How to play Homeland (the GameCube’s Forgotten MMORPG) Online on a Wii

[nintendoduo]

Watch on YouTube

 

Watch on YouTube

And it still works! As of last month, Homeland has been online for two entire decades. The official matchmaking servers may have gone down during the Bush administration, but the game still allows direct IP connections between a host and up to 35 players, putting even Mario Kart: Double Dash!!’s 16-player mode to shame. Also, unlike certain other LAN-compatible GameCube games, Homeland’s gameplay is remarkably smooth over long distances (the recent 20th anniversary event had players from South America, North America, Europe, and Asia, as documented across various livestreams).

So why aren’t more people talking about this fascinating game? Two reasons: 1) it was only released in Japan and has never been fully translated to English, meaning that you’ll have to navigate a whole bunch of Japanese menus to get connected; and 2) for a long time, going online required owning the rare GameCube Broadband Adapter. So it wasn’t just a hassle, it was an expensive hassle.
 

Well, the good news is that both of those things have changed. An English translation project is currently underway and looking very promising, and the same team is even trying to revive the matchmaking server. Oh, and not only is it now possible to play online without the official Broadband Adapter, since cheaper alternatives exist, but you don’t even need a GameCube at all.

On top of being supported by the Dolphin emulator, Homeland can also be played online on any Wii or Wii U console thanks to an app called Nintendont (as in, “it does what…”). In the interest of growing the Homeland community and perhaps one day living the “35 players online” dream, here’s a step-by-step tutorial for how to go online with this game as an absolute beginner:

(Note: The YouTube embed at the top of this post is a video version of the same tutorial, if that wasn’t obvious.)

Limitations:

• As of right now, the latest official version of Nintendont isn’t compatible with Homeland. You can boot the game, but it’ll freeze if you try to go online. See the “what you’ll need” section below for a link to the latest compatible version (Sep 5 2021).

• This works on Wii U! However, you can’t use a Nintendont channel forwarder to launch the game from the Wii U menu. This only works in Wii mode. Sorry, channel forwarder enthusiasts.

• This works on Dolphin too! Go to settings and make sure SP1 is set to “Broadband Adapter (HLE)”. However, Dolphin players can only join servers, not start their own. Wii and Wii U players will crash their consoles when trying to join. (Or that’s what happened in our tests; let us know if you get different results.)

• This sort of works with the WIP fan translation! Because, you know, WIP. The translation can’t go online on Wii or Wii U because it changes the game’s ID, which means Nintendont doesn’t know it needs to enable Broadband Adapter emulation for this game. For now, you’ll have to use the Japanese version OR modify the translation to change the ID from “GHEE” to “GHEJ” using a program called GCRebuilder. Dolphin and GameCube players can use the translation as-is. (Note: Future versions of the translation won’t have this limitation.)

If any of these issues are solved in future versions of Nintendont or Dolphin, we’ll update this section.
 

What You’ll Need:

• The game’s ISO file (can’t link you to this one, go ask Bing).

• A compatible version of Nintendont. As of right now, the latest compatible version is the September 5, 2021 one, which you can get here. Click the down arrow button to download the file. Rename it from “loader.dol” to “boot.dol”.

• A save file with online mode unlocked. We’re using the save file that was uploaded by GeBeCluck23 to onlineconsoles.com, converted to .raw format to work with Nintendont. Here’s an already converted version. (If you’re using the WIP fan translation with the modified game ID, use this one.) Alternatively, you can unlock online mode yourself by playing through one game scenario. If you decide to do that, you might want to check out Longplay Archive’s walkthrough of the “DreamWorld” scenario (the first two and half hours or so in the video below) and/or Lua’s Homeland speedruns on Twitch.

Watch on YouTube

• OPTIONAL: The “add English chatbox” cheat code, created by shaaktee_. This enables the Latin alphabet in places where it can’t normally be used, like the name selection menu, which is useful if you don’t want a Japanese name. Here’s a version in .gct format for Nintendont. (If you’re on Dolphin or GameCube and just want the code in text form, here it is.)

Got all that? Okay, now we can get into the actual tutorial.

Tutorial:

Step 1: SD card/USB drive preparation

1. Put the game’s ISO file in your SD card or USB drive’s “games” folder, like this: /games/Homeland [GHEJ]/game.iso
2. Put Nintendont in the “apps” folder, like this: /apps/Nintendont/boot.dol (the “icon” and “meta” files aren’t strictly necessary but if you want the app to look nice on the Homebrew Channel, you can get them under “Quick Installation” here.)
3. Put the save file in the “saves” folder, like this: /saves/GHEJ.raw
4. Put the cheat file in the “codes” folder, like this: /codes/GHEJ91.gct

Step 2: Nintendont settings

1. Put the SD card or USB drive back in the Wii or Wii U and launch the Homebrew Channel (again, if you’re on Wii U, you’ll have to go into Wii mode, DON’T use a forwarder).
2. Launch Nintendont. Once it loads, look at the date to make sure you’re not in an incompatible version (meaning one released after 2021).
3. Pick SD or USB depending on what you’re using.
4. Press B to go into the settings. Make sure Cheats, Memcard Emulation, and BBA emulation are On.
5. Press B again to exit settings. Select the game from the list and press A to launch it.

Step 3: Network settings

1. Once the game loads, press any button to go into the main menu. If you don’t see “バカ” at the top, that means you put the save file in the wrong folder (it’s “saves”, not “save”… you big バカ).
2. Select the third option (ネットワーク), then the first one (ネットせってい), then the first one (はい). This will take you into the network configuration menu.
3. Scroll all the way down to confirm you totally read all this important text. Select “同意する” and press A to confirm.
4. Pick the first memory card, then “DHCPでつなぐ”. Leave this on “自動”, then pick “セーブ”, then “はい”. Press A on “ゲームに戻る” to exit the network configuration.

Step 4: Change your name
This part is only necessary if you didn’t start your own save file and used the one with online mode already unlocked.

1. In the main menu, press A on “バカ” to enter the save file. By the way, “バカ” means “stupid”, so it’s a good idea to change your name to something more dignified.
2. Once you’re in the game, walk up to the angel (yes, that’s an angel), press A, and pick “たずねる” to talk to it.
3. Pick the third option (なまえをかえる), then “はい”. You’re now in the name entry menu. NOTE: You won’t be able to change your name if you’ve already joined or started a server. The game will ask you to leave or end the server first (see Steps 6 and 7 below for how to do that).
4. Pick “123” to enter the numerical table. If you added the cheat file, you can now press D-pad down + Y to enable the Latin alphabet. Enter a good, dignified name (sorry, “POOP” is taken) and press “OK”. NOTE: If you pick a name someone in the server already has, you’ll be forced to add an extra character before connecting.
5. Pick “はい” once again to confirm.

Step 5: Enable IP connections
This part is only necessary if you DID start your own save file. IP connections are already enabled in the “online unlocked” one.

1. In the game, talk to the angel and pick “いう”.
2. Pick “ABC”, then “#”, then enter “せつぞくきりかえ” letter by letter. When you’re done, press “OK”.
3. If the angel says “マッチングサーバーけいゆせつぞくに きりかえますか?”, that means you’re already in IP connection mode. Pick “いいえ” to cancel. If the angel says “IPアドレスしていせつぞくにきりかえますか?”, that means you’re in matching server mode, which hasn’t worked since 2007. Pick “はい” to switch to IP mode (unless you have access to a time machine).

Step 6: Connect to a server

1. In the game, go to the shelf on the upper right corner and pick “しらべる”, then “マスコットをえらぶ”. This will take you to the mascot selection screen.
2. Pick any available mascot except for the God Mascot (the one that looks like the angel but black). Unless you started your own save file, that means Gant (the big rocky guy next to God) or Pinoc (the long-nosed one in the corner). You might want to read Puutan’s mascot guide to decide which one you’ll be playing as.
3. As the mascot, go talk to the angel and pick “たずねる”, then the first option (いせかいへいく), then the second (ネットでぼうけん), then the first (ホームランドをさがす).
4. You’ll be taken to the connection screen. Pick “はい” to confirm you want to go online, then enter the IP of the server you want to join and press “決定”. NOTE: You can check kamisaba.info for public servers and their IPs. Make sure they have a green connection icon to verify that they’re currently working. You might also find servers in the GameCube Online Discord or the Homeland Discord (feel free to DM for an invite). Or you can start your own! See Step 7 for how.
5. If all went well, you’ll see your character in the game’s park. You’re now online! The “ON LINE” sign on the corner shows your connection strength (yellow is good, red is bad).
6. To quit for the day, press start, pick “ログアウト”, then “はい”. At this point you can decide if, while away, you want your mascot to be used as an AI companion by anyone (だれでもOK), by friends only (きずなのひと), or by no one (だれにもダメ). The first option is recommended, since you might level up and get free stuff. Press A to confirm your decision.
7. To rejoin the same server, talk to the angel without using a mascot and pick “たずねる”, then the first option (いせかいへいく), then the second (ネットでぼうけん), then the second (ログインする). You’ll be taken to the connection screen again. Confirm you want to go online with “はい” and confirm the IP (you shouldn’t have to enter it again, unless the host has changed it).
8. To quit the server permanently, talk to the angel without using a mascot and pick “たずねる”, then the first option (いせかいへいく), then the second (ネットでぼうけん), then the third (マスコットたいじょう). Pick “はい” to confirm. Note that you won’t be able to join the same server again unless you pick a different mascot.

Step 7: Host a server
IMPORTANT: You can only host a server if you’re able to forward port 9003 TCP to your Wii’s IP! If you don’t know what that means, you probably can’t.

1. In the game, go to the shelf on the upper right corner and pick “しらべる”, then “マスコットをえらぶ”. This will take you to the mascot selection screen.
2. NOW you can pick the God Mascot (again, the one that looks like the angel but black).
3. As the God Mascot, go talk to the angel and pick “たずねる”, then the first option (いせかいへいく), then the third (かみさまプレイ), then the first (ホームランドをつくる).
4. You’ll be taken to the connection screen. Pick “はい” to confirm you want to go online.
5. If all went well, you’ll see the God Mascot in the middle of a map. You’re now hosting! To get players, share your IP with friends or register your server at kamisaba.info.
6. To stop hosting for the day, press start and pick “ちゅうだん” and then “はい”. If there are players in the server, this will start a 60 second countdown before it stops.
7. To restart the same server, talk to the angel without using a mascot and pick “たずねる”, then the first option (いせかいへいく), then the third (かみさまプレイ), then the second (かみさまをさいかいする). You’ll be taken to the connection screen again. Confirm you want to go online with “はい”.
8. To stop the server permanently, talk to the angel without using a mascot and pick “たずねる”, then the first option (いせかいへいく), then the third (ホームランドをつくるこわす), then pick “はい” twice. You’ll be taken online to confirm you want to destroy the server forever. :’(

Special Thanks and Acknowledgements:

• Puutan’s English Homeland guide. Now that you can go online, you should definitely check this out to, you know, learn how to actually play this game.
• The users of the Homeland Discord for their patience, support, and keeping this game alive all these years. It’s a small server whose regulars wouldn’t like seeing a ton of random English-speaking people join at once, so please DM for an invitation if you’re seriously interested in joining (or join the GameCube Online Discord, which has a Homeland section).
• The Kamisaba website. Go there to find servers!
• GeBeCluck23 for the “baka” save file.
• shaaktee_ on Discord for the cheat code.
• FossilArcade for the excellent Homeland review that got us interested in this game in the first place:

Watch on YouTube