Wii Development Hardware

This page describes various hardware used for Wii game and system development.

This page is only meant to provide a brief summary of each; more information is available at each individual page.

"Wired" model development hardware only supports Bluetooth (Wii Remote connectivity) over an RF cable.

NDEV (Wired/Wireless)

Main article: NDEV

The NDEV is the main development system for the Wii. It has expanded RAM and only loads games from a host PC over an optical disc emulation interface; there is no disc drive or hard drive.

RVT-R Reader (Wired/Wireless)

Main article: RVT-R Reader

The RVT-R Reader is similar to a retail Wii unit, but reads RVT-R Discs instead of retail Wii discs (RVL-ROM).

RVT-H Reader (Wired/Wireless)

Main article: RVT-H Reader

The RVT-H Reader is a Wii with expanded RAM and an internal hard drive replacing the optical disc drive, with a built-in optical disc emulation interface.

RVT-R Writer

Main article: RVT-R Writer

The RVT-R Writer is a special DVD burner used to write RVT-R Discs.

RVT-R Discs

Main article: RVT-R Disc

RVT-R Discs are recordable discs which are readable in RVT-R Reader units.

Hudson NNGC I/O Board

Main article: Revolution Emulator

The Hudson NNGC I/O Board is an optical disc emulation board which can be used with GameCube development hardware (GDEV/TDEV); when used with the IOS emulator, it forms the "Revolution Emulator" development environment.

ARM Versatile

ARM Versatile boards have been used by BroadOn to test the IOP standalone.

Broadway Evaluation Board (BEB)

The BEB is a board used to evaluate early Broadway samples before the Hollywood was ready.

Wired Wii Remote

Main article: Wii Remote

The Wii Remote is available in a wired version for development purposes. Additionally, there were several prototype versions of the Wii Remote included in various development kits; more information is available on the main article.

RF Splitter

The RF Splitter is used to connect up to 4 Wired Wii Remotes to one development kit which only has 1 RF cable port (all development kits have this limitation except for NDEV prototypes).

Waikiki

Main article: Waikiki

The Waikiki is a serial-to-USB adapter used over the EXI interface (typically the Memory Card Slot B). It was used internally by Nintendo for system development and factory purposes.

Barnacle(2)

Main article: Barnacle

The Barnacle (and Barnacle2) are devices which provide bootstrap code for the Gekko/Broadway by emulating the console's bootrom over the EXI interface. These were used for internal system development only.

NR Checker

The NR Checker is a device which connects to a GameCube controller port on the Wii and can be used to activate certain functionality (such as allowing repair programs to run or the Wii System Menu's recovery mode). The check for this device typically appears to be a check for a GameCube controller with all 4 D-pad buttons held down (this is normally impossible without a modified controller).