The very popular Nintendo Wii offers a lot of fun, plenty of games, and a unique interface that no one else has duplicated. That means it's no surprise when people want to copy their games to keep backups of the originals.

These games come on disks that bear a strong resemblance to ordinary burnables, but they aren't copied the same way as your music CDs or DVDs. The process is a bit more complicated. This short guide will tell you all the basics of making a copy of your Wii games, plus when you should do it.

Regular burning software - even high end programs like Roxio and Nero - can't copy this kind of disk due to the encryption included on it. The copy protection that comes as part of one of these disks means that your computer just doesn't have a way to make sense of the data.

Like most types of copy protection, this encryption didn't last long before there was a way around it. Programs are available which will read through this encryption and help your computer understand the information on the Wii game disk.

After the software has been installed, it's really quite easy to make a copy of the game. That's because the information your computer couldn't understand is now easy to deal with. This works for games on just about all systems, including the Wii, but also the Xbox 360 and PS3.

There are even some PC games that make use of copy protection, but these programs can help you deal with it. If you own more than one kind of gaming system, you can use this kind of program to get backup copies for all your games, not just the ones for the Wii.

Once you've found the right program and installed it on your computer, you'll also need to copy the game as a disk image onto your hard drive. This disk image can then be burned onto a blank CD or DVD in your burner drive.

Most of the time, you won't even have to use your regular software, since copying and burning functions come with the decryption software. Choosing to use its utilities will allow you to get a cleaner burn and less likelihood of an error.

The different kinds of copying utilities available now make copying Wii games much easier. This is an excellent way to back up any favorite game that you're worried about damaging. After all, it never hurts to have a backup in case you run into problems.