Hey guys I just wanted to leave a comment here with a couple quick things: First of all, I would like to thank you all so much for all the support! I didn't expect this video to get anywhere near this many views, comments, etc. so quickly so I really appreciate it all! Another thing that a few of you have mentioned is that you wish I went more in depth showing off the software / hardware of the unit. I'm sorry I kinda dropped the ball with this one. I really wish I went in and really explored more of the karaoke software, tried out a song or two, and checked out some more of the titles on the Wii u menu but the main thing I wanted to do from the start was just to get it playing a retail Wii u game so I kinda had tunnel vision going through everything else. I am planning on making a follow-up video really doing a deep dive on this thing, atleast to the best of my ability. I would like to show off a bit more of the hardware, check out the rest of the service menu, and potentially even try some sort of non invasive softmod. I'm sorry if this video seemed a bit rushed, I was just really excited to finally have it in my possession and just wanted to show it off as there aren't many of these out there. I'll start working on the follow-up video as soon as possible so hopefully I can get it all recorded and uploaded in a timely manner. Thanks for all the constructive criticism you guys have left, I'm really trying to improve my videos and make the best content I possibly can and I wouldn't be able to do that without all of your feedback. I hope to see you all in the next part and hopefully I'll be able to answer all of your questions :)
For some reason, the way it autoboots reminds me of not only demo kiosk units as you'd expect, but also the homebrew environment loader used for both Tiramisu and Aroma (they soft patch the OS). If a retail WiiU modded with the environment loader has no SD card in during power on, it will continue to whatever standard boot sequence is defined by a file in the systems bios, so it can always boot in OEM mode
@zer064 just thought I'd let you know that you don't need the sensor bar for anything. You can use with Wiimote without one. It's completely unnecessary. All a sensor bar does is create two little LED lights for the Wiimote to sense. Plugging it in only provides power to turn on these lights. There is no other functionality. You can do the same thing with a pair of candles.
This software could probably be run in a modified Wii U, it would be amazing to see this software dumped and running. Considering this is just a Wii U, you could probably use standard Wii U modding guides to try and dump all the data. I love this, its such a cool device and it needs to be preserved.
I believe there's actually another guy living in Japan who has one and is working on dumping theirs. I'll see if I can get some more info and links if possible
@@RetroZero64 thanks for the information, this is such a cool device and I'm very curious if I could figure out how to get the software working on my Wii U. Very nice video, and I hope you enjoy your cool Japanese karaoke Wii U!
@@joypadder_gemu1812 It seems like this is not a modified Wii U console, the system software is still the same. That means that if you install this onto a normal Wii U through homebrew it should work.
Nice to get even a limited view on such a rare unit but it would have been nice to see and understand more about the why and how. Don't care if it can play Wi U discs. Because that seems pretty much to be a given. Since it is just an unmodified Wii U in a larger case with extensions. A deeper dive would be a nice follow up, please.
I'd like to do a deeper dive into it at some point. Right now, I'm trying to figure out a way to preserve all the content on the hard drive. since I've been told songs have been removed off the service over time and units like this might be the only way to still access them. I wish I could have disassembled the entire unit and looked at everything but I was just afraid of breaking something or not being able to get it back together right. I'll probably set aside a day to really take my time on it and get it completely disassembled
@@RetroZero64take a peek at some homebrew to see if you can dump content off of the drive. iirc there's an FTP server that can browse internal and or external storage.
Well what i dubbed "the holy grail of Wii u's" doesn't fail to disapoint thank you for sharing this to the world (and it's cheaper than a 64DD) if i'm correct the system runs a special offline capable version of Karaoke Joysound for Wii U that would explain the harddrive
What a cool find! I hadn't ever heard of the Joysound Festa until now. You really should make a follow up video showcasing all of it's unique features and software! 😃
This is cool and all. But what I would have liked to see is the rest of its hardware. What happens when you boot into the Joysound Festa software, what the knobs on the front are for and the UI menu on the front. The video felt more like a Wii U demonstration than anything. The unique software that isn't shown off. You would be the only one to show it off in HD. You could demonstrate some of the software/games it may have and menus without setting off a copyright claim. You are the only person on UA-cam showing off the hardware. Possibly the only English speaking UA-camr with this hardware. I hope you go more in-depth in a next video.
Yeah that's the plan. I would like to make a video fully disassembling it, exploring the service menus, potentially doing a softmod / backup, and a few other things. I'm not sure if I'd be able to demonstrate the actual software in use during a video because of copyright and all that but I could still atleast poke around in the menus a bit
I've never seen this before, but it's super cool! If possible, you should try and homebrew it to get the files off it for preservation sake. Also, if it's just an unmodified Wii U, taking off the back should allow for the Wii Menu to be accessible (since the sensor bar port is in the back).
6:33 160-2203 means there is a problem with the onboard NAND (essentially the system memory chip) which from i know sadly is a pretty common issue recently with wii u consoles, especially the ones with Hynix nands. Since it has already happened to you it will only get worse with time, until it corrupts a critical parts of the os completely bricking it. I would advise backing up the NAND in case that would happen just to preserve its contents, something like NAND-AID lets you replace the nand with an SD card and restore the nand backup onto it
Well the strange thing is, this is an 8gb Wii which don't come with hynix chips. I found another guy who owns one of these and it seems the crash most likely isn't from the nand failing as the exact same thing happens to theirs. It's probably just a result of some sort of OS modification they did from the factory but I could be wrong. It's not really meant to be used as a normal Wii U so the activity log and browser causing a crash isn't really a big deal
@@RetroZero64 id say back up the nand just in case anyway, worst case scenario the nand could still be failing (ive heard of some cases with samsung nands) but considering what you mentioned i wouldnt really worry about it unless it gets worse
This was actually one of the most intriguing piece of hardware ive seen! I would love to see it connected to the internet, and see what would happen and if it would update. Also consider dumping the software, as the homebrew community would be really happy! Thanks for this video!
The Wii U had a Joysound-based karaoke app actually ua-cam.com/video/rzhbAoLtQRk/v-deo.html I can only imagine that it was a lot better and better supported back then in Japan. It's interesting to see two gamepads included as well because the premise of multiple gamepads for the Wii U was toyed around with but never materialized. It's probably just a spare in this case though.
I believe this is actually mostly the same software that comes on the Festa although this one is slightly different because it supports having songs saved locally on a hard drive instead of downloading them from a server
This is a business model for elderly halls, hospitals or hotels, the software might be different with eShop version. As I know, it have some counters with play count and date. If you didn't pay service fee for a while, it will be locked.
This is so neat dude. I would imagine the Wii U works by booting the Joysound game title, and then maybe songs are each title..? I’m not sure.. but it’s interesting for sure. Most of the rpls seem to work, but I would imagine console titles were prolly deleted to save space… you could prolly restore them if the thing could run on cfw which I imagine it could, but yeah.. sick dude! Also congrats on your channel doing so well! I wasn’t here for that last video, since UA-cam only recommended this one lol.
Yeah that makes sense. I doubt the error is because of nand corruption because the same thing happens with another guy's system. Also thanks for the support! I really appreciate it
The Wii U gamepad 100% has IR emitters on it. It's just not enabled unless you're in vWii mode. You can also press minus on the Wiimote to enter vWii, the only drawback is you won't get an output on anything other than the gamepad.
So theoretically one could put their Gamepad under their TV to allow the Wii remotes to have tracking? Man that makes the Wii U even more of an Awesome car console than I originally though.
14:53 So... the Wii U has this thing that if you connect/disconnect a USB device while the console is on, the Wii U will crash. The reason why this happens it's because the USB ports are supposed to be used for archiving some storage like downloaded games or save files, and if you disconnect the usb that it's being used at that moment it will cause this to happen.
Wow, cool you finally got this in and very interesting to see. 6:17 sounds just like my Prologue 21, maybe worse seeing how you have to disassemble it to insert a disc. 11:00 I've figured out getting the Prologue set up at a few conventions I'm at after fixing it this last time and it's always a hit.
@@RetroZero64 Good luck on that one. They've never really been that common, but I haven't seen near as many this last year as I used to. If you do end up with one that you can't figure out, let me know, I might be able to help out
Ever since I saw the Austin Evans video on the Panasonic Q that has been my favorite Nintendo console. I might have a new runner-up. This thing is amazing!
The Q is definitely on the list for things to buy. I'm just more afraid of having to repair them since the trays are all broken. I have a 3d printer now so I can get the part atleast
As someone who owns a full worldwide Physical WiIU Collection this item as allude me for awhile. Ive been waiting for one to come up for sale thats not the full kart version. Tough to find but all so awesome to see. Cant wait to add this to my collection one day.
Retro gaming keeps growing, makes sense because as time goes by there will be more and more older gamers wich i think is the majority of retro gaming fans,
Ay i saw your post on reddit about this. Its a cool find and im glad youre preserving it in a vid like his for everyone to see. Really interesting console.
6:48 Translated: There is an error in the device's storage memory. Please refer to the Wii U instruction manual (booklet) and report the error code to the Nintendo Service Center. Error code:160-2203
The Wii Remote that came with the console reminds me of the that one Club Nintendo TV remote that looked like a Wii Remote. Unrelated but I am your 1000 subscriber
13:40 those cables are usb 2.0 so its possible for it to be audio or controlling something else in the system but definitely not HDMI. The USB 2.0 bandwidth cant transmit an hdmi signal so it has to be something else
Yeah It definitely isn't outputting the HDMI signal directly, but there's a button on the front of the unit to switch outputs so I thought it might be used to power some sort of HDMI/Composite switcher built in. Hopefully when I take it apart further I can figure that out
No. it´s a glassfiber-to-USB-cable. Special. Any WiiU supports it (including WiiU SDK-units). High bandwidth isn´t needed. This cable has NO latenc like any other cable. Any connection on WiiU can use no-latency-cables. And this includes coupling glassfiber-cables.
hey sorry if this has been asked already, just curious how come you use a step down converter for Japanese consoles. is it just an added safety thing for unique and rare systems like this or do you use one any time you're using a Japanese console?
I just use a step down converter for things like this or if I'm playing for an extended period of time. I know most electronics can handle the extra 10-20 volts from a North American plug but it does introduce a slight bit more heat and can shorten the life of the console. There's also a special case with this unit since it has a built in power strip of sorts, and I'm worried about the extra voltage blowing a fuse or something.
cool, thanks for the reply. i totally forgot about the power strip possibly causing issues. idk much about the different power grids, i knew they were fairly close in voltage but thats it lol.@@RetroZero64
To get into Wii mode with out a sensor bar on the Wiiu just press + it will choose the Wii U gamepad to display the Wii menu then to control it you need a Wii Classic controller to plug into the bottom of the Wii mote
4:35 the mii on screen is actually one of the default miis that originated on the wii, that one specifically was "Guest A." there are 6 guest miis, and you can find them in any game that has Miis as characters. i'm guessing you can select the other guest miis if you can find a character select in the menus somewhere. 8:50 the IR camera on the wii u gamepad only turns on after entering wii mode, the gamepad screen says "Press the plus button to use show the screen on JUST the wii u gamepad" for if you don't have a sensor bar or TV. the notes i wrote are taking from when using my own wii u and general known things about the wii and wii u. the guest miis are in nintendo land though if you need a direct game i've seen them in.
There’s no IR camera in the Gamepad, the camera is in the Wiimote and any two sources of infrared light will work as a “sensor bar”. I never had a Wii so I never had a sensor bar, I played all the Wii games on my Wii U using two candles.
I never realized that thanks for the info. The name of the profile is just "Joysound" so it seems to be preloaded on these machines at the factory. As for the Wii menu, I didn't realize you could switch the screens because it was in Japanese lol
You don't neet a sensor bar for the wii motes to track, if you put 2 candles lighted at each corner on top of your tv your wii motes will work, or any light that emits infrared spectrum of light would do, your sensor bar is basicly 2 infrared led's powered by usb.
Yeah I've used the candle trick a few times before. I just didn't have any on hand so I couldn't do that. Also some other people have mentioned that I could have pressed the + button to switch screens and pressed the button that way
Yeah I ended up checking between the first and second part of the video I just forgot to mention it. The error I got is for a corrupted title which makes sense. They probably just deleted some of the unnecessary parts of the OS to save space
13:48 Translated again: The hard disk could not be recognized and communication could not be established. Please contact the installer, *Press power to exit. Communication date ----/--/-- (blank)
That's what I thought at first, but it seems like they somehow modified the system files and removed the web browser and activity log. I found someone else who's unit has the exact same crash on both apps and theirs has a 32gb hynix chip while mine has an 8gb Toshiba. Not that it's impossible for the same thing to happen on both, but it would be a pretty weird coincidence. I actually helped find one for Adam Koralik if you know him, so I'll see if his does the same thing aswell. In any case, the nand has been dumped so if anything happens in the future, I can do the whole nand-aid mod and bring it back to life
I do have one system from back in the day. Called sega cdx. Where it's a sega system and sega cd in the sise of a portable cd player with the cd player can be run on 2 double A batties
if it's as rare as you're saying PLEASE dear God do a full NAND backup on that thing, not sure if there's one already archived and preserved in the wild but that would be awesome to have incase something were to ever happen to your unit (it has been an arising issue that Wii U's are prone to eMMC failure if you didn't know)
I've already done a nand backup and plan to show the process in a follow-up video. Also, I checked the nand chip my unit has and it's an 8gb Toshiba chip which isn't prone to corruption. It's the 32gb hynix chips that are the main problem. There is also already a nand dump out there for one of these with a hynix chip I believe
a multi channel audio recorder and video player, some musicians would enjoy the multiple audio channel i/o, I could imagine this thing recording a band easily.
I wish i did when I was recording but I didn't really think to for some reason. I'm planning on making a follow-up video going really in depth on a lot of things so I'll definitely make sure to look into that a lot more
I would be leery updating the software on the Wii U. It appears to be running something custom and updating the Wii U could either brick it or overwrite the custom software turning it into a standard Wii U. I'm excited to see the follow up video showing off the custom software and hardware. If you do get it modded I would love to see the firmware/software dumped for preservation.
The software is actually updated to 5.5.5 already which is the newest update for Japanese consoles. I've gotten it running custom firmware already but I'm trying to figure out how to go about dumping the HDD contents as it's almost 2TB of data
It should be possible. It doesn't seem to have anything really special about it aside from the hard drive. But maybe there's something else hidden in there
@@RetroZero64 I would back up the nand and the hdd as soon as possible, who knows when either of them will kick the dust. hdd should be easy to do with a pc if it's not encrypted and for the nand, a 32gb sd card and access to the internet browser on the wii u. If you need help i'm sure the wii u modding/hacking community out there can help you.
I need to find a pretty large archival drive but I do plan on it. I know there's a dump already out there on the internet archive although I'm not sure how complete it is
Currently working on getting a nand dump set up. I believe the hard drive was dumped on the internet archive by another owner but I'll see if they're different and do my own if I have content they don't
Looking at pictures of other joysound festa it looks like it has two gamepads as standard. And when looking on a whole setup it looks like it is made for hospitals.
The only thing the hard drive houses is the songs for the Joysound software, there's nothing really special that shows up in the Wii u menu. I wish I did remember to mention that in the video though
You should be able to. I got CFW running on mine using DNSpresso which only requires an SD card to be inserted into the system. After that you can pretty much run anything you want off it
Yeah, I figured it would be the same as a standard wiiu hack. I didnt realize that it just had a white wiiu physically in there. Where you able to get the gamecube controllers working or the adapter to use 4?@@RetroZero64
i made a jp eshop account jut to see what games their eshop had, and their news channel stuff started to appear, i always wondered what joysound was cuz it appear quite often. I think even the gym chains publish games in japan
This thing might have some limit of the karaoke software. Like song play count or date count limit, or the karaoke player will be locked. I'm interested with if it has this limit or not. Also the HDD is copyable or not (might bind the HDD serial, means it will be bricked if HDD broken)
It seems they do have some sort of limit from what I've heard, but I also believe some people from the Wii U modding community found a way to reset it. I'll definitely try to look into it for the follow-up
Wii sensor bar has no sensors in it. The wiimote does the sensoring. All the sensor bar does is act as a point in space the wiimote can use to get orientation and location in 3d space. Two candles work just fine. F
I thought it came on when that dialogue comes up though. It requires you to select an option with a Wii remote so I'd think it would come on. Maybe I'm wrong though, I've never tested it before
I just remembered that you can actually just press + on the gamepad to go to Wii Mode, instead of using the Wii Remote, but it will only be displayed on the gamepad.
That's definitely the plan for my follow up video. I wish i looked into the software more but when recording i just thought "oh there's copyrighted music I'll get claimed" and skipped it. I realize now that's kinda dumb. I just wasn't really thinking
Okay, it’s a karaoke machine. But how do you load the music if the disc drive is hidden inside the Joysound? It’s a Nintendo Wii U without the actual function of a Wii U, that is ridiculous!
Every one and their parents are trying to get their hands on ALL THIS gaming hardware and video game stuffs that was EXCLUSIVE TO JAPAN. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that if there's nothing left to talk about United States OF America releases. Hey, what about EURO gaming releases hmm?
I'd love to find more euro exclusives and I do have some searches out for things like the Mega PC, Amstrad GX4000, CD32 stuff, etc. but they don't come up all that often unfortunately
Yeah it definitely smelled a little smokey but it really wasn't that bad. Even the Sega Prologue 21 unit wasn't too terrible aside from a single dead roach I found
17:13 it must have been you of not translating the error codes through google lens in google translate. Unless you don’t have a smartphone with a camera. “I dOn’T kNoW WhAt tHiS sAyS” Don’t worry bud, i did the homework for you.
I record my videos using my phone so I had no way of translating the text without constantly stopping the recording and checking. I wish I could have changed the system language but unfortunately you can't change that on Japanese systems
Ye Didn't explore anything really in depth in it's software, played a game on it, and just felt unprepared.. gotta research the products your buying to right a filled review in cause it didn't stand out as much as it'd like to see.
Thanks for the criticism! I really wish I did explore the software a bit more but with it being mostly centered around licensed music, I was just afraid of getting a claim because of it. I'll definitely do some more digging and maybe record another video really digging deep into it. I'd already planned on making a video taking it fully apart, checking out the hard drive, and potentially looking at some sort of softmod, it just seemed like a lot to pack into one video. Thanks for watching though and I'll try and do better in that regard in the future!
Japanese systems don't have a language option. I believe north American systems do but the only way you can change the language on a Japanese console is through modding
Unrelated, but I was ranting just yesterday about why the wii u failed. It had a 5 year lifespan and in those 5 years they only released about 18 or 20 give or take mainline Nintendo games and the rest were 3rd party games that ran better on the xbox 360/one and ps3/ps4. I remember the wii u console came out in 2012 and no one bought it because it simply didn't have any games from nintendo to play on it. Nintendo simply salvaged some of the games they released for it and re-released them on the switch to mitigate the huge loss. Then they wonder why it failed.
Yeah it was really sad. They definitely could have marketed and supported it better. The hardware was last gen at best but so was the Wii and so is the switch. Off topic but Imagine if Nintendo made a Gameboy Player-esque adapter to play DS / 3DS games right off the Wii U. That would have sold a shit ton of consoles to people like content creators who are willing to pay hundreds for an HDMI out mod on a 3ds. So many missed opportunities
@@RetroZero64 That's actually a genius idea. I would have loved to come home from school to play my 3ds games on my tv. I wouldn't mind if they looked lower quality because they are handheld games, as long as I had the choice to do it why not? Smh, I'm sure that could've been done but nintendo has their own weird "standards" or something. Every year they fall farther from grace and become more a shell of what they used to be.
@@ophanim1245 yeah I mean if they had the hardware built in like the Gameboy player, it would still be pretty affordable. I assume the majority of the 3ds' cost was the screens, especially because the 2ds was able to exist for $99. A USB adapter with 3ds hardware inside wouldn't be too expensive I assume. And since the resolution was so low, there probably wouldn't be any trouble transmitting video over USB 2.0
I didn't even realize It was in frame lol. Thanks! I just recently got it for Black Friday and I'm planning on using it for custom shells on broken consoles as well as some decorations to put around my game room
Saying you don't know why they'd turn the Wii U into a karaoke machine is a bit culturaly insensitive. Completely unintentional I'm sure, as it's such a staple of Japanese life. I'm sorry if my comment seems inflamatory because that's not what I want. I love your videos and can't wait for more.
I understand that karaoke is really popular in Japan and most other Asian countries. The reason I said that is because it's just funny that they choose to repurpose a Wii U of all things
Hey guys I just wanted to leave a comment here with a couple quick things:
First of all, I would like to thank you all so much for all the support! I didn't expect this video to get anywhere near this many views, comments, etc. so quickly so I really appreciate it all!
Another thing that a few of you have mentioned is that you wish I went more in depth showing off the software / hardware of the unit. I'm sorry I kinda dropped the ball with this one. I really wish I went in and really explored more of the karaoke software, tried out a song or two, and checked out some more of the titles on the Wii u menu but the main thing I wanted to do from the start was just to get it playing a retail Wii u game so I kinda had tunnel vision going through everything else. I am planning on making a follow-up video really doing a deep dive on this thing, atleast to the best of my ability. I would like to show off a bit more of the hardware, check out the rest of the service menu, and potentially even try some sort of non invasive softmod. I'm sorry if this video seemed a bit rushed, I was just really excited to finally have it in my possession and just wanted to show it off as there aren't many of these out there. I'll start working on the follow-up video as soon as possible so hopefully I can get it all recorded and uploaded in a timely manner. Thanks for all the constructive criticism you guys have left, I'm really trying to improve my videos and make the best content I possibly can and I wouldn't be able to do that without all of your feedback. I hope to see you all in the next part and hopefully I'll be able to answer all of your questions :)
Take your time and don't rush.
I'll wait for Part 2.
For some reason, the way it autoboots reminds me of not only demo kiosk units as you'd expect, but also the homebrew environment loader used for both Tiramisu and Aroma (they soft patch the OS). If a retail WiiU modded with the environment loader has no SD card in during power on, it will continue to whatever standard boot sequence is defined by a file in the systems bios, so it can always boot in OEM mode
@@imclearingit4149 I think with a Pi Pico and the Recover Menu Garry, one of the Wii U geniuses, developed u can change it to the regular Wii U menu
@zer064 just thought I'd let you know that you don't need the sensor bar for anything. You can use with Wiimote without one. It's completely unnecessary.
All a sensor bar does is create two little LED lights for the Wiimote to sense. Plugging it in only provides power to turn on these lights. There is no other functionality. You can do the same thing with a pair of candles.
@@THEGREATMAXthe Wii remote needs the sensor bar to communicate. U can use the GamePad sensor bar though
This software could probably be run in a modified Wii U, it would be amazing to see this software dumped and running. Considering this is just a Wii U, you could probably use standard Wii U modding guides to try and dump all the data. I love this, its such a cool device and it needs to be preserved.
I believe there's actually another guy living in Japan who has one and is working on dumping theirs. I'll see if I can get some more info and links if possible
Looks like they uploaded it on the internet archive. It should come up if you search "Joysound Festa"
@@RetroZero64 thanks for the information, this is such a cool device and I'm very curious if I could figure out how to get the software working on my Wii U. Very nice video, and I hope you enjoy your cool Japanese karaoke Wii U!
@@NottJoeyOfficial How you gonna make this type of software work on a regular Wii U Console
@@joypadder_gemu1812 It seems like this is not a modified Wii U console, the system software is still the same. That means that if you install this onto a normal Wii U through homebrew it should work.
I still say that the Wii U was ahead of its time. It was such a cool concept!
True. Having a second screen for maps, inventories, etc. was awesome when games actually used it. Kinda sad that it was underutilized
Too bad Nintendo gimped the damn operating system :/
Nice to get even a limited view on such a rare unit but it would have been nice to see and understand more about the why and how. Don't care if it can play Wi U discs. Because that seems pretty much to be a given. Since it is just an unmodified Wii U in a larger case with extensions. A deeper dive would be a nice follow up, please.
I'd like to do a deeper dive into it at some point. Right now, I'm trying to figure out a way to preserve all the content on the hard drive. since I've been told songs have been removed off the service over time and units like this might be the only way to still access them. I wish I could have disassembled the entire unit and looked at everything but I was just afraid of breaking something or not being able to get it back together right. I'll probably set aside a day to really take my time on it and get it completely disassembled
@@RetroZero64take a peek at some homebrew to see if you can dump content off of the drive. iirc there's an FTP server that can browse internal and or external storage.
@@RetroZero64this would be great and a video that I would love to watch.
Nah, the coolest Nintendo system was the Gamecube put into a freezer while playing Metroid Prime, I'm gonna go now.
@RoryRabbitMonkeyno
@RoryRabbitMonkeyno
@RoryRabbitMonkeyno
@RoryRabbitMonkey no
@RoryRabbitMonkeyno
Well what i dubbed "the holy grail of Wii u's" doesn't fail to disapoint thank you for sharing this to the world
(and it's cheaper than a 64DD)
if i'm correct the system runs a special offline capable version of Karaoke Joysound for Wii U that would explain the harddrive
What a cool find! I hadn't ever heard of the Joysound Festa until now. You really should make a follow up video showcasing all of it's unique features and software! 😃
That's the plan thanks!
@@RetroZero64 Absolutely! Keep up the great content
This is cool and all. But what I would have liked to see is the rest of its hardware. What happens when you boot into the Joysound Festa software, what the knobs on the front are for and the UI menu on the front.
The video felt more like a Wii U demonstration than anything.
The unique software that isn't shown off. You would be the only one to show it off in HD. You could demonstrate some of the software/games it may have and menus without setting off a copyright claim.
You are the only person on UA-cam showing off the hardware. Possibly the only English speaking UA-camr with this hardware.
I hope you go more in-depth in a next video.
Yeah that's the plan. I would like to make a video fully disassembling it, exploring the service menus, potentially doing a softmod / backup, and a few other things. I'm not sure if I'd be able to demonstrate the actual software in use during a video because of copyright and all that but I could still atleast poke around in the menus a bit
I've never seen this before, but it's super cool! If possible, you should try and homebrew it to get the files off it for preservation sake. Also, if it's just an unmodified Wii U, taking off the back should allow for the Wii Menu to be accessible (since the sensor bar port is in the back).
Or you could just use the two candles trick
Funny to see the video. Saw your post on reddit the other day and the comment telling you about the missing songs
6:33 160-2203 means there is a problem with the onboard NAND (essentially the system memory chip) which from i know sadly is a pretty common issue recently with wii u consoles, especially the ones with Hynix nands. Since it has already happened to you it will only get worse with time, until it corrupts a critical parts of the os completely bricking it. I would advise backing up the NAND in case that would happen just to preserve its contents, something like NAND-AID lets you replace the nand with an SD card and restore the nand backup onto it
Well the strange thing is, this is an 8gb Wii which don't come with hynix chips. I found another guy who owns one of these and it seems the crash most likely isn't from the nand failing as the exact same thing happens to theirs. It's probably just a result of some sort of OS modification they did from the factory but I could be wrong. It's not really meant to be used as a normal Wii U so the activity log and browser causing a crash isn't really a big deal
@@RetroZero64 id say back up the nand just in case anyway, worst case scenario the nand could still be failing (ive heard of some cases with samsung nands) but considering what you mentioned i wouldnt really worry about it unless it gets worse
Yeah I'll look into doing that. Since the browser doesn't work, I'll probably have to use a pi pico to get into custom firmware
that error seems like a nice case of no /code in the title
@@RetroZero64i think you can use a hacked switch aswell
Awesome pickup! Had never heard of this model before now.
Thanks for showing it off!
Thanks for making such an awesome service! I couldn't have gotten it without you guys :)
Lol i am officially that one guy geeking out with you, funny enough I have a friend who actually worked on the hardware for this :)
That's really cool! could you give any more info? I'd love to learn more about it
There is more than a few geeking out about this. Great Video, Joysound festa is grail pick up of Wii U collecting!
This was actually one of the most intriguing piece of hardware ive seen! I would love to see it connected to the internet, and see what would happen and if it would update. Also consider dumping the software, as the homebrew community would be really happy! Thanks for this video!
Subbed.
I can't even see one of these online, I'm scared of how much this set you back.
I love Nintendo history and my best friend likes karaoke
Thanks! Hopefully you enjoy the follow-up video when I get that out
The Wii U had a Joysound-based karaoke app actually ua-cam.com/video/rzhbAoLtQRk/v-deo.html I can only imagine that it was a lot better and better supported back then in Japan.
It's interesting to see two gamepads included as well because the premise of multiple gamepads for the Wii U was toyed around with but never materialized. It's probably just a spare in this case though.
I believe this is actually mostly the same software that comes on the Festa although this one is slightly different because it supports having songs saved locally on a hard drive instead of downloading them from a server
I had it included with my Super Mario Maker Wii U.
This is a business model for elderly halls, hospitals or hotels, the software might be different with eShop version.
As I know, it have some counters with play count and date. If you didn't pay service fee for a while, it will be locked.
This is so neat dude. I would imagine the Wii U works by booting the Joysound game title, and then maybe songs are each title..? I’m not sure.. but it’s interesting for sure. Most of the rpls seem to work, but I would imagine console titles were prolly deleted to save space… you could prolly restore them if the thing could run on cfw which I imagine it could, but yeah.. sick dude! Also congrats on your channel doing so well! I wasn’t here for that last video, since UA-cam only recommended this one lol.
Yeah that makes sense. I doubt the error is because of nand corruption because the same thing happens with another guy's system. Also thanks for the support! I really appreciate it
The Wii U gamepad 100% has IR emitters on it. It's just not enabled unless you're in vWii mode.
You can also press minus on the Wiimote to enter vWii, the only drawback is you won't get an output on anything other than the gamepad.
Thanks for the clarification. I always have a sensor bar connected to my personal Wii U so I've never had to use the gamepad one
So theoretically one could put their Gamepad under their TV to allow the Wii remotes to have tracking? Man that makes the Wii U even more of an Awesome car console than I originally though.
14:53
So... the Wii U has this thing that if you connect/disconnect a USB device while the console is on, the Wii U will crash. The reason why this happens it's because the USB ports are supposed to be used for archiving some storage like downloaded games or save files, and if you disconnect the usb that it's being used at that moment it will cause this to happen.
That's good to know thanks! I've never experienced that before so I was really confused
Wow, cool you finally got this in and very interesting to see. 6:17 sounds just like my Prologue 21, maybe worse seeing how you have to disassemble it to insert a disc.
11:00 I've figured out getting the Prologue set up at a few conventions I'm at after fixing it this last time and it's always a hit.
Yeah I'm super hyped to finally have it! Now i just need to get a prologue of my own :D
@@RetroZero64 Good luck on that one. They've never really been that common, but I haven't seen near as many this last year as I used to. If you do end up with one that you can't figure out, let me know, I might be able to help out
@@SegaSteve0429 will do thanks!
Ever since I saw the Austin Evans video on the Panasonic Q that has been my favorite Nintendo console. I might have a new runner-up. This thing is amazing!
The Q is definitely on the list for things to buy. I'm just more afraid of having to repair them since the trays are all broken. I have a 3d printer now so I can get the part atleast
@@RetroZero64 if you ever decide to repair one on video I'll be here to watch!
That wiiu looks like its about to take my vitals😂😂
Gamepad sensor bar doesn't work before entering the wii menu, maybe with a classic controller you can
Thanks! I wasn't sure that was how it worked
As someone who owns a full worldwide Physical WiIU Collection this item as allude me for awhile. Ive been waiting for one to come up for sale thats not the full kart version. Tough to find but all so awesome to see. Cant wait to add this to my collection one day.
Retro gaming keeps growing, makes sense because as time goes by there will be more and more older gamers wich i think is the majority of retro gaming fans,
Very interesting video! I'm glad people like you are out there working on documenting hardware like this
I'm glad you liked it! I love sharing these interesting pieces of history with more people
Ay i saw your post on reddit about this. Its a cool find and im glad youre preserving it in a vid like his for everyone to see. Really interesting console.
Super cool! Love obscure pieces of hardware like this.
6:48 Translated: There is an error in the device's storage memory. Please refer to the Wii U instruction manual (booklet) and report the error code to the Nintendo Service Center. Error code:160-2203
2:53 it says: Gamepad 2. Initial settings are required before use
The Wii Remote that came with the console reminds me of the that one Club Nintendo TV remote that looked like a Wii Remote. Unrelated but I am your 1000 subscriber
heya zero! kinda forgot to watch the vid despite saying i would whoops
never heard of this before lmao
really nice video, keep it up!
I'm glad you enjoyed! I have a few other neat things on the way you probably haven't heard of either 🤫
I’ve never heard of this before and the fact it exists at all is very funny to me. Thanks for the video!
I'm glad you enjoyed!
I didn't expect the WiiU to be able to be this cool
13:40 those cables are usb 2.0 so its possible for it to be audio or controlling something else in the system but definitely not HDMI. The USB 2.0 bandwidth cant transmit an hdmi signal so it has to be something else
Yeah It definitely isn't outputting the HDMI signal directly, but there's a button on the front of the unit to switch outputs so I thought it might be used to power some sort of HDMI/Composite switcher built in. Hopefully when I take it apart further I can figure that out
No. it´s a glassfiber-to-USB-cable. Special. Any WiiU supports it (including WiiU SDK-units). High bandwidth isn´t needed. This cable has NO latenc like any other cable.
Any connection on WiiU can use no-latency-cables. And this includes coupling glassfiber-cables.
ok now i need to find one
Cool Wii U. I was an early adopter of the Wii U, so this was cool to see.
Great work and keep it up man.
Thanks I appreciate it!
im geeking IM GEEKING AHHHHHHHH but fr that really is beyond amazing
hey sorry if this has been asked already, just curious how come you use a step down converter for Japanese consoles. is it just an added safety thing for unique and rare systems like this or do you use one any time you're using a Japanese console?
I just use a step down converter for things like this or if I'm playing for an extended period of time. I know most electronics can handle the extra 10-20 volts from a North American plug but it does introduce a slight bit more heat and can shorten the life of the console. There's also a special case with this unit since it has a built in power strip of sorts, and I'm worried about the extra voltage blowing a fuse or something.
cool, thanks for the reply. i totally forgot about the power strip possibly causing issues.
idk much about the different power grids, i knew they were fairly close in voltage but thats it lol.@@RetroZero64
To get into Wii mode with out a sensor bar on the Wiiu just press + it will choose the Wii U gamepad to display the Wii menu then to control it you need a Wii Classic controller to plug into the bottom of the Wii mote
I didn't actually think about using a classic controller but you're right thanks!
@@RetroZero64 your welcome! Need anymore help just reply!
4:35 the mii on screen is actually one of the default miis that originated on the wii, that one specifically was "Guest A." there are 6 guest miis, and you can find them in any game that has Miis as characters. i'm guessing you can select the other guest miis if you can find a character select in the menus somewhere.
8:50 the IR camera on the wii u gamepad only turns on after entering wii mode, the gamepad screen says "Press the plus button to use show the screen on JUST the wii u gamepad" for if you don't have a sensor bar or TV.
the notes i wrote are taking from when using my own wii u and general known things about the wii and wii u. the guest miis are in nintendo land though if you need a direct game i've seen them in.
There’s no IR camera in the Gamepad, the camera is in the Wiimote and any two sources of infrared light will work as a “sensor bar”. I never had a Wii so I never had a sensor bar, I played all the Wii games on my Wii U using two candles.
I never realized that thanks for the info. The name of the profile is just "Joysound" so it seems to be preloaded on these machines at the factory. As for the Wii menu, I didn't realize you could switch the screens because it was in Japanese lol
keep up the good work and dont give up
Thanks it means a lot!
To play wii games, try inserting a wii disc and that should move you to wii menu from the disc icon
the IR LEDS only lit up when you are already in the wii mode, they are disabled in wii u mode. The crash was because you have disconnected the USB HDD
this is so so so cool. thank you so much for showing this off
You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed!
Holy crap! Something i haven't seen! Instant follow!
You don't neet a sensor bar for the wii motes to track, if you put 2 candles lighted at each corner on top of your tv your wii motes will work, or any light that emits infrared spectrum of light would do, your sensor bar is basicly 2 infrared led's powered by usb.
Yeah I've used the candle trick a few times before. I just didn't have any on hand so I couldn't do that. Also some other people have mentioned that I could have pressed the + button to switch screens and pressed the button that way
Cool video! Would be nice to see translating the errors instead of guessing next time tho
Yeah I ended up checking between the first and second part of the video I just forgot to mention it. The error I got is for a corrupted title which makes sense. They probably just deleted some of the unnecessary parts of the OS to save space
15:57 right next to the stage builder option, you could have gone into the settings wheel right next to it and probaly changed language there.
Apparently there's no language option in game. It seems to be tied to the system's language which is locked on Japanese
@@RetroZero64 oh ok fair enough then
13:48 Translated again: The hard disk could not be recognized and communication could not be established. Please contact the installer, *Press power to exit. Communication date ----/--/-- (blank)
Super weird hardware setup internally, wonder if there's any hardware modifications within the WiiU itself.
It seems like those errors on the black screen shows signs of NAND corruption. I’ve seen it on Wii U’s before
That's what I thought at first, but it seems like they somehow modified the system files and removed the web browser and activity log. I found someone else who's unit has the exact same crash on both apps and theirs has a 32gb hynix chip while mine has an 8gb Toshiba. Not that it's impossible for the same thing to happen on both, but it would be a pretty weird coincidence. I actually helped find one for Adam Koralik if you know him, so I'll see if his does the same thing aswell. In any case, the nand has been dumped so if anything happens in the future, I can do the whole nand-aid mod and bring it back to life
I do have one system from back in the day. Called sega cdx. Where it's a sega system and sega cd in the sise of a portable cd player with the cd player can be run on 2 double A batties
That one's been on my radar for a while but I'm just waiting for a good deal to come up. They're super cool
This is absolutely insane and i love it! xD
if it's as rare as you're saying PLEASE dear God do a full NAND backup on that thing, not sure if there's one already archived and preserved in the wild but that would be awesome to have incase something were to ever happen to your unit (it has been an arising issue that Wii U's are prone to eMMC failure if you didn't know)
I've already done a nand backup and plan to show the process in a follow-up video. Also, I checked the nand chip my unit has and it's an 8gb Toshiba chip which isn't prone to corruption. It's the 32gb hynix chips that are the main problem. There is also already a nand dump out there for one of these with a hynix chip I believe
@@RetroZero64 ah yea I forgot its the 32GB ones, awesome to hear there's already a public dump but I still look forward to your upcoming vid 🙏
You probably wanna dump the contents of that HDD. It's bound to fail at some point so having a backup is pretty important.
I'd like to but I need to get a super huge HDD to be able to store that. It's almost 2TB of data
It's so hilarious to me that they just shoved a whole Wii U in a clunky box with knobs on it.
a multi channel audio recorder and video player, some musicians would enjoy the multiple audio channel i/o, I could imagine this thing recording a band easily.
How did you not show how the karaoke worked , even muted ? Who cares if you can play a Wii U disc, show what’s special about it
I wish i did when I was recording but I didn't really think to for some reason. I'm planning on making a follow-up video going really in depth on a lot of things so I'll definitely make sure to look into that a lot more
What an interesting specimen. Good find!
I would be leery updating the software on the Wii U. It appears to be running something custom and updating the Wii U could either brick it or overwrite the custom software turning it into a standard Wii U.
I'm excited to see the follow up video showing off the custom software and hardware. If you do get it modded I would love to see the firmware/software dumped for preservation.
The software is actually updated to 5.5.5 already which is the newest update for Japanese consoles. I've gotten it running custom firmware already but I'm trying to figure out how to go about dumping the HDD contents as it's almost 2TB of data
The only thing I'm wondering is if it's possible to jailbreak this Wii U to archiv and preserve the software for years to come
It should be possible. It doesn't seem to have anything really special about it aside from the hard drive. But maybe there's something else hidden in there
@@RetroZero64 I would back up the nand and the hdd as soon as possible, who knows when either of them will kick the dust. hdd should be easy to do with a pc if it's not encrypted and for the nand, a 32gb sd card and access to the internet browser on the wii u. If you need help i'm sure the wii u modding/hacking community out there can help you.
would be nice to image that hdd i believe thats where the songs are stored
I need to find a pretty large archival drive but I do plan on it. I know there's a dump already out there on the internet archive although I'm not sure how complete it is
Subbed off this video great content.
Thanks i really appreciate it!
This is a really nice rare item.
PLEASE LORD DUMP THIS SOFTWARE, this is cool.
Currently working on getting a nand dump set up. I believe the hard drive was dumped on the internet archive by another owner but I'll see if they're different and do my own if I have content they don't
@@RetroZero64 good to know you thought of this already.
Looking at pictures of other joysound festa it looks like it has two gamepads as standard.
And when looking on a whole setup it looks like it is made for hospitals.
I'm just surprised mine came with both, as a lot I've seen sell with only one
9:24 You didn’t show us the external’s hard drive contents. You access them through the system settings.
The only thing the hard drive houses is the songs for the Joysound software, there's nothing really special that shows up in the Wii u menu. I wish I did remember to mention that in the video though
I have had one of these for about a year. I hadn't opened it up yet. Wonder if it can be hacked so you can play games without opening it up.
You should be able to. I got CFW running on mine using DNSpresso which only requires an SD card to be inserted into the system. After that you can pretty much run anything you want off it
Yeah, I figured it would be the same as a standard wiiu hack. I didnt realize that it just had a white wiiu physically in there. Where you able to get the gamecube controllers working or the adapter to use 4?@@RetroZero64
Also sucks that they discontinued the karaoke service in july or august for 2023@@RetroZero64
Did you need a scan of the manual? @@RetroZero64
They should've added a paper tray and then make it so that it prints music sheets because it looks more like a printer then a karaoke machine
i made a jp eshop account jut to see what games their eshop had, and their news channel stuff started to appear, i always wondered what joysound was cuz it appear quite often.
I think even the gym chains publish games in japan
Karaoke is huge in Japan, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Joysound app was a top seller for the majority of the Wii U's lifespan
@@RetroZero64 hey truly informative content, tanks also for your reply
No problem! I'm glad you enjoyed!
you need to press (+) plus on the wii remote to turn it to the joypad when you hit the wii menu.
As soon as i saw the Joysound logo i knew what it was lmao
This thing might have some limit of the karaoke software. Like song play count or date count limit, or the karaoke player will be locked.
I'm interested with if it has this limit or not. Also the HDD is copyable or not (might bind the HDD serial, means it will be bricked if HDD broken)
It seems they do have some sort of limit from what I've heard, but I also believe some people from the Wii U modding community found a way to reset it. I'll definitely try to look into it for the follow-up
@@RetroZero64 Thanks! I will follow up your update. I think it's really a cool thing
13:57 because of the --/-/- i think its a time error
That's so awesome! Does the karaoke part work without internet or a subscription?
It's completely playable offline which is nice. It has over 90,000 songs pre installed on a 2tb HDD
@@RetroZero64 that's really nice! Many English songs or a way to add your own? My Japanese is rusty lol
@@adamabou-nasr1130 there's actually a surprising amount of English songs. When I make a follow-up video I'll make sure to explore it a bit more
Wii sensor bar has no sensors in it. The wiimote does the sensoring. All the sensor bar does is act as a point in space the wiimote can use to get orientation and location in 3d space. Two candles work just fine. F
Yeah I've used the two candles trick a few times 😂 just didn't have anything that would work on hand
yooo Joysound Festa Wii U system dump when?
There's actually a dump already out there on the internet archive. Should come up when you search "Joysound Festa"
@@RetroZero64 Oh wow, that's cool, it looks like all the titles for it, thanks man!
The gamepad's sensor bar is disabled on the Wii U menu. It only comes on in Wii Mode to my knowledge.
I thought it came on when that dialogue comes up though. It requires you to select an option with a Wii remote so I'd think it would come on. Maybe I'm wrong though, I've never tested it before
I just tested it out with my phone's camera pointing at the gamepad and the IR emitters only came on after I entered Wii Mode.
Huh weird. I assumed it would turn on when the prompt came up since you need a sensor bar anyway to click it
I just remembered that you can actually just press + on the gamepad to go to Wii Mode, instead of using the Wii Remote, but it will only be displayed on the gamepad.
A karaoke machine without mic
It came with mics originally but they aren't too easy to come by. It seems most standard microphones should work though
Super cool but would have been nice to see the karaoke wii u's karaoke mode and not it playing normal wii u games
That's definitely the plan for my follow up video. I wish i looked into the software more but when recording i just thought "oh there's copyrighted music I'll get claimed" and skipped it. I realize now that's kinda dumb. I just wasn't really thinking
Okay, it’s a karaoke machine. But how do you load the music if the disc drive is hidden inside the Joysound? It’s a Nintendo Wii U without the actual function of a Wii U, that is ridiculous!
The songs are saved onto the hard drive and picked through the pre installed Wii Karaoke U menu. I'll show this off more in the follow-up video :)
yo, that's pretty neat
it reminds me of the gamecube that can play videos (i forgot its name)
The Panasonic Q! I've been wanting one forever but they're notoriously unreliable and finding a working one is almost impossible
Every one and their parents are trying to get their hands on ALL THIS gaming hardware and video game stuffs that was EXCLUSIVE TO JAPAN. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that if there's nothing left to talk about United States OF America releases. Hey, what about EURO gaming releases hmm?
I'd love to find more euro exclusives and I do have some searches out for things like the Mega PC, Amstrad GX4000, CD32 stuff, etc. but they don't come up all that often unfortunately
This really is the ultimate Wii u
It's so clean for being a bar karaoke machine. Kudos to the Japanese, lol.
Yeah it definitely smelled a little smokey but it really wasn't that bad. Even the Sega Prologue 21 unit wasn't too terrible aside from a single dead roach I found
well I just ordered one, the things I do for the wiiu
Did you get the one off Mercari JP?
@@RetroZero64 yup. Now we wait.
Looking forward to the video about the karaoke software.
17:13 it must have been you of not translating the error codes through google lens in google translate. Unless you don’t have a smartphone with a camera. “I dOn’T kNoW WhAt tHiS sAyS”
Don’t worry bud, i did the homework for you.
I record my videos using my phone so I had no way of translating the text without constantly stopping the recording and checking. I wish I could have changed the system language but unfortunately you can't change that on Japanese systems
Hackers shall get this and exploit it and release a softmod to make the wii U a karaoke machine
I think that's a DSi XL stylus.
Ye Didn't explore anything really in depth in it's software, played a game on it, and just felt unprepared.. gotta research the products your buying to right a filled review in cause it didn't stand out as much as it'd like to see.
Thanks for the criticism! I really wish I did explore the software a bit more but with it being mostly centered around licensed music, I was just afraid of getting a claim because of it. I'll definitely do some more digging and maybe record another video really digging deep into it. I'd already planned on making a video taking it fully apart, checking out the hard drive, and potentially looking at some sort of softmod, it just seemed like a lot to pack into one video. Thanks for watching though and I'll try and do better in that regard in the future!
I am not sure why you didn't enter settings and change the language.
Japanese systems don't have a language option. I believe north American systems do but the only way you can change the language on a Japanese console is through modding
@@RetroZero64 oh interesting thanks for clarifying. Great video on that obscure piece.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed!
It looks like hospital equipment
You're right it does lol
Unrelated, but I was ranting just yesterday about why the wii u failed. It had a 5 year lifespan and in those 5 years they only released about 18 or 20 give or take mainline Nintendo games and the rest were 3rd party games that ran better on the xbox 360/one and ps3/ps4. I remember the wii u console came out in 2012 and no one bought it because it simply didn't have any games from nintendo to play on it. Nintendo simply salvaged some of the games they released for it and re-released them on the switch to mitigate the huge loss. Then they wonder why it failed.
Yeah it was really sad. They definitely could have marketed and supported it better. The hardware was last gen at best but so was the Wii and so is the switch. Off topic but Imagine if Nintendo made a Gameboy Player-esque adapter to play DS / 3DS games right off the Wii U. That would have sold a shit ton of consoles to people like content creators who are willing to pay hundreds for an HDMI out mod on a 3ds. So many missed opportunities
@@RetroZero64 That's actually a genius idea. I would have loved to come home from school to play my 3ds games on my tv. I wouldn't mind if they looked lower quality because they are handheld games, as long as I had the choice to do it why not? Smh, I'm sure that could've been done but nintendo has their own weird "standards" or something. Every year they fall farther from grace and become more a shell of what they used to be.
@@ophanim1245 yeah I mean if they had the hardware built in like the Gameboy player, it would still be pretty affordable. I assume the majority of the 3ds' cost was the screens, especially because the 2ds was able to exist for $99. A USB adapter with 3ds hardware inside wouldn't be too expensive I assume. And since the resolution was so low, there probably wouldn't be any trouble transmitting video over USB 2.0
nice printer bro
I didn't even realize It was in frame lol. Thanks! I just recently got it for Black Friday and I'm planning on using it for custom shells on broken consoles as well as some decorations to put around my game room
try to homebrew it
Saying you don't know why they'd turn the Wii U into a karaoke machine is a bit culturaly insensitive. Completely unintentional I'm sure, as it's such a staple of Japanese life. I'm sorry if my comment seems inflamatory because that's not what I want. I love your videos and can't wait for more.
I understand that karaoke is really popular in Japan and most other Asian countries. The reason I said that is because it's just funny that they choose to repurpose a Wii U of all things
@@RetroZero64 It reminds me of the Skyrim memes lol