Nintendo Wii homebrew- no mods required

[bobrocks95]

I posted about this on another forum after I successfully installed homebrew games, programs, and emulators on my Wii with no modchip installed or anything, just using an SD card(of course with a way to connect it to your pc) and a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, so I thought I'd post it here.

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*DISCLAIMER*

First of all, keep in mind that since you are installing foreign programs not officially licensed by Nintendo onto your Wii console that I assume no liability for your actions in the very rare case that this causes any damage physical or otherwise to your Wii console. While this has worked flawlessly for both me and another friend, if it doesn't work for you, I assume no responsibility for your actions.

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Step 1- What You'll Need
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First of all, you will need the following things

-An SD card, formatted to fat 16 (in Windows fat 16 is simply called fat)(In Windows you can format simply by right-clicking and selecting "Format"): it doesn't matter what the size of your SD card is, the bigger the better, just make sure its not sdhc. I'm also assuming you have an SD card reader for your PC.
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj257/bobrocks95/ScreenHunter_01Jun2415.gif
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj257/bobrocks95/ScreenHunter_02Jun2415.gif

-(optional)A GameCube controller: While this definitely isn't needed, some homebrew games and apps only support the GameCube controller.
-The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Needed for the exploited game save
-A Wii obviously.

and that's it.

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Step 2- Preparing the Twilight Hack
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-First, you need to download the game save
all it is, is a special save file where you can load to access the exploit in the game to launch the homebrew installer.
What the game save does, from what I can understand, is rename your horse, Epona, into a ridiculously long name that, when loaded into game text or dialog, activates something called a "Stack Smash", which allows the SD card to be read and the .elf file that installs the homebrew to be loaded.

You can get it here (http://hbc.hackmii.com/download/)(download the "Twilight Hack").

-Once downloaded, extract the files to a place where you can easily find them.
-From those files, you will need to pick one that corresponds to your Zelda game


Region Inner circle text File
Europe/Australia RVL-RZDP-0A-0 JPN = rzdp0.bin
Asia RVL-RZDJ-0A-0 JPN = rzdj0.bin
America RVL-RZDE-0A-0 JPN = rzde0.bin
America RVL-RZDE-0A-0 USA = rzde0.bin
America RVL-RZDE-0A-2 USA = rzde2.bin

Inner circle text can be found on the inside circle on the back of your Twilight Princess disk. It may be hard to see depending on the lighting in the room you're in.
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj257/bobrocks95/Twilight_Serial.jpg

CAUTION: MAKE SURE YOU GET THE ABOVE RIGHT!!!!

-Make a path on your sd card to "/private/wii/title/RZDx/" where "x" is dependent on your version of twilight princess(use either "e","j", or "p", depending on what .bin file you're using.
-copy "data.bin" from the correct folder in the downloaded Twilight Hack package to the folder you just created.

Great, now you have the chain loader completely set up.

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Step 3- Preparing The Homebrew Channel
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Now you need a homebrew to launch. This exploit is used to launch .elf files on the root of the SD card, but only one. So thats where the homebrew loader comes in. If you launch just that one homebrew, you can launch all the others without swapping .elf files on a computer.

For a loader, this tutorial is going to use the most widely available and best(In my opinion) homebrew launcher, the Homebrew Channel.

download the homebrew channel here (http://hbc.hackmii.com/download/)(download the ".ELF")

There are other loaders, such as Mag Loader and the Front SD elf loader, but they both suck a lot more, and the Homebrew channel is directly installed to the Wii so you don't have to boot up Twilight Princess every time you want to run homebrew.

Make sure that the Homebrew Channel's .elf boot file is called "boot.elf" and is on the root of your sd card. Thats the file that will be launched through the exploit. Everything else that you just downloaded in the ".ELF" package is not needed.

Create a folder named "apps" on the root of your SD card. This is where games and programs will be placed when you install them.
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj257/bobrocks95/ScreenHunter_03Jun2416.gif

Now that the loader is set up, time to install the exploit!

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Step 4- Installing the Twilight Hack and the Homebrew Channel
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-Put your SD card in the Wii, boot up and go into Wii Options/Data Management/Save Data/Wii
-erase your current Twilight Princess save file(if you wish, you can back the save file up onto another SD card if you have an extra. Or you could do that on the same SD card, copy it onto your computer, THEN put the Twilight Hack save file onto the SD card) then go back to your SD card and copy the save file over.

The exploit is now installed.

To activate it:
-Insert your Twilight Princess disk, run it, load the first save file, and either talk to the man in front of you or walk backwards to launch your "boot.elf".

-Simply follow the on-screen instructions to install the channel permanently to your Wii(You can of course delete it later the way you would normally delete channels)

The homebrew channel looks very nice, as you can see from this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGeMP1zsW2I

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Step 5- Installing homebrew applications and games
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Note: For a comprehensive list of homebrew applications and game, visit here (http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_apps). For the purpose of this tutorial, I will use Snes9x Wii (http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_apps/Snes9X_Wii), specifically LoPsT's Unofficial Version found near the bottom.


Installing other homebrew works the same way

-In your "apps" folder, create another folder and name it something that will tell you what the program is like "Snes9x"(must be 8 characters or less).
-In that folder, place the .elf file(some are .dol) you get from the .rar you downloaded and rename the .elf file to "boot.elf"(or .dol file to "boot.dol")
-Make a .txt file called "meta.xml"(You will actually need to make it into a .xml file. (Do this after editing the .txt file first)To do this, choose "Save As", then select for "Types of files" "All Files", then save it as "meta.xml"(NOT meta.xml.txt)(This should save it as a .xml file properly)) and enter the following into the .txt file:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<app version="1">
<name></name>
<coder></coder>
<version></version>
<release_date></release_date>
<short_description></short_description>
<long_description></long_description>
</app>

Fill in the fields with the necessary information, and all this should properly show up on the Homebrew Channel with whatever you inserted.
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj257/bobrocks95/ScreenHunter_04Jun2416.gif

-Next you need to add an icon to the same folder. Refer to this (http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_Channel/Icons) page for downloadable icons. If you want to make your own, they need to be 128x48 pixels and in .PNG format. Rename whatever file you get to "icon"
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj257/bobrocks95/ScreenHunter_05Jun2416.gif

You may need to follow specific instruction depending on what app you install. In the case of Snes9x, you need to make a folder on the root of the SD card named "snes9x", then, within that folder, make two other folder named "roms" and "saves". I'm sure you know what to do from there.

Like I said, other apps need other things. Refer to the app's page on the list of homebrew games and apps that I linked to earlier.



If anyone has any SPECIFIC questions about anything, or if this is for some reason against the rules(I don't see how this is in any way illegal), please PM me.


Enjoy!

[Daarkseid]

I did this very recently once I discovered I actually had the materials on hand to do it(Twilight Pricess, SD card, SD card slot).

It was pretty damn easy. Now I can run roms for games I'm quite certain will not get a VC release. The NES and SNES emulators work pretty well, despite some UI issues that don't really detract from running the roms themselves.

[Russ]

Wait, so this will let me play roms/homebrew games on the Wii? Sweet. However, I'm not sure I'll do it. Whenever I do a Wii update, it says "If you did any unauthorized editing to the Wii, it might not work after this update". I don't think I'll take that risk. ;)

[MottZilla]

Well if the Wii scene turns out like the PSP scene, it's unlikely you'll have to worry about any update problems. However like the PSP scene, you'll need to check the news before accepting any updates.

[bobrocks95]

Yes, there has been one update problem recently that automatically removed the Twilight Hack, but within 3 days they had already updated the hack to work around it. Also, once the Homebrew Channel is installed, there shouldn't be any problem with updates since it's recognized as an official channel, but be sure to check http://www.wiibrew.org/ after you see that an update has been released for the Wii, just to be safe.


Wait, so this will let me play roms/homebrew games on the Wii? Sweet. However, I'm not sure I'll do it. Whenever I do a Wii update, it says "If you did any unauthorized editing to the Wii, it might not work after this update". I don't think I'll take that risk. ;)

And what risk is that? All that could possibly happen is the Twilight Hack not working anymore, which you wouldn't even need after the channel is installed. Even if it did somehow make the channel stop working, they would 1)Find a work-around and update it, and 2)Nintendo wouldn't make a system update that would brick your Wii, in fact, they had the most recent system update that removed the Twilight Hack in testing for a full 4 months to be sure that it didn't harm your Wii.

[Breaker]

oh please. there is a very real possibility you could brick your system doing any kind of editing like this. google "i bricked my wii" and you'll find many cases of such individuals too stupid to follow instructions. this hack specifically is especially not "brickproof", and goodluck sending a wii in for repair when you attempted to hack it.

[MottZilla]

People send in bricked DS systems they fucked up all the time. It's no big deal. But if you follow the instructions you should be fine. Obviously there is always some risk with unauthorized software but it is usually a measured risk and it's up to you if you want to take it or not.

If the Wii has gotten updates of all the GC homebrew it should be looking pretty nice. It should have NES, SNES, TG16, and Genesis emulators and who knows what could be coming next. Besides it's something to do with your Wii. I'd do it if I still owned one. It'd almost be enough to make me want to get another Wii if it weren't for the fact that the modded Xbox does a much better job for emulation and media center purposes.

[bobrocks95]

I never got that kind of response from the forum I originally posted at Breaker, they sort of just mindlessly followed, plus I'm set to be featured on the front page. If you follow the instructions correctly and don't just skim through it, there's like a 99.99% success rate or something, but then of course there's the people that look at that .01% and find it way too high and don't do it. This is at least a lot simpler, faster, and cheaper way to get homebrew as unlike with other systems you don't have to take the time soldering a chip to the system motherboard. You just sit back and relax while we play Quake on our Wii's.

[vegeta1215]

oh please. there is a very real possibility you could brick your system doing any kind of editing like this. google "i bricked my wii" and you'll find many cases of such individuals too stupid to follow instructions. this hack specifically is especially not "brickproof", and goodluck sending a wii in for repair when you attempted to hack it.

I agree with Breaker. I wouldn't want to chance bricking my Wii, even if the chance was small. That's why I decided to look into playing homebrew on the Gamecube with no mods - nothing to mess up, and no way Nintendo can make an "update" to break things.

[bobrocks95]

I agree with Breaker. I wouldn't want to chance bricking my Wii, even if the chance was small. That's why I decided to look into playing homebrew on the Gamecube with no mods - nothing to mess up, and no way Nintendo can make an "update" to break things.

Okay, you find your original copy of PSO with its broadband adapter, good luck.:rolleyes:

[vegeta1215]

Okay, you find your original copy of PSO with its broadband adapter, good luck.:rolleyes:

Or I can just use my SD Media Launcher ;)
http://us.codejunkies.com/Products/GameCubeWii-SD-Media-Launcher__EF000589.aspx

[bobrocks95]

When did that come out? Wikipedia has lied to me. Anyway, things are a lot more fun on the Wii...

[MottZilla]

I still have my copy of PSO and the BBA from back in the day. I also still have the imported SD Adapter and a copy of Action Replay for SDLOAD. But anyway, it is neat to be able to soft-mod the Wii.

Could you tell us what sort of Wii homebrew is available? Emulators, game ports, applications, etc.

[bobrocks95]

You can find a full list here (http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_apps).

[Masamune]

Nice simple guide. It just gave me the motivation to borrow a Wii to try it out.

[Breaker]

can this soft mod load "backups" of downloaded wii games or gamecube games on the wii?

[MottZilla]

Not until someone makes a program similar to HDLoader that exists for the PS2. It is certainly possible to develop a program that would let you run Wii and maybe even GC "backups" from ISO images stored on either SD card or an external USB hard drive. It technically possible but someone still has to code the thing. The GameCube had a program similar to this, it was the Starcube loader.

[Breaker]

im setting up the sd card now and installing it on my wii... ill reply with the results.

[Breaker]

ok. this is something not noted in the "faq" above that is pretty important. when you're about to do the twilight hack there are two save files to choose from. depending on which disc you have, you might select a different file. read below.

" If the text reads "RVL-RZDE-0A-0", you have a v0 game and
you should select the TwilightHack0 savegame. If the text
reads "RVL-RZDE-0A-2", you have a v2 game and you should
select the TwiilghtHack2 savegame. If you do not select
the correct version of the save, the game will freeze and
the hack will not work."

if anyone tries this hack it's important for you to read through the README files and not blindly follow this tut. that's good advice for anything really.

also, most apps you download (like the snes emu) already have an icon and the xml file written up. you don't have to do any of that. just drop it in the apps folder of your sd card. this is NOT where you put roms/save files though. you have to store roms and save files on the root of your sd card in a folder called snes9x/roms and snes9x/saves.

the above things were the only walls i ran into when setting this up, but it's all working 100% now.

the LoPsT's Unofficial Version of Snes9X is pretty good. remember to load the rom first before hitting "play game".

i was considering for awhile hacking my xbox360 to play emulators and such on my plasma tv, but this was a much easier alternative. i did quite a bit of reading and it's pretty safe to install the homebrew channel. you only have to do the twilight hack once and after the homebrew channel is installed you can load all future programs from it. very cool.

remember not to upgrade your system unless you read that it's OK by the developers of the hack. ive been into hacking iphones, psps, gbds, etc for awhile now and that's where I see 99% of people messing up their stuff.

[ctrl-alt-delete]

ok. this is something not noted in the "faq" above that is pretty important. when you're about to do the twilight hack there are two save files to choose from. depending on which disc you have, you might select a different file. read below.

" If the text reads "RVL-RZDE-0A-0", you have a v0 game and
you should select the TwilightHack0 savegame. If the text
reads "RVL-RZDE-0A-2", you have a v2 game and you should
select the TwiilghtHack2 savegame. If you do not select
the correct version of the save, the game will freeze and
the hack will not work."

if anyone tries this hack it's important for you to read through the README files and not blindly follow this tut. that's good advice for anything really.

also, most apps you download (like the snes emu) already have an icon and the xml file written up. you don't have to do any of that. just drop it in the apps folder of your sd card. this is NOT where you put roms/save files though. you have to store roms and save files on the root of your sd card in a folder called snes9x/roms and snes9x/saves.

the above things were the only walls i ran into when setting this up, but it's all working 100% now.

the LoPsT's Unofficial Version of Snes9X is pretty good. remember to load the rom first before hitting "play game".

i was considering for awhile hacking my xbox360 to play emulators and such on my plasma tv, but this was a much easier alternative. i did quite a bit of reading and it's pretty safe to install the homebrew channel. you only have to do the twilight hack once and after the homebrew channel is installed you can load all future programs from it. very cool.

remember not to upgrade your system unless you read that it's OK by the developers of the hack. ive been into hacking iphones, psps, gbds, etc for awhile now and that's where I see 99% of people messing up their stuff.

Glad to hear you got it up and running.

I have been thoroughly enjoying pirating VC and Wiiware.

:)

[MottZilla]

i was considering for awhile hacking my xbox360 to play emulators and such on my plasma tv, but this was a much easier alternative. i did quite a bit of reading and it's pretty safe to install the homebrew channel. you only have to do the twilight hack once and after the homebrew channel is installed you can load all future programs from it. very cool.

Considering you can't hack your 360 to play emulators, it is much easier to hack the Wii. The 360 can be hacked to play "backups" but not unauthorized homebrew programs.

[Breaker]

Considering you can't hack your 360 to play emulators, it is much easier to hack the Wii. The 360 can be hacked to play "backups" but not unauthorized homebrew programs.

I haven't even looked at the 360 "hacking" scene. I was unaware you couldn't do that. it looks extremely complicated though... taking apart your 360 and hooking the hd up to your computer and all this other crap. not worth risking the chance of ruining a $400+ device imo.

[MottZilla]

Actually, you remove the DVD-ROM drive, which lets you flash the firmware in the drive to allow you to make the 360 believe it is playing a real disc. But it's not undetectable.

[bobrocks95]

ok. this is something not noted in the "faq" above that is pretty important. when you're about to do the twilight hack there are two save files to choose from. depending on which disc you have, you might select a different file. read below.

" If the text reads "RVL-RZDE-0A-0", you have a v0 game and
you should select the TwilightHack0 savegame. If the text
reads "RVL-RZDE-0A-2", you have a v2 game and you should
select the TwiilghtHack2 savegame. If you do not select
the correct version of the save, the game will freeze and
the hack will not work."

I had the list above that corresponded to the disk version which said exactly what you just quoted above.


also, most apps you download (like the snes emu) already have an icon and the xml file written up. you don't have to do any of that. just drop it in the apps folder of your sd card. this is NOT where you put roms/save files though. you have to store roms and save files on the root of your sd card in a folder called snes9x/roms and snes9x/saves.

Well, for any older homebrew apps, most don't have those included since they were made before the homebrew channel was.

[bobrocks95]

Glad to hear you got it up and running.

I have been thoroughly enjoying pirating VC and Wiiware.

:)

As I mod I guess you can say that, but the second I even think about it I'm banned.:tongue:

[Breaker]

To activate it:
-Insert your Twilight Princess disk, run it, load the first save file, and either talk to the man in front of you or walk backwards to launch your "boot.elf".




that's what you have written.. and thinking or talking about piracy will not lead to you getting banned. providing it on the other hand would.

[bobrocks95]

After you have the hack on your Wii and load the game, at the game selection screen, there is only one to choose from.

And I visit several other forums all with very slightly different rules on piracy, so I just keep a tight lid on it to be safe.

[MottZilla]

bobrocks, we don't care if you enjoy pirating VC or Wiiware. Just don't link to the copyrighted material here on the forum. Meaning don't put a link to where you can download ROMs or ISOs.

[Breaker]

After you have the hack on your Wii and load the game, at the game selection screen, there is only one to choose from.



nope... there are two save files to select from, which is why your "faq" was a little confusing.

[MottZilla]

Well now they say there may soon be a DVD exploit that could lead to playing 'Backups' on a softmodded Wii. That's "almost" enough to make me want to pickup another Wii. ;)

[ctrl-alt-delete]

http://hackmii.com/2008/07/dvd-access-library-no-modchip-required/

Shit is crazy. Nintendo is retarded.

/\ Haha. I just noticed you posted the same thing.