drivekey

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  • Wasabi DX modchip lets you hack the 'unhackable' Wii, dream the impossible dream

    by 
    Joseph L. Flatley
    Joseph L. Flatley
    01.29.2009

    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

    by 
    Paul Miller
    Paul Miller
    01.26.2009

    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]