Nintendo's Homebrew-Blocking Update Hacked 157
ElementC writes "Team Twiizers, the group behind almost all of the Wii Homebrew scene, has released an update to the Homebrew Channel (and installer) that allows for installation on a Wii with the most recent update installed. While the team still recommends against installing the Nintendo update, those who accidentally updated or purchase games that require the update are no longer left out to dry. This update to the Homebrew Channel also adds SDHC support, a feature Nintendo has not implemented in vanilla Wiis. The community has also created an app that updates just the Wii Shop Channel — allowing users to purchase Wiiware and Virtual Console games without losing their homebrew. It took the team only two days to get the fix out."
Re:SDHC support? (Score:3, Informative)
This doesn't affect the Wii itself in anyway, so you won't be able to use it to copy save files to etc.
Re:Don't encourage the crackers... (Score:5, Informative)
The console is about as cheap as they get, and Nintendo put an incredible amount of research and effort into making the best games in the world. When do you folk feel a bit ethically obliged to let the company just make some money out of the good work they've done.
Err, I really like Nintendo, I really like the Wii, and I'd really like some of what you were smoking.
1) The console price hasn't gone down AT ALL since it was released almost two years ago. Compare that to the prices of the PS3 or Xbox360 during the same timeframe. Also compare it to the fact that the Xbox360 is now way cheaper than the Wii while being much, much faster.
2) The last few months there were nothing but half-assed games coming out for the Wii, especially from Nintendo. I don't see "the best games in the world" anymore, anywhere. Think back to the last Nintendo press conference and tell me you were really positively surprised with what they came up with.
3) The Homebrew Channel can do a lot, but what it can't do is play Wii games off of burned discs. You still need a modchip for that. You can play copied WiiWare games, but team Twiizers officially denounces warez. They're doing it to open up the platform itself, not to open it up for the warez kids.
Re:Don't encourage the crackers... (Score:2, Informative)
SFA was developed by Rare, not Nintendo. It also came out 5 years ago for the Gamecube. Would you care to try again, or is that really the best excuse you can come up with?
Re:Don't encourage the crackers... (Score:5, Informative)
Uhm, for the hardware you get, it's actually rather overpriced (Nintendo makes a nice profit from each console sold). Also, the topic is about running homebrew software, not necessarily about running pirated games. (Yes, I know a lot of people will use it to do just that).
This is decidedly not true; they add code [thedailywtf.com] that specifically fixes the symptoms (current exploits against known holes), but not the real cause (horribly broken usage and implementations of crypto/hashing/signing algorithms, among others). This is why new cracks typically appear within a day or two. Putting in such code, however, can hardly be designated "accidental". Please do a little fact-checking next time.
Re:Don't encourage the crackers... (Score:2, Informative)
You should do research before opening your mouth, the October 23 system update did infact *deliberately* break existing homebrew for the simple fact that ~90% of it was patches for a bug in the Wii's IOS modules (firmware of sorts) that most homebrew application exploit in order to install content to the Wii's NAND (filesystem). Additionally the update blocks direct access to the Wii's NAND for most IOS modules, an attempt to stop people dumping the contents of their Wii's.
Most of the update (as with the previous one) are direct attacks against (the use of) homebrew, the fact that Team Twiizers managed to find new exploits in mere days just goes to show how incredibly skilled they really are.
I think not enough credit is given here.
Sources:
- http://wii.marcansoft.com/wiimpersonator/reports/20081023-031234.log
- http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/Wii_System_Updates
Re:Don't encourage the crackers... (Score:4, Informative)
I had no interest in hacking my wii until I heard they had blocked it. That got me looking into homebrew and then I found mplayer for wii. That night I went out and bought a sdcard reader for my computer and installed the homebrew channel on my wii.
Re:SDHC support? (Score:3, Informative)
According to the blog, SDHC support can be done entirely in software [hackmii.com]. So it's just a matter of coding it in, both for homebrew creators (there will probably be a lib for it, if not one already) and for Nintendo.
Balloon Fight is a Joust clone (Score:3, Informative)
They are ethically obliged to do as much as possible to ensure you can't run illegal, unlicensed software on it.
Illegal under what law, and unlicensed under what exclusive right? Please name a few "illegal, unlicensed" titles you're looking at, so that other people following this discussion can understand what you are talking about.
Just from a glance at the wiki, some of the games being made available are clones of Nintendo's own games!
So bleeping what? Game play is not copyrightable [copyright.gov]. In fact, Nintendo's own Balloon Fight, available in the North American versions of Animal Crossing (for GameCube) and Wii Shop Channel, is a clone of Midway's Joust.
Re:Don't encourage the crackers... (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, you can. You will need to make use of the Twilight Hack, so you definitely need Twilight Princess if you don't own a modchip. It's ok if you borrow it for an hour or so, you just need it to get your foot in the door.
Check out everything you need to know here: http://hbc.hackmii.com/ [hackmii.com]
Re:This is good to hear (Score:1, Informative)
For the record, GeexBox and MplayerWii support USB storage, Mplayer supports DVD. It shouldn't be too long before convergence.
Re:Don't encourage the crackers... (Score:3, Informative)
The word 'plays' can be interpreted in a few ways here. 'It plays' can be considered that it simply runs the games, and the game (eventually) loads and runs. But if it causes the DVD to read @ 1x or 2x, causing 4-5x longer loading screens, would you call that playing? I've even tried Mario Kart online, and keep getting disconnected because it simply takes too long to load.
They're working on version 0.2, which apparently brings up the read speed to 3x which should help considerably. However, it's still not near flawless and may be downgraded from 'plays' to 'semi-works'. It's still a huge milestone for the homebrew community since you're now able to run patched discs without hardware mods.
Re:SDHC support? (Score:3, Informative)
The most recent revision to the SD flash card specification (SD High Capacity), it allows SD cards to break the size barriers that existed for the old standard.