GDC: Wii now runs things stored on SD

By Tom Bramwell Published 25 March, 2009

Except saves. Plus, four more for VC.

Nintendo has updated the Wii system software with the ability to download games directly to - and run them from - SD cards, and now supports SD cards larger than 2GB.

Although save-game data must be stored on the Wii, any channel - Nintendo's umbrella term for Virtual Console and WiiWare games, and other bits of software like the weather pages - should run from SD.

The line-up of content stored on your SD card is visible once you click a new "SD" icon in the bottom left of the Wii system software homepage, with up to 20 pages (240 titles) to fill.

A bit of experimentation reveals that games are temporarily transferred to the Wii's internal flash memory while they run. NES games load in a couple of seconds, whereas for bigger titles, like N64 games, it's closer to 15.

Today's update also introduces four old-days arcade games to Virtual Console, each priced 500 Nintendo Points (as we're probably supposed to start calling them). That's approximately GBP 3.50 / EUR 5.

For that you have your choice of Mappy (side-scrolling platformer), Gaplus (better known as Galaga 3), Starforce (a vertical shoot-'em-up) and The Tower of Druaga (a maze game running on modified Super Pac-Man hardware originally).

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Darren #1 3 years ago

    At long bloody last!!! Now I finally have a proper use for my 2 GB SD card and can at last download new stuff from the Wii Store, something I was loathe to do before because of all the faffing around with transferring files, etc.

    The big question is why has this taken so f***ing long to implement in the first place, it's not like people haven't been screaming out for more storage space for the past 18 months or more, Nintendo! All it took was a simple firmware update. Jeez.
    Edited by 1 at 25/03/09 @ 16:41

  • jim1975 #2 3 years ago

    cutting edge stuff their. storing on an SD card, what ever next

  • myiagros #3 3 years ago

    how big SD cards does the Wii support?

  • canIdoyabombsforya #4 3 years ago

    "I was loathe to do before because of all the faffing around with transferring files, etc"

    faffing around?
    just delete the software you wont be playing this week, just like people have been doing since storage was invented.

  • DFawkes #5 3 years ago

    That's a fairly weak attempt at trolling jim1975, you should've said "Running stuff from an SD card, what ever next!"

    Nice though, about time.

  • robson_wii #6 3 years ago

    Just seen the Wii supports high capacity SD cards (i.e. above 2GB)

  • Darren #7 3 years ago

    The Wii has supported SD cards for storage since it launched in December 2006. It defies belief that it's taken Nintendo this long to update the firmware so that games can run off it. It should be have been pretty obvious that the 512 MB of internal memory was going to be insufficient even in the short term. If you're going to sell downloadable games and DLC for games then you need to have an additional storage solution in place from Day One not two years down the line.

    I've hardly been buying loads of VC games but I ran out internal memory space well over a year ago and haven't bought anything else since. Still at least they've finally (FINALLY!!!) come up with something and it's as cheap a solution as you could hope for since SD cards cost virtually nothing.

  • Darren #8 3 years ago

    @canIdoyabombsforya - Why should I have to delete software to make space for new stuff when I might what to play it the following week, or even the next day?

    It wouldn't have been so bad if the Wii had had a Move feature but, no, you had to copy the file to the SD card SLOOOOOOOOOWLY then delete the original before you could download anything else to the internal memory. Then if you want to play something stored on the SD card, you had to SLOOOOOOOWLY copy it back. Hardly ideal. Or user-friendly. Isn't that what the Wii is supposed to be?

    If you think that's ideal then perhaps you ought to apply for a job at Nintendo 'cos they clearly thought it was for over two years. ;)
    Edited by 1 at 25/03/09 @ 17:01

  • canIdoyabombsforya #9 3 years ago

    The real issue here seems to be that gamers want to see what they have actually paid for on the system, which this doesn't exactly address very well, you still need to go to the SD card menu.
    Surely it would be better to delete games to save internal storage, but leave them on the channels screen with a marker to say they need re downloading, it's not as if everyone has shitty UK broadband speeds.
    Nintendo can't win whatever they do, one minute the Wii is collecting dust, next minute the moaners are playing more than 512Mb of VC games every day.

  • canIdoyabombsforya #10 3 years ago

    Hopefully the next consoles will have Solid State Storage, but guess what, Nintendo will use a small amount to save money and people will moan because MS and Sony fitted theirs with double.
    Nintendo have made, and are making, worse mistakes than this.

  • GamesConnoisseur #11 3 years ago

    ATTTT LLLOOOOOOONNNGGG FREAKY LAST!!

    God damn Nintendo what tooks you so long!! The programming to achieve this should not have taken too long!!

    Still a very happy man now!

    Wii gonna get more of my attention and will browse VC/Wiiware tonight!

  • Sean.Aaron #12 3 years ago

    My understanding is that the load times have nothing to do with the SD drive or cards but Nintendo's decryption/encryption scheme, but be that as it may I'm very pleased and will be sure to run the update and play some WiiWare games I haven't loaded in months.

    I've also just finished checking out more VC content to buy, so it's great timing!

  • wilcoy #13 3 years ago

    Just tried it. Works well and fast. Launched Lylat Wars from the SD card in a few seconds.

  • knocker #14 3 years ago

    "The real issue here seems to be that gamers want to see what they have actually paid for on the system, which this doesn't exactly address very well, you still need to go to the SD card menu."

    No - gamers don't ... but my son absolutely bloody insists on it ! A quick ten minute blast on goo involves painful memory management, copying/running goo, deleting it - then rebuilding the thing - as soon as I've finished. This is a faff without doubt.

    "Surely it would be better to delete games to save internal storage, but leave them on the channels screen with a marker to say they need re downloading, it's not as if everyone has shitty UK broadband speeds."

    I've been whining about a solution like this since the start. The channels screen should be just a list of shortcuts - and the shortcut should hold information like (download from internet/copy from SD card/load from internal memory/whatever)

  • Sanzai #15 3 years ago

    Can someone please check whether playing a VC game from the SD card still allows you to leave the game and have the auto-save function (i.e. if you choose to go 'Home' while playing a VC game does it save the state of the game so that the next time you load it you carry on from wherever you stopped)?

  • LazyDan #16 3 years ago

    Arcade games?!?!?!

    GET RAINBOW ISLANDS IN THERE NOW!

  • wilcoy #17 3 years ago

    @ Sanzai

    Yes, It still allows you to leave the game at any time. The data for "Save State" function in still on the Wii memory but now you can start out the game from the SD card.

  • dubdivision #18 3 years ago

    Does this mean I can take my wiiware software on my sd card to a friends wii and play it there ?
    Edited by 1 at 25/03/09 @ 19:34

  • smelly #19 3 years ago

    >cutting edge stuff their. storing on an SD card, what ever next

    Games have been stored on SD card since the wii's launch.

    Do try to keep up. If you're trying to wii bash at least get your facts right before trolling.


    EDIT: Didnt notice that DFawkes had beat me to that one..


    Seems to me though:

    Fanboy forum nerds : Wii sucks because it doesnt have a storage solution
    Nintendo: here's a storage solution
    Fanboy forum nerds : Wii sucks because it didnt get a storage solution earlier.
    Edited by 1 at 25/03/09 @ 20:16

  • smelly #20 3 years ago

    "Does this mean I can take my wiiware software on my sd card to a friends wii and play it there ? "

    I'd be VERY VERY VERY VERY Surprised if that's the case...

    In fact i can almost gaurantee that the reason it's taken so long for them to do this - is to make sure it's secure enough for people not to use the system to play pirated games.. Which I can gaurantee someone is trying to do at this very moment...

  • sega #21 3 years ago

    Since I haven't filled up my Wii's memory yet I'm more excited about the arcade games! Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Final Fight, Ninja Turtles and Ridge Racer please!

  • tardo #22 3 years ago

    I'm unsure about the game saves?
    So, if I copy a game to an SD card, and then delete it from the Wii menu, does that mean my saves have been deleted (as they aren't copied over to the SD card)? Or are the saves still kept somewhere separate from the game option on my Wii menu? (if so, then I probably won't even mind deleting and re-downloading from the wii shop. But losing all my saves would be annoying)

  • scouserfuller9 #23 3 years ago

    @tardo - It's safe. The saved data for the games has to remain on the Wii's internal memory.

  • Sanzai #24 3 years ago

    @wilcoy

    OK, thanks for letting me know. : )

  • tardo #25 3 years ago

    Cool, thanks scouser.

    In that case, I may just delete some of the games I've downloaded. I don' think I mind too much having to redownload them (although it's not ideal), but I can't be bothered with getting and keeping track of what's on an SD card.

  • Darren #26 3 years ago

    Did the update last night and the SD feature seems to work very well even if it isn't integrated as smoothly as I'd have liked. Still at least we have a way of playing the games from external memory now and, for that, I'm eternally thankful.

  • chrisjm #27 3 years ago

    still relluctant to buy many while they are locked to a machine and if it dies. xbox style transfer and linked to login would be much better (but not as ideal as just scrapping DRM)

  • Sean.Aaron #28 3 years ago

    I'm pretty happy with the way the update turned out. I still think they need to address the save data issue going forward, but it looks like that may only be possible by forcing some code changes to existing games.

    I still think a flash drive could be in the future if it could be treated as transparently part of the existing flash by the system; I don't know if that's possible. Otherwise in a few years time we could have issues with storage just due to save files!