Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Copying Wii Games On a Computer - How and Why

By Cam Halladay

The Nintendo Wii is unlike any other video game system which has come before; it has generated an unprecedented level of popularity. It should come as no surprise to anyone that there are a lot of people who want to copy their Wii games as a backup in case of damage, loss or theft.

Wii games are usually in the form of a CD which looks like any other CD or DVD; the difference is you cannot simply copy these discs as you would a music disc. It's a somewhat more complex process than a simple rip and burn operation. Here's some information on copying Wii games to keep a backup of yor favorite Wii games.

The software which you use to rip and burn CDs doesn't work to copy Wii games. Nero, Roxio and other common CD burning software can't copy these discs due to the copy protection which is encoded on the disc. This encryption keeps your computer from reading the disc.

Of course, like most copy protection, it didn't take long for someone to come up with a workaround. There are programs available that can read through the copy protection that comes on a Wii disc.

Once you've installed this kind of software, making a copy of the game is relatively easy - your computer is suddenly able to understand the data that was unreadable before. This is true for games on just about any system, including the PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii.

Even some PC games use encryption that can be broken by these programs. Should you own more than one game system, this software can help you produce backup copies for all of them, not just your Wii.

Once you have the necessary software to break the encryption on the disc, you can copy the game to your hard drive as a disk image. Then you can burn a discussing this image just as you would with any other, using the CD burning software of your choice.

In many cases, these programs have copying and burning capabilities built in as well as decryption functionality. This makes it less likely that you'll run into trouble copying Wii games.

The copying programs that are now available make it possible to copy Wii games without having to do anything but click a few buttons. Copying Wii games is a great way to make a backup copy of any game you want. It never hurts to have a backup in the case that the original gets lost or damaged. Enjoy!

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