Wii Remote Connectivity For Android Devices

[Pikipirs] developed an app that lets you connect a Wii remote to an Android phone. After the break you can see it used with a Sega emulator. The button presses seem very responsive, making for a nice gaming addition if you care to carry around the Wiimote in addition to your phone. It certainly seems to work better than the Wii remote + iPhone hacks we’ve seen. Pick it up from the Android store or download the APK from the thread linked at the top. This is an alpha version so don’t be shocked if it’s buggy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBkCgEgRk0s]

[Thanks Shmike via xda-developers]

41 thoughts on “Wii Remote Connectivity For Android Devices

  1. Thanks for the helpful insight osgeld :D

    Off topic, but I’m in the market for an android device. What are some good suggestions under (or just over) the $200 mark?

  2. @wdfowty Hit up both Wirefly.com and Letstalk.com. I just got a moto droid from Letstalk.com with the desktop and windshield docks for $55 using a coupon code from retailmenot.com. That was for renewing a contract, as well. A new contract from Verizon would have been a bit less!

  3. EVO 4G was just announced for June 4 if you are on sprint. ($199, but the monthly is a bit higher for the 4G speed)

    otherwise, i think you can get any android phone for under $200 with contract. without contract is a different story.

  4. @wdfowty You have to make sure you read on which Android device you are getting(because more than the price matters). I didnt do so because i didnt know much about the Android and the Tmobile rep. talked me into getting the behold 2 by telling me that we were going to get an update next week(which never happened) so i was stuck with the 1.5 firmwire until i found a android forum that helped me get my behold to 1.6 :). but anyways make sure you read about the ram specs and so on to make sure you have future FW upgrades to look forward too.

  5. who wants to hold a separate controller when playing a game on a small display? cool that it can be done, but I would have asked, “why do it?”, before investing the time.

  6. I’m looking forward to trying this out! Playing emulated games on the My Touch taught me that the phone buttons just don’t cut it for your typical mario or sonic gameplay pace.

  7. Seems kind of redundant on a phone with an omnidirectional clickwheel and several buttons on the front. If it was something with only the touchscreen I could see this being useful.

    The slide-out keyboard on my droid works just fine, and with almost all emulators you can invert it so you can play with the gamepad on either side.

  8. @M4CGYV3R, if you’ve ever tried playing games with the clickwheel you’ll find it’s a pain in the ass to use (and not very accurate if you can only move in the cardinal directions). Also, since it’s in the same place as the buttons it’s almost useless for games where you have to react with both movement and button presses in real time.

  9. “It certainly seems to work better than the Wii remote + iPhone hacks we’ve seen. ”

    Because you didn’t bother to actually look at it, or see how it’s progressed since. Not only does bluetooth wii remotes work very well on the iphone, they work with a number of emulators and the men behind the scene are working to add PS3 controller support too.

    This makes for a great portable emulator system. I enjoy bringing it over to people’s homes and plugging the ipod touch into the TV out cable, and then playing some classic games with friends on the couch.

  10. “This makes for a great portable emulator system.”

    no it doesn’t! it reminds me of the virtual boy, its only portable if you have a friggin wire plate stand for your phone, and a desk

    there are 1 billion different emulator gadgets out there, and your carrying 2 things anyway

  11. Quit hating on this thing. So many of you are such whiny cry baby bitches. Do you know why the guy did the hack? Because HE COULD. I don’t even want to hear about some lame ass IPhone retort. The IPhone is nothing more than a revenue engine for Apple. They steal ideas from the open source community and market it as their own. Fuck you tree huggers, Steve Jobs is nothing more than a slave driving technology pimp.

  12. osgeld: If you’re opposed to carrying around more than one thing then I guess you don’t anticipate playing with a friend.

    You have the actual device, connected to the TV, that wirelessly connects to some controllers. That kind of set up, using up only the size of the controllers and a phone, that can play NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, etc does not exist with these other devices. There certainly is a ton of other emulation gadgets out there, but the point here is that you are -already- carrying around a phone, so you have one less thing to carry around when using either an Android based phone or iPhone.

  13. Johnny:

    “The IPhone is nothing more than a revenue engine for Apple”

    Yes, that’s typically how the company/product/market/economy thing works.

    I’m confused as to why you are so pissy that I mentioned the iPhone. The only reason I mentioned it was because Hack-a-day seems to think the set up for wii+iphone is any different than it is here (I assume it was because the first pictures showing it in use had the wii remote being held wrong?). The idea, regardless of platform, is great.

  14. @dan
    I play on the clickwheel all the time. Gamepads also only allow movement in cardinal directions, and the clickwheel IS the button. You don’t have to move your finger anywhere to press it.

    Move + Fire in the same control. Maybe jump or action or something would be moved out to another button, or even put onscreen for easier access.

    My point is that when there are already good hardware controls on a device, it’s very redundant to connect to an external controller.

  15. “If you’re opposed to carrying around more than one thing then I guess you don’t anticipate playing with a friend.”

    I never said that, I was getting at if your having to carry 2 devices why not make one a proper gaming device instead of juggling this half broken kludge? and yes almost ALL those portable emulator gadgets support TV out and some support controllers

    Johnny Toobadd, sorry little boy, I did not mean to make you cry, why dont you sit down for a moment

  16. Osgeld, you have no clue of what ye speak. I have used this application, and it does work very well. Though I must recommend using Ryan Frawley’s Wii Controller IME instead. Ryan was actually first to the market, and the application is more polished and easier to use. It does cost a few dollars, but there is also not a 30 minute limit on functionality.

  17. @Kabuki
    HMMM no love for me with that IME…bug between it and the Sense UI. He says the 30 minute limit has been removed.
    Still no joy…stupid HTC. Yeah…his app doesn’t like the Sense UI any better from the sound of it. Otherwise would be great.

    @ osgeld
    man, making friends again. 1 It is using the device in a way it was not intended and writing a custom app to pull it off=hack. 2 For those who want such usability it’s a great idea.

  18. Jtaylor, please see my other post where I suggest you check your pad

    I FAIL to see how connecting a bluetooth dongle to a bluetooth host is using the device as unintended

    and those who want such usability are retarded or have a third hand to hold their phone in one, and the controller in the other 2

  19. The app requires FULL internet access and the IME can collect all typed data giving it the possible ability to record and send passwords, credit card info, chats, etc… over the air. Whether or not the Dev intends this, I’m surprised that there is ANYONE stupid enough to install and use this.

  20. @gladbag

    The evo 4g has HDMI output. A number of other HTC phones work with a USB to composite video output cable. With NESoid, SNESoid, and soon to be n64oid; this app turns your android phone into 3 video game consoles that can be plugged into any modern television.

  21. @osgeld

    “Johnny Toobadd, sorry little boy, I did not mean to make you cry, why dont you sit down for a moment”

    Strange, Ned Scott was the one who made a comment about you not having friends. He put you in such a tizzy that you could not even read who the post was from.

    It is unfortunate I did not respond earlier. Some of us actually have a life to attend to, like wife and kids, my business etc. Some of us also actually work on our own projects, not just sit on here talking shit about the hard work of others.

    “I FAIL to see how connecting a bluetooth dongle to a bluetooth host is using the device as unintended”

    You are so right. A Nintendo Wii controller was completely INTENDED to be used as a controller for the android. As a matter of fact, with that logic, any I/O capable device interacting with any other I/O capable device is nothing special and never a hack.

    God damn you are a moron.

    @Ned Scott
    Apple Fanboys like you are a dime a dozen. Although you are a particularly devout member of that cult. Google “Ned Scott Mac”. Jobs should be paying you man.

    “Yes, that’s typically how the company/product/market/economy thing works.”

    Except it is more like “Exploit the greatest hacker ever for profit and make him miserable (The Waz)/Con retarded Xerox corporate types into letting them reverse enginer a GUI&mouse setup/Get pissed @ Microsoft for stealing the idea that they rightfully stole first/Get ass kicked by Microsoft because company proprietary systems are overpriced and compatible with nothing/Allow Microsoft to purchase 20% stake in company(still holds true to this day)/Rip off BSD and create OSX/use profits from OSX to create Ipod/teach all that apple products are equivalent to some kind of technology Nirvana/Take large corn filled shits and have all brainwashed fanboys eat it and ask to buy it twice i.e. IPhone and BFIphone(IPad)

  22. Johnny

    Why the hate man? I understand we all get worked up sometimes in these discussions, but now you’re swinging out personal insults. I am a user of Apple products, but I also have a great love for Android phones, the Nokia N900, even Windows 7 and XP (honestly, vista doesn’t deserve most of the hate it gets, but I didn’t spend that much time with it). I own several computers, and only some of them are Apple products.

    If you’re going to get so controllably pissy about the very mention of an Apple product then I’m done talking with you. If you really are an adult with a white and kids then please calm down and act like an adult. Blind Apple hate is no better than those Apple fanboys with their blind Apple love.

  23. I assure you I was not trying to offend you, although I do suppose what I said was probably offensive in hindsight. I don’t blindly hate, I hate with 20/20. You must understand that I come from a free sharing of information background. I believe we stand on the shoulders of the giants before us (Isaac Newton)My father had a copy of BSD from Berkeley back in 1981(I was born in 79). I didn’t even know what the hell DOS was until I was about 8(games of course led me to it). For years I watched my father on BBS boards developing, debugging and being a cog in the wheel that helped shape computers into what they are and what they will become. My father didn’t get paid for what he did, it was just a hobby/passion. His “real” job was as a central office technician for the phone company. Point being that the brick layers did it out of love and fascination. Hell even Bill Gates had a love for the technology before he had a love for the money. That guy could code the hell out of some Basic back in the day. The founders of Google have an MO of “don’t be evil” Jobs though, he just happened to be in the right place at the right time. He sold phreak boxes out of his van that Waz and Cpt. Crunch developed as a startup way before Apple was up. He is a smooth salesman with a messiah complex, and he truly believes HE is changing the world. He used to fly a pirate flag outside of company headquarters to symbolize they were rebels and “anti-system.” When he was the one stealing he was being innovative and artistic. If he thinks someone is stealing from him it is blasphemy. Out of all the founders of the big three Jobs is the only one who was not a hacker, but he was very good at exploiting them.

    I suppose my point is that he and his company are becoming a menace to the progression of technology, and that is unacceptable. Instead of standing on the shoulders of giants he has his head up their ass looking to see where his precious patented technologies are. Look what he did to the poor bastard from engadget. That guy had a great scoop on a story and Jobs punishes him because one of his minions got drunk and left a IPhone prototype in a bar.

    Google I would imagine particularly scares him because they offer more to the world as a whole, and they offer it up for free. If they started charging you to use google how outraged would you be? If apple owned it you already would have been paying for it from day one, and you would have never known the difference.

    I am glad to hear you own outside the realm of Apple, if you haven’t already perhaps you should give Linux a try. If you already use a Mac it really isn’t that different (mainly because they are both offspring of Unix, one closed, one open)

    Unfortunately you mixed apples and androids the same day I was reading details about Apple suing HTC (specifically for their phones functionality while running android) and it set me off. I am not uncontrolled, I am just an asshole on occasion. I am human, so be it. I was actually sitting with my middle son 2yrs singing the abc’s with him before as I was typing. Hard to sing the abc’s if you are “pissy” None the less I will not “rage” (getting pissy sounds too gay) on you about Apple anymore because you appear to be a civilized person and I can respect that.

  24. And just what the hell did ANY of the last 3 posts have to do with this app? This is why posting access used to be exclusive.

    Does anyone have any insight as to why the app requires FULL internet access and the IME can collect ALL typed data giving it the possible ability to record and send passwords, credit card info, chats, etc… anywhere it wants.

  25. @Joe Not sure why it needs full access to the internet,but the access to all data typed,… is because the way it is loaded,the os sees it as a keyboard. Any keyboard app on the market shows this same message,anything that is an input method needs this permission otherwise it can’t accept input.

  26. Hey, anyone want to hack it for Blackberry? I’ve got the original Storm and sorely want legit buttons. Either that or some company needs to develop a frame that plugs in to the micro USB that has the buttons on it…

Leave a Reply to caseyCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.