darkSpyro

Hi
So this is my thinking:

I have Imaginators on Wii-U and on first play the game updates to the patched version, which is good, and as far as I am aware this includes the main map area which also provides the only way to get access to the expansion levels (assuming you have the correct figures to activate them). So without the game patching, the expansion levels are not available.
Soooooo
It worries me that Nintendo turned off the online servers for the basic Wii, because while Wii-U is currently fine, one day they may switch those off too..... and then if I need to replace my Wii-U and re-install the game, without it patching, the basic version-1 on the disc will not allow access to the expansion levels.

So Is there a way I can either:

A: Do something to backup the whole game from my Wii-U onto an SD card or similar? So I could reinstall it from that if ever I needed to.
or
B: Is there somewhere the patch for the game is available to download online to keep on an sd card and apply to the installed game if needed in future?

I am carefully avoiding the issue of if a full game backup exists online because I do not want to get clobbered for the piracy aspect of a discussion (though I did look and didnt find one but I am still being careful and not wanting my thread/question deleted).

Anyone have suggestions or how are others preparing for the point if Nintendo ever switch off Wii-U internet servers?

Oh I just googled and apparently the Wii-U shop is closing next month and the whole server MIGHT be turned off "in the next few years" so this really is something that will affect everyone eventually.

a: if the game is digital you can download everything and put it on a usb stick, but dont help much if the game is linked to the hardware and not your nintendo user id.

b: no you cant do that, nintendo will not allow any files to be download from the internet and installed on their nintendo consoles, only way to do that is to hack your wiiu.

i think the patch is on activisions servers, so you should be able to download the patch even if nintendo shudown their eshop.

if nothing help you have two choices, 1) hack your wiiu and back it up 2) buy the a playstation console and the game the patched will be up for 30 years on ps4/ps5/ps6... if not activision get shutdown or servers burn down.

Quote: CountMoneyBone

a: if the game is digital you can download everything and put it on a usb stick, but dont help much if the game is linked to the hardware and not your nintendo user id.

b: no you cant do that, nintendo will not allow any files to be download from the internet and installed on their nintendo consoles, only way to do that is to hack your wiiu.

i think the patch is on activisions servers, so you should be able to download the patch even if nintendo shudown their eshop.

if nothing help you have two choices, 1) hack your wiiu and back it up 2) buy the a playstation console and the game the patched will be up for 30 years on ps4/ps5/ps6... if not activision get shutdown or servers burn down.

Thanks, Ive managed a bit more googling.

Apparently the game is indeed linked to the hardware so while the update can actually be backed up to a usb, it will ONLY work with that console, so if it breaks, buying a replacement doesnt fix it as the update will not go on a different console from a backup.

I really dont want to hack the wii-u as I dont want to risk damage. Really want to avoid that if I can.

Dont really want to rely on nintendo or activision to make my game work, all the other games will run off the discs but Imaginators was patched on day-1 and without it, a lot of content (including expensive expansion areas) are not available.

Ive actually considered the playstation 3 or playstation 4 or xbox360 or xbox-one route but of the 4 of them I have no idea which is best for a good version of the game or a good method of backing it up. Kinda lost there

Just dont want to lose my game if all goes wrong in say 10 years or so

(BTW I play games long-haul, still playing Commodore 64 games amongst others so I really do plan to be still playing skylanders in decades to come).

Thanks for the info thank you

the only way to deal with nintendo if you want to keep your stuff forever is to hack the wiiu. that is the only option you have since everything is linked to the hardware and nintendo is not known for keeping their digital stuff online if its on their servers.

but i think the best solution is to get the ps4 version of the the game (the ps/nintendo can used the same portal, only xbox portal you can not use with ps/nintendo). the ps also have the dlc as a download patch, but its not linked to the hardware. you install the game disc and patches on the hard disk then the complete game can be backed up to an extended hard disk (or multiple hard disk if you want that) for use on any ps4/ps5 that you have your psn account on. the only important thing here is to not lose your psn account and the game disc, then you are set pretty much for 10-20 years at least. since the ps5 is backward compatible with the ps4 the dlc patch will stay up on sony servers for a long time. the ps3 even have patches for games that was released in 2006 for download, i think that speaks for it self.

I wonder if the Smash community has something planned for letting people redownload DLC characters into Smash 4. If they've figured something out, maybe it can be applied to other games like Imaginators as well?