the data that was created with Dolphin to be added back into the real GameCube Memory Card using GCMM and an SD card.

Wii/vWii Internal Storage

This section is for ripping individual saves to be used on Dolphin. To dump an entire Wii's internal storage for use with Dolphin, skip this section and move ahead to NAND Usage Guide.

Download SaveGame Manager GX and launch it through Homebrew Channel on the Wii or vWii. It's a homebrew app that can transfer save files between the console's internal storage and an SD card. It can extract an individual save from the Wii's internal storage for Dolphin to use. Like GCMM, it is possible for save files that were created in Dolphin to be added back to the Wii by selecting the game in Dolphin to export the Wii save into a X:\private\wii\[GAMEID] format, then adding it back into the real console's NAND using SaveGame Manager GX and an SD card.

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