Wiikey reverse-engineers the Wii U, mod chip coming soon

[Shawn Knight]

Wiikey, the company that sells mod chips for the Nintendo Wii, said in an update on their website they have successfully reverse-engineered the Wii U drive authentication, disk encryption, file system and “everything else” needed to build a mod chip for Nintendo’s Wii U.

The device isn’t available for purchase just yet but when it becomes available, all you’ll need to do to hack Nintendo’s latest gaming console is plug in a USB dongle – that’s it. With the mod, gamers will be able to install custom operating systems that allow them to launch homebrew software, emulators and – unfortunately for Nintendo – pirated games.

News of a Wii U mod chip comes at a dicey time for Nintendo as they just replaced their North American CEO with Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata. The plan moving forward is to drive sales of the Wii U by releasing more key titles on the platform. True enough, Nintendo has a number of big titles in the pipeline like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and PIkmin 3.

Of course, that’s just one way of looking at it. If you’re trying to find the positive in a situation like this, it’s that a mod chip could help drive sales of the Wii U console. It’s unlikely, however, that most people interested in a mod chip are the type to pay for games, but I digress.

No word yet on when the WiikeU will be available for purchase or how much it will retail for. A posting on the company’s website said to stay tuned for updates.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/52428-wiikey-reverse-engineers-the-wii-u-mod-chip-coming-soon.html

 

[fimbles]

Wind waker HD you say...

I just spent 30 pounds on the original gamecube version from ebay...

The irony is the gamecube and 11 games bundle only cost 15 pounds..

 

[NTAPRO]

Nintendo gets a lot of the good stuff :/

 

[captainawesome]

I would love to see something like what happened with the original Xbox happen here. That was stuff of legends on such old hardware. It allowed u to play games directly off the HD, watch HD movies off of the network or hdd and play music all while switching between all 3! It also had a brilliant interface. It was called XBMC and although the project lives on in a different form today, I want the type of intergration that was existent on the original xbox. But I would still pay for the games I want

 

[spydercanopus]

Anyone remember Bleem? Where you could play Dreamcast and Playstation games on your PC? I'd like to see a return of software like that.

 

[LNCPapa]

I remember Bleem! An emulator written completely in Assembly!

 

[NTAPRO]

Anyone remember Bleem? Where you could play Dreamcast and Playstation games on your PC? I'd like to see a return of software like that.

Was it pretty good for dreamcast?

 

[Ravik]

I believe there were three versions of Bleem! released for the DC. All were custom versions that were compiled specifically to play either Gran Turismo 2, Tekken 3, and Metal Gear Solid on the DC.

 

[Ravik]

DC-X was a much more useful tool, since it allowed you to play licensed DC games from other regions on your any region's hardware.

 

[MrAnderson]

I would not say that most people interested in a mod chip are people that want to pirate games.

Those 2 are not mutually exclusive. Someone like me is interested in writing software/homebrew, and others might want to install an alternate OS, or some might want to play homebrew games. There is no way to really tell how large each group is considering everyone's intensions.

 

[LNCPapa]

My reason for getting mod chips in the past centered around playing import games. I just have no interest in doing so for the Wii.

 

[Ravik]

I think the mod scene has greatly matured over the years, as those who first pioneered the technology for piracy purposes are now grown up and using it to revitalize their favorite systems. The 5th and 6th gen mod scenes appear to be far more active than 7th and 8th gen systems--though I suspect this will shift as the next generation of consumers grows up and begins to do the same.

Personally, I see very little reason to mod a main-stream console unless you're planning on engaging in piracy (which I feel is wrong since this is the *only* stage where Developers can actually make their money).

However, systems have a realatively short shelf-life (10-years at best). Once they're gone, you're going to have to resort to eBay to find these games or cling to hope that your favorite game gets re-released for the newer system (which rarely happens -- I'm still waiting for the NES version of Jackal to be re-released!). Course, this could change a little with the next generation games reportedly being serial-coded and licensed to your system...

Anyhow, it also takes time for modders to create good Homebrew software, so the sooner new *quality* mods can be released, the sooner strong mod-scenes can begin to create useful solutions for the hardware.

In regards to the Wii-U, it has some great hardware and features to work with, so I'll be very interested down the road when teh system is near the end of its shelf-life to look into the mod-scene for this one. I'd personally like to see an alternative Wii-U OS that allows me to seamlessly toggle between Wii and Wii-U without having to switch controllers--and while I'm at it, it would be nice if the system's native 1080p upconvert could also perform a 1080p render of Wii games! Now *THAT* would be cool!

Either way...I'm sure that Nintendo ain't gonna be too happy about this...

 

[miamirican305]

YEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!

 

[miamirican305]

This has just become my new favorite forum! X-D

 

[dennis777]

Moding a console to play homebrew/ custom OS = fine
moding a console to play pirated software = kinda wrong

 

[NTAPRO]

I think the wii has had the best library of homebrew I've seen in a while