Twilight Hack Defeats Wii Menu Update 3.3

Croakyvoice writes "Only days after Nintendo shipped Wii Menu 3.3, which stopped the Twilight Hack from working, the team lead by Bushing brought out a new version of the Homebrew enabling hack for the Nintendo Wii using the Zelda Game and a hacked save game."

Re:wdim

[New_Age_Reform_Act]

It allows you to run any type of code in the Wii, let's say, Linux.

Re:wdim

[MrMage]

Well, depends on who you ask. Nintendo will tell you it's a massive threat, and while unsigned code can be, it's not likely.

The attack on the twilight hack was probably brought forth by the new found popularity for the Homebrew Channel, which brings homebrew software to the Wii using masses (Similar to PSP Custom Firmwares or Jail Broke iPhones).

Re:Score

[shird]

Yes - but:

Hackers defeat Zelda - 1 pt Hackers
Nintendo defends against hack - 1 pt Nintendo
Hackers defeat Nintendos defense - 1 pt Hackers

Re:wdim

[assassinator42]

The build date on the update is March 6 [hackmii.com], before the Homebrew Channel and before an app to pirate virtual console/WiiWare games was released. If these things influenced their decision to actually release it, I don't know.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:They now charge for the Internet Channel

[AKAImBatman]

For a while, Opera was giving away their browser for Wii users. Now you have to pay if you want to access the Internet using your Wii, and Opera is your only choice.

And your point is... ? Nintendo and Opera made no secret about the fact that the Internet Channel was going to cost money. The reason why it was free for a time was that the browser was in public beta testing. The early testers had to put up with constant crashes, freezes, corrupted renderings, and a rather primitive user interface. But Opera used the feedback on the browser to create the superior final product. Those who had participated in the beta got to keep the browser at no cost.

So get your facts straight, eh? You made it sound like they did something evil.

Re:They now charge for the Internet Channel

[Assembler]

My gf and I bought a pair of handcuffs last week and I have to say that they are much more fun than my PC.

... a very different form of lockdown than what Nintendo is providing

Re:open works better

[Tony Hoyle]

No it doesn't. It has a lame 'Other OS' mode that runs in a hypervisor with no access to the graphics acceleration and only limited access to the processors.

The PS3 itself is so locked down nobody has actually managed 'homebrew' on it yet.

Re:open works better

[krischik]

Wow .. you just described my absolute hatred of Apple and their philosophy.

I will NEVER purchase an iAnything. Why? Because I like to tweak, tinker, and have options.

With most of what you say. But there is an exception: for the iMac it's not valid. The iMac is great for tweaking and tinkering. Better then a windows PC. All you need is opening Terminal.app and take it from there.

And what most users never notice: Apple isn't actualy against it, read:

http://developer.apple.com/opensource/overview.html [apple.com]

Of couse the MacPro is ever better for tinkering - but then there is no 'i' in it's name...

Martin

Re:open works better

[marcansoft]

The interesting thing is that modchips work in a completely different way, so these fixes don't really affect them. None of the current homebrew hacks/etc have anything to do with modchips or let people use pirated disc-based games.

As for VC/WiiWare piracy, it's true that the Homebrew Channel requires the same installation methods as hacked VC/WiiWare games, and both look the same to the system (unsigned channels). However, if Nintendo released an officially signed Homebrew Channel, we wouldn't have to worry about installing unsigned code any more. Then they could fix the unsigned channel bug, therefore killing VC/WiiWare piracy, and we wouldn't have to work around the fix (thus indirectly letting the pirates use it too). Pirate VC games are rather hard to run as "homebrew", because they want to read their data as channel contents.

Re:What is the point?

[neumayr]

Especially in the case of the PSP there's a lot of incentive to "fix" the firmware.
Not only do you get a lot more out of that pretty impressive hardware, it also improves its capabilities in regards to its intended purpose - games just load a lot faster from Memory Sticks than from UMD, and not having to power an optical drive improves battery life.

Re:What can you do with this hack?

[marcansoft]

Let's set thing straight. So far, homebrew on the Wii is an entirely different playfield from copied games. To play games on DVD-Rs, you need to hardware mod your drive, period.

Now, when you get to Virtual Console/WiiWare piracy, things get a little muddier. Unfortunately, if you can run homebrew, then you can effectively pirate VC games, because the terribly broken security means that you can pretty much just install them and they'll work. This might change in the future, when Nintendo fixes the problems.

Our (Team Twiizers') goal is to enable homebrew on the Wii, not piracy. We're not going to go out of our way to prevent piracy, but we also try to come up with methods of running homebrew that don't directly enable piracy. However, we can't work around the fact that, ultimately, if you can run unsigned code, then that code might be a game. We do have the advantage that pirates don't really have much of clue overall (so far), which is why we haven't seen a Wii ISO loader that can run games from an SD card yet. We sure as heck aren't going to write it, but if someone does, there's not much we can do about it.

As for homebrew, there is certainly a public, free, open source SDK available based on the GNU toolchain and an open source library to access the Wii hardware. In fact, most of the Wii's hardware is supported. Full graphics (though the API is mostly undocumented, it's all there), Wii Remote, SD card access, Gamecube pads, networking (WiFi or ethernet), USB mass storage, partial sound (no hardware acceleration yet), etc. See devkitpro [devkitpro.org] for the toolchain and wiibrew [wiibrew.org] for the community wiki.

Re:open works better

[ultranova]

I'm all for open sourcing stuff, but the business model of consoles is all about having a closed platform so you can keep piracy to a minimum.

It has nothing to do with piracy and everything to do with getting license fees from everyone who develops software for the console.

Re:They now charge for the Internet Channel

[fyrewulff]

No, once you downloaded it's unlocked to that Wii. Forever.

Apparently a game or two also install it for free.. I've heard Super Paper Mario will install Opera.

Re:open works better

[Anonymous Coward]

Venturing OT here but I know some of the national auto parts stores (USA) have these computers on hand for free use. I used one at a local branch. Works out well for them to as many people will go right back in the store and buy whatever parts they end up needing.

Re:open works better

[PCPackrat]

This isn't lockdown. There are many tools available to read the diag codes from your car. His $20,000 tool and 2 modules covers most vehicles. But as an end user, you can buy a scan tool exclusively for your vehicle for under $300. If your vehicle is 96 or newer then it's OBDII and the tools are even cheaper as they have standardized the language cars speak.

Re:open works better

[IntergalacticWalrus]

No, it has everything to do with piracy, because the cruel reality is that no matter how good the intentions of the homebrew hackers are, 99% of the people that use their hacks are only interested in piracy.

Re:Fatal flaw

[marcansoft]

Wii games do run with a separate CPU taking care of security. There's a permissions system. However, said system is broken enough that we have 4 or 5 privilege escalation methods stowed away if we need them. Which means that the only real barrier to hacking the Wii is getting any code to run, which (practically speaking) means exploiting games via savegames. We'll always find one more bug in one more game.