Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

So since Wii released Megaman 9 and 10 some people have tried playing those games on the Dolphin emulator via PC and when it comes to getting the DLC of those games to run, people have been encountering all kinds of issues, including me, so the purpose of this post is to provide a simple few steps tutorial to ensure that you can get the DLC up and running, because megaman 9 and 10 DLC can be installed into the Dolphin emulator and get to work properly. This covers the WAD files installation guide of the actual games of Megaman 9 and 10 and WAD files of DLC content for Megaman 9 and 10.

Step 1. You will need to use Dolphin STABLE version 5.0 (which is almost 3 years old as of this post, but is the working one for Megaman 9 and 10 DLC), not any of the daily DEV. versions(refer to image attachment named image1.PNG for more info)
here's the link. https://dolphin-emu.org/download/
(you may need to uninstall any other versions running on your computer, otherwise having several versions on same computer may cause the dolphin to crash and not work, make sure you save your data prior to switching to Dolphin 5.0 stable).
Step 2. Once you have your Dolphin installed and running. go to options > configure. (image2.PNG)
Step 3. Go to Paths and add the folder(s) in which the game and it's DLC are located. Click ok and hit refresh so that the list of those games and its DLC's are displayed. (image3.PNG)
Step 3.5 If you have attempted to install Megaman or it's DLC before and had some issues, you'll have to find and delete all those config files and save files as those are created by the emulator and now may contain errors and issues that will attach to your future attempts at installing the games DLC. Usually stored in Documents folder. Doing so will allow you start the installation process from a fresh state.
Step 4. DO NOT TURN THE GAME ON. Right-click on the game you desire to install and choose > Install to Wii Menu (image4.PNG)
Step 5. Do the same thing for the DLC file of the game. Make sure the DLC region matches the region of the game. I tested this on PAL and NTSCU versions. Both work just fine. Didn't test in between the versions. For example >Install to Wii menu Megaman 9 PAL, install to Wii menu Megaman 9 DLC PAL.
Step 6. Click Tools > Install WAD and choose the game you wish to install, then repeat this step for the matching region DLC WAD file. (image5.PNG)
Step 7. Now your installation is complete and should be working, Run the game to see if the DLC content is accessible.

There are posts online saying you need to install the DLC while the actual game is running and a in-game save file has been created, thats not true, all those steps need to be performed before running the game for the very first time. Image6.png and Image7.png shows the DLC content of Megaman 9 and 10 accessed on Dolphin respectively. Megaman 9 & 10 DLC installation issues is nothing new and is something i have encountered years ago and seems this hasn't changed up to this date. I tested this on windows 10 on two different computers and i hope this post will help out some megaman fans out there along the way.

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Seems the attachments aren't displaying. oh well

What goes wrong when you try to install the DLC using a development version? Needing to use 5.0 sounds odd...

(05-18-2019, 04:15 PM)hunterX Wrote: [ -> ](you may need to uninstall any other versions running on your computer, otherwise having several versions on same computer may cause the dolphin to crash and not work, make sure you save your data prior to switching to Dolphin 5.0 stable).

Whether a certain version of Dolphin is installed or not has no effect. All that matters is which version you're currently running.

(05-18-2019, 04:15 PM)hunterX Wrote: [ -> ]There are posts online saying you need to install the DLC while the actual game is running and a in-game save file has been created, thats not true, all those steps need to be performed before running the game for the very first time.

Indeed, you should never install a WAD file while emulation is running. I know less about why you would need to install the DLC before running the game for the first time, though...

(05-18-2019, 04:20 PM)hunterX Wrote: [ -> ]Seems the attachments aren't displaying. oh well

Sorry, the moderation queue displays attachments separately from posts, so it took a few extra minutes for me to realize they were there and that I had to approve them. They should be showing up now.

I think that may be an issue with stuff like the savefile existing? Not sure how the Wii Shop would handle this particular case. The first time a game runs it does a lot of things that are important.

megaman 9/10 dlc working fine in latest dev build

So i did more testing and things didn't work so smoothly as expected (obviously) so i have a laptop and a desktop computer, if i try to install the DLC of megaman on ANY of the DEV builds to NAND on my desktop and laptop while the game is running, i get an error message(attached in this reply and probably will need to be approved first)if i install DLC to the NAND while the game is not running i dont get no errors on DEV versions and i tried to install NAND and WADS in every possible combination and way, each from fresh start, i get that same error in some cases and no errors in other cases on both laptop and desktop and never got to access DLC. On Stable latest version with the guide explained above,it actually worked only on desktop computer, for Megaman 9 and 10 PAL and NTSCU,however the same process for the laptop didn't give any errors, showed everything was successful, but DLC content isn't accessible, as if it was never installed. so out of every possible order of installing things on both computers only the stable version on desktop worked. In DEV version you install the game into the NAND and stable version its install to wii menu. NAND gave errors on both computers, install to wii menu didnt give any erros but only on desktop the DLC is accessible. Also the save data files are compatible in between versions, so now that i have successfully installed and accessed DLC on my desktop computer on the stable version now i can run the DEV version and the DLC content is accessible, so for the name of science and testing, im tempted to copy the game save data and transfer it to my laptop to see if that makes everything work, or just give more errors along the way.

I got it to work (correct me if this might cause problems)

1- Install Dolphin 5.0 Stable then run it and close it once
2- go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Wii\shared2\
3- copy all folders except the folder named "sys" to anywhere safe like the desktop
4- delete the "Dolphin Emulator" folder from %USERPROFILE%\Documents\
5- run the new dolphin version then close it
6- move the previously copied folders to the newly created %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Wii\shared2\
*now your DLCs will work normally in the new version of Dolphin.
7- Run Dolphin --> Tools --> install WAD --> (choose the DLC)
now when you run the game it will have the DLC


This also works for the Dolphin core in RetroArch:

1- Do steps 1-7
2- Copy the same folders from step 3 to: {RetroArch Directory}\saves\dolphin-emu\User\Wii\shared2\
3- copy the folders "ticket" and "title" from: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Wii\       to: {RetroArch Directory}\saves\dolphin-emu\User\Wii\
4- Run the game in RetroArch and play the game normally

(03-29-2020, 07:58 AM)acrash Wrote: [ -> ]I got it to work (correct me if this might cause problems)

1- Install Dolphin 5.0 Stable then run it and close it once
2- go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Wii\shared2\
3- copy all folders except the folder named "sys" to anywhere safe like the desktop
4- delete the "Dolphin Emulator" folder from %USERPROFILE%\Documents\
5- run the new dolphin version then close it
6- move the previously copied folders to the newly created %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Wii\shared2\
*now your DLCs will work normally in the new version of Dolphin.
7- Run Dolphin --> Tools --> install WAD --> (choose the DLC)
now when you run the game it will have the DLC


This also works for the Dolphin core in RetroArch:

1- Do steps 1-7
2- Copy the same folders from step 3 to: {RetroArch Directory}\saves\dolphin-emu\User\Wii\shared2\
3- copy the folders "ticket" and "title" from: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Wii\       to: {RetroArch Directory}\saves\dolphin-emu\User\Wii\
4- Run the game in RetroArch and play the game normally

So I have done your steps, and I'm using a MacOS Ventura 13.4.1, and it's not working. I did Tools --> install WAD --> (choose the DLC), and I chose the WAD file. I even went a step further by installing my Mega Man 9 game into NAND. I then checked NAND to fix any issues via Dolphin --> Tools --> Manage NAND --> Check NAND. Then, I ran the game. But the game still doesn't register the DLC.