modding a wii....

[mattyd38]

ok, it appears everyone and everyone's mum got a wii for Christmas and iv been inundated with call to mod them...

I don't own a wii and until last week hadn't even seen inside one...

now having chipped one and read up about some of the possibility's of this console i decided to share some of my findings...

MOD CHIP : Skill level - advanced.
this requires you to take apart your wii and solder in a mod chip. The chip I was given to install was the "wiikey 2".

dissasembling the console was not so bad compared to outher consoles (read "gamecube") but it still requires the use of a tri-wing screw driver for some of there specialist screws...

the console i was working on only required a 5 wire install, which was nice BUT the solder points were tiny, and i mean half a mil tiny... once soldered and secured in place you stick in a setup dvd (available from there website) and setup the firmware. thats it your wii can now boot any region and backup games!

there is also a solderless option, which is a modchip with a plastic clip which covers over and makes contact with the pins on the dvd drive controller chip...

the wiikey 2 also has an option to turn off the updateing feture on certain disks. this is good as updateing an incorrect region could potentially brick your wii.

INSTALLING HOMEBREW APPS : skill level - intermediate.
the wii is capable of running unsighned code using a hack involving a zelda twighlight princess save game. basicly you copy the savegame onto your wii, run zelda, load the savegame and when you walk backwards it will run a .dol file save in the route folder on your sd card.

the downside to this is everytime you want to run a homebrew app ou would need to to use this hack.
that is unless you install the homebrew channel...

INSTALLING HOMEBREW CHANNEL : skill level - intermediate.
after installation the homebrew channel ( The Homebrew Channel ) apears on your main screen when you turn on the wii and can run homebrew code with out the need to use the zelda twilight princess hack everytime.

instalation : to install the homebrew channel you need to perform the twilight princess hack and boot the homebrew channel installer (available on the website)

after instalation you can copy .dol and .elf files onto your sd card into a /apps directory and boot them from the homebrew channel on the main screen...

INSTALLING DOWNLOADED VIRTUAL CONSOLE GAMES skill level : begginer
if you got as far as installing the home brew channel all you need to install is a program called wad installer ( Waninkoko - Wii Projects "yes its spanish, sorry") and some wad files for the games you want to install (a quick google will help)
basicly'
1. Create a folder called "wad" in the root of the SD card.
2. Copy every WAD you want to install in the "wad" folder.
3. Run wad installer.

job done... the games will apear on your main screen :>
(there is also a wad uninstaller if you need it)

YOUTUBE :
solderless install :
[video=youtube;D5RmaIsZrVU]

solder install :
[video=youtube;bJYmVe7TgDQ]

twighlight princess hack:
[video=youtube;4qu7leNDnQ4]

installing wad files:
[video=youtube;V7kVaAlDrV0]

NOTE: i think wad installer has been superceded by wad manager...
mainley due to a new wii software update...

 

[InsaneNutter]

Nice overview of the different mods that can currently be done to the Wii

That solderless install almost looks too easy, although it does look like it might just drop off too.

I believe there was an ISO loader for the homebrew channel but the guy stopped working on it after a beta tester leaked it.

If I had a Wii the homebrew channel would be installed by now.

 

[mattyd38]

alot of programmes are having to be recoded or simply dont work with an up to date console... nintendo released system menu 3.4 which fixed these "problems"

• Blocks the installation of the Twilight Hack version 0.1beta1. Twilight Hack version 0.1beta2 (because of its not being version 0.1beta1) can still be installed for long enough to install HBC.
• This version of the System Menu uses IOS50.
• Does not appear to affect custom channels (although there have been unreliable reports to the contrary)
• Breaks PatchMii by installing a dummy IOS (IOS9) into the IOS254 slot (pointless, expect the next attempt to be slightly more effective)
• Adds the dev/flash/ blocks to IOSs 30, 31, and 37
  

there is a new Twilight hack which still works (useing a different workaround), but nintendo are patching up exploites that are used by some of the homebrew developers left right and center.

also i stumbled across this:

thats right nintendo are smothering there drive chips in epoxy to stop modders...

super gay

 

[InsaneNutter]

Microsoft did that with some of the 360 drives too, people just melted it off with a hair dryer.

Looks like it can be done with the Wii:

[video=youtube;aKWkWRCxZ84]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKWkWRCxZ84[/video]

 

[mattyd38]

Microsoft did that with some of the 360 drives too, people just melted it off with a hair dryer.

yeah, i knew this, but it means the solderless options are useless... its not ideal is it?