I’ve been keeping in touch with Jay at ConsoleChips where I pre-ordered at, and the new d2pro9 chip seems to be a better option all-round than the Wasabi chip. But! The d2pro9 can’t be firmware flashed via dvd-rom without some extra piece of kit that needs to be soldered onto the chip, and for a short time there was no wii-clip for it either.

So, I finally got fed up, and asked for options. My requirements were simple:

• I want to solder as little as possible onto the actual Wii’s board
• The chip must be D2C compatible
• The chip must be able to allow me to play NTSC games on a PAL console
• I want to be able to firmware upgrade the chip via DVD

The answer? There are no chips, currently, that can do all four. Most do only two or three of them. Even the Wasabi didn’t manage to do “No soldering” if I wanted region-free functionality (which was the point after all).

However! The d2ckey, the first chip to work on the D2C chipset drives, does the first three. In fact, it requires NO soldering AT ALL if used with a wii-clip. So its firmware can’t be update via DVD, or at all, but so far, it’s not had to, at all. So that’s what we agreed on. Jay immediately packaged up and despatched the D2CKey soldered onto its wii-clip, and refunded me the difference of cost.

I must say, Jay‘s been great, he kept in contact and offered alternatives when my request didn’t work out.

Finally I managed to find a guy in the UK that would solder the Wasabi modchip into the Wii-Clip V5 for me, and ship it all to me at a reasonable rate. Jay over at Console-Chips was quick to respond on emails, and I pre-ordered his Wasabi Modchip Wii-Clip V5 pre-order bundle. I’ll update again once I get the chip. Should be in the next 2 weeks or so.

UPDATE:
Argh, OK, looking at the Wii-Clip V5 install diagrams (recently updated it seems), it turns out there’s a single wire that needs to be soldered inside the Wii. I really wanted to avoid having to solder anything inside the actual Wii console, but I suppose one wire is better than 9.

UPDATE 2:
Turns out the Wasabi chip is (a) not as upgradeable as advertised, and (b) in a bit of a short supply. See my follow-up on why I ended up getting the D2CKey intstead.

Take for instance a couple of examples I came across at one of my favourite local online retailers Take 2. They’ve consistently managed to get imported games and DVDs at great prices. Compare these titles and prices (as at writing):

Resident Evil 4 Wii UK PAL – R477
Resident Evil 4 Wii US NTSC – R303
Eledees Wii UK PAL – R581
Elebits Wii US NTSC – R197
Mercury Meltdown Wii UK PAL – R659 (On special for R333)
Mercury Meltdown Wii US NTSC – R204

None of these titles seem to have local South-African launched versions (on Take2 anyway, I can’t see them anywhere else either, but I might be wrong?), and after looking at some other titles, it seems we do get some titles at cheaper prices than the import prices, but there are titles that are still cheaper to import than to buy the local version. Looking at the list above (I’m sure I can find more), the price difference is huge (I recall actually seeing the ResEvil4 NTSC version for R200 or so a few months back at Take2)

Now, the fact that NTSC titles are cheaper doesn’t help us PAL users, but then again, it does pose the question of whether it’s now worth it getting a Wii Modchip installed, to unlock the region locking on the Wii? Moral and legal issues aside, paying R800 to have a modchip fitted, is so worth it if I’ll be saving between R150 and R400 *per* *title* that I buy the NTSC version.

What’s a game-lover to do?

Me? I investigated modchip options for the Wii. Turns out there’s some differences between consoles and chips and chip versions and stuff. Wikipedia helped a lot with its list of Wii modchips page. I have a D2C chipset Wii (newer ones), and that limits my modchip options to one of four or so chips: D2Ckey, D2CPro, Argon, Infectus and the new Wasabi chip. After doing some serious research, turns out the Wasabi chip is likely to be the best, due it’s ease of firmware update, and the minimal number of wires needed to be soldered.

Not wanting to do the soldering onto the Wii board myself, I looked at alternatives, and found the Wii-Clip. It’s a device that allows you to solder the modchip onto the Wii-Clip, and then just pop the Wii-Clip-with-modchip-attached, over the necessary chip inside the Wii Console, so no actual soldering required inside the Wii. Sounds like the better solution to me!

And the cost? Well, having the D2CKey fitted locally will cost R1000, due to the kabillion wires that needs soldering on the Wii.
Compare that to: US$39 (About R310) for the Wii-Clip V5 (Wasabi version) from www.ic2005.com with Free Shipping, and the actual Wasabi chip for about US$55 (about R435) on just about any of the Wasabi modchip reseller site (I’m sure there are many of them that do Free Shipping too.) So that makes R750 or so for a non-destructive modchip for the Wii, that will allow me to play US import games.

Sorted.
Decided.
Ordering.