Is there anyway we can make the Wii U have 3DS capabilities? It would be pretty cool if someone could provide some information on this topic, the Wii U is so huge I don't know how it wouldn't be able to play 3DS games.. If you want to get into the technicalities that's really cool but please also explain in simple terms as well so hopefully everyone can learn something. This whole Wii U getting the boot from Nintendo is pretty fascinating if you ask me.
3DS on Wii U How to Guide (Possible?)
- Thread starter Rald
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InsaneNutter
Resident Nutter
The Wii U can play some NDS games via emulation, their is a 3DS emulator for the PC called Citra. It's possible someone might be able to port that to the Wii U. However the Wii U will probably never be powerful enough to emulate the 3DS at any playable speed.
That's what people said about NDS being able to be playable on i devices for a long time, that it would probably never happen. I like your use of the word probably though. Thanks for this.
If we can get it on a pc that leads me to the question if there is anyway to get a pc screen on a Wii U so someone could play 3DS on their pc from their Wii U.. There has got to be more use for this thing it's like 3x the size of a psp lol
InsaneNutter
Resident Nutter
High end phones today are more powerful than the Wii U, have more ram than the Wii U and better graphics capabilities than the Wii U.
It's like comparing Apples to Oranges though, by that i mean the architecture is so different you can't directly compare a phone to a Wii U. Phones got a lot more powerful which is why Nintendo DS emulation is easy, even on lower end devices.
The problem you have with the Wii U is that it's a closed platform with a very small homebrew scene at present. Even hacking the Nintendo DS emulators to play different roms on the Wii U is far from perfect, with many games not working.
If the Wii U homebrew scene takes off i'm sure we could see some interesting uses for the Wii U tablet controller, however sadly the interest on the Wii U seems to be more in easier access to piracy, rather than homebrew development.
It's like comparing Apples to Oranges though, by that i mean the architecture is so different you can't directly compare a phone to a Wii U. Phones got a lot more powerful which is why Nintendo DS emulation is easy, even on lower end devices.
The problem you have with the Wii U is that it's a closed platform with a very small homebrew scene at present. Even hacking the Nintendo DS emulators to play different roms on the Wii U is far from perfect, with many games not working.
If the Wii U homebrew scene takes off i'm sure we could see some interesting uses for the Wii U tablet controller, however sadly the interest on the Wii U seems to be more in easier access to piracy, rather than homebrew development.
I know I'm 6 years late to this thread, maybe you two are no longer here or have moved on, but in 2023, the Wii U homebrewing scene has begun to blossom with new exploits being discovered.
Theoretically, it is possible to port Citra to Wii U, with it being open source and how Wii U programming has been extensively documented.
Is it practical? Maybe not, but it might be a really interesting homebrew project, seing the Wii U handle Nintendo 3DS...
Theoretically, it is possible to port Citra to Wii U, with it being open source and how Wii U programming has been extensively documented.
Is it practical? Maybe not, but it might be a really interesting homebrew project, seing the Wii U handle Nintendo 3DS...
InsaneNutter
Resident Nutter
I think the above discussion still applies, in theory I suspect it's possible to get 3DS emulation running on the Wii U.
In reality though I think it would be difficult to achieve playable speeds / compatibility where people actually wanted to use such an emulator.
The current 3DS emulators target much newer hardware than the Wii U, the current processor architectures targeted are also x86-64 and ARM. The Wii U's processor is PPC. I suspect it would be very difficult to go back and attempt to port Citra to run on niche PPC hardware from over a decade ago (Wii U).
The reason I think it (might) be possible to some degree is the Xbox 360 can emulate the OG Xbox and the Xbox One can emulate the Xbox 360. However this was possible with the resources of one of the biggest tech companies of the planet behind the project to make it happen. That's a lot different to someone working on a project for free in their own time.
In reality though I think it would be difficult to achieve playable speeds / compatibility where people actually wanted to use such an emulator.
The current 3DS emulators target much newer hardware than the Wii U, the current processor architectures targeted are also x86-64 and ARM. The Wii U's processor is PPC. I suspect it would be very difficult to go back and attempt to port Citra to run on niche PPC hardware from over a decade ago (Wii U).
The reason I think it (might) be possible to some degree is the Xbox 360 can emulate the OG Xbox and the Xbox One can emulate the Xbox 360. However this was possible with the resources of one of the biggest tech companies of the planet behind the project to make it happen. That's a lot different to someone working on a project for free in their own time.
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