The InFeCtuS Argon Wii is based on an 350 MHz Actel A3P-125 FPGA, which is programmable through a JTAG connector - in conjunction with either an InFeCtuS 2 device or an Injectus programmer. It has features similar to the D2CKey, and as of firmware v1.3 supports region-free play.

The InFeCtuS team have said a soon to be released firmware will lower the wire count from 16 to 10 for the D2C chipset as a result of the new competition from the Wasabi modchip. It will also introduce support for all the current Wii chipsets rather than just the D2C chipset (wire count for non-D2C chipsets will be 6). Also the update will grant the ability to upgrade the modchips firmware via DVD - despite InFeCtuS recommending the JTAG connector as the preferred upgrade method.

Availability: Available (Released in December, 2007)

A modchip created by Cadex, the first free Wii modchip to be released. The latest firmware, v0.9.1, supports features such as original game playback (Wii and GameCube), backups from the same and different regions (Wii and GameCube), GameCube homebrew, DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW ability without the need for bit-setting, DMS/D2A/D2B chipset ability. The firmware is designed to run on ATmega8L-8 and ATmega8-16 AVR chips.

Although the project claimed open source from the beginning and a code release has been announced[1], so far no source code has been released. With none of the announced updates to the web site and project data in several months, the project is likely to be considered abandoned, even though its last version remains available and operational.

Availability: Available (Released in 2007)

The second Wii modchip to be released. This chip is able to play not only backups of its own region, but it also partially supports playback of backups from a different region (for example PAL discs on an NTSC Wii). The CycloWiz's firmware can be updated via DVD, so more options will become available in the future.

Availability: Available (Released in February, 2007)

One of the few modchips that work on a Wii with the D2C chipset. The D2CKey modchip is specially designed for D2C and newer drive chipsets and as such it will NOT work on other models of Wii. Due to the number and types of soldering that the D2CKey requires (over 30 fine solder points), the team behind it advise that only people with considerable soldering experience install the chip. It also has a partial region free support.

Availability: Available (Released in October, 2007)

An upgrade over the D2CKey, coming from the same manufacturer. The D2Pro requires only 15 wires to function with stability. As such, it is much easier to install than the D2CKey. An additional four wires may be soldered to increase region free compatibility.[2]

Availability: Available (Released in February, 2008)

The InFeCtuS 2 is a universal modchip that is compatible with Wii D2C chipsets through a special firmware. The Wii firmware, WIIKTUS, requires 13-wires for D2C hardware. Three additional connections are required for region-free support. An InFeCtuS 2 with Wii firmware is very similar to the Argon Wii, except that it can be flashed to modify other consoles as well.

Availability: Available (Released in 2007)

The first GPL-licensed (as of 2.01) open source modchip. Written in C. Source released before or along with binaries. OpenWii is the first open source modchip to support firmware updates via DVD, as well as the first open source chip to support Super Mario Galaxy[3]. Currently (as of 2/29/08 and firmware revision 2.4), the chip supports DVD9 (Dual-Layer) discs and the Gamecube audiofix.

Availability: Available

The Wasabi promises to be the first Wii modchip to support all chipset revisions, from DMS to the latest D2C drives. It also boasts 128kB of flash memory for future firmware updates, a massive upgrade from other chips available on the market. The chip is advertised as being more stable compared to other D2C modchips. It requires only 9 wires to solder for D2C (and 5 for older chipsets), a sizeable step down from current modchips.

The website also notes that there are a few kilobytes of data stored on Wii optical discs that are not present in backups of Wii games. They claim that this data can be used by Nintendo to build a new copy protection, and that Wasabi can defend against this because the extra data can be stored in its high capacity flash memory.[4]

Availability: Available (Released in March, 2008)

The Wi-ic is capable of Wii and GameCube backup play, supports multi-disc games, GameCube import play with swapping, GameCube homebrew play. Wii import and homebrew play is unconfirmed.

It has 5 wires that can be installed with a quick solder or gold-plated solder pads. Contains a failsafe update mechanism allowing it to recover from a failed update using the Disc Channel or Photo Channel which requires an extra wire to be soldered. An extra wire on the chip allows for a disabling of the chip to be used.

Availability: Available (Released in 2007)

The Wii-Boss is a quick solder compatible modchip based on the PIC 12F629 and includes a programmer kit. It is compatible with any modchip code that supports the 12F629, including YAOSM, Wiinja, WiiFree, and OpenWii.[5]

Availability: Available (Released in 2007)

The Wii Drive Modchip or simply WiiD shares many similarities with the commercial modchips that preceded it. The WiiD, like its competitors, can also have its internal firmware updated via DVD. The upgrade process is rather primitive where the only indication of a complete firmware flash is a disc read error (DRE) screen. The WiiD supports all Wii and GameCube backups of the same region of the console and as of firmware v02 has become region-free with most titles. V03 has recently been released adding support for Super Mario Galaxy.Wiid does not support D2C.

Availability: Available (Released in March, 2007)