So apparently the Wii is out. First thing I'm doing: researching data storage. Nintendo made it a bit TOO easy: The Wii uses SD cards for external storage You can copy SOME files from the Wii to your SD card, provided the file in question isn't copy-locked Hell, they even tell you in the friggin manual who made the file system stack Directory structure on SD card /%volume_root%/ -private/ —wii/ ---title/ ----FAAE/ <-- Data for saved games/Virtual Console ROMs goes here as content.bin ----MAHE/ <-- Data for channels goes here as content.bin You can't copy Virtual Console ROMs between the devices, but you can copy channel data and saves. I've copied the channel data for Sonic the Hedgehog (Virtual Console) to an SD card and uploaded it. Have fun picking at it, we might be able to create channels that run unsigned code: Download, motherfucker! [2.4MB] Creator of embedded functions Apparently Nintendo went cheap again, and used a pre-existing set of libraries for embedded systems. Because of that, they have to tell us what they used. So here's the list: PrFILE 2 FAT file system PrMAIL mail client PrUSB/Host USB stack All of these were created by eSOL. If their English webpage wasn't broken, you could request for information on these. Also, if an exploit for, say, the PrMAIL client was found that allows people to run unsigned code, you could use the Email/Wii Message Board communication features to load homebrew on the Wii. That's all I got. Better than nothing :P
Now what I like to know is: does this have a weak spot for massive damage to pirate it so you can get VC roms onto your Wii for free?
Ah, right. My bad :P @Sith: Probably not. Though if someone found a way to access the Wii's internal 512MB storage, a template for making VC games would probably not be that far behind.
What I'll probably do when I get my Wii (provided it hasn't been cracked already), is use a packet sniffer with dump facility on my PC, while Wii downloads a Virtual Console game. I can then provide the packet dump to anyone willing to crack the encryption. What you could then do, once you know how to encrypt and decrypt ROMs, is set up a proxy server to intercept requests to the Nintendo Wii server - and send them to a server running on your PC. In theory, that should make the Wii download the files from your PC instead of getting them from the Nintendo server! Nintendo may have thought of that though, and require some unique ID to get payment and download from only the Nintendo real server...
Something's missing in these theory; the spending of Wii points. How is the PC server going to handle deducting or "spending" Wii points from the console? Even if you managed to trick it into spending, you'd still be paying for a game; just any game of your choosing.
It seems that as far as I can work out, there IS a method to play homebrew on Wii, but no exploit as of yet for any of the channels. Our best bet is to sit and wait it out. We're bound to come across something (after all, PSP 2.71 as unhackable :P)
They have managed to crack the Wii's security (from what I saw, it was barely any different from the GameCube's) to be able to play pirated Wii software, but unlike on the GameCube, the discs are encrypted. While pirated discs would still have this encryption, this means no homebrew until that is cracked.
That's pretty much the jist of it. Though it should be dirt easy to make a modchip: the method used to make the easy and cheap 2nd gen GCN modchips still exists in a slightly altered form on the Wii.
