AstroBob Posted 1 hour ago Posted 1 hour ago Hi Folks, We’re thrilled to announce that our friends over at RetroAchievements have just added another major new console to their supported platforms. And this one is bound to get a few arms swinging... The Nintendo Wii! For those not familiar, RetroAchievements is a service that lets you earn community-made achievements in retro games. We integrate their service directly into LaunchBox and Big Box, allowing you to filter, sort, and create playlists based on RetroAchievements data. You can also log into RetroAchievements right inside LaunchBox, and for emulators where we offer integrations, LaunchBox can pass those credentials through for you. We want to congratulate everyone involved in making this happen. It’s a huge milestone, and one plenty of people have been waiting for. The RetroAchievements team are also kicking things off with their Wii launch event, which runs for 4 months through July 19th. Along the way, players can earn points for beats, masters, and bounties, with exclusive event badges available at Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Grandmaster tiers. They’ve also put together a helpful Wii setup guide for getting Dolphin configured for the best Wii experience, and we’d definitely recommend giving that a read alongside this post. If this is your first time diving into Nintendo’s motion-control wonder machine, or you’re looking for a reason to revisit some Wii classics, LaunchBox is the perfect companion for organizing your collection. Let’s look at a few things you can do to build the perfect nostalgic setup. Setup your RetroAchievements account in LaunchBox 🎖️ If this is your first time using RetroAchievements, you’ll first need to create a free account. Then, in LaunchBox, go to `Tools > Options > Integrations > RetroAchievements` and enter your credentials. This allows LaunchBox to see which of your games have existing achievement sets. Make sure Dolphin is up to date 🧰 Next, you’ll need to make sure you’re using a version of Dolphin that supports RetroAchievements for Wii. At the time of writing, a minimum version of `2603a` is required for Hardcore unlocks, or `2603-81` or higher if you’re using the Nightly/Dev branch. You can update Dolphin directly through LaunchBox by going to `Tools > Manage > Emulators`, just make LaunchBox's displayed Dolphin version is higher than the required version. You can also review Dolphin’s RetroAchievements integration options in LaunchBox by going to `Tools > Manage > Emulators`, editing Dolphin, and opening the `RetroAchievements` section. This is where you can see whether the emulator supports RetroAchievements setup through LaunchBox and review the available integration options, such as using your LaunchBox RetroAchievements credentials and applying emulator-specific achievement settings where supported. Scan your library for achievement data 🏅 With all these new Wii sets available, the next thing we’ll want to know is which games in our LaunchBox library support achievements. To do that, head to `Tools > Achievements > Scan for all games / current platform`. If your game uses a supported file format such as .iso or .rvz, and you have badges enabled, you’ll start seeing achievement badges next to supported Wii titles in your library. Badges in Wii games 🤯 I never thought I'd see this day Note: At launch, .rvz and .iso files will correctly pick up achievement badges, but .wad (which are used for WiiWare games) do not. We already have a fix for this and will update this article once that is avaliable Follow our known issue post here below to get notified when this goes live: 🔗 https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/retroachievements-not-detected-for-wiiware-wad-files Put Game Progress Tracking to work 📈 With over 100 sets ready to go at launch, this is also a great time to put LaunchBox’s Game Progress Tracking features to good use. If you already know which Wii games you want to tackle first, you can start by marking them as Want To Play and building out a little achievement-hunting backlog. From there, LaunchBox can help automate the rest. If you head to `Tools > Options > Game Progress Automation`, you can configure how those status updates behave and choose which progress values LaunchBox should assign as you spend more time with a game and start earning achievements. It’s a great way to keep a big launch like this from turning into total choice paralysis. A fine looking `Want To Play` list if I do say so myself (Donkey Kong Barrel Blast haters come at me) 🤣 Organize your library by control style 🎮 One of the best things about the Wii is how many different ways there were to play, which makes it a perfect platform for controller-based playlists. LaunchBox can pull controller support information down from the LaunchBox Games Database as part of your metadata. To view it, open a game’s edit window and check the Controller Support section. From there, you can create playlists for different control types, such as Wii Remote and Nunchuk games, Classic Controller-supported titles, or pointer-heavy party games. If you just want to browse on the fly, you can also use the Filter button next to the search bar to narrow your Wii library by control type. For example, you could quickly filter down to games with Wii Zapper support or Classic Controller support without needing to build a playlist first. See which of your games require what controls Create controller-based playlists 📂 As one example, why not build a playlist for games that support the Wii Zapper? It’s a fun way to group together rail shooters and pointer-heavy titles into their own little collection. To create it: 1. Create a new playlist in LaunchBox and choose the option to auto-populate it. 2. Add a filter for controller support. 3. Set the rule so that Controller Support (Wii Zapper) is equal to Full Support. 4. Save the playlist and let LaunchBox populate it automatically. From there, any Wii games in your library that have Wii Zapper support marked as Full Support will be added to the playlist for you. Ready to start zapping my way to victory 🔫 Choose the control setup that suits you best 🕹️ One of the nice things about playing Wii games on modern hardware is that you have a few different options. Depending on the game and the experience you want, you might prefer a keyboard and mouse setup, a modern controller with gyro support, or original Wii Remote hardware with a sensor bar for the most authentic feel. If you want help deciding which route to take, or you need help configuring a specific control method, we’d recommend giving the RetroAchievements team’s Wii setup guide a read. It goes into much more detail on getting Dolphin configured for the best Wii experience, including the different control options and how to get them working smoothly. I'm going with the OG Wii-mote/Nunchuck combo, with the gloriously plastic-y Wii-Zapper, combined with the Mayflash Dolphin Bar 🐬 Pay a quick visit to the Wii Menu 👤 Some games will require you to have a Mii, so this is a good time to make sure your virtual living room is properly inhabited. In Dolphin, you can install the Wii System Menu by going to `Tools > Online System Updater`, then boot into it via `Tools > Load Wii System Menu 4.3U`. Once you’re in, head to the Mii Channel and create your masterpiece, whether that’s a lovingly crafted lookalike or the usual wonderfully cursed Wii-era gremlin. It only takes a minute, and it can save you from running into game-specific requirements later on. I remember sitting on this menu for hours 🥰 Grab yourself a Wii-inspired Big Box theme 🎞️ Now that we’re leaning all the way into the nostalgia, why not give Big Box a little Wii-inspired flair? If you really want to replicate some of that Wii Menu magic, a custom Big Box theme can go a long way toward making your setup feel like you’ve stepped back into 2006. One great example is Mini Consoles It features distinct console-inspired views across a huge range of platforms, including Nintendo Wii, and is all about recreating the look, feel, and atmosphere of the original hardware and dashboards. Enhance those visuals with texture packs 🖌️ We’re not done yet! While Wii games were originally built with much lower resolutions in mind, Dolphin lets us upscale them to glorious 1080p and beyond. To complement those visuals, we can also use custom texture packs to enhance the detail and breathe new life into classic games. The Dolphin Custom Texture Projects forum is a great place to start if you’re looking for texture packs, though there are plenty of fantastic community recreations floating around online as well. If you’ve never installed them before, Putachi’s guide is a great walkthrough for getting everything set up. Title screens have never looked this good! 🎨 A little tease: Wii save management is on the way 💾 And we’re not quite done with Wii support yet. In an upcoming update to LaunchBox’s Game Save Management feature set, we’ll be adding full support for managing Wii saves as well. That means you’ll be able to display save badges in LaunchBox for Wii games with save data, and manage those saves directly from LaunchBox by backing them up or deleting them as needed. It’s not part of this rollout just yet, but it’s coming soon. Remember this interface? Soon you'll be able to replicate nuking your Wii saves one-by-one directly from LaunchBox 😉 So, what Wii set will you tackle first? A huge congrats again to the RetroAchievements team for another massive rollout. With so many Wii games to choose from, what will you be playing first? For me personally, my go-to will probably be the Mario Galaxy games. They’re some of my favorite memories on the system, and they feel like the perfect sets to dive into ahead of the Super Mario Galaxy movie arriving next month. What are some of your favorite Wii memories, and what sets will you be tackling first? Let us know down below. Happy gaming! AstroBob Quote
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