[TuT] [English] How to dump and convert an eShop Wii game into an ISO for Dolphin.

      [TuT] [English] How to dump and convert an eShop Wii game into an ISO for Dolphin.

      I have yet to see any tutorials on the topic yet, and since I have the know-how I thought I would do the honors of informing the public.

      This guide assumes you are using a Windows PC.

      As some of you may know, Nintendo re-released some retail Wii games digitally on the Wii U eShop under the Virtual Console section, each game costs 20 USD last time I checked (plus any applicable taxes) and is downloaded directly onto the system. For some games this is actually the cheapest way to obtain them (Metroid Prime Trilogy is a good example of this, used copies sell for WAY more than what the game is on the eShop).

      But as some of you also may know, these games are a pain to dump (DDD crashes and the FTP method can't read the files) but for the lucky few that actually got it to work you may have noticed the game files are stored in this weird ".NFS" format, this format is similar to WBFS, in that it contains multiple parts of the game data in separate files, but Dolphin can't read the NFS format nativity.



      Currently there are only two ways of obtaining the game files from your own console, a full MLC dump with Dumpling, or using Cemu's new title manager in conjunction with dumped system and account files.

      Note: If you go the Dumpling route you'll need an SD card or USB storage device with at least 16GB or 32GB of free space depending on which model of the Wii U you have (16 for the original white Wii U, 32 for the black "deluxe" model).

      Dumpling method: You will need to perform a full MLC dump, as Dumpling does not support dumping these titles individually. Once that's done you'll need to locate the game files, it'll be obvious once you've found them if the folder is filled with .nfs files.

      Cemu method: Cemu recently overhauled their title manager with the ability to download any of your owned games from Nintendo's servers using a dumped NNID, this is legal because you are using your own tickets from your purchase. To do this, follow the online play guide to dump all of the system and user files you'll need found here. After your account settings are configured correctly, open up the title manager window under the Tools tab, then select the download manager tab, from there hit connect to list everything linked to your account, find your game, right click on it and hit download. Once the download is complete close the menu and the game should now be listed in your list of runnable applications within Cemu, right click on the game and select "game directory", this will take you to the "code" folder of the games files, go back one folder and select the "content" folder, the .nfs files will be contained in that folder.

      Now that you have the .nfs files, you'll have to convert them into an ISO image for Dolphin to be able to run the dump.

      This is possible using a tool known as nfs2iso2nfs. Just note this tool is ONLY for Windows, but it might be possible to make it work on other OS'es with manual tinkering.

      The tool is pretty self-explanatory, it allows you to decrypt the .nfs files back into an ISO image, the only problem is, the program requires the Wii Common Key (not the Wii U Common Key). I cannot tell you where to obtain this (other than from your own console) as sharing it is illegal.

      But once you have it, place the executable in the same folder as the .nfs files and create a new text document and name it "wii_common_key" (without the quotation marks) and paste the key's value into the file, then save it as a .bin file.

      nfs2iso2nfs is a command-line program and must be run from either Command Prompt or Power Shell, once you have the executable and key file in place open up a command window of your choice and navigate to the folder everything is in (cd "path" for those who have never used a command line before) and run the following command: nfs2iso2nfs -dec -wiikey wii_common_key.bin

      Now run the program and it should start doing it's thing, this might take a while depending on the size of the game. At the end, you'll end up with a file named "game.iso". Congratulations, you have successfully converted the game into a format Dolphin can understand.

      Side-note, these versions of the games have the Update partition removed from them since they are redundant (due to the Wii U shipping with the latest firmware for Wii mode), so Dolphin will complain about that in the Verify tab, but this won't effect anything.

      Have fun! ;)

      Dieser Beitrag wurde bereits 6 mal editiert, zuletzt von SubsonicBeatz154 () aus folgendem Grund: Updated information.

      Hello, I dumped my keys from my system and I don't think wfs-extract likes the format I have them in. Can you provide an example (not the exact keys, but use 0000s or ABC to demonstrate how the content of the file is to be formatted)? Thanks for the guide!

      Edit: I think my MLC dump may have dumped incorrectly, as there seems to be some issue with my mlc.bin.part02 file for some reason. It's strange since the NAND dumper did not return any errors. You are supposed to use the Wii U otp.bin with wfs-extract, right?

      Here's what my terminal says on Windows 10:
      c:\Users\[user]\Desktop>wfs-extract --input mlc.full.bin --output c:\users\[user]\desktop --otp otp.bin --mlc
      Dumping...
      Error: Failed to dump folder ""
      Done!

      Dieser Beitrag wurde bereits 3 mal editiert, zuletzt von redshard98 ()

      wfs-extract is a command line tool. Don't double-click it, execute it in a command line like the cmd on Windows.

      The common key is identical for all Wiis (that's why it's named common key), you'll be able to find it with Google. We can't link or post it here as it may not be 100% legal to distribute this key.

      DevkitPro Archiv (alte Versionen / old versions): wii.leseratte10.de/devkitPro/
      Want to donate for Wiimmfi and Wii-Homebrew.com? Patreon / PayPal

      Dieser Beitrag wurde bereits 0 mal editiert, zuletzt von Leseratte ()

      I realized it was for command prompt afterwards but I still have no idea how to use it.

      Do I look like I know what a wfs-extract is? I just want an ISO of a game I own.


      Really though, this seems like one of the most complicated parts of this process and should be included in the tutorial.

      Edit: I realize that redshard98's comment has a command, so I pasted it into cmd, then found out I needed the otp file in the folder.

      I dumped my otp file and put it in the folder and it dumped, but now I have no idea how to find Prime Trilogy. I looked in every folder in usr\title\00050000 and didn't find a single Wii game. I moved Prime Trilogy to system storage from a USB device before dumping the mlc.

      Dieser Beitrag wurde bereits 2 mal editiert, zuletzt von hatelife () aus folgendem Grund: updated information to try to get help

      Hi, I'm sorry -- but you were able to get nfs2iso to work with the Metroid Prime Trilogy? This is news to me, as I'm noticing more and more that MPT is very difficult when it comes to converting it to work with Dolphin. Overall I just hear that nfs2iso is just an iffy program because some games just refuse to convert with it.
      Depends on what you want to do with them. If you just want to use them in Dolphin, probably not. But lots of other tools (Wiimmfi Patcher, WIT, etc..) can't read these files.

      DevkitPro Archiv (alte Versionen / old versions): wii.leseratte10.de/devkitPro/
      Want to donate for Wiimmfi and Wii-Homebrew.com? Patreon / PayPal

      Dieser Beitrag wurde bereits 0 mal editiert, zuletzt von Leseratte ()