Hola, Wiibrewers! This week's been pretty hectic for us here at QJ thanks to all the news that poured out of E3. But still, the Wiibrew scene managed to kick up its own storm this week, which I daresay was much more exciting than what we got from E3! We got plenty of news for you this week, so hang on to your hats!

---

News from the Wiibrew Front

Big big big - I can't emphasize that enough - big news this week on the Wiibrew front is the release of the Custom IOS37, basically the first ever custom firmware for the Wii. Waninkoko, author of the installer, also released a Wii DVD Dumper to show the potential of the project. A second version of the program was released not soon after, which is described to have cleaner code than the first release - which means less trouble with the big N.

On the other side of the Wiibrew community, although running along the same vein, Wii homebrew developer Bushing has discovered an exploit that allows ISOs to run on unmodded Wiis. This little discovery may have legal repercussions. To avoid them, Bushing has contacted Nintendo to discuss the issue, but they failed to respond even after three emails were sent. Doubtless we'll hear more on this in the near future.

To make this week complete, we also have news from Team Twiizers, the pioneers of Wii homebrew. According to the team's Marcan, Beta 9 of the Homebrew Channel is also being developed, although he wasn't too generous with the details. Marcan himself is making his own project, an anti-brick program for the Wii.

Link: Wiibrew custom firmware: Custom IOS installer, DVD dumper
Link: Bushing discovers exploit that allows ISOs to run on unmodified Wiis
Link: Wiibrew news: Homebrew Channel Beta 9 in development, more

Now just to wrap up all this talk about modifying the internal processes of the Wii, we give you WiiMU, a project from Wii Homebrew developer SquidMan. It's a program whose main goal is to completely replace the Wii's System Menu. It's capable of running alongside the Wii Menu System yet it replaces the official interface with its own.

Link: WiiMU v1.2 - total replacement to Wii System Menu

---

Wiibrew Pick of the Week

 

You guys remember GeeXboX? It's a linux-based media center prototype that was released last month. With a slew of new media center program releases from the Wiibrew community like MPlayerWii though, I thought development may have halted. Boy was I wrong. And boy am I glad I was wrong.

The latest build of GeeXboX has a ton of new features, thanks to last week's release of the Whiite-Linux system. It now has support for bluetooth, and new USB functions (including support for USB storage). It even has new networking features. I'm hoping to see more of this program in the future.

Link: GeeXboX v0.1alpha0: bluetooth and USB support, networking

---

Wiibrew Media Players

Speaking of Media Players, two of our favorites were updated this week. First up is MPlayerWii, which is now on v0.03. It now has support for USB storage support (although because of speed issues, it can only play MP3 files), as well as volume controls that can be adjusted with the Wiimote.

Link: MPlayerWii v0.03: USB storage support, Wiimote volume controls

DragonMedia Player was also updated this week. Although video playback is still absent, the program is shaping up to be a pretty well-rounded audio player, adding support for two new formats in this version.

Link: DragonMedia Player v0.1 Beta: support for more formats, random playback

---

Wiibrew Programs and Games

I've always commented on how remarkably useful teknecal's Homebrew Browser program is, and how I'd like to see it permanently added to the Homebrew Channel. It hasn't happened yet, but this is the next best thing. Big bang theory added the program to the Wii Brew SD Installer. If you're completely new to Wiibrew, you might want to take a look at this new release.

Homebrew Browser itself was recently updated as well. It now has increased buffer size, as well as modified to have HTTP no-cache, to ensure that you always retrieve the latest version of your favorite Wii homebrew.

Link: Wii Brew SD Installer v1.3: now with Homebrew Browser
Link: Homebrew Browser v0.2.0b: increased buffer size, HTTP no-cache

This program is particularly useful if you've lost track of where you installed your WAD files. Called Title_Uninstaller, it lets you uninstall WAD files even if you lost track of the original file. Helps you clean out your system of unwanted channels.

Link: Title_Uninstaller v0.1: WAD uninstaller, doesn't require original WAD

Here's an update to an incredibly fun homebrew game, Guitar Fun (I guess that's why it's titled that way, huh). Two updates were released this week for the Guitar Hero clone. The game now has added support for multiple controllers, and the download archive now has a very detailed manual that explains the various controls and menus.

Link: Guitar Fun v2.8 - added multiple controller support, manual

---

Wiibrew Emulators

 

Even in the emulator scene, the Wiibrew community's been pretty busy lately. Dolphin, an ongoing project to emulate the GameCube on the Wii, sees some marked improvements in the latest build, although it's still far from a fully working version. As it stands, it seems the team is looking for new developers for the project.

Link: Dolphin - GameCube emulator with preliminary Wii support needs new coders

Developer Eke-Eke was pretty busy this week with the release of the latest versions of the Genesis Plus Project and the SMSPlus Project.

The Genesis Plus Project - a Sega Genesis emulator - now supports up to eight players, with all of them being able to use different controller device. The SMSPlus Project - a Sega Master System and Game Gear Emulator for the Wii - now has added emulation for the Light Phaser and Paddle peripherals.

Link: Genesis Plus Project 160708: supports up to 8 players
Link: SMSPlus 050708: emulation for Light Phaser and Paddle peripherals

Wii homebrew developer emu_kidid's Visual Boy Advance emulator saw an unofficial update this week from theinternetftw, fixing some video problems encountered when using component cables and the like. Support for the classic controller's analog stick has also been added.

Link: VBA 1.7.2 Wii update 2: video problem fix, classic controller analog stick support

Finally, the last emulator we have for this week's Wiibrew Weekend Warrior is ScummVM. Now you can run games written in the language, which there are plenty of. Of the more notable titles are The Curse of Monkey Island (and the sequel), the King's Quest series, and Broken Sword 1 and 2.

Link: ScummVM rev 33083

---

An explanation

Some readers have expressed confusion on what waninkoko's custom firmware actually does. I must confess, I was stumped for a while as well. After all, there were no visible differences before and after the patch was applied. It took me a while to figure out what was happening. Reader Stinky_1 was kind enough to elaborate on what the custom firmware actually does, and what it implies for Wiibrew in the future:

 

---

And that's it for this week folks. Whew. Unfortunately we didn't get to hear more of the GoldenEye 007 inject for the Wii that we reported on the previous week, but we'll be sure to let you know once we do. There's a bright, bright future ahead for Wii homebrew now with these new developments from waninkoko and Bushing. You can bet we'll keep you updated as the Wiibrew community progresses. 'Till next week! See ya!