Letterbomb: Wii 4.3 Homebrew Installer Without Need For Special Game Disc | Hacker News Reader

Letterbomb: Wii 4.3 Homebrew Installer Without Need For Special Game Disc

hackmii.com

73 pointsniekmaas16 comments

Is there really that much actual homebrew going on with the Wii?

Since the Wiimotes use bluetooth(and there isn't any other interesting hardware in the system), I was under the impression that most of the homebrew community was just syncing them to PC's rather than really trying to hack the Wii.

The website where most of it happens (wiibrew.org) seems to be down, but here's a Google cache of the list of available homebrew: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hODdueH...

There's not a ton, but there's some. It's allowed me to use my Wii as a media center (accessing media on my network) and a DVD player. Works great for those of us who haven't made the jump to HD yet.

Besides that, there's a couple fun homebrew games, mainly ports of emulators and games that you could also play elsewhere.

Mine's hacked, which I did via one of the simple flash-bombs. I've got a few homebrew games, but the most fun I've had is playing old point & clicks via ScummVM.

Definitely worth hacking just for scummvm!! I have it on pretty much any of my electronic devices.

Emulators are mostly what you'd use it for, but there are a few other good ones, including an awesome port of Syobon Action.

No, that's now what these exploits are used for.

I've used these exploits, along with an external drive formatted to wbfs and used as a "backup drive". (Read as piracy storage)

Ive played the emulators on Wii, as well as video players. They stink because of excessive lag, even mplayer. If there were cool things one could do with a Wii, Id like to see them. Aside from Wiimote Blackboard and other controller apps, its a rather unimpressive boring system.

So its back to piracy.. and cheating.

the MPlayer-ce port works well for me, albeit you cant use video that exceeds 640x480 in resolution without lag problems, but it plays dvd RIPS and XVID encodes just fine.

That's my point: if you're using this to play dvd rips, those are almost always in 720x480. Even looking at my video server, only a handful of really old (Indeo) videos pass that resolution requirement. I suppose I could make a transcode server, but why?

A real computer with hdmi out can play everything. And one of the cheapest hdmi laptops are $300.

And what's with the downvotes? Am I functionally wrong with my assessment that there's nothing spectacular with this console? It cant even do HD, let alone play DVDs (yes, earlier versions could, but has been disabled in hardware).

Agree with the lack of interesting uses for an exploited/modded Wii. I went the route of physical mod, really just as a side project to see if I could do it. Added an external hdd formatted to wbfs for storing games, installed a bunch of emulators and other software. Honestly, the only thing I still use is the hdd since it lets me keep the disks in the closet and to occasionally copy a friend's game. After about 2-3 weeks of messing around with some of the new stuff, the Wii has returned to it's original function: coming home from the bar and gambling on games of virtual golf.

Most of the Wii-based media "solutions" are more easily (and better) handled with an old laptop (or cheap new one) and a bluetooth dongle.

I use mine mainly to play imports. My Wii games are split roughly evenly between PAL, US and Japanese. Although I doubt my use case is actually that common.

I don't think I own enough Wii games (around 20 just now) to justify buying an external drive for ripping purposes, and I can't really see that changing.

I distinctly remember the various WBFS loaders as being rather crap- installing the various bits to get them to even work was a pain in the ass and poorly documented, and even then the loaders seemed to like not working.

The emus always worked well for me, though.

They're a huge pain in the ass to get working on 4.3 firmware too.

Syobon Action is one of my all time favorite games ever, would've never thought I'd hear about it here on HN though.

Although it's not /really/ homebrew, most of the use of a hacked system is for game mods. I know that the Super Smash Brothers. Brawl modding community is on fire with mod projects, but that's the most popular title by far.

My Wii's disc drive is in the process of dying, and I doubt I will get a replacement after it kicks the bucket. I rip legitimate games that I own and use a USB hard drive addon to play them from. (Bonus: less loading time)

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