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Wii U allegedly hacked, Nintendo addresses would-be pirates (updated)
While some people associate the word "jailbreaking" with prison riots or smartphone hacking, the most mainstream of cracking subcultures also takes on video game consoles. A mod chip developer known as WiiKey is now claiming to have reverse engineered the Wii U's disk encryption, making it possible to play "backed up" copies of games via a USB drive. The group says its "WiikeU" optical drive emulator is region free and compatible with all Wii U console models. So far the hacking brood has yet to furnish any proof of its claims, but Nintendo is very much aware of the situation. Nintendo is aware that a hacking group claims to have compromised Wii U security; however, we have no reports of illegal Wii U games nor unauthorized applications playable on the system while in Wii U mode. Nintendo continuously monitors all threats to its products' security and will use technology and will take the necessary legal steps to prevent the facilitation of piracy.
GameCube Fusion portable brings Wii aesthetics, GBA design to Nintendo's boxiest console (video)
It seems like there was a time, not that long ago, where we saw another new hand-crafted portable console every week, each one smaller and more impressive than those before. Those days are, sadly, gone and, whether you want to blame the short attention span of today's youth or simply conclude that everyone's too busy playing Angry Birds, it's a sad fact. Modder Ashen is bucking the trend, creating what he calls the GameCube Fusion. It's a hand-built portable GameCube that plays (hopefully legally acquired) titles from SD card via both WiiKey and Gecko, offering full controls on-board plus an external controller port, all kept cool by a laptop-sourced fan that sounds powerful enough to make the thing hover, F-Zero-style. It's far smaller than 2009's NCube, but the omission of a battery pack means it won't be traveling far. For those who want to know more, every detail will be revealed in the 12 minute video embedded just below -- if you can keep focused that long.
Wasabi DX modchip lets you hack the 'unhackable' Wii, dream the impossible dream
Well, it wouldn't be Thursday without another way to, er, "upgrade" your Wii. In this case, we're proud to present to you the Wasabi DX. Like many a drivechip, this one promises to hack the "unhackable" Wii, sporting plug and play installation on your console's (DMS, D2A, D2B, D2C, D2C2, D2E, epoxy D2E, or D2nothing / D3) drive. The firmware is stored in flash and can be upgraded from DVD, or downgraded (if you ever need to do that) from a backup on the chip itself. Like Wasabi's previous offering, drive read speeds are limited to 3x, which might effect some games, but you were probably expecting that anyways. Pretty exciting, huh? No word on pricing or availability yet, but the company says to expect all that "soonish."
WiiKey's new DriveKey frees 'unhackable' Wiis with zero fuss
At this point, we're sorta surprised you can't just look askance at a Wii and set it to running homebrew with your penetrating gaze alone -- it seems like everything else has been accomplished in the hacking, modding and general humiliation of Nintendo's little console. Brought to us by the WiiKey folks, DriveKey is a wire-free, solder-free, brain-free method for hacking any Wii on the market, especially those pesky new ones with "epoxy" drives or the dreaded hack-proof "D3" drives. DriveKey acts as a simple passthrough for the DVD connector cable, tweaking certain functions to allow for a bit more freedom in your Wii experience. Unfortunately, DriveKey limits the DVD drive to 2x read speeds, which might make certain games unplayable, and it also can't be flash upgraded, unlike the WiiKey before it, to add more functionality or fend off a theoretical hack-buster update from Nintendo -- though this hasn't proved much of a problem for similar hacks. The chips go for around $70. Install videos after the break. [Thanks, Gob]
New Wii motherboard & (some) modchips don't solder (like before)
DigiTimes has a provocative explanation for reports of a new Wii motherboard in production. "Nintendo has altered the circuit layout of its Wii games console in order to block the increasing use of modification chips," reports Digi. If that were true, then why, as Wii Fanboy notes, does the updated circuitry only affect quicksolder modchips, like WiiKey? We emphasize "affect" because WiiKey most certainly is not blocked by the new board. According to a MaxConsole forum post (#6), solder point 3 is no longer on the PCB, so WiiKey must now by connected via the 5th leg of the IC chip -- got it?If Nintendo revised its motherboard to thwart modders, the engineers failed miserably. Our guess? The minor nuisance that the new hardware poses to modchip users is just a coinkydink.
Wii circuitry changed to thwart modchips?
Reports are coming in from Taiwan and Germany that Nintendo has updated the Wii's motherboard with its latest shipments of the console. According to MaxConsole, one of the solder points has been removed from the altered board, shutting out quicksolder modification chips like WiiKey. Other similar tools that don't use the missing solder point should not be affected. DigiTimes suggests that these changes to the circuit layout were made with the sole intent of preventing piracy by blocking these warranty-voiding installations. If that's the case however, why did Nintendo only take steps to block just the WiiKey, a modchip that was released only several weeks ago?There were similar concerns in the past about Mario Kart DS updating the Nintendo DS' firmware as an anti-piracy measure, but it was quickly discovered that the handheld was only saving its WiFi settings. It seems far more likely that Nintendo has had the Wii's revised motherboard planned for months, and that locking out any modification methods was an unintended result.
Wii modchips hit a snag, won't work with some recent Wiis
This 1st generation of Wii modchips was humming along so smoothly, but it looks like a recent Nintendo manufacturing modification has rained on their parade for the time being. While the chips do work fine in early Wiis, and that DVD upgradability should keep 'em humming for some time to come, the Wiinja, CycloWiz and WiiKey chips all fail to work with Wiis running the D2B Panasonic chipset, which shows up in certain Wiis, mostly ones purchased in late January / early February. The only way to check for the chipset is to pry open the Wii and look for yourself, and the incompatibility means that even the DVD upgradability won't allow current modchips to run on these systems. Both the CycloWiz and Wiinja teams have confirmed the problem, and are already working on new versions to get around the Panasonic chipset, but you might want to make sure your Wii is compatible before you blow your cash on a non-working modchip.[Thanks, waruwaru]
TeamCyclops announces DVD upgradability for CycloWiz modchip
Oh snap, now it's really on. Those WiiKey kids were so proud of themselves, with that DVD upgradability of theirs, but TeamCyclops just threw down with the announcement of the same functionality in its CycloWiz. Add that to the fact that the CycloWiz is already shipping (a couple more days left for WiiKey) and we can see potential Wii modders being plenty conflicted. At the moment, WiiKey is still the only chip with support for Wii imports of any sort, but we're figuring TeamCyclops isn't too far behind on that front. And Wiinja? Well, it remains to be seen if they have anything else up their sleeves, but at the moment it looks like they've got a lot of ground to cover.[Thanks, Matt A]
WiiKey upgradeable modchip offers more for modders
The Wii modchips are really coming on fast, with Wiinja and CycloWiz already drawing their own shares of fanboys and detractors, but the latest chip on the scene, "WiiKey," from the same kids responsible for the XenoGC modchip for GameCube, looks to be the best yet -- at least on paper. First off, the chip is upgradeable via DVD, meaning new functionality can be added, and future Wii software updates can't easily disable it for good. The even better news is that the chip supports NTSC Wii game imports from different regions, a first for a Wii modchip, and one of the most useful features to actual users. Of course, functions like compatibility with backups, mult-disc games and audio-fix GC titles are all included. No specific word about homebrew of the Wii or GC variety -- perhaps that's just a given -- but the creators stress that "More features are being worked on, and will either be included in the upcoming release or in a future upgrade that will follow the release shortly." Unfortunately, at the moment there's no actual picture of the chip, so the CycloWiz still has the upper hand on the "actually exists front." Supposedly shipping should begin February 7th, so we'll plan on checking in around then to see if this thing actually works as advertised.
