Wii Virtual Console

Virtual Console, (VC), is a specialized section of the Wii Shop Channel, an online service that allows players to purchase and download games and other software for the Wii gaming console. The Virtual Console lineup consists of titles originally released on now defunct past consoles. These titles are run in their original forms through software emulation. The library of past games currently consists of titles originating from the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Nintendo 64, as well as Sega’s Mega Drive/Genesis, NEC’s TurboGrafx-16 and TurboGrafx-CD, and SNK’s Neo Geo AES.

Upcoming support for MSX has been announced for Japan. It has also been confirmed that games for Sega Master System and Game Gear will be added under the Master System label starting in February.Commodore 64 games have been confirmed to be added to the Virtual Console very soon in Europe.

Games downloaded from the Virtual Console library are stored in the Wii’s built-in 512 MB flash memory, though less than 300 MB is actually available to the user.

Games can be transferred to a removable SD card for backup purposes only – they cannot be played from this external memory. If the internal memory is filled, Virtual Console games can be deleted to create more room, and the games can be downloaded again at a later date at no additional cost, or can be copied back over from an SD Card.

Virtual Console games are locked to the Wii on which they were purchased—they cannot be transferred to another Wii via an SD card, athough it is possible for Wii owners in North America, Europe and Australia to purchase games in the Wii Shop Channel and send them as gifts to people on their Wii Friends list. In the event that a Wii is damaged and the Virtual Console games can no longer be played, Nintendo will provide support.

Game saving is functional and intact on the Virtual Console for all games which originally had a save feature on their cartridge. Saved games are saved to the Wii Internal Memory and function exactly as the original cartridge did. A game which in its original cartridge form did not have any form of save feature will not have any save game feature on the Virtual Console.

Most first-party N64 games used internal cartridge memory for game save data and thus will work perfectly on the Virtual Console. A select few first-party and nearly all other N64 game cartridges utilized the extra memory capability of the Saving of data to the Controller Pak is not supported by the Virtual Console so for those games which used this feature, the save feature will not work properly in the Virtual Console. Mario Kart 64 and Wave Race 64 used internal cartridge memory for progress and save game data. Consequently both work excellently in the Virtual Console and all progress is saved properly but one of their features will not work since that particular feature utilized the Controller Pak.

Virtual Console games can be played using three different controllers. The Wii Remote itself, the Classic Controller (that can be used for all Virtual Console games) and the controllers from the Nintendo GameCube.