Monday, February 7, 2011

The Homebrew Browser

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post.
Anyway, today we're going to be looking at the Homebrew browser and why it's absolutely essential if you want to fully utilize your console.
Basically, what the homebrew browser is is an app store where everything is free. You can download emulators (legally not allowed to mention names, but you'll see them under their own tab once you download the app.), games, utilities, and there's even an app that lets your Wii become a DVD player!
Copy-paste this link into your browser and click save.

http://www.codemii.com/wiihomebrew/homebrew_browser_v0.3.9b.zip

follow the instructions in the included readme.
And there you go, you have the homebrew browser.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Setting up your console

Since it is really the easiest to use, I'm going to show you how to use Smash Stack. Side note: this only works with wiis made in the USA.

1. First off, you need to make sure you have NO custom stages saved on your Wii or SD card. Not even the three sample stages. You can either move them to your SD card and then to your computer, or just delete them altogether.
2. Open up the hackmii_installer folder you downloaded earlier and copy the boot.elf file into the root of your SD card. Don't worry about any of the other files for now.
3. Finally, copy the "private" folder from the Smash Stack download onto the root of the SD. If you already have a "private" folder there, rename that folder to "privateold" or something.

The root of your SD card should now have these files:
  • private - Extracted From Smash Stack

  • boot.elf - Extracted From The Hackmii Installer

  • (optional) privateold - The Wii's existing files renamed temporarily


  • Now, insert your SD card into your wii and boot up Smash Bros. Go to the stage builder screen and the game will crash and start loading the Hackmii installer.

    Now you will see a screen similar to this. File:HackMiiInstallerScreen.jpg

    Select continue. Don't worry if it says that BootMii can only be installed as an IOS, just hit continue. (Side note: you will not be able to use the Wiimote right now, but you can use either a Gamecube controller or the buttons on the Wii. Power=move cursor, Reset=Select)
    Select the 4th button, which takes you to a new option. Select the first option there, what it does is back up the Wii's NAND memory (it'll take a long time and you need at least 512 MB of space on the SD card.)

    Congratulations, you have successfully installed the Homebrew Channel on your Wii! Next post, we'll take a look at the Homebrew Browser and start applying patches to games.

    Downloading all necessary files and stuff like that

    Alright, so you want to hack your wii, do you? Good. You have common sense. But there are a couple other things you need before you start.
    A) You need to know your Wii system menu version. You can find it if you go to the settings menu and poke around for a few minutes. If you have a black wii or any other color other than white, or if you have updated your wii recently, it'll probably have the System Menu 4.3, which is the hardest to get around in my opinion, but still possible.
    B) You need an SD card (2 GB or less and it cannot be an SDHC card)
    C) Some form of file extracting tool. I use 7-Zip. It's free, and has the same abilities as most other extracting tools. Get it here: http://www.7-zip.org/
    D) To use most of the tools I'm using, you need to have a Windows computer. If you have a Mac, I have only one suggestion: get a Windows computer. Most of the programs I'll be using can only run on Windows.
    E) The HackMii installer. Get it here: http://bootmii.org/download/
    F) Either a copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl or Lego Indiana Jones: the Original Adventures. I recommend the Smash Bros. Brawl disk, simply because we're going to hack that one anyway and you might as well have it now.
    G) Depending on which game you have, you'll need either the Smash Stack or Indiana Pwns exploit. I think you can guess which one goes with which game.
    Get Smash Stack here: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Smash_Stack (click the download link on the right side of the page)
    Get Indiana Pwns here: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Indiana_Pwns (again, click the download link on the right)
    Both of these work equally well, and they work on all System Menu versions.

    Welcome!

    Hey, everybody, IMakeTurtles here. There are a lot of guides out there on how to hack the wii console, but so far as I can find, there are no comprehensive guides on every subject possibly related to Wii hacking. Seeing this, I've decided to create this blog in an effort to make it as easy as possible to mod your wii. I'll be updating this blog on a weekly basis, more often if I get the time. Thanks and I hope I can be of some help.