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
zadig (Optional: for Gamecube controller)

Requirements

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 directory
Cover art for Wii games will usually appear after save data has been created
Select your game and press [Play] to start

Wii game saves can be imported from a console to Dolphin via SD card. Simply select [Tools] -> [Import Wii Save…] from the Dolphin top menu.

Controller Support

Controller configurations can be set in the [Controllers] menu Dolphin’s button configuration will be set to keyboard by default:

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

Dolphin on Windows 10 comes with built-in support for Xbox 360 / One and Dualshock 4 controllers. Dualshock drivers can be installed for Windows 7 / 10, which does not support PlayStation 4 / 3 controllers natively.

dolphin games play controllers config cfwaifu

Select and configure your controller from the [Controllers] -> [Configure] menu for the controller you wish to use. However, you will need to map all of your buttons one by one for the new controller. Remember to name and [Save] the profile for the button mappings or you will lose them when Dolphin is closed.

GameCube Controllers

Real GameCube controllers can be connected to your PC using a USB adapter. If you are using the official Nintendo GameCube Adapter or Mayflash GameCube Adapter (Set to Wii U / NS mode), you will need to install the correct USB driver.

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.

Fix 1: Delete Temporary Setup Files

Restart your PC
Delete the /usb_driver/ folder from your /Users/[Username]/ folder on your Windows PC
Ensure no instances of installer_x64.exe or installer_x86.exe are running in your task manager
The process can be killed via command prompt with taskkill /f /t /im installer-x64.exe

Fix 2: Restore Original Driver

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

Real Wiimotes can also be used with Dolphin for a more authentic experience. The USB Mayflash DolphinBar (Set to Mode 4) can be used to connect Wiimotes to your PC without an additional Bluetooth adapter due to already having one built-in.

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