Upgrading your Wii when the servers are down

Since the Wii servers have been down for some time, how do you go about upgrading your system software?

Do you want to?

You need some of the older software installed to do some of the hacks that are out there to allow your Wii to run home brew or other operating systems. So you might want to check into that before going any further.

IOS

Not Apple iOS or Cisco. Its what Nintendo calls the Wii system firmware. New versions do not replace older versions, instead they are installed with all the others. This allows backwards compatibility for other games, the system just runs in an older version of IOS. There are bug fixes for select versions of IOS. These do replace the same version of IOS.

So lets update!

Here is where I had issues. Per WikiPedia, all Wii software has IOS on it, and if your system does not have that version installed you will be prompted to install. So what version do you want to install? Well here is where it is tricky. 

Mario Party 9 is one of the last games for the Wii. If all game disks have IOS on it, then this game should prompt you to install one of the last IOS versions. However on both of my Wii consoles it does not prompt me. So whatever version of IOS is on the game (if any) is already on my Wii consoles.

Here is the fun part. I have a Wii that was still in the box. As far as I can tell it is one of the earlier models, such as it has GameCube controller connections on it that were dropped in later models. It also was a sealed box so it has never seen internet access and never got to phone home to mama Nintendo for updates. It also did not prompt for updates on Mario Party 9. However the kids popped in Kirby's Epic Yarn and it wanted to update. So I let it.

From looking online there is no list of what versions of IOS is on what games. Besides, you have different versions of IOS loaded at all times. So do you even really need to update?

In Conclusion

So your console should prompt you to install the version of IOS a select game needs if it is not already loaded on the console. If a game is older, you might even be installing an older version of IOS. So do you know what games have what versions of IOS? I don't think we need a list to be sure to install every version of IOS, but having a list might help those needing a select version for home brew games and console mods. As always, post your comments in the forum.