I've put GameCyte's link collection on hold to bring you this important message: Don't update your Nintendo Wii. I can't stress this enough.
Late last night, gamers at large discovered their ivory-white Wiis glowing a brilliant blue, a clear signal that there was an available update -- "Wii Menu version 3.3." I hope very few of them took the plunge, because this morning it was revealed that the update is the homebrew and import communities' equivalent of a Trojan Horse. Reports are flooding in that the update effectively disables consoles that have not already installed the Homebrew Channel from ever doing so, kills the Twilight Princess hack, and perhaps worst of all, disables the popular Freeloader software that has helped many an import gamer play foreign releases.
The following line was included in the Wii-mail that accompanied the update:
Because unauthorized modifications to save files may impair game play or the Wii console, updating to Wii Menu version 3.3 will also check for and automatically remove such save files.
In exchange, the update will -- get this -- allow you to "move a Mii from the Mii Plaza to the Mii Parade in the Mii Channel." Very compelling.
Now, perhaps you've never had an urge to try a homebrew title, and couldn't possibly bring yourself to import games. You should still avoid this update like the plague, for three simple reasons. First, this is a step backwards for Wii functionality in general, and those who download are sending Nintendo the message that they are okay with that. Second, this step backwards is masquerading as a functionality update while offering nothing of value; such underhanded tactics should be rejected on principle. Third, the Nintendo Wii has unique potential which is currently disappointingly underutilized in commercial titles, and while the community's miniscule efforts to date may not have yielded anything you might want to play, there's no telling if their efforts in future might not produce something of similar value to the work of Johnny Chung Lee. But why would homebrew designers bother if their potential audience vanishes overnight, lured away by the ability to drag and drop a Mii?
You wouldn't want to shoot that potential in the foot, now would you?
GameCyte will continue to analyze future Wii System Updates, and let you know when they might potentially be deserving of such a tremendous tradeoff.
Note: We would like to thank Nintendo for tipping off users via Wii-mail that the "unauthorized modifications" would get the boot, rather than disabling our consoles without notice.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Nintendo: killing homebrew and anything that doesn't make them a profit since 1990. It's a wonder they haven't put out required updates to kill flashcarts yet.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Flashcarts for the DS, rather.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Given the chance, I'd love to examine this patch in detail. It's doubtful that the update actually fixed the stack smash exploit that Twilight Hack employed. If this save file detection is poor, changing a few bytes of the save file may allow it to evade detection.
I can foresee three possible remedies to the situation:
1) The homebrew scene finds another stack in a game which doesn't do proper bounds checking or finds a way to allow Twilight Hack to continue to function.
2) Homebrew developers find a way to exploit disc loading in the Mil-CD vein of exploitation on the Dreamcast. Developers could also find a way to author miniDVDs that appear to the Wii as GameCube discs.
3) Homebrew finds some other bug in the firmware to exploit. This would need to be a very serious issue that Nintendo could not fix without recalling Wiis and reflashing/replacing chips. For instance, the DS SLOT-1 card encryption algorithm is part of a specialized, non-programmable chip on the mainboard.
The actual solution could be any combination of these possibilities. Whatever the case, Nintendo is going to be in a constant state of playing catch-up. They will fix one issue, and homebrew developers will find a new way to get around it.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Some technical details on this update, care of the WiiBrew Wiki:
According to the post on HackMii, three functions have been added to the system menu.
...
Based on disassembly of these functions, it seems that the SystemMenu will now check to see if the strings in all Twilight Princess save data (such as character names) are of correct length. This will essentially disallow a string-based stack smash for Twilight Princess.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Last update: there's a workaround for the TP hack (update 4), but it isn't public yet. It took Nintendo three months to test the update, but less than a day to break it.
June 17th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Hope springs eternal.
GameCyte greatly approves of these updates from the
hackerhomebrew community, and bestows upon you the cookie of l33tness.June 19th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Considering the popularity of emulator ports within the homebrew community, the threat to Virtual Console sales Nintendo likely fears is somewhat understandable. Still, it's disappointing to see them respond his way. As Johnny Chung Lee demonstrates, the Wii is capable of more than utilized by commercial developers. I recognize fear of piracy as a valid concern, but I hate to see Nintendo shut out home developers. If they were to offer an alternative solution, such as offering the WiiWare development kit to homebrew enthusiasts, these kinds of "fixes" might not seem so bad. Until then, I see no reason to accept Nintendo telling me what I can or can't do with my chunk of hardware.