brijmin on Tech

Nintendo just rolled out its own pretty significant update for the Wii, so it only seems fitting that the homebrew community has now done the same, with the always prolific Waninkoko coming through with a new USB Loader that’ll let you play your “legal game backup collection” from any old USB mass storage device.

At this point, we’re sorta surprised you can’t just look askance at a Wii and set it to running homebrew with your penetrating gaze alone — it seems like everything else has been accomplished in the hacking, modding and general humiliation of Nintendo’s little console.

Ever since video game consoles moved to optical discs, manufacturers and users have battled over backups. Manufacturers fear that if they allow users to burn disc backups, users will download and burn games they haven’t paid for. Users argue that the discs they paid for are so easily scratched and ruined that it’s absurd for [...]

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and now we’re hearing that the infamous Wii Backup Loader– the hacks that allow you to run “backup” Wii games without a modchip — is out riding the ‘net thanks to an overzealous beta tester.

A double shot of bad news for the Wii hacking set today — not only do new Wiis appear to have a modchip-proof layer of epoxy around the DVD-ROM IC chips, Waninkoko has abandoned the Wii Backup-Loader project. The modchip news isn’t all that surprising.

Nintendo doesn’t exactly advertise it, but the remotes for the Wii gaming console—including the balance board that comes with Wii Fit—have Bluetooth capabilities. That means you can connect your Wii peripherals to your computer to operate the media center hooked up to your TV, play emulated games with a Nunchuk, Classic Controller, or even a [...]