Wii - sharing game saves via SD card

CouRageouS

CouRageouS

CAGiversary!
Feedback
27 (100%)
Has anyone tried doing so yet? I haven't put a save on my card and looked at it on the comp, but I'm wondering if anyones done it. Maybe theres even a website out there thats hosting a bunch of saves. I don't have need for it right now, but I'd imagine eventually I'd want to download and try out a "Perfect" save file for certain games I know I'll never hit 100%. For example, when I get sick of Dragonball and I have yet to unlock all the characters, it would be cool to download a save file with all the characters for multiplayer.
 
Yeah I stole a save for Dragon Ball Z, its hard to identify the save itself though, the folders aren't marked with anything, so deleting a save, then finding the missing folder on your computer helps identify the save location, then you stick it in a folder named the same and wah lah! Downloaded save on your Wii.
 
I actually beat Super Monkey Ball: BB on my friend's Wii and copied the save to an SD card for whenever I pick up the game in the far clearanced future. Unfortuantely you can't copy a save file to your Wii until that particular game has been played in your system at least once. Its a bit odd, but then again, you wouldn't need the save unless you had the game I suppose. Just feels weird having it on the card and not my Wii.
 
[quote name='mattstockton12']I actually beat Super Monkey Ball: BB on my friend's Wii and copied the save to an SD card for whenever I pick up the game in the far clearanced future. Unfortuantely you can't copy a save file to your Wii until that particular game has been played in your system at least once. Its a bit odd, but then again, you wouldn't need the save unless you had the game I suppose. Just feels weird having it on the card and not my Wii.[/quote]

I was just going to post the same thing. Beat me to it. That should be in Strells FAQ if it isn't already.
 
[quote name='CouRageouS']Wow that is awesome daroga. I like how they have saves for VC games too. I didn't even consider how handy that could be.[/quote]Yeah, it is cool :) I haven't made use of it yet, but I'm sure I will down the road. If nothing else, I like being able to backup my saves on the computer. Not that I have, mind you, but it's a nice option. ;)
 
Very Cool info I might actually pick up an SD card now. I thought they were basically useless.

A nintendo CS rep told me over the phone when I asked him about it that save files can not be transfered from system to system using the SD card.
 
The rep probably said it so people don't start getting ideas on sharing VC games... how long till that ones cracked...

But yea I wonder if Nintendo will actually embrace this if a bunch of websites start showing up with Wii game saves. Maybe devote a channel to it.
 
[quote name='CouRageouS']The rep probably said it so people don't start getting ideas on sharing VC games... how long till that ones cracked...

But yea I wonder if Nintendo will actually embrace this if a bunch of websites start showing up with Wii game saves. Maybe devote a channel to it.[/QUOTE]

Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to transfer one game from your card to mine. I suppose that is one way to get around the $5 per game fee :lol:
 
i'd like to use this thread to bitch about the fact that you can't transfer an elebits save to an SD card... and it takes up like 109 blocks.

if i ever have to format my system data, or simply run out of space on my internal memory, i'd have to delete this save completely. totally lame. they better not make this a trend amongst wii games.
 
Wow thats fucking bullshit. Elebits was the game that made me think of this. In the beginning it said something like if you get all the pink ones it unlocks a new mode, well I don't think I'd find/take the time to do it. I was hoping to download a save one day to be able to try out whatever the hell you get for having 100%.
 
[quote name='DocRamon']i'd like to use this thread to bitch about the fact that you can't transfer an elebits save to an SD card... and it takes up like 109 blocks.

if i ever have to format my system data, or simply run out of space on my internal memory, i'd have to delete this save completely. totally lame. they better not make this a trend amongst wii games.[/QUOTE]

Can you create more than one Elebits save? I heard there is a problem with saves sometimes cannot transfer, but not always. Like two of the three Zelda saves on my friend's Wii could transfer, but the other could not. Perhaps dupe the save in-game if you can, then try and transfer it?
 
[quote name='DocRamon']i'd like to use this thread to bitch about the fact that you can't transfer an elebits save to an SD card... and it takes up like 109 blocks.

if i ever have to format my system data, or simply run out of space on my internal memory, i'd have to delete this save completely. totally lame. they better not make this a trend amongst wii games.[/QUOTE]

You can save to a SD card but not transfer? I think I'll make sure I have a SD card when I buy my Wii.
 
[quote name='ZForce915']You can save to a SD card but not transfer? I think I'll make sure I have a SD card when I buy my Wii.[/quote]
He said you can't get it on an SD card at all, which I just tried and was unsuccesdful at doing. Neither my Super Mario Bros. or Gunstar Heroes saves would copy to the SD card either. All my other saves transferred over just fine though.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']He said you can't get it on an SD card at all, which I just tried and was unsuccesdful at doing. Neither my Super Mario Bros. or Gunstar Heroes saves would copy to the SD card either. All my other saves transferred over just fine though.[/QUOTE]

I see. I thought that when he was referring to a transfer that meant that he saved to the internal memory and was trying to move it to the SD card. I was hoping that you would be able to save to the SD card if you designated that as the original place to save.

Bummer.
 
Hopefully no one cares that I'm bumping an old thread, but I've got a semi-related question here, and this is the closest I can find...

I tried copying my Zelda save file from an SD card (a file made on a different Wii) to my Wii. It gives me a message like "this file can not be copied because this game has not been played on this Wii". Something along those lines.

I don't own Zelda so can't test this out...but I would be able to copy the save file onto my Wii if I first launched Zelda on my Wii? Do all games work like that?

I'm sure know one knows the answer to this, but why the heck is Nintendo putting DRM on save files of all things?!? Their DRM is much nastier than it needs to be on their VC games, but save files?
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Hopefully no one cares that I'm bumping an old thread, but I've got a semi-related question here, and this is the closest I can find...

I tried copying my Zelda save file from an SD card (a file made on a different Wii) to my Wii. It gives me a message like "this file can not be copied because this game has not been played on this Wii". Something along those lines.

I don't own Zelda so can't test this out...but I would be able to copy the save file onto my Wii if I first launched Zelda on my Wii? Do all games work like that?

I'm sure know one knows the answer to this, but why the heck is Nintendo putting DRM on save files of all things?!? Their DRM is much nastier than it needs to be on their VC games, but save files?[/quote]

From the above post that you didn't read - not taking a shot just saying you probably glanced over it:

I actually beat Super Monkey Ball: BB on my friend's Wii and copied the save to an SD card for whenever I pick up the game in the far clearanced future. Unfortuantely you can't copy a save file to your Wii until that particular game has been played in your system at least once. Its a bit odd, but then again, you wouldn't need the save unless you had the game I suppose. Just feels weird having it on the card and not my Wii.
 
that doesn't happen with ALL games, but most. the only ones I've seen that don't act like this are games from smaller companies... the shovelware
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']I'm sure know one knows the answer to this, but why the heck is Nintendo putting DRM on save files of all things?!? Their DRM is much nastier than it needs to be on their VC games, but save files?[/quote]

They've been doing this since the days of GameCube. Animal Crossing saves (along with F-Zero GX) were not allowed to be copied. I'm sure with the Twilight Hack you'll probably end up seeing this as an almost standard practice for NCL. Sucks, but hey, it's Nintendo.
 
i know they've been doing it since gamecube days, but it wasn't an issue back then... we had memory cards. if we ran out of room on a memory card, we could always buy a new one with no real problem.

that's not the case now.

enough stuff on a wii (games, channels, wiiware, dlc, etc) and we're going to run out of room on the system's internal memory. i'm fine with the "fridge" theory that nintendo suggested... adding and deleting content as it's being used... but that won't work if we can't copy the data to an external holding area when it's not being used.

look at smash bros for instance. i'm playing it now, but that might not be the case in 3 years or so. if i run out of internal memory playing other, newer games, nintendo would want me to get rid of the smash bros save data from my system. i'd be cool with that if i was transferring it to an SD card or HDD, but we can't copy that data. and i refuse to delete it, which would get rid of all the characters/stage/music/trophies that i've unlocked. so i'm forced to have 100+ blocks of data clogged up with smash bros.

a few more games like this... we're out of room.

now, smash bros is something that would probably never be removed from the fridge anyway, so i'm okay with it. but honestly, i've stopped playing other games when i found out that i can't copy the save data over to an SD card, and purposely not bought other games because i found out that you can't. i don't see the point in investing time and effort into save data that i'll most likely need to delete in the future.
 
Wow, what's the freakin' point of having an SD card slot and not one but TWO USB ports if you can't use your external storage for anything? Digital photos? That's just silly.

Again, it wouldn't bug me if we weren't limited to only the internal memory and nothing else. The last generation of consoles let you swap out memory cards, why can't they do it this time around?

I'd even be okay with putting DRM on the SD cards and requiring you to use a special Nintendo-brand SD card for non-game related content. Allow regular SD cards from digital cameras to be used for photos (that's all they're good for anyway) and have special Nintendo SD cards that only work in the Wii and can be used for VC downloads, saved games, etc.

I don't see why this is so hard. It almost makes me angry I bought a Wii, but then I remembered that all the other consoles are just as bad. Their saving grace is that they at least have hard drives. But I've heard horror stories about people losing all their paid-for DLC on their Xbox 360s after sending them in for a repair, and how it takes a month of wrangling with customer support to get it back.

Thing is, I'm not particularly interested in VC games, because I never grew up with a Nintendo and I feel no nostalgia, nor do I particularly care about playing old games, but most people want to get at least a few. Even I have thought of getting a few, maybe that SNES hockey game or Mario Kart/Mario Kart 64.
 
[quote name='yoursisterspretty']They've been doing this since the days of GameCube. Animal Crossing saves (along with F-Zero GX) were not allowed to be copied. I'm sure with the Twilight Hack you'll probably end up seeing this as an almost standard practice for NCL. Sucks, but hey, it's Nintendo.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='DocRamon']that doesn't happen with ALL games, but most. the only ones I've seen that don't act like this are games from smaller companies... the shovelware[/QUOTE]

Just to be clear, you CAN copy any of these saves back after the game's been run once on that Wii?

I didn't realize any Gamecube games had DRM on the save files. And that's a good point about that not being as big of a deal since they were removable.

now, smash bros is something that would probably never be removed from the fridge anyway, so i'm okay with it. but honestly, i've stopped playing other games when i found out that i can't copy the save data over to an SD card, and purposely not bought other games because i found out that you can't. i don't see the point in investing time and effort into save data that i'll most likely need to delete in the future.
Click to expand...

Good point. I had no idea there were games like this until reading this thread :(

[quote name='astromanluca']Wow, what's the freakin' point of having an SD card slot and not one but TWO USB ports if you can't use your external storage for anything? Digital photos? That's just silly.

Again, it wouldn't bug me if we weren't limited to only the internal memory and nothing else. The last generation of consoles let you swap out memory cards, why can't they do it this time around?

I'd even be okay with putting DRM on the SD cards and requiring you to use a special Nintendo-brand SD card for non-game related content. Allow regular SD cards from digital cameras to be used for photos (that's all they're good for anyway) and have special Nintendo SD cards that only work in the Wii and can be used for VC downloads, saved games, etc.[/quote]

Yeah, since Nintendo refuses to do the DRM correctly for VC downloads and let you deauthorize a Wii so a new one can be authorized, they SHOULD instead use some proprietary memory cards that only let you MOVE VC downloads, not copy them, or whatever.

Instead they've screwed up even SAVE files. Geez :bomb: I didn't even realize this was as bad as it is.

I don't see why this is so hard. It almost makes me angry I bought a Wii, but then I remembered that all the other consoles are just as bad. Their saving grace is that they at least have hard drives. But I've heard horror stories about people losing all their paid-for DLC on their Xbox 360s after sending them in for a repair, and how it takes a month of wrangling with customer support to get it back.
Click to expand...

The 360 is similarly stupid with downloadable content. I guess the Playstation is marginally better since at least it works on five consoles, but they should still just move to a iTunes esque model. AFAIK there are no restrictions for saved files at least on the Playstation, but possibly something a bit weird/slow/backwards on the X-Box? I'm not sure yet (I ordered a memory card for it that should be here soon so I'll find out soon enough).

Thing is, I'm not particularly interested in VC games, because I never grew up with a Nintendo and I feel no nostalgia, nor do I particularly care about playing old games, but most people want to get at least a few. Even I have thought of getting a few, maybe that SNES hockey game or Mario Kart/Mario Kart 64.
Click to expand...

I've been dumb enough to "buy" some, but I think I'm done with it until they fix the DRM :(
 
DRM save isnt really new. Many xbox game save cannot be copied, like ninja gaiden or DOA. Some games like KotoR is too big to be copied.
 
Wolfpup- in my experience, yes, you CAN copy the save data to the wii once the game has been run on that system. that doesn't mean that there isn't some odd game out there where this isn't the case... but i haven't run into it in the games that i've played around with saves.

62t- no, this isn't new. but xbox is willing to give their customers large hard drives and add on hard drives... wii has barely anything internally and no other real option for storage expansion.


again, i'm fine if that's nintendo's philosophy... the fridge concept doesn't bother me at all... but we have to be able to have control over the data if the fridge concept is to work. it's impossible to remove things from the fridge if they can't be copied... because deleting should be out of the question.

i don't even care if, like VC games, save data is locked to a particular system. if there's a game with some save data so sensitive that it cannot be duplicated, fine, whatever. but then let it be moved at least.
 
it is usually the online games that prevent you from copying the game save, like elebit, metal slug, or tramua center.
 
first of all... i don't think metal slug has ANY online play, but it still doesn't allow you to copy a save file.

second... it's not JUST online games... meet the robinsons, splinter cell, billy and mandy, tmnt, mlb power pros... just a handful of games that have ZERO online play but still do not allow you to copy the save data.

third... i can somewhat understand not being able to copy save data for online games... which is why mario strikers charged is the best game when it comes to save data. it tells you straight up, when you try to copy the save file, that not all the data can be copied. guess what. it lets you copy ONLY the portion of save data that is unrelated to online play. the online records will not copy over while everything else does. brilliant. the amount of data i lose there is minimal.

why can no other game, not even other games made by nintendo, work this way?
 
[quote name='DocRamon']it's not JUST online games... mlb power pros... just a handful of games that have ZERO online play but still do not allow you to copy the save data.[/QUOTE]

I wondered for MLB Power Pros ... I sort of figured it was so people couldn't trade/copy the custom characters with the bonus specs. It's still retarded.

[quote name='DocRamon']third... i can somewhat understand not being able to copy save data for online games... which is why mario strikers charged is the best game when it comes to save data. it tells you straight up, when you try to copy the save file, that not all the data can be copied. guess what. it lets you copy ONLY the portion of save data that is unrelated to online play. the online records will not copy over while everything else does. brilliant. the amount of data i lose there is minimal.

why can no other game, not even other games made by nintendo, work this way?[/QUOTE]

[quote name='snipegod']It's really stupid that Mario Strikers Charged, from Nintendo half a year+ ago, features more advanced save functionality than SSB: Brawl.[/QUOTE]
 
Wow.

So weve had a Wii upstairs and Ive use that for my games like RE4 and SSBB.

I was planning on going to pick up my own Wii this weekend so that I could use it on the bigscreen downstairs and have it for my dorm when I start college next year.

I have never heard or tried any type of data management on the Wii and just assumed that in this day and age Nintendo would have a decent memory management system

From reading this thread however I see that this is not the case.

I think I got the gist of it, but could someone perhaps clear up / sum up the idea of game saves and transferring games saves and stuff over to another system.

Also just how much memory is on the Wii and what are the average sizes for VC games and other games' saves?

thanks for the help in advance.
 
i'm gonna talk in blocks, not MB, since that's what everything is going to actually say on it.

now, someone might want to back me up on this... but i believe that the wii, out of the box, starts with about 2000 blocks on it. can't remember if it's a little more or a little less. almost all the game saves take a minimal amount of blocks (1-10) and a few games take significantly more (128 i think for smash bros) for things like replays or highly customized options. channels generally take a mid-range of blocks, but the internet channel is a monster. lotta blocks with that guy. VC games vary, obviously, based on system. nes-era games are pretty small but n64 games or neo geo games are much larger. VC game save data is tiny though, about a block for each game.

in the data management, all of the block information is listed... so you'll never have to make random guesses on things. you can see what each games takes and your remaining blocks.

to transfer ANYTHING, you'll need an SD card. the wii will not work reliably with a card larger than 2GB... about 14,000 blocks i think. so one SD card and you're pretty good to go.

but you won't be able to transfer everything. not all game saves will move over to the SD card, meaning there is no way to get it off one system and onto another. no VC games or channels will transfer. they can be put on an SD card just fine, but you can't put them on a new console, only back onto your original console.

now, of course, there are always exceptions... i'm sure someone will come here and find one. some oddly massive nes game, or a channel that actually WILL move to another console. the actual "sum it up" part is that the entire thing is a mess, as if this confusing-ass post didn't already say that.

honestly... with the exception of a handful of game saves, i doubt you'll be able to transfer much of anything to a new console. nintendo is pretty hellbent on limiting us all to our original 512MB (2000 blocks).
 
Thank you very much for the reply, I didnt realize it was that messed up.

Could I take a game in which the saves are able to transfer and instead of saving always to the Wii's internal memory, that I could just save to the SD card instead? And then I could just leave the SD card in and I can play the game, with it reading from the save on that?

Essentially freeing up a little bit of space at least on the internal?
 
[quote name='BrolyB593']Could I take a game in which the saves are able to transfer and instead of saving always to the Wii's internal memory, that I could just save to the SD card instead? And then I could just leave the SD card in and I can play the game, with it reading from the save on that?

Essentially freeing up a little bit of space at least on the internal?[/QUOTE]

As far as I know, no game has yet to directly save its entire save file to an SD card. At the very least, Brawl does let you save created stages directly to an SD card.
 
So we prety much are screwed *especially people who want many VC games* until Nintendo comes out with better Memory Management?

Seeing as it is Nintendo, they had to have seen this coming and have something planned, I cant imagine Nintendo, the first to truly create a home system would not have seen this coming.

Or at least... I hope not..
 
[quote name='BrolyB593']So we prety much are screwed *especially people who want many VC games* until Nintendo comes out with better Memory Management?

Seeing as it is Nintendo, they had to have seen this coming and have something planned, I cant imagine Nintendo, the first to truly create a home system would not have seen this coming.

Or at least... I hope not..[/QUOTE]

As far as VC games goes: delete and redownload (free of charge ;) ).
 
yep... but you can't redownload onto a different console, even if you have your "my nintendo" account linked to both.

the games only work on one piece of hardware. if you buy a second box, you're outta luck. if you replace your current hardware, you've gotta send both systems back to nintendo for THEM to transfer the data.

should be interesting when/if they release the wii in different colors and a lot of people try to buy a new one, assuming it'll be easy to transfer data between boxes.
 
[quote name='DocRamon']yep... but you can't redownload onto a different console, even if you have your "my nintendo" account linked to both.

the games only work on one piece of hardware. if you buy a second box, you're outta luck. if you replace your current hardware, you've gotta send both systems back to nintendo for THEM to transfer the data.

should be interesting when/if they release the wii in different colors and a lot of people try to buy a new one, assuming it'll be easy to transfer data between boxes.[/QUOTE]

This is what really, really, really sucks. It would have been completely safe for them to have a "deauthorize" button like iTunes does so that the games no longer work on that console, and then a "authorize" button on the new console that associates them on the new console.

I was so desperate to play some of these great old games that I actually "bought" some, but I think I'm done until Nintendo fixes their DRM. I actually called them up a year or two ago and asked about all this, and the rep goes "well we can't let people copy games and just run them anywhere". So I ask why they don't just impliment an iTunes (or Adobe/Macromedia for that matter) esque authorize/deauthorize system, and she's like "OH! Uh...I don't know".

I hate these media companies and their DRM crap. There's people stealing all these games anyway, so they're only screwing people who want to buy them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top