PSP hacker "FreePlay" has turned his gaze to the PS3, and come up with a method for the first PS3 homebrew outside of Linux and that little "hello world" proof of concept a few months back. The minimal devkit doesn't seem built to take advantage of the PS3's wiles, however, and is instead working with the Java prowess built into the Blu-ray playback end of the PS3. Who knows how much power that'll lend to homebrew developers, but it's Java, so we're not expecting great things either way. Wake us when we can play PS2 games, would you?

The folks of WiiHD, in honor of the recent Quake release for Wii homebrew, have put together an easy-to-follow guide for getting the Wii homebrew channel up and running on your little white console -- plus a pre-packaged zip file with some ready-to-go 'brew if that's the way you like it. You've really got zero excuse to hold off on homebrew with as purtiful and straightforward all these fine hackers have made the process, but if you're still unconvinced, check out the Quake video after the break.

Nintendo talks a big talk, but has never invested heavily in actually protecting its systems from those nefarious homebrew junkies. While the Wii Menu 3.3 did slightly break the Twilight Hack, it didn't even bust up folks who already had the homebrew channel installed, and its protections against further hacks were minimal. Now the HackMii folks are back with Twilight Hack v0.1beta1, which bests Wii Menu 3.3, along with some other improvements for homebrew usage. We can't tell if this is incompetence or benevolence on Nintendo's part, or perhaps these hackers are just that good, but either way we're lovin' it JT-style.

Although the Wii Menu 3.3 update didn't undo the Twilight Hack for those who had already installed it, it did prevent new would-be homebrewers from getting their game on -- but like all attempts to outfox the hackers, it's fallen short, and in record time. According to hackmii, which figured out the workaround, the 3.3 update isn't exactly subtle in what it does to disable the hack -- quote the team, "We Are Not Impressed." No publicly-available patch is out yet, but give 'em time, they say they're working on it.

[Via Hack A Day]

Here's an odd one. We assumed Nintendo would be actively building software updates to kill off the Virtual Console-threatening homebrew that has been rapidly spreading to Wiis worldwide, but the Wii Menu 3.3's effect on hackers seems accidental at worst. The word on the street is that if you've already installed the homebrew channel onto your Wii, the 3.3 update will pose zero threat, but it patches up the Twilight Hack hole, meaning virgin consoles will have little hope for homebrew once they've updated to 3.3 -- until someone cracks it, of course. The update also lets you pull Miis from the Mii Plaza to the Mii Parade directly, a time for rejoicing, indeed.

[Thanks, Sean]

Hah, did you really have the nerve to doubt CraigIX? The iPhone gamepad add-on that we heard about just last week is already inching closer to reality, and there's a video to prove it. In the somewhat unexciting clip posted up after the jump, you'll see a PCB mockup of the device doing its thang, though it's quite inelegant in its current form. If you just needed one more something to boost your interest / confidence that this critter was real, you know where to head.

[Via zodttd]

Homebrew coders over at TehSkeen have manged the near-ultimate hacker achievement of enabling region-free gaming on the Wii via a software hack -- no mod chips or Freeloader disc required. Implementation of Gecko Region Free couldn't be simpler: you just load boot.elf from the chain loader, stick in your Wii game and hit reset. The hack claims to have borrowed zero code from Nintendo or Datel, making this pure homebrew. You'll still need to use that Twilight Princess hack to get thing started, and Nintendo could always rain on this parade, but for the time being the world (of foreign-released games) is your oyster.

[Via Wii Fanboy]

We'll be straight with you -- it's a bit of a mystery what exactly is going on here, but famed Wii hacker Waninkoko has apparently figured out a way to take Virtual Console titles and play them on another Wii. The good news? There's a video -- which many aren't hesitating to blast with "fake!" -- of the trick posted after the jump. The bad? There's no how-to in sight.

[Thanks, Craig]

We haven't heard much out of the PS3 homebrew scene so far, which could be due to the console's delayed popularity, or perhaps because Sony did users a solid out of the gate and included Linux. That said, there's no stopping these hardcore homebrew types when they put their minds to something, and now Dragula96, a well known PSP hacker, has supposedly found an exploit on the PS3 that let him get a little Hello World proof of concept up and running. At the moment he's not saying how he did it, but he does say the hack is working on 60GB and 40GB PS3s, running the current 2.20 firmware. Next on the agenda? Pong. Video is after the break.

[Thanks, Craig]

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]

Although this is far from being the weirdest union (or proposal, for that matter) we've ever seen, Xanga user p3ng decided to throw tradition to the wind (at least momentarily) when proposing to his now-fiancée. Put simply, he built a custom version of Bejeweled (the lady's favorite game in the whole wide world) in which a pixelated engagement ring scrolled onto the screen once a certain score was hit. Needless to say, his awestruck girlfriend could barely contain her excitement as she uttered "yes," and we absolutely expect the Guitar Zeros to be the house band at the forthcoming reception.

[Via DSFanboy]

Alright, things are starting to get really good with these hacks. Just after seeing a GameCube / Wii Tetris, Linux build, SNES emulator, and the first homebrew MP3 player for Nintendo's money-maker, we're getting a totally radical, native Genesis / Megadrive emulator for the console. Coder-extraordinaire Eke-Eke has created not only the first of its kind for the Wii (and GameCube), but it's also the first ever that's capable of playing Virtua Racing, a milestone in Genesis emulation. This latest feat utilizes the same backdoor Twilight Princess hack, which is proving to be the best thing that happened to Wii development since... well... ever. Hit the read link and check it out yourself.

[Thanks, Craig]

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]