Since I'm not eligible for warranty as an European NTSC import user, I won't care if I voided my warranty which never existed to begin with. I'd love to register my games and all but since they all say "For sale, rental and use only in the USA, Canada, Mexico and Latin America" I better not.
I have no interest to mod my Wii whatsoever, still I find this topic rather interesting.
On to the Super Paper Mario issue:
My leaflet in SPM merely says:
"Please note that when first loading the Game Disc into the Wii console, the Wii will check if you have the latest system menu, and if necessary a Wii system update screen will appear. Press OK to proceed."
Latest system menu.
So when you first try to run SPM, the Game Disc will check if you have already the newest System Update installed. Maybe Nintedo put this in place for those unfortunate console owners who do not have internet access. By regularly adding the newest Firmware on major releases Nintendo can make sure pretty much all consoles are up to date irregardless of a working internet connection.
Right now there are at least three mod chips out there: Wiid, Wiikey, and CycloWiz. The best of the bunch obviously being Wiikey as of now:
Homepage:
http://www.wiikey.cn/Forum:
http://psx-scene.com/wii/portal.php?styleid=28As has been said the mod chip merely allows a Disc to be read which isn't supposed to be read. Thus the forums can confirm that having a mod chip in place in no ways seems to hinder further System Updates:
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/499544:
I did a system update right after my Wii-Key was installed. No problems. Besides, Wii-Key runs in stealth mode.or
internet --> system updates would be fine even with a modchip without the stealth mode feature (im using wi-ic and it doesnt have stealth mode but the update was successful its a sucky modchip though)However, the bricked Wiis due to SPM are a logic consequence of a modded non updated system:
Your game selection will be limited due to Nintendo putting the system updates on newer game titles. Example: (Paper Mario) Which will install the update automatically to the newer version if your version is lower then what is on the game disc.
This already has become a problem with some Wii owners with region free modchips installed. Some users have bricked their Wii due to playing an NTSC game disc (Paper Mario) on their PAL system without updating their system. Paper Mario did a system update and flashed the NTSC system update on their PAL unit which then bricked their Wii due to region lock on the hardware of the system.
It is important to keep your Wii updated if you have a modchip installed. If you do not want to update your Wii due to a softmod that could be exploited later in time then you will need to know what titles have the system update on them and stay away from those game titles.The correct steps to play a game like that:
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1107329/?show_files=&page=3I have a (launchday) pall Wii firmware 2.1E, Wiikey, Game patched with RegionFrii 1.2.
Can confirm SPM works on pal (downloaded from another site however)
- turn on your wii without a game disc in
- perform a system update and follow it until the system reboots
- perform system updates until you get a message telling you there are no more updates available.
- boot up your wii then insert the game disc
- when you go into the disc channel, you will be asked to perform an update
- make sure your internet connection is available then click OK to perform the update
- once your wii reboots, you can play this awesome game!In summary, all NOE had to do to brick lots and lots of modded Wiis:
- build a new NTSC firmware with no changes but incremented version number
- include a similar update mechanism as in SPM in a new major US title such a Galaxy
- do NOT include such an update mechanism in the same major title to be released in Europe
- do NOT include this update in the PAL market so it is not available for non NTSC consoles
- release the major title in the US but delay the title considerably in Europe
-> every attempt to play this game on a non NTSC console will brick the modded Wii until the time a newer
update is released in the PAL market.
I wonder if a bricked Wii like this could still be later updated and fixed "blindly". A pal console with NTSC firmware couldn't display a picture anymore but other than that could in theory still work, right? So assuming we have a broken Pal Wii due to bad firmware, could this Wii be repaired by blindly updating the Firmware to a new legit Pal System Update provided one was available?
If so, NOE only had to modify the above procedure slightly to add enough changes to the Wii to deliberately brick a Pal onsole which applies this patch.