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Say what you will about the Wii's reliance on SD cards for external memory storage, but it can't be argued that decision has helped make the Wii one of the most quickly and easily hacked home consoles of all time. This latest leap forward in the noble pursuit to free Wii owners from the burden of actually paying for games is undoubtedly the most exciting one yet.

Anyone with an SD card-compatible PC, an SD card, a Wii, a GameCube controller, the internet, and the black heart of an evil software pirate can now play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games on their Wii free of charge. The full list of games compatible with this hack is currently unknown (at least to me), though the games in the above video and Link's Awakening DX are certainly enough to get one started.

Seeing as how neither of Nintendo's current consoles are able to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, Nintendo likely won't fear this hack enough to spend the time and money necessary to kill it...yet. Once they get NES games running on it, now that's a differnet story. If you're interested in partaking in this brand of Wii homebrew fun, do so soon. It's only a matter of time before the Twilight Hack is squashed like a bug by the big N, via both legal action and Wii firmware updates.

Get it? Hack? Bug? As in "computer bug"?

(Sigh)

[Via GameTrailers]


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22 comments | showing # 1 to 22

Cheeburga's Avatar
Cheeburga at 04/05/2008 13:55
Pretty cool I guess. But why do people go out of their way to do this when you can easily emulate it on the PC?
Cheeburga's Avatar
Cheeburga at 04/05/2008 13:58
No, I won't say anything about GoNintendo. :]
vexed alex's Avatar
vexed alex at 04/05/2008 13:59
Meh.

I can already do this on my PC. Not worth hacking a Wii.
Alex's Avatar
Alex at 04/05/2008 14:07
They already got a SNES emulator running on the wii ..
Jetsetlemming's Avatar
Jetsetlemming at 04/05/2008 14:49
You can do this on your PC with a large selection of programs with almost universal compatibility without the extra steps of an SD card and Wii, so..
You can also play them on a DS with an R4-type SD based device, and the GBA with another pirate cartridge.
Remo's Avatar
Remo at 04/05/2008 14:52
Regardless of if you could be bothered to emulate on your wii or not. Evry step in this direction is a step towards wii homebrew.
The-Excel's Avatar
The-Excel at 04/05/2008 15:19
I'm not a fan of exploits that require a certain game to trigger. I'll wait until a hardware-based hack is perfected until I decide to get my hands on some of this action, thank you.
waxximis's Avatar
waxximis at 04/05/2008 15:52
why do they always use zelda?
Professor Pew's Avatar
Professor Pew at 04/05/2008 16:20
I don't know if Nitnendo will fear what this hack enough. There will probably be more exploits to be found, and they've even made a Wii homebrew channel. Bring it, I say :)
Drift64's Avatar
Drift64 at 04/05/2008 16:28
@ The Excel it is call a mod-chip...
The-Excel's Avatar
The-Excel at 04/05/2008 16:45
I always wait for modchips to fully mature before I put one in mine. Until a chip for the Wii is released that presents absolutely no risk of disabling my Wii after any update or online activity, I'll wait as long as I have to.
Veck's Avatar
Veck at 04/05/2008 17:19
The video reminded me of how little Pokemon has changed from its Gameboy incarnations. Bleh.

But cool, I guess. Probably wouldn't go through the effort of setting it up as I might with a SNES emulator. Gameboy games by their nature don't demand living-room comfort.
BlackSunEmpire's Avatar
BlackSunEmpire at 04/05/2008 19:00
@Waxximis I believe it has something to do with Zelda being the game which theyve been able to exploit via a memory overrun. Once it crashes, they can run their own programs. I'm unsure if they've found these overruns in other games yet.
NightDehumidifier's Avatar
NightDehumidifier at 04/05/2008 19:13
At last, someone is finally pushing the graphical boundaries on the Wii. About damn time.
LarkOhiya's Avatar
LarkOhiya at 04/05/2008 20:59
agreed. PC is better if your going to do programing thingamagigs.
AKK's Avatar
AKK at 04/05/2008 21:43
And this is exactly why Nintendo will never let us boot from an SD card, because shit like this would be even more rampant.

Why must hackers proclaim their prowess and fuck it up for the rest of us? Why can't they lie and tell Nintendo that their security with their SD cards is unmatched and it's impossible to hack the system?

Fuck. Come on guys.
WDot's Avatar
WDot at 04/05/2008 22:47
AKK: Or, why doesn't Nintendo do what every other tech company has to do and secure their products?

Nintendo is used to consoles that can't connect to the internet or interface with ANYTHING except official Nintendo products. They decided to put off jumping online last generation, and they reap what they sow. I remember the Nintendo Wifi Connection website being taken down on at least one occasion by hackers.

Hackers aren't going to go away because guess what? Making your console do things it wasn't designed to do is FUN. That's half the game, and it's not only a fun game but it's a great brain exercise. Nintendo just has to accept they're on the big bad Internet now, and deal with it.
JustLikeBuck's Avatar
JustLikeBuck at 04/06/2008 08:03
This isn't much news.

The WiiBrew project are trying to develop a HomeBrew Channel for the wii, that will at least a gui browser that will play any homebrew that ran on the GC.

I'm on the fence. On the one hand the Wlip looks to be a good solderless (and more importantly non-damaging) option to add nearly any modchip... But I really like the idea of a dedicated channel to Homebrew.
tkyy's Avatar
tkyy at 04/06/2008 10:39
Now I can play all my pokemans yellow, green, blue and red once again...
Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 04/06/2008 11:16
That's a nice hack.
HarassmentPanda's Avatar
HarassmentPanda at 04/07/2008 00:52
The SD card has nothing to do with the Wii being so easily hacked. The fact that it's essentially a Gamecube on the inside is what made it so easy to hack.
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 04/08/2008 11:38
Strangely, I have no desire to hack one of the most open consoles out there.
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