Why so few Wii Portables?

[JKeefe56]

Recycling the stupid question I asked with a different one I now have, on the same topic...

Why so few Wii portables? And even when people make them, it seems like they want to make them boot right to GC mode. I love the gamecube, but I also think that the benefits you can include (internet access, netflix, etc) on a wii portable would be very cool.

I also get confused with all these "WiiCube" or similar named portables. Are these portables Wiis booting right to GC mode or GCs with a WiiKey Fusion(type thing)? I think the latter, but aside from bumping a bunch of old threads, I couldn't find anything to say for sure.

Thanks for any and all help.

 

[BrianAure]

There are a few reasons why Wii Portables are scarce:

Cost: A wii cost as low as 56 dollars, there's a possibility of frying a motherboard, so there must be replacement parts in the process. On the other hand, Gamecubes are relatively easy to find. I found 1 for about 15 dollars during a garage sale, and another one on ebay sold for 20 dollars(it even came with a controller ). There are many possibilities for the wii, but maybe in the future more would be made when the price lowers.

Size: Up to this day I have only seen wii laptops, that may be due to the size of the Wii motherboard. Although, people are still developing on their Wii. With enough trimming, A wii can fit inside a ZN-40 case.

You are right, that the wii provides so many benefits. Such as homebrew and access to the internet. I would want to know other people's reasons why wii portables are scarce.

Also, WiiCube is just a brandname someone created. It's just a gamecube with a Wii user interface.

 

[Blargaman91]

It's gotta be a little weird having a portable that's not a laptop and still being forced to use an external controller and point it at the system.

 

[vskid3]

It's gotta be a little weird having a portable that's not a laptop and still being forced to use an external controller and point it at the system.

That is probably the biggest reason. Many portables have been much larger than a Wiip using an untrimmed board.

 

[JKeefe56]

It's gotta be a little weird having a portable that's not a laptop and still being forced to use an external controller and point it at the system.

That is probably the biggest reason. Many portables have been much larger than a Wiip using an untrimmed board.

I both agree, and disagree. While it would limit functionality, if you built in a wiimote, you could navigate the menus holding it sideways using the D pad and buttons. Of course, that would mean there'd be a LOT of wii games you couldn't play.

I have some ideas, if anyone is interested I could share them when I get them sketched out. But I'm waiting on a backwards compatible wii to test to make sure I'm remembering how the controllers work (basically, build in controller 2 to a portable, but then use controller 1 for wii games, also, build in a gamecube controller somehow AND build a stand for it for when playing wii games with controller 1).

 

[public-pervert]

A bluetooth module emulator that yo can plug in a GC controller, would be the best thing to happen with Wii portables scene.

 

[thatguythere]

A bluetooth module emulator that yo can plug in a GC controller, would be the best thing to happen with Wii portables scene.

I was just going to say, the Wii has gamecube ports built into it so you dont really need to use a wiimote for the games to work. You could still use a gamecube controller to play games.

 

[public-pervert]

I meant on the "hardware way". I think it's the only way to get it 100% compatible including the system menu.