Wii U Kiosk Shell - What to DO?

[JoshTX]

Yesterday I achieved a sort of bittersweet victory. After not being able to find a Wii U kiosk anywhere when they were all being thrown out, my Mother in law of all people finds one in an alley behind a Gamestop in her town yesterday. Problem is, unlike those lucky souls who had been finding them near complete, this one is almost completely stripped. Like, nearly everything was ripped off it.

A quick search of ebay for parts reveals that prices are way too high to try to rebuild this thing through that avenue. Would probably cost more in the end doing that, then just buying one outright already complete. 

What I would like to do is acquire the parts I need and skip what I don't need and basically Frankenstein this thing into an emulation kiosk of some sort, like a Raspberry Pi player or something. 

Any ideas? Should I try to maintain the integrity of the unit even at the high expense? Should I hack it? Can anyone here help with parts? At this point I have virtually nothing, and at minimum will need the drawer key, and frame for the monitor. 

 

[Vinny]

If all you wanna do is make a emulation kiosk, why not just sell the Wii U one and buy a pre-made arcade cabinet? 

Wii U and DS/3DS kiosks would always look the most abused, since so many kids used them. Don't know if I'd want one of those hanging around my place unless it was in nice shape. 

 

[JoshTX]

If you mean germs and all that, I'm not too worried. I'll obviously have everything cleaned and well sanitized. 

I guess to some degree I'm thinking of this thing as a project, and I'm trying to mitigate my disappointment to some degree, by looking at it optimistically. Basically, when the Wii U's were being thrown out I couldn't find one to save my life. I suspect that employees or friends of employees got the majority of them, and that was back in January/February. So when I get a call that she found one at the end of April I was ecstatic because I had given up. So to see the thing, and finally be able to call it mine, felt great despite the fact that it was stripped like it had survived the LA riots. It makes me wanna do something with it, even if I can't afford to get it back to how it once was. 

 

[Vinny]

If you mean germs and all that, I'm not too worried. I'll obviously have everything cleaned and well sanitized.

I guess to some degree I'm thinking of this thing as a project, and I'm trying to mitigate my disappointment to some degree, by looking at it optimistically. Basically, when the Wii U's were being thrown out I couldn't find one to save my life. I suspect that employees or friends of employees got the majority of them, and that was back in January/February. So when I get a call that she found one at the end of April I was ecstatic because I had given up. So to see the thing, and finally be able to call it mine, felt great despite the fact that it was stripped like it had survived the LA riots. It makes me wanna do something with it, even if I can't afford to get it back to how it once was.

Makes sense. Pretty cool piece of history you have there, feel like the Wii U is gonna be a hella of a collectors item in the future.

Is there like a... vendor or manufacturer label/name on that thing? Maybe reach out to them for spare parts?

 

[JoshTX]

Makes sense. Pretty cool piece of history you have there, feel like the Wii U is gonna be a hella of a collectors item in the future.

Is there like a... vendor or manufacturer label/name on that thing? Maybe reach out to them for spare parts?

Someone over at the Nintendo Age forums tried that. The manufacturer won't give out any information or allow anyone to buy parts per Nintendo. Go figure. Luckily since my last post I have been able to acquire a few pieces, and I've also watched several videos and read online posts about how people are finding workarounds to certain things. The biggest one being the monitor, I have found a 32 inch television that fits nicely within the bezel, but it's going to take some minor drilling and rigging to get it mounted.