Nintendo Wii U games running from a 1980's Bernoulli disk [video]

TL;DR: This article details connecting a 1980s 90MB Bernoulli disk to a Wii U via a SCSI-to-USB adapter, successfully installing and running *Metroid Fusion*. ## Introduction: Pushing the Limits Over the past few years, I've made quite a few videos about the Wii U, demonstrating its ability to connect to various devices—thanks to its excellent USB support and very relaxed attitude toward disk capacity. But today, we're going to push it to the limit with this: a decades-old Bernoulli disk. This is the largest and oldest disk I've ever shown in a video, and more importantly, it has the smallest capacity—only 90 megabytes (and that's after the Wii U formatted it). So we're essentially testing the minimum capacity required to store a game on a disk. If that wasn't challenging enough, the Bernoulli drive itself is ancient and isn't even a USB device. ## History of the Bernoulli Disk The first generation of Bernoulli drives debuted in the early 1980s from a company called Iomega, using huge 8×11-inch cartridges, roughly the size of a standard letter page. I really wanted to show one of those in this video, but their maximum capacity was only 20 megabytes—not enough to hold a single Wii U eShop game. In 1987, Iomega introduced the smaller 5.25-inch Bernoulli disk and continued to increase the capacity of this size until production ceased in the mid-1990s. If you haven't heard of Bernoulli disks, you might be more familiar with the company's later format: Zip disks. But don't be mistaken—Zip wasn't just a smaller version of Bernoulli; in fact, they work on entirely different principles. ### Bernoulli Technology vs. Zip Drives Bernoulli drives spin a flexible floppy-like medium inside a rigid cartridge at high speed. Based on the 18th-century Bernoulli principle, low-pressure air is created, pulling the medium extremely close to the read/write head. If power is lost or the drive is bumped, airflow stops and the flexible disk automatically moves away from the head, making a head crash nearly impossible. Zip drives also spin the disk at high speed, but they don't use Bernoulli technology—instead, they work more like a traditional hard drive, with the read/write head flying very close to the disk surface. Bernoulli drives are known for their reliability; Zip drives, on the other hand, sometimes suffer from a fatal mechanical defect called the "click of death." This destructive flaw is impossible on a Bernoulli drive, but I guess that's progress. ## Hardware Connection: SCSI to USB Let's take a look at the drive itself. Like many external drives from the '80s and '90s, Bernoulli drives use a high-speed connection called SCSI. With SCSI, you can daisy-chain up to seven devices, each with its own unique ID number—that's what the little digit counter is for. This particular model doesn't have a second SCSI connector for passthrough, so it must be at the end of the chain. So how do we connect it to the Wii U? We're using this SCSI-to-USB cable, which is practically priceless—these cables often sell for several hundred dollars on eBay. I was lucky enough to buy one at a reasonable price a few years ago, and I've kept it safe ever since. You might notice that the connector on the SCSI-to-USB cable doesn't match the SCSI connector on the Bernoulli drive. That's because by the time USB came along, SCSI had advanced to its second generation, called SCSI-2—faster and with a smaller connector. So we need this SCSI-1 to SCSI-2 adapter. It's a very simple adapter, containing no circuitry—just connecting the 50 pins on the larger connector to the 50 pins on the smaller one. We plug it in, secure it with the clips, and now we have a new, smaller SCSI-2 interface to plug our SCSI-to-USB cable into. Now I'll plug it in and get started. ## Formatting and Capacity Test Alright, let's power on the Bernoulli drive. Give it a try. Wow, it's recognized quickly. Let's format it. Hey, so far so good. Now the main screen needs to refresh—the Wii U is very slow. There we go, we see the drive listed below. Let's go into Settings, find Data Management. Looks like the Bernoulli disk has 68 megabytes of usable space. Not much; it's going to be tight. Let's check the console's internal storage. Try *Wii Sports Resort*. It's only 61 megabytes—should fit. Uh oh, it requires 78 megabytes of space, even though the game is only 61 megabytes. There's probably some overhead for file copying or moving, or it wants to ensure you have enough space for save files, since that 61 megabytes is just the game itself without saves. That's the smallest game I could find. Well, let's try another. What about *Amiibo Tap*? It's only 55 megabytes. Now it requires 72 megabytes of space. I'm starting to get worried. But, I have *Metroid Fusion*, which is just 47 megabytes. Of course, most of that is the Game Boy Advance emulator; the game itself is probably only 4 megabytes. But regardless, to the Wii U, it's a 47-megabyte game. Let's try this one. Hey, I think it might actually let us install. With this new microphone, you can't hear the Bernoulli drive. It's pretty loud, so I'll switch back to my old desktop microphone for a few seconds so you can hear what this thing sounds like. Hopefully you can hear the drive itself—it's quite loud, but it's working hard. I'm switching back to my new wireless microphone now. We're back. It's still running. Okay, now it says there's 20 megabytes free on the disk. So there is definitely some overhead it needs. Hmm, not entirely sure why, but it fit. ## Running the Game: Launching *Metroid Fusion* from the Bernoulli Disk Let's go back to the main menu and try to run *Metroid Fusion* directly from the Bernoulli disk. Here we go. Yes. It seems to be launching. Not fast, right? That's expected. But yes, it's working—this is *Metroid Fusion*, running from a decades-old 90-megabyte Bernoulli disk. How cool is that? No matter what I throw at the Wii U, it just keeps working. It's slow, but it's absolutely an amazing machine. Alright, that's it for this video. As always, if you enjoyed these videos, please like and subscribe. I'll be back soon, but that's all for today. Take care. --- Source: YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GZDOpV2OXk)