Topic: Wii Homebrew Channel

[BranDonk Kong]

There's currently no way to run a channel off of anything besides the Wii's internal flash, but yes, technically you can uninstall channels and install them without having to lose them from your SD card when you move them back to the Wii. The old way was to use the WAD installer and WAD uninstaller, but now there's a new version called the WAD manager. It's mostly used for copying illegal VC games and WiiWare, but it can be used for good as well. You can dump your Wii's NAND and repack the games you currently have installed as .WAD files, then use uninstall/install them as you please, but it's kind of a pain in the ass from what it looks like. I'm sure sooner or later there will be an easier way to do this.

[DAaaMan64]

anyway to switch out the internal flash? lol

[BranDonk Kong]

Yes, but you had better have some pretty decent soldering skills, also make sure you dump your original NAND first as well. I know you're joking, but yes, it is possible. It may actually allow you to keep all of your Miis and what not if you ever need a new console - overwrite the new console with your original's dump.

[Pale]

Man, if people can do that in homebrew land, why the hell can't Nintendo's support services do it? =P

[animecyberrat]

Honestly I think it all boils down to money, Nintendo thinks people will buy more of their over priced SD Cards this way, because they are too afraid people will steal their games any other way they do it, so they came up with the solution that would maximize their profits while seriously reducing the pirate threat.

Since in order to "steal" VC games in the current set up yo have to be very tech savvy and truly dedicated to the cause, they know that so few people will actually take the outrageous steps required to pirate their games they can reduce the risk.

I honestly don't blame them so much because if you are really concerned about the space issue, and you get past the "I want all my VC games on the Wii so I can flip through the channels" then you can find reasonable solutions that work fairly well without being too much of an inconvenience and we get to continue to enjoy the VC support.



In a perfect world Nintendo shouldn't have to worry about thieves and pirates and just give us true storage solutions that meet our growing needs, but in this corrupt world we live in, it ain't gonna happen.

[ATimson]

Honestly I think it all boils down to money, Nintendo thinks people will buy more of their over priced SD Cards this way, because they are too afraid people will steal their games any other way they do it, so they came up with the solution that would maximize their profits while seriously reducing the pirate threat.

Which would make sense, if Nintendo actually sold SD cards; however, as far as I can tell they don't. I haven't seen any Nintendo-branded ones locally (white ones by SanDisk trying to cash in, yes, but they aren't actually by Nintendo), nor are they listed for sale on their site or GameStop.

[animecyberrat]

They had them, the may have been Licensed but that still makes Nintendo money.

[Invincible Donkey Kong]

Hey, look, a Wii Homebrew Channel!  Won't be there for long. 

*punts*

[Morari]

In a perfect world Nintendo shouldn't have to worry about thieves and pirates and just give us true storage solutions that meet our growing needs, but in this corrupt world we live in, it ain't gonna happen.

Nintendo doesn't have to worry about piracy. Piracy of these old games has always and will always exist. Excluding running emulators on things such as this Homebrew Channel, I can go boot up the entire NES, SNES, Genesis, and Gameboy collection on my Dreamcast, Xbox, or PC. Trying to thwart piracy only annoys legitimate customers, it doesn't effect the pirates at all.This is true no matter the medium.

[animecyberrat]

So your logic is people steal anyways so might as well make it easier for them?

[Kairon]

I'd be eager to start up Wii homebrew once I get a second Wii. (HAH! As if that could happen anytime soon!)

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Does homebrew do anything useful yet?

[BranDonk Kong]

Define useful.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

A barebones, simple-to-use media player.

[NWR_insanolord]

A barebones, simple-to-use media player.

I'm pretty sure I saw that there was one of those on some Wii homebrew site. It may or may not be currently available to download. Just imagine, all the media you can fit on a 2 GB SD card. Take that, AppleTV.

[animecyberrat]

So I take it Apple never did go through with making I-Tunes for Wii did they.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

VC and iTunes are competitors.

[NWR_insanolord]

So I take it Apple never did go through with making I-Tunes for Wii did they.

I can virtually guarantee you that Apple never seriously considered making it. Apple only very rarely makes software for something other than the Mac  operating system or something else made by Apple. I can think of only 3 current examples of such software, and each of them gets Apple something they desire, something I don't think Wii iTunes would. AppleTV-like software that could stream an iTunes library via Wi-Fi and play it through the Wii would be awesome, though.

[BranDonk Kong]

There's MFE, which is a Linux based media center program, though you never have to deal with the "Linux part", and soon there will be Wii Miidia, which is supposedly a Wii port of Xbox Media Center, AKA the greatest console homebrew program in all existence.

[animecyberrat]

I am in live with Apple today, my I pod broke and they told me it was out of warrenty, but then the store I bought it from went to bat for me and got it fixed and a 30 extended warranty.


As for homebrew stuff, I have always been too sceptical about breaking something and too afraid to try anything, has anyone actually tried this and how does it work? Can you still download VC titles or does this ban you or something like Xbox live does?

[BranDonk Kong]

So far no one has gotten in trouble with Nintendo for this. They make take action down the road, but according to their TOS, if they ever ban someone for a mod (of any kind), all you have to do is remove any modifications and you'll be back in their good graces again.

[shammack]

Really?  Sweet deal.

Banning you from downloading VC titles would be a pretty stupid move.  It's hardly going to discourage piracy if you take away the option to buy the games legitimately.

[animecyberrat]

I have a friend who only plays his Wii for Guitar Here and Carnival games (shut up) and he is going to check this out and tell me how it works. If they don't kill his system I might give it a shot.

[BranDonk Kong]

They're not going to kill his system. I have this on my system, and before that, had different channels installed for SNES9X, Fceu, Genesis Plus, etc. One thing that Nintendo did fix, was in the past if you installed the downloaded VC channels (illegally), you could re-download the channels for free from the Wii Shop Channel, since you had the ticket on your system. Nintendo now also checks your purchase history, so this is (thankfully) no longer possible.

[animecyberrat]

Is there a different site I can goto to get it, I am too paranoid after that virus problem I had which started the same day I clicked that link.