Earlier this month, the tech world stumbled upon an intriguing discovery: a fresh build of the long-abandoned Windows NT for PowerPC made an unexpected debut. What’s captivating is its compatibility with Nintendo’s GameCube and Wii consoles. These classics share the PowerPC architecture, echoing the era of the original Windows NT PowerPC releases. Dubbed Entii for WorkCubes and available on GitHub, this build even has rudimentary support for the Wii U. However, it doesn’t fully harness the Wii U’s dual extra PowerPC cores, its expanded RAM, or its robust AMD GPU; it operates merely through the Wii’s virtual console feature. Early development boards face limited support—either they’re completely unsupported or supposedly supported but untested.
For those passionate about homebrew projects, there’s some exciting content to explore. YouTube creator @emukid_id has captured video footage showing Windows NT being installed on a Nintendo GameCube. It includes glimpses of fundamental usage and some low-res yet nostalgic gameplay of The Ultimate Doom, with a resolution of just 320 x 200! Unfortunately, these clips are silent.
Despite the silence, Windows 95 manages to operate as expected. Classic functions like configuring Windows NT 3D wallpapers, using Notepad, or launching the basic Internet Explorer homepage are all in play. Additionally, innovative peripheral support broadens the utility of these Nintendo consoles. Imagine a GameCube controller turned into a keyboard with handles! And those standard USB ports on the Wii and Wii U pave the way for integrating various USB peripherals as well.
Fire up the video titled “Doom on Windows NT 4.0 running on a GameCube” on YouTube for a firsthand look!
Of course, with the perks come some trade-offs. While using it on a GameCube or a Wii with Ethernet adapters might retain some semblance of connectivity, surfing the web as we know it today just isn’t feasible on a setup from the NT era. Nonetheless, it’s a vibrant piece of digital nostalgia, highlighting a moment in time when Windows NT and PowerPC were in their prime before Windows NT 3.5 expanded PowerPC support.
This build lets fans enjoy Doom on the GameCube, showcasing how far technology has come. The Wii, on the other hand, serves as a turbocharged GameCube with an updated GPU. Entertaining the idea of bringing NT 3.5 or a later Windows version to the Wii U is tantalizing—it boasts advanced features like 1GB of DDR3 RAM and a trio of PowerPC CPU cores, compared to the simplistic single-core architecture of its predecessors.
While changes in RAM across these consoles—from the GameCube’s minimal 24MB to Wii U’s richer resources—offer a stark contrast, each step forward in support could potentially unlock even more of these devices’ latent capabilities.
