Wii homebrew inches along, now has rudimentary channel support

Today's Wii homebrew hotness comes by way of Team Twiizers, whose new hack takes last week's GameCube-free loader and enables custom channel icons that load hacked apps just like that. Getting from point A to point B still isn't a cakewalk yet, though; you still have to load the Zelda / Twilight hack and use it to reboot your Wii to get that app into the channel space. Video after the break, which quickly demonstrates getting a custom app-launching channel (which in this example happens to use the Mii channel icon).

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in, via Wii News]

[mariocdl @ Mar 16th 2008 6:07PM]

Brilliant! Can't wait to try it out tomorow. Now all we need is the apps!

[ethana2 @ Mar 16th 2008 6:49PM]

We have them. That's a non-issue. The trick is dealing with how pathetic the hardware is, and getting proper opengl acceleration.

[mike @ Mar 16th 2008 4:55PM]

Its Game Cube not Came Cube!

[Dan Bugglin @ Mar 16th 2008 4:59PM]

.... eww. Didn't notice that.

... eww.

[Hung @ Mar 16th 2008 5:12PM]

Jeez, the "c" and "g" keys aren't even right next to each other.

[N30 G30 @ Mar 16th 2008 6:06PM]

It's not about accidental keystrokes, it's about habitual words.

[David @ Mar 16th 2008 6:17PM]

lol N30 G30

[happy_penguin @ Mar 16th 2008 8:52PM]

Sometimes I accidentally hit the "right" key but the wrong hank, er hand. Sort of like dyslexia of the fingers. :p

[Eric @ Mar 16th 2008 11:17PM]

On a Dvorak keyboard, the g and c keys are right next to each other.

[Evan @ Mar 17th 2008 12:34PM]

Wooot... Go dvorak.

[caramelzappa @ Mar 16th 2008 4:57PM]

Awesome, I'd love to see some great homebrew on the wii without hardware modding.

[mian @ Mar 17th 2008 3:17PM]

The TP hack doesn't require hardware modding. That's why every advance comes up as a news item.

[mian @ Mar 17th 2008 3:18PM]

I think I misread your comment there. My bad.

[mushrooshi @ Mar 16th 2008 4:57PM]

I got a 2GB SD card just for hopes of Wii homebrew.

I hope SD will work. Oh well, I also have 25 DVD-RWs.

[Dan Bugglin @ Mar 16th 2008 5:00PM]

Since there's no read link can I assume it's not ready for release yet?

I can't wait to put that Tetris homebrew on my Wii as a CHANNEL. >_>

[Mic2000 @ Mar 16th 2008 5:01PM]

The end of the movie is the best part, when the next video thumbnails show up.

[Magnulus @ Mar 16th 2008 5:10PM]

I'd repeat breasts over and over again, but it doesn't really roll that nicely off the tongue...
Tits tits tits tits tits tits.

There. That's me. I'm spent.
Oh, also: That Jonathan Ross clip exemplifies some of what makes British talk shows so much better than American ones. ^_^

[ECG @ Mar 16th 2008 5:13PM]

Very good, a few more months and it could look very promising. I'm not ready to jump on the bandwagon quite yet, but i'll certainly be keeping an eye on this. Does this hack only work with older versions of Twilight Princess?

[Alexander @ Mar 16th 2008 7:06PM]

Yes. But, there are loads of Z:TP in shops still. So go pick one up. :P

Or, if you have a modchip, you can load a 'backup' and the exploit will still function. So, if you have purchased a non-exploitable version of the game, you can use the copy from the Internet to run all these apps.

[ECG @ Mar 16th 2008 7:15PM]

I already have Twilight Princess, got it back in '06 along with my Wii. I'm not gonna do any hard modding of any kind because I don't to take the chance that my Wii will stop working. That's why this sort of thing has me interested.

[John @ Mar 16th 2008 5:23PM]

Christ, if they REALLY feel the need to annoy the entire world with background music, couldn't they at least use a Super Smash Bros remix or something half-decent? That song was atrocious!

[samphex @ Mar 16th 2008 5:28PM]

I completely agree, sounded like crap full on.

[ECG @ Mar 16th 2008 5:37PM]

They should of played Boss Battle Song 1 from Super Smash Bros Brawl. It may be a bit over dramatic for Wii homebrew but I never get tired of hearing that song. If you have the game you should give it a listen.

[samphex @ Mar 16th 2008 5:27PM]

when will we transition from twilight to brawl? everyone has brawl but not twilight....

[martin @ Mar 16th 2008 6:31PM]

its about launching an outside app so you cant use any game, count yourslef lucky, the xbox 360 software hacks involved the crap king kong game

[ethana2 @ Mar 16th 2008 6:47PM]

The 360 is a nightmare for homebrew. ...I'll see you on #ubuntu-ps3 on freenode ^_^

[Elliott @ Mar 16th 2008 8:16PM]

actually... when I bought my wii on launch day, i don't think i saw any one that didn't buy LoZ:TP.

[rockintom @ Mar 18th 2008 11:36AM]

Took me about 4 months to get a Wii, so I have the Gamecube version.

...Damn it.

[thethirdmoose @ Mar 16th 2008 5:54PM]

sweet... can't wait for wiimote support

[thethirdmoose @ Mar 16th 2008 5:57PM]

sweet... can't wait for wiimote support

[crazydog115 @ Mar 16th 2008 6:04PM]

You can download it here:
http://wiibrew.org/index.php?title=Twilight_Hack

[iofthestorm @ Mar 16th 2008 9:51PM]

That isn't the latest version with the Channel support though. As of now, anyway, I'm sure it'll be updated soon with the new version. Team Twiizers rocks anyway.

[kawaiipikachu @ Mar 17th 2008 7:43AM]

Whats the point of homebrew system software will make modded Wii's bricked

[lhadlum @ Mar 17th 2008 8:50AM]

system software will likely be hacked like on the psp, so you only ever update to the latest hacked version. down the line, i think this channel hack will lead to iso loading with usb hdd support, like for the ps2 and xbox. personally i can't wait :)

[Jordan @ Mar 16th 2008 6:53PM]

There is actually a video this time!

[Viper @ Mar 16th 2008 9:20PM]

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[tallerthenyou @ Mar 16th 2008 11:18PM]

How long till someone writes an Installer.app?

[Grey Acumen @ Mar 17th 2008 7:48PM]

I'm following this news with a great deal of interest. I already tested out the tetris homebrew, and it worked perfectly. Nothing went screwy with my system, the only issue is that I had to power off my system when I was done playing in order to get back to the Wii home menu.

I'm definitely wary though, not going to risk damaging my system, so I will be making sure that I wait a while before each update before actually trying anything out.

[wiiguy5 @ May 27th 2008 8:38PM]

The full Wii Homebrew Channel is available at http://wiibrew.org/index.php?title=Homebrew_Channel