Wii sees homebrew hackery aplenty, official update

It's only been a short while since we saw the first successful attempts at Wii homebrew, but things now look to have busted wide open, with hacks seemingly turning up left and right these days. Most notably, the folks from the GameCube Linux project have recently let loose a proof of concept Linux "mini-distro" that makes use of the now infamous Twilight Princess hack to turn the Wii into a tiny (and so far not very useful) Linux box. If that's a bit too much you, however, you may be interested in some of the tamer homebrew fare that recently made its debut, including an MP3 player and, you guessed it, an SNES emulator. In related news, Nintendo also just pushed out an official updated to the Wii OS (version 3.2), but contrary to what the timing would suggest, it apparently doesn't do anything to block you from getting your homebrew fix.

Read - GameCube Linux project
Read - TehSkeen, SNES emulator
Read - Wii News, Wii Mode MP3 Player
Read - MaxConsole Forums, Wii Update 3.2

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]

[Curtis Joslin @ Feb 26th 2008 11:38AM]

bring on the emulated fun!

[coolbho3000 @ Feb 26th 2008 1:14PM]

A disc signer has also been released, but no keys. =(

[jimmy @ Feb 26th 2008 11:41AM]

standing by for hacked firmware...

[brian @ Feb 26th 2008 11:53AM]

you'll be standing for a LONG while. There is no way on hacking the firmware using the twilight hack.

[straylight @ Feb 26th 2008 11:49AM]

Why do people have to poke and hack at hardware they are given? Just use the stupid wii to do stupid wii things. And please, use linux on a computer..

[atrain @ Feb 26th 2008 11:55AM]

Um, XBMC? These machines, with built in DVD players, directly connected to TV, low power usage, comfortable remotes, are much better media centers than PCs.
The Wii is not too much more expencive than the Apple TV, and its also a fun game system!

[Kurian @ Feb 26th 2008 12:49PM]

*Ranks ^^ Up*

[o29 @ Feb 26th 2008 2:48PM]

A Linux user that condemns modding? Blasphemy.

[shanoboy @ Feb 26th 2008 3:32PM]

Geez man, that's kind of a lame ass comment.

Just look at the Xbox for example, it's 20 times more useful as a media center pc than a gaming machine, and you can pick one up for $100 used at gamestop.

Where else can you get a fully functional media center pc for $100! If no body had ever tried to hack it, we wouldn't have it.

And where's your sense of adventure, curiosity and excitement with technology? You're reading the wrong blog right now.

[waterwagen @ Feb 26th 2008 11:51AM]

Hacking the Wii to run Linux has to be the epitome of geekness.

[atrain @ Feb 26th 2008 11:52AM]

While this is great, I would like to see these machines opened up from the start. They always seem to get hacked anyways, it would be amazing if they had a public SDK. If Nintendo did that, I would run out right now and by a Wii. Until then, I will not risk my warranty and potentially my hardware on a project which Nintendo may block in the next firmware update.

[brian @ Feb 26th 2008 11:54AM]

using the twilight hack does not damage your hardware or warranty.

[atrain @ Feb 26th 2008 11:58AM]

Running 3rd party software w/o permission is usually a violation of the TOS. Violate those, and goodbye warranty.
So far, there is not much hardware risk, but once they try and get past the twilight hack, and install directly on the machine w/custom firmware etc, then problems start to arise.

[brian @ Feb 26th 2008 12:05PM]

"install directly on the machine w/custom firmware etc, then problems start to arise."

@atrain:

Well thankfully nobody has been successful in doing that with the twilight hack

[aeo @ Feb 26th 2008 12:17PM]

Meh... I consider myself to be quite geeky and yet I have no desire whatsoever to convert my $250 Wii into a $50 linux box.

[NG @ Feb 26th 2008 12:30PM]

If Wii is made by Apple, Steve is going to take the homebrew out with every update .
Hooray for Nintendo

[Evan Brom @ Feb 26th 2008 2:13PM]

Why would Nintendo stop it? They actually make money on each Wii sold. So selling them by any means is beneficial.

[Faulk_Wulf @ Feb 26th 2008 2:34PM]

So if you combine the hack to run Linux on your Wii and you use the hack to do the 3D field of view/motion ( http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/21/diy-head-tracker-takes-wiimote-hacking-to-dizzying-new-heights/ )could developers theoretically usher in a new era of FPS games?

(Probably not because its using Nintendo's proprietary software, but a geek can dream.)

[marinos35 @ Feb 26th 2008 8:07PM]

actually the snes emulator was a false report.

[mian @ Feb 27th 2008 9:57PM]

NWF and joystiq ignored this point. Hopefully engadget will correct the record. Someone bumped an old post, and someone else mistook it as new, and put it on the teksheen front page. Of course, blogs keep reporting it, so everyone thinks its ready to go.

The tehksheen link has been updated so that it doesn't reference wii mode anymore. It's just pointing to an update to an old SNES emulator for GC.