There have been plenty of third party accessories released for the Nintendo Wii since its release late last year, dozens of company’s desperate to persuade consumers to part with a little more cash, whether it be to enhance their gaming experience directly (sword and shield props for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, anyone?) or by more complex means, as with Datel’s Wii Drive Doctor, dubbed ‘the ultimate home mod tool’ for Nintendo’s latest console.

Datel, well known for their invention of videogame enhancement products (perhaps best recognised as the creator of the best-selling Action Replay brand of cheat systems), have now come up with a device which allows Wii owners to connect their console to the PC using a USB cable. Once the two machines are getting along merrily, you’ll be able to check on and even tinker on all sorts of computer-related techno-wizardry, from control commands to entering code into the Wii’s data stream.

The firm hopes that the device will come into its own in the future as a bridge between downloading and playing freely downloadable homebrew software. It’ll set you back a mere $34.95 USD if you’re interested, although fitting the gadget does require a steady hand and having to dabble in the fine art of soldering.

We’d suggest staying well away if you don’t know what you’re doing, but if the above has really suckered you in, scan below for Datel’s press release, which will explain the whole thing in a lot more detail:

“The trouble with most games consoles, is you can’t modify the game code when it’s running. Sure, you can use tools such as Datel’s own Action Replay game enhancers to input all sorts of cheats and enhancements, but there’s no straightforward way for amateur programmers and techie tinkerers to get inside the game, investigating how it works and trying out modifications and tweaks you’ve programmed yourself. Thankfully, if you’re a Wii owner Datel has come to the rescue with Drive Doctor, the ultimate aid for the hardcore tinkerer and amateur programmer. With Drive Doctor for your Nintendo Wii, you can gain a unique insight into the under-the-bonnet operation of your console, examining, analysing and altering the Wii drive’s memory…

With Drive Doctor in place, you can connect your Wii to your PC using the supplied USB 2.0 cable. You can then review its innermost operations, watching your Wii software in action through Drive Doctor’s PC application. You can even add data of your own, all from your PC. Drive Doctor’s memory and command views give you a unique insight into the innermost workings of your Wii’s drive memory, and even lets you make on-the-fly adjustments. You can read status, write data, send control commands, report the drive status and more. By injecting your own code into the data stream, you can create your own effects and experiment with modifying the program. It’s fun! And as the Wii home brew scene grows and prospers, the device will also come in handy for playing freely-downloadable software straight from your console.

Fitting Drive Doctor requires a little soldering, so make sure you have your precision Soldering Iron handy. Full fitting instructions are supplied. It’s a fairly simple task, requiring you to connect just five wires. After that, the unit just clips to the back of your console. It remains in place even when not in use - just unplug your USB cable and you can use your Wii in the usual way. It’s styled to match the console, and completely unobtrusive when not in use.”

Does the Wii Drive Doctor take anyone’s fancy?