Wii Backup Loader leaked onto the net -- welcome to pirating hell Nintendo

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and now we're hearing that the infamous Wii Backup Loader -- the hacks that allow you to run "backup" Wii games without a modchip -- is out riding the 'net thanks to an overzealous beta tester. At this point, only the patient and hardcore should apply as the v0.1 loader is in a very (very) early beta and apparently still buggy. The rest of you should just wait for the final release assuming Waninkoko doesn't just throw up his hands in disgust and abandon the homebrew community already irritated by the introduction of warez.

[Thanks, David E. and Joey C.]

Read -- The download
Read -- The leak

[TeddyLikesComputahs! @ Sep 19th 2008 5:23AM]

i love this wii stufF
but i like spaghettI
yet i am a gameR
so food and gameS
none of that 16 biT
..........................!

[warrrennnnn @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:17AM]

.......what?

spaghetti?

[Demios @ Sep 19th 2008 5:23AM]

I guess this is where Nintendo kicks all of us homebrew lovers in the face. I'm actually kind of upset at this thing. Playing backups is not something I am interested in, but I assume Nintendo will actually take active steps to prevent this now.

[RendereR @ Sep 19th 2008 5:44AM]

I agree, Nintendo will now go out of their way to fix this.
Homebrew was fun while it lasted...

[Ruben @ Sep 19th 2008 7:20AM]

Thats what you think.

The PSP homebrew scene has existed since GTA Liberty City Stories came out for it and its still as strong as ever. its gone from being a game loaded system to being an update to the firmware you apply which makes your system permanently able to play homebrew.

If this hack matures the way the PSP did, nothing short of a hardware change will stop this.

[Chris @ Sep 19th 2008 8:00AM]

True true, Ive been involved in the PSP homebrew scene for a while and Sony is hardly even trying. If this sort of thing happens with Nintendo there going to have to make a Wii v2.

I just did the 'Twilight Hack' to my Wii last week.
WHAT IF THEY MAKE YOU UPDATE TO PLAY BRAWL?!

[Greg @ Sep 19th 2008 10:38AM]

Actually Nintendo won't do anything. The original author had tried contacting them multiple times and Nintendo never replied back. He told them he would give it a little more than a month to get a response but after no one said anything he just decided to let it out there.
I'm not sure where his original blog is, but is somewhere out there on the net. I believe his blog post about it was on digg a while back.

[Wii60 @ Sep 19th 2008 1:47PM]

Well, they tried to kill the twilight hack before the backup-loader was in development. That's why the war is on now. Nintendo struck before a backup effort was in place, so basically, they started it.

[Levi @ Sep 19th 2008 8:15PM]

I might get into this for the backups... I support things I like, and do not support things I don't like... I'm kind of miffed that we bought a Wii and the only thing I've enjoyed on it so far is Resident Evil 4, over a year ago... So hell yeah, I'll play backups, just to try out games and see if they are as crappy as the rest of the Wii library.

It's the same method of thought that has lead to my hacked PSP; I don't play backups on it, because I love it, it has great games, and I want to support it. I have it hacked to play ROMs and what not. Though it's kind of annoying to have to go and find a new custom firmware every time I want to play a new demo.

Dreamcast was destroyed by playing backed up games, which is a shame, because it was a good system. PSP is getting hammered due to low software sales, because it is so easy to play downloaded UMD games on it. I hope it doesn't lead to the system's downfall. The Wii, however, kinda blows, so I fully support its downfall.

Go ahead and hit the "-" I know it's comin.

[damadfiddler @ Sep 19th 2008 5:29AM]

Not to be a prude, but is this the sort of thing that should be maybe reported with *less* detail, or at least in a more negative tone?

There's a big difference between homebrew and piracy. Console homebrew has only just started to legitimized by the gaming community at large in the last few years, and piracy is always the fastest way to get it shut down. Something like this may lead Nintendo to more vigorously pursue ways of shutting out the Homebrew Channel altogether, or at least making it far too obnoxious for most users to deal with.

I was an active member of the Dreamcast homebrew scene for a long time, and the big struggle was always between the people who wanted to create new software for the system, and folks who were just trying to get the commercial games without having to pay for them. I'm trying to refrain from going on a big rant here, but things like this should probably be handled very carefully by Engadget/Joystiq, both for the sake of the homebrew community and for the sake of the Engadget network's legitimacy as an accepted news source. For example: the Dcemu.co.uk network of sites is a popular source of information and downloads for console homebrew, but it's always been viewed by the industry as sort of a pirates' cove because they give so much positive attention to playing commercial ROMs and game ripping/iso loaders/etc.

Just a thought.

[Tim Spence @ Sep 19th 2008 5:36AM]

Engadget != Reuters

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Sep 19th 2008 7:23AM]

"There's a big difference between homebrew and piracy."

This is business as usual to Nintendo.

Being hacked as well means that console life time would be at least double of what console would normally expect. Nintendo profits from consoles and it is not that bad thing at all.

Also, many researches conducted (except those sponsored by **AA and EA) failed to show any negative impact of piracy on market. Quite reverse: piracy contributes enormously as free promotion and business in fact often takes advantage of that. (Think of third parties who never can afford promotion on same scale as Nintendo itself.)

e.g. DVD are probably the most pirated media. Yet, people are still going to movie theaters and buy/rent DVDs. And DVD sales are nowhere to be extinct despite that all the same content can be obtained on P2P networks for free.

Regardless of business complains and quoted astronomical losses, simple truth is that most people understand that they have to compensate creators and go on buying things they can obtain for free. That might be not true for pathological case of hardcore gamer, never leaving basement, replaying SNES Mario 1000th time and using only pirated games. Yet majority of people are not like that.

P.S. http://cse.stanford.edu/classes/cs201/Projects/dvd-css/piracy.htm & http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070212-8813.html and so. Google for "effect of piracy."

[A.C.E.R. @ Sep 19th 2008 6:03AM]

tbh this is probably bad news for Wii fans. People tend to get pissed off when their private betas leak out.

[A.C.E.R. @ Sep 19th 2008 6:08AM]

meh, it seems like the author has been pretty much handing it out, so whatever. I wouldn't even play free games on the Wii, lol

[adamscybot @ Sep 21st 2008 10:37AM]

No, her means 2GB. Any "SD" cards more than 2gb are actually SDHC cards which aren't supported by Wii.

[Undead @ Sep 19th 2008 6:16AM]

Hellz Yes, I may just keep my Wii because of this
Does anyone know where the ISO converter is? All I got was the Wii_Loader

[knifeguy2010 @ Sep 19th 2008 6:17AM]

Does anyone know where to get the ISO Converter?

[Pang @ Sep 19th 2008 6:35AM]

Sorry, a bit late on this..

How exactly do you play iso's, afaik there is no hdd with the wii, is it via usb hdd? or memory card?

edit - just saw that it's memory card, a fare few games would fit on a 32gb card thinking about it, woot.

[m-p{3} @ Sep 19th 2008 9:44AM]

You know that the Wii don't support SDHC right? Maximum 2GB SD cards, sorry.

[Dan Bugglin @ Sep 19th 2008 11:14AM]

You mean 4GB. SD cards go up to 4GB. Mine works fine.

[Joseph @ Sep 19th 2008 6:52AM]

This wouldn't stop me from buying the games. I would love to load all my games on a card/drive so that I don't have to worry about switching or damaging discs.

[Jamie Kephalas @ Sep 19th 2008 7:04AM]

Indeed, I buy everything, my dvd, 360 and wii collection is now getting too large to be left in the front room (well that's what the woman says)... I would love to be able to play (and backup) all my games from (onto) a single disc.

Stupid pirates ruin it for everyone!

[jpxdude @ Sep 19th 2008 6:57AM]

It is not via the memory card, the ISO file is patched, burnt to a DVD and played through the program via the homebrew channel. DVD access on the wii for homebrew was discovered about a month ago. It uses the same exploit for part of it, as well as a hack on the firmware.

[jpxdude @ Sep 19th 2008 6:58AM]

It is not via the memory card, the ISO file is patched, burnt to a DVD and played through the program via the homebrew channel. DVD access on the wii for homebrew was discovered about a month ago. It uses the same exploit for part of it, as well as a hack on the firmware.

[Pang @ Sep 19th 2008 7:09AM]

then how is this different? for ages you could play 'backup' wii games, I see them all the time floating about on usenet and torrents.

[shaunj66 @ Sep 19th 2008 7:19AM]

Because you don't need a modchip to run them.

[Senor Coconut @ Sep 19th 2008 9:43AM]

@pang

The difference is that ISO's that you see floating around on warez sites could be burned and played on a modified or chipped Wii console.

However the wii homebrew channel exploits a save file loophole in copies of Zelda, and with a bit of homework and a couple dl'ed files, can be used on a non modified, warranty intact, firmware updateable console.

This is nintendo's, and the homebrew community's worst case scenario. Plus now the chances of a storage device have dropped to ABSOLUTE ZERO.

[JOey Cardy @ Sep 19th 2008 7:24AM]

While I don't advocate piracy, I still feel this is a massive leap forward in terms of wii homebrew development.

the "softmod" is always a milestone, pirate or not.

[kompleet @ Sep 19th 2008 8:06AM]

It always amaze me to read people defending the so creative homebrew scene against piracy.
The only homebrew people use, are emulators and they are as legal as any iso loader.
Honestly, who cares to play some tetris like game or another crappy shoot em' up except some hardcore gamers and the programmers temselves ? Nobody.

[Evan @ Sep 19th 2008 9:16AM]

You are right that nobody seems to care about the legitimate homebrew games. Most "homebrew" users are only interested in the emulators and loaders. When the time comes to defend their blatant piracy, they point to homebrew games but few ever play actually them.

[pezhore @ Sep 19th 2008 12:07PM]

I agree. The first homebrew app I installed was FCEU. I suppose the only real difference between homebrew emulators and pirated games is you may argue that emulators allow you to play abandoned games, and abandonware kind of falls into a grey area of piracy.

[Chris @ Sep 19th 2008 8:16AM]

"It's time for another exclusive video from TehSkeen. This time our feature presentation is a demonstration of the work in progress Nintendo Wii Backup Loader coded by the infamous and often controversial hacking guru Waninkoko. Yeah, read the first sentence again if you're at a loss for words.

The ISO Loader works like this. You create a legal backup of a game you own, convert the ISO file with a special program then burn it. After this, you copy over the ISO Loader to the Homebrew Channel and run it. It will boot the legal backup. Pretty simple. Oh, and no modchip is required. However, it does require you to have Waninkoko's Custom IOS installed.

This is a unprecedented moment in Nintendo Wii hacking history as is probably going to cause a massive movement in the scene. Too bad Nintendo didn't take Bushing's advice on blocking the method of doing this. Maybe they will now? Of course, this sort of thing isn't condoned by the "general" homebrew scene and when it's released will ultimately lead to some turmoil.

TehSkeen doesn't support piracy. We don't index releases, we don't spread torrents, we don't run contests to dump VC/Wiiware games. Heck, we don't host any tools to inject WAD files with. Waninkoko's motivation for creating the ISO Loader is unknown, but it is illegal and morally wrong to use it for booting illegal copies of games you don't own.

With that all said and done, what do you all think of this milestone in the Nintendo Wii scene? Do you support the project? Do you think it'll force Nintendo to take some sort of action against the "scene"? Oh, please keep out all of the "it's fake" BS in your replies. It's real. Period."
~Chris
http://www.tehskeen.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=8876

[ipubs bastard child @ Sep 19th 2008 8:47AM]

I have a more legitimate question. I don't really use ISO's. If they're on a memory card, do they boot / load faster than on CD? If so, then this is one positive advantage, questionable legalities aside.

[StrikeFear13 @ Sep 19th 2008 9:07AM]

Ipubs, this backup loader doesn't allow straight iso loads from the sd card. You have to burn the game to be able to play. Still handy for those of us with discs that our little cousins *cough* scratch all to hell >.>

[Paul Cyopick @ Sep 19th 2008 9:21AM]

Ok, first time I looked I thought it said "The Hebrew Channel". Never mind, I haven't had my coffee yet.

[pezhore @ Sep 19th 2008 11:49AM]

As much as I understand the flack Waninkoko and those supporting/casting a positive light on this ISO loader are receiving, I can't help but wonder how awesome this is for the future of the Wii. Think about the Xbox. From a hardware standpoint, its pretty far back from most current gen consoles, yet I get the most use out of it from all my systems. The reason? XBMC. As a relative n00b to the "scene" I had a friend explain to me the three basic stages of 3rd party developments on consoles. 1st gen is often some sort of hardware mod similar to the Gamecube/Wii drive mod chips. It only lets you play burned ISOs, not much else is changed. 2nd gen is the soft mod, changing some functionality, and opening up the possibility of accessing built-in storage as well as playing back'ed up games/homebrews. This is where I'd imagine the Wii ISO loader is falling. The 3rd stage is a complete rework of the underlying functionality of the system in addition to the softmod abilities. The replacement of the original M$ dashboard by XBMC is an example of this.

Imagine what the Wii could be like if the dashboard was replaced. If storage could be added through additional hackery. It would extend the Wii's viability far beyond the next generation of consoles - heck I bought my Xbox at the beginning of this year... over 6 years after its initial release. The only reason I bought it was to provide my living room with a cheap media center... something that probably wouldn't have been possible if things didn't progress beyond the hardware mod.

[Raffaele @ Sep 19th 2008 9:35AM]

Just to let you know, Waninkoko abandoned the Wii Loader project due to Leak.

From http://wii.waninkoko.info: "Congratulations! I don't care about who leaked Backup-Loader but now it's OFFICIALLY an abandoned project. Enjoy it."

[kaminoyadoru @ Sep 19th 2008 9:49AM]

Best possible thing that could have happened.

Thanks to GBAtemp and outlets like engadget enthusiastically reporting on every little stupid development in the piracy scene, this "leak" killed off any chance for a possible final version from waninkoko.

BTW this does nothing to help homebrew since you can already run homebrew on a Wii with no modchip.

[Apreche @ Sep 19th 2008 9:42AM]

I'm not going to lie. I recently got a flash card for my DS, and I plan to set this up for the Wii. But I don't use it to "pirate" games necessarily. What I use it for is playing import games that aren't released in the US. It's actually technically illegal to import them, and it's illegal to pirate them. I feel justified.

[Neeko @ Sep 19th 2008 9:56AM]

crapper. i cant get the "READ' link to work. seems the site is unavailable.. i knew i shouldve saved it when i 1st read this. Anybody else have a link?

[Chris @ Sep 19th 2008 10:34AM]

Waninkoko has abandoned this project.

"2008/09/19 - Congratulations! I don't care about who leaked Backup-Loader but now it's OFFICIALLY an abandoned project. Enjoy it."

http://wii.waninkoko.info/

[okeribok @ Sep 19th 2008 11:20AM]

1. Possible piracy isn't always bad for business: they might sell a lot more Zelda!
2. I wish there were games that were worth the trouble besides (some of) Nintendo's own games
3. WiiWare is not yet piratable (is it?) and that might be enough; appstore is good enough for iPhone

[paralipsis @ Sep 19th 2008 12:05PM]

Copied WiiWare (and VC titles) have been made to run via the Twilight Hack for months.

[George @ Sep 19th 2008 11:27AM]

Bad day for Wii Homebrew and Homebrew in General, DCEmu Speak out on this.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/the-sad-day-for-wii-homebrew-piracy-1-homebrew-0-154686.html

[Joey @ Sep 19th 2008 11:55AM]

How is Nintendo going to hurt from this? Look at their numbers and their target consumers. The majority of the people who bought the Wii wouldn't even know how to mod their Wii.

[Jake @ Sep 19th 2008 12:34PM]

This will kill the Wii. Developers already have little reason to develop for Wii, with the horrible attach rates (the console should just be called Wii Sports, and be done with it), now there will be rampant piracy too..

[VPsych @ Sep 19th 2008 2:18PM]

Err.. there are plenty of reasons to develop for the Wii. For example, developing a game on the Wii is astoundingly cheaper then the 360/PS3. Even with a poor attach rate, you can still make money.

[Adam @ Sep 19th 2008 8:27PM]

Since "scrubbed" games work with this,I guess you can make "demos" and load them using this....right?I don't pirate,I just want some full wii demos.

[Macha88 @ Sep 19th 2008 11:28PM]

phsychics...
waninkoko quit

[sli @ Sep 21st 2008 8:14PM]

I guess Waninkoko decided it would be better if he damage his image in the Wii homebrew community by throwing a temper tantrum when an early version got leaked. It was his fault for passing it around to people for testing (word around the campfire is that the person who leaked it simply asked Waninkoko for a copy to test). I don't honestly care if he picks it back up or not because eventually someone else will come along and make a better one, and even if he HAD finished this one a better one would eventually come out.

There's a lot of Waninkoko bashing and arguing going on at GBATemp and the simple fact is that Waninkoko screwed up and wants to blame the community.