Modder makes an Apple M1-powered Wii for retro gaming

Apple's latest Mac Mini and Nintendo's 2006 Wii console are the same size, and that's enough for a mod's mind to work. When you cross an Apple Mac Mini with a Nintendo Wii, you can see what happens.

Both Apple's minute desktop and Nintendo's dated console have the same dimensions. Both the Mac Mini and Wii were less than 8 inches. The Mac Mini's internals were moved into a Wii.

Miani had to remove the top of the Wii's case so that it could fit the Wii's controller ports. He had to make some changes to make sure the trap doors didn't open.

The Mac Mini has a bigger fan. He chose a 12 V fan that was the same size as the Wii fan. The M1 chip in the MacBook Air can operate without a fan. Miani noted that the temperature quickly hit 100 Celsius on his mod without a fan and that he would then throttle. The mod scored 7,343 on the Cinebench R23 benchmark, compared to 6,158 without a fan, and 7,725 with the Mac Mini's original fan.

The Mac Mini's power supply wouldn't fit so a new solution was needed. The Wii's power supply was not powerful enough to keep the system running. The DIYer connected the Wii charger to the Microsoft Surface one at a time. The power goes through a logic board.

The M1's reported proclivity for retro game emulation made the project useful. Miani used his Apple Wii to play Mario Kart Wii upscaled for his 4K TV in his final video. The Nintendo Mac Mini was used to play the PS2 games.

Miani's video can be watched below.

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