Running Korean Games (real discs) on non-Korean Wiis

[Vega]

Zachruff asked about how to do this on the Discord server. It reminded me an anonymous user who used the full Softmod Guide - HERE couldn't get his Korean MKW Disc to run on a modded American Wii.

It boils down to two IOS's

First thing's first is your System Menu IOS. IOS60 runs 4.1, IOS70 runs 4.2, IOS80 runs 4.3. Each disc (in its region.bin) has a region value (hexadecimal byte)

Disc Region Byte Values
0 = Japan (all Taiwan games use this disc region value)
1 = Americas
2 = PAL
3 = Unused
4 = Korea
5 = China (Chinese Wii plus Chinese MKWii never released to public)

If this region.bin byte doesn't match your System Menu region, the Wii will not allow the game to be bootable from the Disc channel.

Next is the game's IOS. This varies per game. If your Wii doesn't have a game's IOS, it can't run said game. Not only that, every Korean game runs on a different IOS when compared to its non-Korean counterpart. Mario Kart Wii runs on IOS36 which is on 99.9% of Wiis, However, Korean MKWii runs on IOS46. Considering IOS46 can only be found on real/original Korean Wiis, getting one may be a challenge.

To get around all of this (according to a person named Sayuri). Install the latest version of Priiloader. Open up Priiloader in HBC. Turn on Region-Free, uncheck 'use system menu ios', and change it to cios 249. This will bypass the region checks and force all discs to run under cIOS249.

Credits to Seeky for the Sayuri message

[KartPlayer]

I am not sure how I missed this before but this is exactly what I was looking for.

Region free obviously says what it does on the tin just ensure that all of the region locking hacks are enabled instead of just "Region Free EVERYTHING"

Edit: Region Free EVERYTHING is no longer an option in the latest version of Priiloader

I found some more information regarding cIOS249:

"While it cannot allow playing of burned games on its own, it is needed to play burned discs. (Can give you Error 002 on a non-burned game)" - wii.guide

Therefore, not only allowing you to run a Korean disc on a foreign Wii without a region change but also allowing you to check that the disc is official

[Vega]

To my limited knowledge on modding and IOS. Regarding just ciOS249, it is not needed to play burnt discs from the Disc Channel. You need 3 things:
Wii Drive capable of reading burnt discs
System Menu cIOS (i.e. 60) has the proper modules to allow reading burnt discs
You have the IOS installed that the game runs on

Probably wrong on this, maybe someone can chime in. Either way, cIOS249 w/ the prilloader stuff makes this all irrelevant (still need the Drive though ofc)

[KartPlayer]

Yes, I think that is correct after further research. Either you can load the cIOS249 which is intended for playing the games which wouldn't normally load as the IOS would be incorrect or you could of course install the IOS that the game was meant to load on, in this case IOS46.

I believe all Wiis capable of installing BootMii as boot2 have the pre-D2 drives.