Homebrew Wii USB Loader gets demoed on video

Nintendo just rolled out its own pretty significant update for the Wii, so it only seems fitting that the homebrew community has now done the same, with the always prolific Waninkoko coming through with a new USB Loader that'll let you play your "legal game backup collection" from any old USB mass storage device. While it's apparently not ready for public consumption just yet, the video after the break does do a decent job of demonstrating that it does, in fact, work as promised. Of course, there's always the slight chance that this is an early April Fool's joke, but Waninkoko does have a proven track record, and it seems that most of the folks on the homebrew forums have little reason to be skeptical.

[Via TehSkeen.com]

[Link2877 @ Mar 30th 2009 2:59AM]

It's actually already been leaked but it requires a new cios to work so it's pretty much useless until then.

[JC @ Mar 30th 2009 6:10AM]

...Wait, again? Man, this guy needs to find some testers who won't leak his software.

[n0v1c31 @ Apr 1st 2009 8:09AM]

It works perfect check out youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDPDgBc0TNE or http://www.techsick.com/articles/usb-loader-for-wii-hard-drive-flash-stick.shtml for more information and demo videos

[jtopicz1 @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:16PM]

The new Homebrew Hack has been released. It works without Zelda and is compatible with all Wii's including 4.0 Get the new Homebrew Unlock here.

[borgwillrule @ Mar 30th 2009 3:07AM]

I hate how its labeled homebrew because this "homebrew" is what causes nintendo to lash out so fericiously at real homebrew...

[ArcticFox @ Mar 30th 2009 3:35AM]

I watched the video and it looks like you have to put your legit discs in the drive and it copies them to the HDD?

I dont see why Nintendo would crack down on that.

[Massmass @ Mar 30th 2009 4:20AM]

Depends if you always need those discs in after the copy to the hard drive is made. If you don't, then it's a problem.

[ArcticFox @ Mar 30th 2009 7:24AM]

Good point never thought of that.

[Level 5 @ Mar 30th 2009 7:37AM]

Just to spell it out, if you don't need the originals to run off the HDD, then it's a problem because what keeps you from going to Blockbuster and renting Wii games ad nasueum or borrowing them from friends? It's a good concept to eliminate load times, that much I'll give them; but there's zero way Nintendo won't crack down on this if they see it.

[Matt @ Mar 30th 2009 4:28PM]

But that's what it is. They could call this kind of stuff "hackbrew" or something like that, but either way the "good" and the "bad" programs all get executed the same way. The only way to stop this type of software is to stop all unsigned software.

[Kane2015 @ May 20th 2009 2:22PM]

Heh to Nintendo there is no such thing as "good" homebrew.It is all bad they put the wii out to make money err yen anyway, if you arent paying them to run your homebrew stuff on there machine ie. licensing your stuff through them then what you are doing is illegal so why dont you climb down off your soapbox and smell the microchips your a pirate to any game company that you arent paying simple as that. Do I agree with that hell no but then again Im not trying to make money by selling video games.

[jcoulter36 @ Mar 30th 2009 3:13AM]

Almost makes me wish I hadn't sold my Wii

[Martin @ Mar 30th 2009 10:26AM]

Me too.

... almost.

[Qasim @ Mar 31st 2009 4:42PM]

I was thinking that

[brian @ Mar 30th 2009 3:21AM]

Waninkoko is just a rip off artist, much like Zibri on the iPhone jailbreak stuff..

Here's the truth:

http://hackmii.com/2009/03/my-6-hour-trip-to-the-dark-side/#more-510

[Joe H @ Mar 30th 2009 5:05AM]

Agreed about zibri being a hack, but disagreed entirely about Waninkoko. For the other side of the story though:

http://www.teknoconsolas.es/blog/waninkoko/eng-my-6-hour-trip-dark-side-episode-ii-attack-clones

Anyway, I don't really care who releases it, a USB loader would be amazing. Instead of having to bring my case of (all legally bought) Wii games to bring my Wii somewhere, I'd only need the much smaller hard drive. Much more convenient that way. (I loved this about my original Xbox as well). Also, it'd be nice because I could preserve the life of the drive, which makes so many noises during loading a disc that it scares me.

Now I just hope you'll be able to install from the original retail disc to the USB drive, rather than needing special tools to do it. And also, hopefully it'll be possible to read at 6x like the original discs, I read that most softmods so far have issues with that.

[eric @ Mar 30th 2009 6:07AM]

This shit is so much more far reaching than one guys pride or Xbox live achievements,
reading that guy's blog post shows him to be a real brat.

Why on earth does it matter who takes credit for something like this? People all across the world should all be working towards the same goals- freeing the restraints on this hardware. The more the merrier.

[Rurik @ Mar 30th 2009 8:25AM]

Marcan is being overly protective of the code, and I can see why. He's a homebrew purist and advocate. He, and others like him, do their best to push homebrew forward. However, when someone comes along and uses that code to support copyright infringement, it usually causes a huge knee-jerk reaction from corporations. While Marcan codes a USB CIOS for many purposes, all it takes is one person to make a USB loader for ripped games to cause Nintendo to completely restrict any and all homebrew across the platform. So, he does what he does to protect the Wii Homebrew scene from Nintendo.

[CLShortFuse @ Mar 30th 2009 12:14PM]

Please, marcan is a technological genius but everyone in the scene knows he's an ass.
What would he have rather Waninkoko done? Write everything from scratch?

The point of open source software is for everyone to be able to improve your code or use parts of it for something else. Waninkoko pieced a bunch of stuff together to make some programs

Oh and it needs to be said that marcan rarely releases source code. He/The team prides themselves in their discoveries and keeps many of the methods secret (for example making animations on a Wii Menu channel like the Homebrew Channel does)

[pika2000 @ Mar 30th 2009 3:22AM]

I'm really tired on Nintendo backward decisions of region locking. I hope somebody can make a simple plug-n-play solution to enable region free on the wii. Nintendo, this is 2009, not the 90s. Give up on region locking games (even DSi games are going to be region locked).

[LMM @ Mar 30th 2009 3:23AM]

I call fake. Photoshopped.

No one in their right mind would play Hamster Heroes.

[Brian @ Mar 30th 2009 6:58AM]

You have got to be fucking joking me...

[Boards of Canada @ Mar 30th 2009 3:44AM]

Good lord Wii graphics are basic... very happy I kept my money for serious PC gaming. As a RPG guy, I dont think I could survive more than 15min.

[kaminoyadoru @ Mar 30th 2009 5:57AM]

...wat?

[Rurik @ Mar 30th 2009 8:26AM]

As an RPG guy, you would also know that story and gameplay take a higher precedence than graphics.

You, sir, are no RPG guy.

[Boards of Canada @ Mar 30th 2009 9:41AM]

Ok I admit I've only played 15min of tennis and bowling on the wii... but it was lame. As for rpg, its my kind of games, thats it!

Anyway, 2 of my friends have wii and they are on the shelves gathering dust. Why?.. Im sure there is some cool games on the wii but I personnaly need a bit more than what the wii have to offer.

[digitallysick @ Mar 30th 2009 3:46AM]

Nice soon it will be time for a wii

[kiro @ Mar 30th 2009 3:54AM]

Just in case, not that this validates anything, in spain something similar to april's fool day will be "el dia de los inocentes" and falls on Dec the 28th.

[Phil @ Mar 30th 2009 1:53PM]

Great - just what I need - my kids are terrible at scratching their Wii games/discs!

[DGlower @ Apr 12th 2009 7:15PM]

lol! nice excuse

[kevin @ Mar 30th 2009 9:07AM]

Er...apparently, the version that leaked doesn't actually work...

http://www.wehackwii.com/2009/03/news-about-waninkokos-hd-loader.html

[NoAndThen @ Mar 30th 2009 10:39AM]

It does, but you need a new CIOS. Which isn't available yet. Yet.

[crashcarstar @ Mar 30th 2009 9:33AM]

So it just me or does this show how badly Nintendo takes security on their consoles? DS and Wii piracy is so incredibly easy, especially compared to PS3 and 360.

[Dan Diemer @ Mar 30th 2009 10:37PM]

Security aside, I think the processing platform used by the Wii (read: non-PowerPCl), marketshare and price are big contributions to the problem
aswell.

[Brian @ Mar 30th 2009 9:46AM]

That drawing makes me want to punch somebody.

[Ben @ Mar 30th 2009 10:57PM]

dang.....i bet the guy who made the first volcano for a science fair feels really ripped off too......

[John DFavis @ Mar 30th 2009 11:53AM]

OMGosh no way dude that is just too cool!

[lainofthewired @ Mar 30th 2009 12:49PM]

I read that title too fast. I thought it said "Hebrew Wii USB..."

[Lonnie @ Mar 30th 2009 2:34PM]

So I read the rant against Waninkoko and Waninkoko's response..

On one hand, the rant against him sounds more like it's there just to take away from his spotlight, all the effort to prove that someone else could do it in 6 hours vs. 22 days seemed like a waste of time, I get that they were just trying to prove that Waninkoko was basing his efforts of the work of others.. but c'mon ..

On the other hand, if Waninkoko is in fact basing his work off of the efforts of other, and is turning a profit as a result .. that's just not cool either, he admitted pretty clearly to using other's work .. and quite correctly stated that the work was out there to be used, not looked at .. but if he's releasing his software without giving credit, and then making money off of it .. then that's where I'd say there's a problem..

Waninkoko should have taken the high road here and just start crediting the sources.. he's clearly the first to the gate with a lot of what he does and that should be enough for him, it's not as though he's unappreciated .. but he clearly did not get there on his own and shouldn't ignore that fact.

[n0v1c31 @ Apr 2nd 2009 11:54AM]

here is a complete guide on how to install The Homebrew Channel, Custom Firmware(cIOS36_rev9) and USB iSO Loader. Also includes a Video Demonstration of the whole installation. For the full guide go to http://www.techsick.com/articles/how-to-install-usb-iso- loader-on-wii.shtml it has links for downloads and a step-by-step tutorial making things easy

[angelson1992 @ Apr 4th 2009 7:08PM]

This program works beautifully and seems to have piracy deterrents to make it difficult for anyone who doesn't know what they are doing or simply don't have the will to research. For those who want to use it as it was intended, it is a wonderful program that runs at full speed where others failed. It isn't cool that he didn't give credit for the components as so many others have done but that isn't such a huge issue. The larger issue is whether or not this will cause Nintendo to lash out. Evidence shows that they have already begun to show low tolerance for hackers by their reaction to people cheating while playing online with ssbb or other games. However, they can only cause havoc in updating your system which is optional. There is a rumor that 3.4 won't have an option to cancel update but we will see. However, all Homebrew users 3.3 and lower should be safe. Everyone knows that upgrading will always cause problems for Homebrew and every other thing alike. Even if they do, it may be a dollar short and a day late. New Homebrew versions come out less than a month after the upgrade release and sometimes before. There is always the option to downgrade later also, thought playing more recent games will take some know how, there are wonderful tutorials out there to guide you step by step. They released the wii with pathetic security measures and it spiraled out of control. Even if they wanted to, they wouldn't be able to stop every hacker or coder. Waninkoko came out with his own version of the 3.4 update that got rid of many of the security measures. The Homebrew community is safe, may be challenged but they always rise to the occasion.

[Dave @ Apr 24th 2009 6:57AM]

would you be able to put games onto the harddrive from your computer
and still load them? i've allready got the homebrew channel and i
have the backup loader. The thing is i've allready got all my games
ripped to an external hdd so that if the discs do get scratched i can
just burn a new on i have kids you see this happens at least twice a
week. so could i move the games onto my computer,format the hdd and
then move them back?
Thanks for any help/info
Dave#