Wii U Gamepad Capture?

[Da12thKind]

Hey y'all!

I was wondering if anyone had many any progress on figuring out how to make a capture kit for the Wii U gamepad? I really want to cover some Wii U titles for my channel, but a lot of them have stuff on the gamepad, and I really would rather not try to jerry rig a phone or camera to it.

[Da12thKind]

I’m looking through the interior and the bottom port seems to have some cables connected to it that look similar to the speaker and video cables…

[Da12thKind]

So I learned recently that Optimize took over Katsukity's Market, but they've split their stock into two categories: World Wide and Domestic/Japan Only. It seems that for a while, they were selling boards for the Wii U Gamepad, but have since discontinued that board. I did manage to find a picture of what that Wii U capture board looked like, in the event that anyone wanted to try their hand at replicating it.

I also found their old instruction page on how to install the board: https://optimize.ath.cx/cusb_spa3/LVDS/index.htm

It's a little confusing because translating the Japanese to English isn't 1:1 and it causes some weird language to be used.

If Loopy could find a way to make his own version of this board and software (or maybe just straight up replace the micro USB port with a micro HDMI port), I would buy an install service in a heartbeat.

[loopy]

So I learned recently that Optimize took over Katsukity's Market

Fun fact - Katsukity was always just a reseller for Optimize, he never designed / produced his own boards.

If Loopy could find a way to make his own version of this board and software (or maybe just straight up replace the micro USB port with a micro HDMI port), I would buy an install service in a heartbeat.

I've never done a survey but my hunch is that the market for WiiU capture is a lot smaller than 3DS... so it's never been a priority for me. Maybe why optimize also discontinued it?

[Da12thKind]

Oh I never knew that about Katsukity! That’s very interesting. Also, yeah that’s fair about the Wii U crowd being small. I guess I’ll probably end my search since I’m not getting anywhere.

[soup244]

I use a homebrew app call SWAP DRC. It wont capture both screens, but it will get the game pad screen to go out of the HDMI on the Wii U. I’d recommend trying that.

[Exline2009]

I would personally be interested in a Wii U Gamepad Capture Board. LMK how many you'd need interested in this to justify setting something up for it, assuming you'd even consider it xD. Don't wanna overwhelm you as so many people are expecting 3ds capture boards to restock.

[steeler]

I will also vouch for being interested in a Wii U Gamepad capture, if only for the weird curiosity of it hah

[Sunset Archon]

Hey y'all!

I was wondering if anyone had many any progress on figuring out how to make a capture kit for the Wii U gamepad? I really want to cover some Wii U titles for my channel, but a lot of them have stuff on the gamepad, and I really would rather not try to jerry rig a phone or camera to it.

Hello there. I just joined the forum today.

I know exactly how you feel. I wanna stream Paper Mario: Color Splash, but the entirety of the menu UI is displayed on the Wii U GamePad.

I've spent the last month researching this topic. Let me first say that the Wii U GamePad is by far the most infuriating piece of technology I've ever researched, especially when you search "how to stream Wii U GamePad screen". Google will literally give you 3 articles as top search results either written by AI or someone that's never used a Wii U. And the most detailed article on the components of the Chameleon USB SPA3 board got mysteriously nuked days after I found it, I kid you not. That said, I still have a printout of the article and more to share with those interested.

So I learned recently that Optimize took over Katsukity's Market, but they've split their stock into two categories: World Wide and Domestic/Japan Only. It seems that for a while, they were selling boards for the Wii U Gamepad, but have since discontinued that board. I did manage to find a picture of what that Wii U capture board looked like, in the event that anyone wanted to try their hand at replicating it.

I also found their old instruction page on how to install the board: https://optimize.ath.cx/cusb_spa3/LVDS/index.htm

It's a little confusing because translating the Japanese to English isn't 1:1 and it causes some weird language to be used.

If Loopy could find a way to make his own version of this board and software (or maybe just straight up replace the micro USB port with a micro HDMI port), I would buy an install service in a heartbeat.

Core Components:

• Square Chip - XILINX SPARTAN3A (XC3S50A - 4VQG100)
• Long Chip - EZ-USB FX2LP Micro-controller

I can get into the details of that within a later post once I've better organized my information.

In addition, while the Chameleon board was discontinued, Optimize did develop a new board for the 3DS called the N-SPA3. Though it may be naïve of me to think so, since the Chameleon board worked for both 3DS and Wii U, it's reasonable to assume that the N-SPA3 is capable of the same since they share the same components. It's like translating cheat codes for a multi-platform console game between the PS2 version and the Gamecube version.

So using the few screenshots of the Chameleon board that exist (and a good zoom function) and the Optimize website instruction for installing the board into a Wii U GamePad, I was able to write a general roadmap of sorts from the contact points on the GamePad motherboard to the input nodes on the Chameleon board (a1 through f10), and in turn mapping those inputs to pins on the XILINX SPARTAN3A chip. Again, the mapping is information I'll post once I organize everything.

Theoretically, if I were to solder wires from the contact points on the GamePad motherboard to the same XILINX SPARTAN3A pins on the N-SPA3 chip, it should produce the same end result as the original Chameleon board when paired with the proper capture software.

So I learned recently that Optimize took over Katsukity's Market

Fun fact - Katsukity was always just a reseller for Optimize, he never designed / produced his own boards.

If Loopy could find a way to make his own version of this board and software (or maybe just straight up replace the micro USB port with a micro HDMI port), I would buy an install service in a heartbeat.

I've never done a survey but my hunch is that the market for WiiU capture is a lot smaller than 3DS... so it's never been a priority for me. Maybe why optimize also discontinued it?

Loopy, I truly hope you read this. Yes, in terms of visible interest, desire for Wii U capture is smaller than 3DS. However, I feel that exploring the market for Wii U capture would be beneficial overall for one reason: if you succeed, you'll be right. As I said, before I found all this info, I had to go through multiple articles that truly feel like they were written by AI with no knowledge of how this console works. On multiple occasions, it suggests that you "plug the Wii U console into a capture card" or "use a USB cord to connect the GamePad to your computer" to record/stream the GamePad screen. That second suggestion would be possible if the GamePad was modded, but it makes no mention of modifications.

My point is providing tested and accurate hardware solutions has a way of gathering those that are interested but lost in a sea of misinformation on the topic.

[Glurak]

Sorry for bring that out of its grave :O

But i would also insta buy a capture card for the Wii U Gamepad since the WiiU is one of the best systems for GC // WII // WIIU and other emulated plattforms