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Wii Homebrew Channel

GFLPraxis

GFLPraxis

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 17, 2004
7,152
460
Anyone set this up yet? I've got it installed. Very slick design and does its job well. I can run the Gecko Region Free app to launch import games, though I don't have any to try yet :) And I have SNES9x, a SNES emulator, and an alpha of Mugen 64, an N64 emulator. Plus a proof-of-concept Linux distro.

I was thinking of installing a web server just because I can.

It's been available maybe a week and there's already a ton of homebrew. I love the direction this is going.
 
I'll have to give this a go tomorrow. I have one of the early Twilight Princess' so it should all be fine for me.

Please PLEASE tell me there's a Scumm for this.
 
raggedjimmi said:
I'll have to give this a go tomorrow. I have one of the early Twilight Princess' so it should all be fine for me.

Please PLEASE tell me there's a Scumm for this.
Click to expand...

Yep. I have ScummVM installed, but nothing to put in it. :D
 
Yeah I'm going to give this a try tomorrow too. Once set up praxis does it stay on your dashboard ? I basically want to just run the gekko region free thing so that I can stop having to load and reload with freeloader :)

Does it also work with GC titles too ?
 
MacRumorUser said:
Yeah I'm going to give this a try tomorrow too. Once set up praxis does it stay on your dashboard ? I basically want to just run the gekko region free thing so that I can stop having to load and reload with freeloader :)

Does it also work with GC titles too ?
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I think it's Wii only, but I'm not sure.

Gecko Region Free is supposed to accomplish the same thing as Freeloader, without a disc. You just go to the Homebrew Channel, run Gecko Region Free and it launches. I think.

You can use the Twilight Hack to run a single piece of homebrew through Twilight Princess. What you do is use it to run an installer for The Homebrew Channel, which stays in your dashboard and looks very professional. Then at any time you can go into the Homebrew Channel and it will list all of the homebrew apps you've put on your SD cards if you put them in the proper directory structure.

It's great.
 
isn't that piracy? While you three may have honest fun, a thousand others will be using this to just play ROMs off the net thereby screwing Nintendo out of VC money (not that they need it mind you).
 
sikkinixx said:
isn't that piracy? While you three may have honest fun, a thousand others will be using this to just play ROMs off the net thereby screwing Nintendo out of VC money (not that they need it mind you).
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Piracy? The Homebrew channel cannot run actual Nintendo-created executables, so you're not going to be using it to steal Wii Ware titles or VC titles or anything (although I think you can find apps to do that on the torrent sites).

ScummVM isn't piracy as you need the original game assets that you can take straight off the CD to use it.

And Gecko Region Free cannot be used to download copied games, it just bypasses the region check so you can play legit import titles. Not DVD-R's.

If you're referring to using a SNES emulator, I'm hardly using it to steal roms off of the net. But I never did finish Super Mario RPG and it's not available on VC...and you can get emulators for platforms not supported by the VC, like GameBoy.

There's a ton of little homebrew freebie games out there, and I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of cool little apps people can pull off. Plus the awesomeness of booting Linux and running a web server off of your Wii. Come on, how cool is that?

I expect as time goes on Wii Linux will progress as XBox Linux has and we should be able to use the Wii as a miniature video streaming server.
 
I downloaded this the other day when it showed up on Slashdot, but have yet to install it. I'm going to put all of my Lucas Art Games on it. I'm wondering if I can actually put my CDs(Monkey Island as an example) into the Wii's drive and play the game directly from there? This is how ScummVM works on the Mac.

Now that we can play Lucas Art games on the Wii, LArts needs to come out with another really stupid statement, like the one they made about their games running on a DS, as in it wasn't possible. Idiots!

<]=)
 
Well that was surprisingly easy! Took me 3 hours to get my PSP playing homebrew, about 30 minutes to do this :D (edit: fixed problem)

Ruddy nora - theres an app to backup GC memory cards! FINALLY! Shame there's no region free DVD player, we could do with more region free players :eek:
 
raggedjimmi said:
Well that was surprisingly easy! Took me 3 hours to get my PSP playing homebrew, about 30 minutes to do this :D (edit: fixed problem)
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The most time-consuming part was backing up my Zelda save, since you have to overwrite it :) Really a piece of cake once you get an understanding of what you're doing.

Following instructions is easy but I always want to understand exactly what I'm doing, so I probably spent more time reading about the hacking methods than actually doing it.

Jimmi, do you have any import games to test with it?
Ruddy nora - theres an app to backup GC memory cards! FINALLY! Shame there's no region free DVD player, we could do with more region free players :eek:
Click to expand...

There's an app called WiiMiidia in the works that looks to be based off XBMC. I see a reference to DVD in the Wiki page, so maybe it can play DVD's as well? If I can stream MPEG-4 to it off of my Mac I will be so happy.


EDIT:
Listing of homebrew apps if anyone wants it.
http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_apps
 
No imports here. I'm tempted to get Smash Bros but since it's out here in 20 or so days anyways then I'm just going to wait.
 
Well this thread started a depth of discovery for me.

I discovered by looking that a new wiikey update was available which fixes the issues that I had causing games like SSBM imports still failing to load.

Wii Homebrew channel can be easily installed on a chipped wii with a simple disc installation

So I decided to swap my relatives wii back with them (they don't use anything other than wiisports. I originally swapped in order to get a wii that would play SSBM) and installed both the wiikey 1.9s update and the wii homebrew channel.


Both installed in less than 5 minutes and now my chipped wii is working with my imports properly for once.

Battalion wars 2 still refuses to load, but does load with the geko region free.




Only VERY bad side is that SSBM save game can not be copied to a memory card at all... So i have to replay the frickin thing in order to get my unlocked characters back.

Mario Kart Wii also will not allow you to copy its save ?

Why the hell do they do that ?
 
MacRumorUser said:
Only VERY bad side is that SSBM save game can not be copied to a memory card at all... So i have to replay the frickin thing in order to get my unlocked characters back.

Mario Kart Wii also will not allow you to copy its save ?

Why the hell do they do that ?
Click to expand...

AFAIK they do it to all of the newer WiFi games, starting with Guitar Hero, to prevent people from....I don't know, doing something evil with the WiFi profiles? No clue.

All I know is Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, and SSBB can't be copied.

Regardless, there's a homebrew utility to dump those uncopyable savegames.

Also, there's a really easy way to unlock all of the characters. Do Vs matches against a lvl 1 CPU. Choose Special Brawl and choose Stamina and with a flower on their head. Set your opponent's HP to one. Change the channel and watch TV and keep hitting start. Keep hitting start until you stop getting rumble feedback, then change the channel back and fight the newcomer to unlock them.
 
I tried backing up Mario Kart Wii and it shouted at me, but Mario Strikers works fine :confused:
Anyroad theres a homebrew app that dumps the Wii's NAND to memory card so that'll likely copy any stubborn save files across too.
 
GFLPraxis said:
AFAIK they do it to all of the newer WiFi games, starting with Guitar Hero, to prevent people from....I don't know, doing something evil with the WiFi profiles? No clue.

All I know is Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, and SSBB can't be copied.

Regardless, there's a homebrew utility to dump those uncopyable savegames.

Also, there's a really easy way to unlock all of the characters. Do Vs matches against a lvl 1 CPU. Choose Special Brawl and choose Stamina and with a flower on their head. Set your opponent's HP to one. Change the channel and watch TV and keep hitting start. Keep hitting start until you stop getting rumble feedback, then change the channel back and fight the newcomer to unlock them.
Click to expand...

Wait a minute, what? You can't backup your Mario Kart or SSBB game save? What do you do if the system craps out? You're just SOL?

And for those of you doing homebrew, does it run off the SD card? If not, what do you do about the issue of too little storage space?
 
Antares said:
Wait a minute, what? You can't backup your Mario Kart or SSBB game save? What do you do if the system craps out? You're just SOL?
Click to expand...

Exactly.

Try copying your SSBB save to an SD card. You can't.

And for those of you doing homebrew, does it run off the SD card?
Click to expand...

Yep!
 
I'm tempted to get this, but I've never messed around with any of this stuff before. My main concern is, what if there's an update that would be good to have (for a new channel or something) but it will brick any Wii that has this? Now I can't get the update.

The saving of data like MarioKart Wii sounds good (can you then put it on other Wii's that don't have homebrew?) but other than that, is there really much of a point to it? I looked at the demo and saw Tetris, but really, that's on so many things I don't need to mess with my Wii for it. What's out for homebrew that makes this worth having?
 
Ja Di ksw said:
I'm tempted to get this, but I've never messed around with any of this stuff before. My main concern is, what if there's an update that would be good to have (for a new channel or something) but it will brick any Wii that has this? Now I can't get the update.

The saving of data like MarioKart Wii sounds good (can you then put it on other Wii's that don't have homebrew?) but other than that, is there really much of a point to it? I looked at the demo and saw Tetris, but really, that's on so many things I don't need to mess with my Wii for it. What's out for homebrew that makes this worth having?
Click to expand...

Not a lot yet, but there's a media center based on XBMC in the works.
 
It shouldn't be bricked since there are no hardware modifications. My guess is that Nintendo could delete the channel during an update. But you have me thinking (and slightly worried :D).
 
Praxis - thanks for the info. I think I'm going to wait until more comes out before I start messing with it.

Jimmi - They said on the webpage that the only way it would be bricked is through an update. So what you could do is just install Homebrew and always check with the people who made it before updating your Wii. Of course if an update comes out that does brick it you might have to wait for them to fix the Homebrew before you can download Nintendo's update.
 
Ja Di ksw said:
Jimmi - They said on the webpage that the only way it would be bricked is through an update. So what you could do is just install Homebrew and always check with the people who made it before updating your Wii. Of course if an update comes out that does brick it you might have to wait for them to fix the Homebrew before you can download Nintendo's update.
Click to expand...

So, where does it say that? All I see on their web site is:
Worst case it just may not work.
Click to expand...


Plus, it can be uninstalled. Plus, you don't HAVE to install updates from Nintendo as soon as they come out. :p
 
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