Wii "Twilight Hack" now works sans GameCube adapter

Have you been sitting on the sidelines while all the cool people stick Linux distros and Snes9x on their "Twilight Hack" Wiis? Seems like there aren't any more excuses to keep out of the game now that you can do the hack with a regular SD card in the Wii's regular SD card slot -- no more GameCube memory adapters required. No fancy boot sector surgery is required either, you just drop a .elf file onto your memory card and you're ready to go. Check out the video after the break if you still need more convincing.

Update: Now with actual video goodness after the break.

[Via Wii Fanboy]

[NHAnimator @ Mar 14th 2008 2:46PM]

Sa-weet.

[Chebwa @ Mar 14th 2008 2:47PM]

Putting Linux on your Wii. Finally, a useful and fun way to spend a Saturday night.

[Eric M. @ Mar 14th 2008 2:52PM]

I know one of the biggest gripes my friend had with his Wii was that not all flash videos worked with the Opera browser since its outdated and you can't upgrade it. Having Linux on there will definitely be a boost. I wonder if Nintendo can patch this though...

[Kamokazi @ Mar 14th 2008 5:13PM]

I've heard rumors of them upgrading it to Opera 9.5 when it comes out. Hopefully that will take care of it.

[Matsu @ Mar 14th 2008 8:05PM]

The problem is not Nintendo or Opera. Adobe is not licensing it's latest version of flash for use on non-computers. Only Windows/Mac/Linux can use the latest version of FLash until Adobe decides to license it.

[ssuk @ Mar 14th 2008 6:58PM]

All they have to do is update the Flash player in it. However, I'm sure Adobe will be asking big $$$ for a Flash Player 9 licence, which is probably the big reason why it still uses Flash 7.
The main reason it used Flash 7 in the first place was because at the time Macromedia only allowed for third parties to integrate older versions of their Flash players into specific devices (which at the time the latest version was 8, so the Wii got a Flash 7 player in it), to stop insider secrets slipping out. Now Adobe owns Macromedia and the Flash program, brand and whatever else, maybe they're taking a different stance, but would only be willing to if they dish out large amounts of cash for the licence.

Updating Opera wont necessarily affect what version of Flash they have running in the browser.

[namtastic @ Mar 14th 2008 2:56PM]

Er, *what* video after *what* break, again?

[hen @ Mar 14th 2008 3:08PM]

indeed. youtube is blocked for me, so i NEVER see videos :(

[Jordan @ Mar 14th 2008 3:13PM]

You know, the invisible video.

[StrangeBum @ Mar 14th 2008 3:41PM]

Oh it's there. The video isn't in any way a lie..like the cake in your avatar.

Trust us....the video is there, just lie down and wait for the party crew to come get you and show the video to you. Please just lie face down...please..face down...it's not a lie.

[Jordan @ Mar 14th 2008 3:45PM]

The video is a lie...
The video is a lie...
The video is a lie...

The weighted companion cube is my only friend.

[PhilxBefore @ Mar 14th 2008 4:02PM]

The cake is the truth?

[Nobody @ Mar 14th 2008 4:58PM]

No, truth is a cake.

[Steven @ Mar 14th 2008 3:00PM]

Does anyone know if the possibility exists that future versions of Twilight Princess will be patched to prevent users from doing this?

In other words, should I buy the game now?

[Brian @ Mar 14th 2008 3:17PM]

Nintendo could make new LOZ: Twilight Princess discs with a fix on them. So yeah buy the game right now.

[tiuk @ Mar 14th 2008 3:39PM]

Yeah, I was just thinking I should probably pick the game up before they patch it. That's what happened with vulnerable Xbox games, they were re-released as "platinum hits" that were patched.

[Tits @ Mar 14th 2008 11:32PM]

wow, montreal expos! damn I miss Youppi!

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e331/stroff/youppi_040618_mon_a.jpg

[Dhomas @ Mar 16th 2008 11:42PM]

Watch a Montreal Canadiens hockey game if you want to see Youppi!. He's alive and well: http://youppi.ca/index_en.php.

[Killerchronic @ Mar 14th 2008 3:00PM]

This is starting to look quite promising!

[Ray @ Mar 14th 2008 3:07PM]

Sorry, I'm still playing Brawl.

[Jonathan-DBOSS @ Mar 14th 2008 11:39PM]

FTW!!!

[Makalu @ Mar 15th 2008 2:00PM]

FOUR DAYS!!(until my birthday and I get Brawl) FOUR DAYS!!!

[BrettB @ Mar 14th 2008 3:08PM]

still waiting for a hack to work sans Twilight off of SD. Or some better open source support from Nintendo.

[Alexander @ Mar 14th 2008 4:05PM]

Be prepared to wait. Almost all the hardware is encrypted--so you can't do anything with it without breaking the DCMA.

Yay for bass-ackawards laws!

[fuma @ Mar 14th 2008 3:11PM]

find . -name "video" ?

[JaceFace @ Mar 14th 2008 3:41PM]

CAUTION: n00b question to follow

Do I have to have some sort of modchip installed to have this work, or is this an OTB solution? Also, if you put like an NES or SNES emulator in, can you use the regular WiiMote for control, or is the classic controller required.

I ask because I cant get the Wiibrew website to load.

Thanks!

[StrangeBum @ Mar 14th 2008 3:43PM]

The thing about this hack is that it is what is called a soft-mod. No hardware, mod-chips, are necessary to get it running. Although I suppose the SD card is technically running as a sort of mod-chip, it's all software based.

As for the controller, I'm not too sure on that, as I have yet to do this myself. Which I plan on doing, immediately once I get home.

[JaceFace @ Mar 14th 2008 3:49PM]

Thanks for the quick Wiiply (love wii jokes). One more question....

What sort of access will this give me? As a checklist, will i be able to:

Play backed up versions of a game?
Watch DVD's?
Install Emulators and play ROMs that I may or may not have already downloaded?

Thanks for your help everybody!

[Alexander @ Mar 14th 2008 4:08PM]

Jace: Considering that you can do all of that with an xbox already, why not just spend the $60 and buy one from Gamestop--then do the softmod.

[Andrew Jones @ Mar 14th 2008 5:10PM]

Alexander: Because some people don't have an XBox, but they _DO_ have a Wii. For $70 I could just as easily buy a new DVD player if my main intention was to play DVDs. I could buy the games I wanted to play on Virtual Console. Another point, some people care about aesthetics. I don't believe that I've met anybody who would prefer to have the original XBox sitting in their entertainment center over a Wii. (well - other than people who despise Nintendo. What would the opposite of a fanboi be?)

[JaceFace @ Mar 14th 2008 5:18PM]

Thanks Andrew. Your absolutely correct in your guess as to why I want to know if my Wii is capable of these things. It is because I have one!

For $70, I could probably get an original NES and SNES!

Now that the WiiBrew site is back up, I've read a bit and it looks like it might be a bit beyond what I'm willing to do. Looks like it won't work with the WiiMote yet. Maybe I'm reading wrong.

What I want to do is:
1- Play backed up games
2- Play my NES and SNES ROMs

Can anybody confirm that this mod will provide this functionality?
I had a bricked iPhone for a couple weeks after my last foray into "soft-mods".

[getagrip15 @ Mar 14th 2008 3:59PM]

Where can we download the files needed?

[Alexander @ Mar 14th 2008 4:09PM]

The wiki is down (no doubt from everybody downloading this) so you'll have to wait a bit for those.

[YoMomma @ Mar 14th 2008 4:08PM]

the cool people don't know what linux is.

they hang out saturday night at parties.

[martin @ Mar 14th 2008 5:17PM]

im busy compiling.. what is this "social life" you speak of

[nephersir7 @ Mar 14th 2008 6:13PM]

But "cool" people still negatively comment Engadget posts.

[YoMomma @ Mar 14th 2008 6:54PM]

trying to be funny???????????

[Dean @ Mar 14th 2008 7:45PM]

i couldn't get it to work. the hack loads fine and i get the black screen with the debug text, but it ten just errors out trying to load the .elf file. its named boot.elf and is in the root of the SD card. i do have the latest firmware (3.2u). anyone else have luck with this?

[TavisJohn @ Mar 14th 2008 8:22PM]

I have the newest firmware and it works for me. However you have to put the BIN file in the correct subdir structure on the SD Card. And you have to make sure you use the right BIN file for the exact version of your TP game. If you use the wrong BIN file, you will not get a good boot.

[Mark @ Mar 15th 2008 3:50AM]

Had the same issue, save loaded fine and got debug text as well. Make sure your card is properly formatted as FAT 16 from a Windows based machine or at least a machine that formats FAT 16 correctly, apparently OS X does not.

[jablamma @ Mar 14th 2008 10:19PM]

The photo is totally like unrolling a condom at the park to have it in your mario underwear with your buddy's cheeto-dipped fingers as you exchange a secure digital card that is write protected with the text file containing 'naughties.'

[CubeGuy @ Mar 15th 2008 12:12AM]

Mmm... Wake me up when I can download Wii Miidea Center.

[BananaBoat @ Mar 15th 2008 5:15AM]

I admire this guys balls, for not including a "We can not be held responsible if your console turns into a brick" disclaimer at the beginning.

This isn't at the point where I'd do it yet. Tomorrow they could patch it, and send out the scanzors to find Wii consoles playing online with the hack enabled. It happened with Xbox Live on the original Xbox, so it could happen again. Not going to be locked out of brawl so that I can play Tetris on my wii =p

[Glod @ Mar 15th 2008 1:09PM]

does this mean a potential bootloader for backed up games by any chance?

[eatmoreramen @ Mar 15th 2008 3:55PM]

Anyone know where to get the .elf file?

Thanks!

[eatmoreramen @ Mar 15th 2008 4:13PM]

Oh figures, just as soon as I post that, the link on the wii twilight hack site works again

Nevermind

I found the .elf

[Kamui1980 @ Mar 15th 2008 6:24PM]

Where can you get that effect that he has on his mouse clicks?

[TJHart85 @ Apr 13th 2008 3:51PM]

Hopefully there will be some excellent homebrew in the future.

I know with my XBOX, I had tons of games loaded (backup up using my original discs), but I never used it for games anymore, mainly XBMC and homebrew games like Super Mario War which would be cool on the Wii.

Maybe a backup app that'll use the front loading SD reader, that would be excellent as well, especially if it can read HC-SD cards.