Revolution Editor app icon Revolution Editor
Guide

Getting started

Install Revolution Editor, point it at your own keys and discs, and learn your way around the workbench.

What you need

  • A Mac running macOS 27 or later.
  • Your own legally obtained game files: a disc image, or an extracted game folder.
  • For Wii discs: your own key.bin (16 bytes). Revolution Editor never ships or downloads one.
  • Optional: Dolphin, the free emulator, if you want to test your mods without leaving the Mac.
Legal backups only. Revolution Editor is for editing and testing homebrew mods of games you own. It contains no Nintendo code, keys or game data.

Install

  1. Buy and download Revolution Editor from Gumroad.
  2. Unzip it and drag Revolution Editor into your Applications folder.
  3. Open it. If macOS asks, confirm you want to open an app downloaded from the internet.

Add your encryption key

Wii discs are AES-encrypted, so the app needs a key to read them.

  1. Open Settings > Keys (or the Keys button in the Disc Scrubber window).
  2. Choose your key.bin. Korean-region discs also need a kkey.bin; most people never do.
  3. The app remembers your choice. Forget clears it.

Extracted game folders and GameCube images don't need a key.

Open something

Everything starts from the File > Open menu:

  • File… ⌘O: a single .szs, .arc, .kmp, .kcl, .brres or any other supported file.
  • Folder… ⇧⌘O: a project folder, such as an extracted disc or a track you're building.
  • Wii/GCN Disc Image…: browse a disc image directly.
  • New Window ⇧⌘N opens another workbench; recent files live under the Open menu.

Folder projects are a live view of the disk. Add a file in Finder, run git checkout, or extract something from another tool and it appears in the sidebar without reopening anything.

The workbench

  • Project Navigator (left): your folder, with archives you can expand like folders. Right-click for New, Rename, Duplicate, Copy/Paste, Extract, Convert To, Show in Finder and Move to Trash. Drag files in and out; drags inside the project move, drags from outside copy, and ⌥ flips either.
  • Editor tabs (centre): every format opens in its own purpose-built editor. A dot on a tab means unsaved changes. Right-click an archive and choose Open in New Window if you prefer a window.
  • Console (bottom): build, verify and emulator output.
  • Toolbar: Save, Source Control, Disc Scrubber and Hot Swap.

Settings worth knowing

  • Games: link your own Mario Kart Wii and Double Dash discs. Missing object models are copied in from them, and their textures and skies fill the Texture Gallery and sky picker. This is also where you turn per-game tool menus on or off, and choose Build for Dolphin-compatible or Hardware-compatible output.
  • Archive Editor & Workbench: compress new archives (Yaz0) by default, open archives in a new window, drag-copies, collapse the console on launch.
  • Editing: how many Undo steps each editor keeps, and the extra height used when snapping points to the ground.
  • Emulator: where Dolphin lives, and whether to dump textures on launch.
  • External Editors: optional apps used for “Open in…”.

Undo history

Every editor keeps a history. Use Edit > Undo/Redo (⌘Z, and ⌘Y for Redo) or open the History button in the editor toolbar to see every recorded step and jump straight to any of them, Photoshop-style.

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