Dolphin Emulator - Play Gamecube and Wii Games on PC
Dolphin is a GameCube and Wii emulator, lauded for its great performance and relatively low system requirements. Dolphin comes with various features to improve graphical quality and supports Wiimotes, GameCube controllers as well as Dualshock and Xbox controllers. There is also a built-in cheat code database to load cheats without having to add your own. This guide will show you how to install and setup Dolphin to play GameCube and Wii games on your PC.
Dolphin can load Gamecube .ISO format games and Wii .ISO and .WBFS file format games.
The Dolphin emulator website features great documentation, with huge amounts of information on the various features and details about compatibility issues in many games.
Guides | Blog |
FAQ | Compatibility |
Required Downloads:
Dolphin Emulator
- Dolphin emulator is used to play GameCube and Wii games on your PC
- A computer with moderate requirements is required to run Dolphin with good performance
- Gamecube and Wii save files can be imported via SD card from a Wii or Wii U
USB Wii Sensor Bar
- A sensor bar can be used with a Bluetooth adapter to connect a Wiimote to your PC for a more authentic experience
- The Mayflash Sensor DolphinBar features built-in Bluetooth to ensure compatibility with PC and all Wiimote add-ons directly out of the box
GameCube to USB Adapter
- A USB adapter can be used to play GameCube games with the original controller for a more authentic experience
- The Mayflash Gamecube USB adapter is widely used and supports up to four controllers
- It is also compatibly with Wii U and Switch making it an excellent investment
Setting Up Dolphin
- Create a folder and place your GameCube and Wii games inside
- Download the latest Beta version of Dolphin
- Extract the contents from the Dolphin
.7z
file to a folder on your PC - Launch
Dolphin.exe
- Double-click the lower area to add a games directoryCover art for Wii games will usually appear after save data has been created
- Select your game and press [Play] to start
Controller Support
Gamecube Controller
Buttons:
- [A button] = X key
- [B button] = Z key
- [X button] = C key
- [Y button] = S key
- [Z button] = D key
- [Start button] = Return key
- [L Trigger] = Q key
- [R Trigger] = W key
D-Pad:
- [Up button] = T key
- [Down button] = G key
- [Left button] = F key
- [Right button] = H key
Control Stick:
- [Up] = Up arrow key
- [Down] = Down arrow key
- [Left] = Left arrow key
- [Right] = Right arrow key
- Modifier (half-press direction) = L-Shift key
C-Stick:
- [Up C] = I key
- [Down C] = K key
- [Left C] = J key
- [Right C] = L key
- Modifier (half-press direction) = L-Ctrl key
Wiimote
Buttons:
- [A button] = Mouse Left-click
- [B button] = Mouse Right-click
- [1 button] = 1 key
- [2 button] = 2 key
- [- button] = Q key
- [+ button] = E key
- [Start button] = Return key
D-Pad:
- [Up button] = T key
- [Down button] = G key
- [Left button] = F key
- [Right button] = H key
Xbox and Dualshock Controllers

GameCube Controllers
- Download and launch zadig, select [No] for updates
- Select [Options] -> [List All Devices]
- Select [WUP-28] as the USB device
- Select [WinUSB] as the driver to be installed
- Click [Replace Driver] and wait for the process to complete
- Once complete, select [GameCube Adaptor for Wii U] from the [Controllers] menu in Dolphin
If you are receiving [The driver installation failed] error or [(Could not allocate resource)], you may need to delete temporary setup files or restore your device’s original driver. Ensure zadig is run as administrator.
- Restart your PC
- Delete the
/usb_driver/
folder from your/Users/[Username]/
folder on your Windows PC - Ensure no instances of
installer_x64.exe
orinstaller_x86.exe
are running in your task manager - The process can be killed via command prompt with
taskkill /f /t /im installer-x64.exe
- Restart your PC if you haven’t already
- Ensure your GameCube adapter is plugged in via USB
- Launch [Device Manager] on your PC
- From the top menu, select [View] -> [Devices by container]
- Find [WUP-028] -> [USB Input Device]Look for [USB Input Device] with a [ ! ] symbol if you cannot find [WUP-028]
- Right-click [USB Input Device] and select [Uninstall Device] -> [Uninstall Driver]
- Unplug then re-insert the GameCube USB adapter and reattempt to replace the driver with zadig
Wiimotes
- Connect the Mayflash DolphinBar via USB
- Set the [Mode] to [4]
- Press the [Sync] button on the Mayflash DolphinBar until the LED starts flashing
- Press the red button on the Wiimote until the LED settles on Player 1 then connect any Wiimote add-ons you wish to use
- In Dolphin, go to [Controllers] and select [Real Wiimote]
- You can enable more options such as the Wiimote speaker and [Continuous Scanning] to fix connectivity issues
- Launch your game and the Wiimote in Dolphin will work just like the regular Wii console
Graphics Settings & HD Textures
Dolphin’s graphics settings can be changed in the [Graphics] menu.
In the [General] tab, you can set V-sync for screen tearing issues. Set Fullscreen to remove the window borders. You can also show FPS during gameplay.
In the [Enhancements] tab, you can tweak graphical features such as internal resolution, anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.
Load HD Textures
You can further increase the graphical quality of games in Dolphin by using custom hi-resolution textures. This improves graphics greatly depending on the quality of the textures, especially at higher native resolutions.
Custom textures usually come in .png
or .dds
format. .dds
textures are recommended for their lower VRAM requirements even at high resulotions.
- Right-click your game from the Dolphin games list then select [Properties]
- Go to the [Info] tab and copy the [Game ID]
- Go to the
/Documents/
->/Dolphin Emulator/
->/Load/
->/Textures/
folder on your PC - Create a folder and name it the [Game ID] of your game
- Copy the custom textures to the
/Game ID/
folder - Go to [Graphics] -> [Advanced]
- Check [Load Custom Textures] and [Prefetch Custom Textures]
- Close the Graphics settings and launch your game
- You will see a notification when your custom textures are loaded on startup
Cheats
Dolphin features a built-in database of cheat codes for GameCube and Wii games. To enable cheats:
- Go to [Options] -> [Configuration] in the Dolphin top menu
- Check [Enable Cheats] then close the settings page
- Right-click your game in the Dolphin games list and select [Properties]
- You can enable cheat codes (AR / Gecko) or add your own
- Close the cheats page and launch your game to play with the cheats enabled