HackMii

Notes from inside your Wii

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3.4 and recent updates

November 19th, 2008 by marcan · 61 Comments

Nintendo released a recent update that once again tries to secure some existing bugs on the console, breaks some things, deletes others. This time they’ve also gone around and modified the TOS. As usual, mass panic ensues.

The people who are panicking can be divided roughly into two groups (non exclusive):

  • The pirates
  • The clueless

This should go without saying, but we don’t want to have anything to do with the former group. Nintendo is obviously going to fight piracy (and that’s going to hurt homebrew). We’ll have to deal with the homebrew part, but don’t expect that to help piracy in any way. It may, or it may not. And if it doesn’t, pirates will have to deal with fighting nintendo themselves. The usual messages about WADs, “backups”, and all that crap are going straight to /dev/null, and we’re seeing quite a few bans due to piracy on #wiidev recently. Don’t ask us about it, don’t talk to us about it.

The clueless are panicking because, well, that’s the thing to do (OMG, new update! What will we do!). Read the Wiibrew page about the update. To clarify some things: the Twilight Hack is gone and probably won’t be coming back. There are other game exploits on the table (which haven’t been announced yet). Given the ability to run PPC code, we can install stuff and exploit IOS, as the HBC beta9 installer already shows. In short, homebrew isn’t going to go away. We can “do anything” right now. But we do need to figure out what to do.

All we’re concerned with is the ability to run homebrew (from-scratch programs), not necessarily modify the existing system. This means that we’re not necessarily concerned with getting things like menuloader and DVDX working again. Menuloader involves hacking the system menu – which is pointless if it can be replaced. DVDX enables DVD use – which is pointless if there are other ways or you use an entirely new IOS. We’re also not big fans about installable stuff – the utopian homebrew ecosystem would be contained entirely on removable storage and involve zero changes to NAND (implausible, but hey). Either way, the ultimate goal is to have homebrew that is able to use the Wii’s features, period. How that is accomplished is irrelevant, so old methods of doing things aren’t necessarily going to work in the future, nor do we care about it (we’ll find alternatives if necessary).

You may be wondering what it is that we’re doing anyway. Basically, we’re looking at the current situation, moving on with existing projects, and trying to figure out what the best course for the future will be. Quickly releasing hacks as soon as they’re available might not be such a good idea for the future – it’s best if we think it through a bit. We’ve also got tons of stuff to do. Prognosis is good, and hacks will come out eventually, but you’ll have to wait it out. And you shouldn’t expect anything in particular. Remember, it’s about the end result (homebrew), not about how we get there. Also, don’t take some ideas that we’ve thrown out there previously as definitive – we’re rethinking things right now.

In short, calm the hell down and just wait. Don’t update if you don’t feel like “change” – you’ve got that option so far. And if you’ve updated, my suggestion is that you wait. Avoid hacky workarounds – they can be worse than the problems they purport to fix.

Tags: Wii

61 responses so far ↓

  • 1 BlackRayquaza21 // Nov 23, 2008 at 9:13 am

    There are so many posibilities with Homebrew as long as there are ways around the security updates. Personally I’m with the developers on this. Exploiting Wii to put in VC games on it IS pirating, and if yout hink you dont get caught, you do, because every time you play it, it logs it, and that log is sent to nintendo, and they can cross reference it with your IP address to see which titles you’ve downloaded.

    In actuality I’d like to see a hack FOR the Wii Menu, not exploiting it, but hacking into it, like… Wii Paint Menu or something where you can change the colors of the wii menu like the borders and that bland white color.

    And as for SSBB its possible to make hacked replays , but its just a series of character names and controller movements that are stored in the .bin file, not the entire replay. Hence the reason it cannot be converted like some people are trying to do which is sad…

    As for hacked pics, I use the free range camera to make those. and Ammo switching. Example being switching Super Scope shot with CD’s or Smash Balls… the things you see on youtube if you look hard enough.

    Anyway, to keep from boring you guys even more I’m going. So bye.

  • 2 tech3475 // Nov 23, 2008 at 11:31 am

    actually they could depending on the hack, all they would need to do is place an update in the IOS to block the game from running it.

    It would be tough but Nintendo hate allot of things including Homebrew.

  • 3 Link // Nov 23, 2008 at 1:07 pm

    From what I understand, all current channel installers use IOS functionality – the new HBC installer exploits the IOS again so that an installation succeeds.

    Generally: if you’d write your own Wii filesystem module and everything completely in C/PPC assembly – could you use that to install data directly into the filesystem bypassing all IOS?

  • 4 Seth Merkley // Nov 23, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    @HyperHacker
    Yeah I’ve often wondered what hacking we can do with those save states, too. Like converting save states from PC emulators and using them on the Wii.
    But with N64 games, you don’t get save states, probably because they would be pretty large. But of course the ROM saves themselves could still be exploitable…

  • 5 HyperHacker // Nov 23, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    He probably meant HBC.

  • 6 3.3 menu update affecting YAOSM? - WiiNewz Forums // Nov 30, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    […] this page on HackMii as well as this one makes it seem less and less like the update was a total and 100% bad thing. […]

  • 7 TheGuy // Dec 2, 2008 at 9:36 am

    I just updated! Shouldn’t Nintendo just make peace with the homebrew secne and make things eaiser for the developers??? If Nintendo try to stop the hacks, it will anger the scene and make people want to fight back more. They should just accept that homebrew is here to stay. You guys at HackMii are brilliant! I was going to leave the scene because of having to avoid updates, but the sheer adactivieness (sorry about spelling) made it worth keeping the homebrew channel.

  • 8 metroid maniac // Dec 30, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    out of intrest, has there been a fakesign fix in boot2 yet?

  • 9 edy100 // Jan 1, 2009 at 9:12 am

    wii v3.3u – is it the same with v3.4?
    I can’t find anything working for this 3.3u – just some files from 3.4 can be seen – but not used or installed

  • 10 aledTH // Jan 3, 2009 at 11:14 am

    I don’t know what to do.
    I have bought a 2000 Wii Points Card, and the Wii Shop Channel has asked me to update. I have the Homebrew Channel on my system. Shall I install it? (Also, can you delete the Twilight Hack after you’ve used it?)
    Thanks.

  • 11 metroid maniac // Jan 19, 2009 at 12:36 am

    wiibrew said bc and mios were updated. how were they changed?

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