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Wii got Hacked for real! Homebrew now possible?

theultimo

Member
This is how the DC died. Soon the Wii will have the same problems :\

They can basically self-boot stuff. Now, piracy will become rampant. However, like the DC, a HUGE homebrew scene will come out of it.
 
To quote the report quote:

The guys over at 24C3 just demoed a Wii hack that is set to provide native Wii
homebrew in the near future (not running in GC mode, and with full access to all the Wii hardware!)

They were able to find encryption and decryption keys by doing full memory
dumps at runtime over a custom serial interface. Using these keys, they were
able to create a Wii ‘game’ that ran their own code (their demo happened to show live sensor/Wiimote information, amongst a few other things).
 

Durante

Member
Borys said:
Seems legit enough.

What for, though?
Useful for media streaming/playback.

theultimo said:
This is how the DC died. Soon the Wii will have the same problems :\
AltogetherAndrews said:
Ah yes, piracy. That's precisely what the Wii and its incredible software sales needs.
Yeah, between the Wii and 360 being pirate-able nearly since release and the PS3 still not being cracked in any way this generation once again shows how piracy is hugely detrimental to console success.
 

PantherLotus

Professional Schmuck
If this doesn't require a modchip (the current hack does -- used a ton in EU/Spain), then wiiconnect24 firmware updates could theoretically brick systems or remove illegal mods.

Potential results:
1. Nintendo can stop anybody from getting online with it through firmware brickage.
2. Mod/hack community gets into a tit for tat firmware/hack cycle (see PSP).
3. Gamers have to buy second Wii so they can have one offline system. Nintendo wins.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Homebrew... yeah...

That's why everyone buys those "special" DS carts and puts custom firmware on their PSPs right? They do it so they can enjoy excellent homebrew games like "Chess Wizard" and "Crappy Doom Clone", right?
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Homebrew is great but it always comes with rampant privacy. Hopefully Nintendo can counter this effectively
 

theultimo

Member
PantherLotus said:
If this doesn't require a modchip (the current hack does -- used a ton in EU/Spain), then wiiconnect24 firmware updates could theoretically brick systems or remove illegal mods.

Potential results:
1. Nintendo can stop anybody from getting online with it through firmware brickage.
2. Mod/hack community gets into a tit for tat firmware/hack cycle (see PSP).
3. Gamers have to buy second Wii so they can have one offline system. Nintendo wins.
From what I've read though, this is not a firmware hack. Its a decryption code to allow self booting without a chip. All we need now is a "Utopia" boot disc, and there goes the neighborhood.
 
Nintendo: We are keeping a close eye on the products and studying them, But we cannot smash all of them

I'd wait until Smash to even begin* touching my Wii solely because I value online play over homebrew.
 

Zzoram

Member
grandjedi6 said:
Homebrew is great but it always comes with rampant privacy. Hopefully Nintendo can counter this effectively

Actually homebrew has pretty much been awful the majority of the time, and I'm beginning to be convinced that the stuff only gets made so people can point to it as the reason they are getting custom firmware/modchips.

The fact that the DS still doesn't have a frequently updated tower defense game (the warcraft3 based one probably gets worked on like 1 hour a month) is pretty disappointing. Why doesn't Desktop TD DS homebrew exist yet?
 

Durante

Member
If they really got both keys (though I don't see how they would in any sane encryption scheme) then I don't see much Nintendo could do about it.

DKnight said:
Die region lock! you don't belong to this world!
I couldn't have said it better than Richter.
 
Zzoram said:
Actually homebrew has pretty much been awful the majority of the time, and I'm beginning to be convinced that the stuff only gets made so people can point to it as the reason they are getting custom firmware/modchips.

Kind of like buying mushroom spores for microscopy
 

border

Member
People have been pirating Wii games for months on end now -- there's already modchips galore. This is only interesting because now the Wiimote can be used in homebrew development.

PantherLotus said:
Potential results:
3. Gamers have to buy second Wii so they can have one offline system. Nintendo wins.
I don't think people are interested enough in Wii online to buy a second system. I don't see how Nintendo would "win", even if they did. I'm pretty sure they would rather sell 1 system to someone who buys games than 2 systems to someone who buys no games.
 
Zzoram said:
The fact that the DS still doesn't have a frequently updated tower defense game (the warcraft3 based one probably gets worked on like 1 hour a month) is pretty disappointing. Why doesn't Desktop TD DS homebrew exist yet?
Because anyone who could work on it probably wants to do a commercial version. DS dev. costs are so low why not just do that? Or join a team working on a commercial DS game.
 

Tobor

Member
theultimo said:
From what I've read though, this is not a firmware hack. Its a decryption code to allow self booting without a chip. All we need now is a "Utopia" boot disc, and there goes the neighborhood.

Ouch if true. Sounds like the DC all over again.
 

theultimo

Member
Durante said:
If they really got both keys (though I don't see how they would in any sane encryption scheme) then I don't see much Nintendo could do about it.
Yup. They are needed to boot all games prior to a update, so basically, it will turn out like they way DVD decrypted the CSS. They cant possibly patch this hole unless EVERY game is re-released.
 

Durante

Member
Durante said:
Yeah, between the Wii and 360 being pirate-able nearly since release and the PS3 still not being cracked in any way this generation once again shows how piracy is hugely detrimental to console success.
I have to quote myself because of all the piracy doom and gloom in this thread. Does no one think this is a salient point?
 

[Nintex]

Member
Yamauchi will have a "meeting" with these guys. They never fucking ever learn do they?
SEGA didn't have the money to compete with the pirates. Nintendo could sue everyone and believe me, they would if this gets out of hand.

New marketing strategy for 2008:
"Ah, there are those nice Japanese folks Timmy who showed us the Wii!"
"Good evening!"
"Wii would like to kill!"

Joking aside, I highly doubt that this will hurt the Wii in the long run. I don't think that the non-gamers will know how to do this.
 
AltogetherAndrews said:
Ah yes, piracy. That's precisely what the Wii and its incredible software sales needs.


What exactly would someone want to steal anyways? There is mostly shovelware on the system.

Hacked party games?

Yes, I could imagine firends coming over to play a buggy unstable ripped version of Mario Party.

This probably hurts VC more than anything.
 

Tobor

Member
There is a huge difference between modchips and a simple boot disk. A huge, Dreamcast sized difference.

If it's true that anyone with a DVD burner can pirate games with no additional hardware, then it will be a huge problem for Nintendo.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
DKnight said:
Die region lock! you don't belong to this world!

Now this I can agree with! I want to play Metroid Prime 3, but it's not out in Japan yet and I'm certainly not going to buy a second Wii. If there was a fix I could get just to disable the region lock and not enable the ability to play pirated games I would be all over it. Unfortunately the two usually come hand in hand.
 

Akinola

Member
Yeah, about the region-free stuff, that's all i'd really care about.

Nintendo is still getting my money one way or another...but I wouldn't have to wait as long haha
 

Zzoram

Member
Visualante said:
Because anyone who could work on it probably wants to do a commercial version. DS dev. costs are so low why not just do that? Or join a team working on a commercial DS game.

If that actually applied to modder thinking, the PC mod community would barely exist. They form teams that work for years on amazing total conversion mods, then put it on their resumes. It's easier to make a high quality mod to impress a potential employer than it is to start a company and get investor funding to make the same game.
 

wsippel

Banned
theultimo said:
From what I've read though, this is not a firmware hack. Its a decryption code to allow self booting without a chip. All we need now is a "Utopia" boot disc, and there goes the neighborhood.
Maybe not. There are at least two protection schemes: disks are protected and the code is encrypted. This would allow to run unsigned code, but you'd still need a chip to get the disk to even load I think.


@Tobor:

There are bootdisks for PS2, too.
 
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