Legal way to obtain WiiWare and other Wii Shop Titles

[Yershi]

I know the Wii Shop has been dead for a long time now, but I've always wondered if you could still get any of those WADs a legal way if you have not downloaded them before the shop closed. Since dumps of these found online can never be verified as proper since every WAD has its own checksum per console if it was dumped legally, there would be no way to tell if a dump found online is a proper dump as there would be no way to verify it with checksums (unless there is some other way to verify these things that I am not aware of). If the answer is no I'll just leave it at that and move on (putting that there cause obviously talking about downloading games online is banned on the forums here and I rather not be banned because someone thinks I'm asking for WADs on the forums).

[JosJuice]

(08-31-2019, 04:21 PM)Yershi Wrote: I know the Wii Shop has been dead for a long time now, but I've always wondered if you could still get any of those WADs a legal way if you have not downloaded them before the shop closed.

If you have purchased them but not downloaded them: You can still re-download them from the Wii Shop Channel for the time being. If you haven't purchased them: No, they can't be obtained legally anymore, which is very unfortunate.

(08-31-2019, 04:21 PM)Yershi Wrote: Since dumps of these found online can never be verified as proper since every WAD has its own checksum per console if it was dumped legally, there would be no way to tell if a dump found online is a proper dump as there would be no way to verify it with checksums (unless there is some other way to verify these things that I am not aware of).

It is possible to verify any WAD file since all the data in a WAD file other than the padding is cryptographically signed. But please don't "find dumps online", since that's piracy.

[Yershi]

Oh, that's a shame but I guess that's how it is. And yea I know piracy is bad, it's why I asked the question in the first place. As for checking the signature of a WAD, how would one do that?

[JosJuice]

Go to the Verify tab of Dolphin's game properties.

[Yershi]

Oh, duh. Thought it would be more complicated than that. Thanks.

[KHRZ]

Nintendo: *Very anti-online for years, citing the downsides such as DLC, wanting to offer people complete games on purchase, and being skeptical of online multiplayer*  
Also Nintendo: *Among the earliest to shut down their services, screwing all online players, those who want to buy complete games, and eventually those who already bought games/DLC*

[mbc07]

Not sure if I'm following along your comparison. They maintained the Wii Shop Channel for 13 years, and although it has "shut down" you can still re-download whatever you've bought on it, you just can't buy or browse new content...

[Silent Hell]

There was little Nintendo could have done for servers gamewise, since Gamespy ran them and they went defunct. Nintendo isn't really at fault for that.

[AnyOldName3]

I'm not sure of how transferrable Wii Shop accounts are from a legal perspective, but couldn't you buy a used Wii that did purchase the WiiWare titles you want and then get its keys?

[Silent Hell]

You could. Just look at games like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. People sell entire consoles with this as the sole advertising point. It's gay that this is the fate of digitally distributed games on console, but it is what it is.