Essential Wii Homebrew Applications. Install the Wii Homebrew Channel if you. The Homebrew Browser lists all of the major Wii homebrew software and lets you one. Manual method: On your computer, download the latest version of BootMii, extract it and put it in the 'apps' folder of your Wii's SD Card/USB drive (whatever you use for homebrew apps). Then launch BootMii from the Wii's homebrew channel. After launching the installer, click 'continue' and click 'Install The Homebrew Channel'. Put the SD card in the sd card slot on the wii, then open up your preffered method of launching homebrew. Launch the wad manager, then press a untill it tells you to choose your wad file. Press plus to install, and minus to uninstall. Uninstalling is good if you get a banner brick. It is how to make your wii normal again so dont delete the wad. There are a different ways you can go about finding and installing new apps on your Wii, but none are more simple than the Homebrew Browser. If you followed last week's guide to hacking your Wii.
Click to viewUpdate: You can now hack your Wii even more easily, and you don't need to buy anything to do it. Here's how. Despite the fact that it ships with a DVD drive, for whatever godforsaken reason, the Nintendo Wii doesn't support DVD playback—until last week, that is, when a homebrew hacker released a tool that enables DVD playback on your Wii. The best part? You don't have to crack open your Wii or disturb your hardware in any way to install it. Let's take a detailed look at how to softmod your Wii with the Twilight hack to run homebrew apps. Then I'll show you how to install the Wii port of the open source media player, mplayer, to turn your Wii into a DVD (or should I say WiiVD?) player.
What You'll Need
Since we're going to be doing a softmod of your Wii (i.e., we're not modifying any hardware), you don't really need much to accomplish this hack.
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- Nintendo Wii
- An FAT16-Formatted SD Memory Card (more on this below)
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess ($50)
- The Wii Brew SD Installer (Windows)
- A Windows PC with an SD card reader
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NOTE: I'm doing this all on a Windows PC, but you can manually install the Twilight Hack if you don't have access to a Windows PC.
The secret sauce lies in the Twilight Princess game. Essentially, we're going to load a fake game into Twilight Princess that exploits a buffer overflow and allows you install homebrew software on your Wii.
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Sound complicated? Figuring it out may have been, but the excellent Wii hackers have made exploiting the Twilight hack a cinch.
Hacking Your Wii for Homebrew
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To get started, plug your SD card into your computer. It needs to be formatted as a FAT16 filesystem, so find the SD card in My Computer and format it by right-clicking, selecting Format, and setting FAT as your file system. (If you have trouble formatting your SD card this way, try out the SD Card Formatter.)
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Now it's time to prepare the SD card with the Twilight Hack. If you haven't already, download the Wii Brew SD Installer. When you've got it, make sure your SD card is plugged in and run the installer. The installer is fairly self-explanatory, but I'll walk you through it.
Choose Your Install Location
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This should match the location of the SD card you just formatted above.
Select the Homebrew Features and Twilight Hack
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Now you need to select the packages you want to install on your SD card (and, eventually, your Wii). I'd suggest selecting the Homebrew Channel (in fact, you need to if you want this to work), the Homebrew Browser, and DVDX (you'll need this last one for DVD playback). Make sure to select the Twilight Hack that matches your region. Hit Next and the Wii SD Installer will copy all the necessary files to your SD card.
Take Note of Your Twilight Princess Disc
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If you're in the U.S., your copy of Twilight Princess is one of three different versions. One of the versions of the disc requires that you use a different save slot when we load the game later on, so just take note of the text on the inner circle of the bottom of the Twilight Princess game disc. (I needed TwilightHack2, for example.)
Perform the Twilight Hack on Your Wii
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By this point, your SD card is officially prepared for your Wii. Unplug it from your computer and move over to your Wii. Plug it in and power up your Wii. At this point, you'll need to erase your current Twilight Princess saved game, copy the Twilight hack to your Wii, and execute it in Twilight Princess. (If you haven't played the game and created a save slot, you should do that before proceeding.) The video below from the WiiBrew folks details exactly how to do this.
NOTE: If the installation froze after you loaded the saved game and talked to the man, chances are you need to use the other saved game.
How To Install Mplayer On Linux
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You'll need to accept a disclaimer and go through a few other screens to finish the installation (just use the 1 button on your Wiimote to accept). When it completes, head back to the Wii menu. The glorious new Wii Homebrew Channel awaits.
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Turn Your Wii into a DVD Player
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Now that you've got the Homebrew Channel installed, setting up DVD support is a breeze. Fire up your the Homebrew Channel from the main Wii menu and you should see the DVDx installer and Homebrew Browser. Click on the DVDx installer and run through the prompt. Hit A to select Normal install unless you've installed a modchip in your Wii. (If you're following this guide, chances are you don't have a modchip.) You've finished the first step.
Now you need to shut off your Wii and plug the SD card back into your computer, because it's time to install mplayer, the app that will play back DVDs on your Wii. You can download it from the HackMii web site at the bottom of this post. (Mplayer appears to be available in the Homebrew Browser, but it's not the version that supports DVD playback, so make sure you download it manually.)
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After you've downloaded it, copy the entire mplayer folder to the
apps
folder on your SD card. Now just take the SD card back to your Wii, plug it in, and run the Homebrew Channel again. This time you should see mplayer next to your other installed apps, like below.Advertisement
To play back a DVD, just fire up mplayer, insert a DVD, and select the Play DVD option in the mplayer menu. You'll notice two Play DVD menu items, the second of which reads Play DVD (libdvdnav). The libdvdnav attempts to use the built-in DVD menu, while the other just plays the first title. Unfortunately libdvdnav doesn't really work correctly with the Wiimote yet, but it looks to be on its way.
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It takes a few seconds for mplayer to start playing the DVD, but once it does it plays without a hitch (or at least it has in all my experience). Thanks to YouTube, here's what it looks like:
The Wiimote/Gamecube controller playback shortcuts work as follows:
A - Pause
B - OSD
1/X - Toggle on screen menu
RIGHT - Seek 10s forward
LEFT - Seek 10s backward
UP - Seek 60s forward
DOWN - Seek 60s backward
+/R - Seek to the next chapter
-/L - Seek to the previous chapter
HOME/Z - Quit
B - OSD
1/X - Toggle on screen menu
RIGHT - Seek 10s forward
LEFT - Seek 10s backward
UP - Seek 60s forward
DOWN - Seek 60s backward
+/R - Seek to the next chapter
-/L - Seek to the previous chapter
HOME/Z - Quit
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What Else?
Once you've got your Wii opened up to homebrew apps, you've unlocked all kinds of potential, including emulators for old-school gaming consoles, different media players, and other utilities. If you've already got the Homebrew channel running on your Wii, let's hear what homebrew apps you've been using and loving in the comments. If the very idea of hacking your Wii sends shivers down your spine but you'd still like to squeeze out more functionality, check out how to use your Wii as a media center.
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Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker whose multitasking Wii has cemented its spot next to his TV. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
WADs are files that are installed onto the Nintendo Wii as channels. These channels can be The Shop Channel, Internet Channel, Mii Channel and Weather Channel, among many other game channels. The WAD Manager allows you to install custom WAD channels, such as emulator channels, and even homebrew application channels. You can install the channels on your Wii using WAD Manager. The Homebrew Channel needs to be installed on the Wii you are attempting to use WAD Manager on.
Put an SD card into your computer.
Click on 'Start,' select 'My Computer' and right-click on the SD card.
Select 'Format' from the menu, and click on the box 'FAT32' to format the SD card to be recognized by the Wii.
Click on 'Quick Format,' and select 'Format' to format the SD card.
Navigate to the File Trip website, and click on 'Download selected version' to download WAD Manager to your computer.
Extract the file to a directory on your computer.
Create a folder on the root of your SD card, and name it 'WADS.'
Place your WAD files in the WADS folder that you want to install to the Wii main menu as a channel.
Create a folder on the root of your SD card named 'Apps' if you do not already have one.
Place the WAD Manager file into the 'Apps' folder by dragging and dropping the file.
Insert the SD card into your Wii console, and power it on.
Go to the Homebrew Channel, and press 'A' to start the channel.
Browse for the WAD Manager, and press 'A' on the channel to launch it.
Use the directional pad to select 'IOS249' from the 'Select IOS' prompt.
Choose the SD card as the device for the WAD Manager program to browse for your WAD files.
Click on the specific WAD file you would like to install, cursor down to 'Install WAD' and press 'A.'
Wait for the installation to finish. Larger WAD files can take several minutes.
Reboot the Wii by pressing the 'Home' button on the Wiimote.
Return to the Wii main menu to see your newly installed WAD channel.
Tips
Installing the Homebrew Channel to your Wii voids your warranty. Use WAD files that you have purchased. Piracy is illegal.
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