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A couple of days ago I came across the Dolphin Emulator for Ubuntu Linux. Basically it will run Nintendo Wii games (among other platforms) on your PC in both MS Windows and Linux. It was easy to install and I was amazed at just how well it rendered wii games and connected to the wiimote controls. Dolphin is able to run many Wii and GameCube games with almost full emulation with a few minor errors.
I spent the better part of yesterday playing around with the emulator, never let it be said I don't live a charmed life and was patently shocked with how well it runs games. Granted, I'm packing a beefy video card, so your mileage may vary
Throw in anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, support for gamepads (I used a wired 360 controller) and real Wii remote support (your computer just needs to be able to see Bluetooth devices, otherwise Dolphin will emulate the Wii remote using your mouse and keyboard) and you're looking at a very fine piece of software indeed.
Dolphin was first released in 2003 as an experimental Nintendo GameCube emulator that could boot up and run commercial games. However it had terrible performance and many games crashed on start up or barely ran at all. Average speed was from 2 to 20 FPS depending on the chosen game and system configuration and had no sound support.
Dolphin was officially discontinued in 2004, with the developers releasing version 1.01 as the final build of the emulator. However, the developers decided to revive the project in 2005 and then in 2007, version 1.03 was released with minor improvements and with little sound support as compared to version 1.01. Dolphin is now open source and free to anyone who wants a copy.
Dolphin can currently only run "images", also known as ISO or GCM files, of Gamecube and Wii games, since a PC DVD drive cannot read the discs directly. To make a game image, the easiest method is to install Homebrew Channel and the Wii Disc Dumper on a Wii, and simply copy the game to your PC over the network. Information about how to do that can be found on Google.
In general, emulators allow computer programs to run a platform like computer architecture or operating system. This kind of emulator is known as software emulator. However, hardware emulator is an emulator in the form of hardware devices like printer emulators.
I hate to admit it but the MS windows version runs much smoother, but either way it was a great project and i was happy with the outcome on both platforms. Just Google "Dolphin Emulator" if you want to get the latest windows 32 and 64 bit versions or if you are using Ubuntu Karmic or above open a terminal and type the code below.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:glennric/dolphin-emu
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dolhpin-emu
Ok What about the wiimote?
The Wiimote (Wii Remote Control) uses both Bluetooth and Infra-red technology. So yes, you can use it with your linux box:-)
You have a few pieces of software to play with the wiimote in Ubuntu, I have used wiican. The main thing to do is pair the wiimote with the bluetooth on the PC. A fairly easy task
The Author
Dan Collyer Find me at ubuntudan.blogspot.com
I love all things Ubuntu so it has been a pleasure to write this article. The more of us that embrace open source software, the more we save! Please visit my site below for heaps of great Ubuntu tutorials.
