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Well, lets see...

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/List_of_homebrew_applications_(games)

From another quick glance at the list,
Asteroids
Duck Hunt
Missile Command
Tetris

Don't suppose any of those sound familiar?
Think all of those games are in the public domain?

Just because they're old does not mean they're fair game.

The point being, go ahead, have a blast modding your Wii to do whatever it is you please but asking Nintendo to endorse software that could potentially allow people to run software (homebrewed or stolen) that might end up costing them money when the game owner comes along with a lawsuit is not just ridiculous, it's stupid.

You're doing something with their console that they didn't intend and you somehow feel entitled to their blessing because you feel you're making their system better.

Twelve hours after this story was posted "from the see-how-long-that-lasts dept".....

http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/Wii_Shop_and_IOS51_installer

Wii Shop and IOS51 installer
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Wii Shop and IOS51 installer is a very quick modification of PatchMii modified by Muzer that does one thing: It installs the new IOS51 and Wii Shop Channel, without installing the patches to all the other IOSes. This means that as long as you didn't update, you can now install this to use the Wii Shop Channel but keep all the benefits of not having the update.

Anybody at all could have made this, just everyone is too busy at the moment, so I figured I would make it. It's literally modifying 4 lines of code and commenting out a bunch of stuff. Because of this I didn't bother to include the source in the package, but if anyone wants me to, I'll happily include it.

This does not have the same effects as updating, so you get the best of both worlds.

You can do this on any system menu version and it will work fine, keeping the system menu version you have.

I made the program as two separate dol files, because it's easier and quicker for me that way, if this lasts a while I'll make a version that combines the two files.

NOTE: TAKE OUT ANY GAMECUBE MEMORY CARDS/CONTROLLERS AND USB DEVICES BEFORE INSTALLING ANYTHING. The first time one person installed the IOS51, and Shop Channel. One person had a Gamecube memory card, and a wireless adapter in the Wii, and it didn't install correctly. But after taking out all Gamecube items, re-installed everything and it worked fine. Axelpaxel was the one that found that USB devices did it too.

Instructions: Simply load one file, then the other. It does not matter in which order you load them. Use any method.

Releases by Muzer
Wii Shop and IOS51 installer v1: version 1
Wii Shop and IOS51 installer v2: version 2 (This version includes a bugfix)
Source code: Source

Releases by tona
This version will install both IOS51 and the Shop Channel in the same installer and will also patch the signature hash check out of IOS51 for you (fakesign bug).

You currently need this update to access the Wii Shop Channel. from http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wii_System_Updates

Umm.. So what Nintendo is basically saying is "Well, if you don't upgrade you can keep pirating but we REFUSE to let you pay for us for anything" Whoever thought that up should be fired. By doing this update, I'm sure that they're actually losing revenue from people that will not update. Of course, only until the patch gets a workaround again.

There are a fair amount of homebrew apps out there, you should check the complete list:

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/List_of_homebrew_applications

Many homebrew applications can access USB storage devices (MPlayer-Wii, most of the emulators, a few others) and to the best of my knowledge there's not a very restrictive upper limit on external storage on the Wii, if there even is one. But there IS a somewhat restrictive list of supported devices. Of course external storage hasn't been tested on a ridiculously wide scale, but a list IS there, along with a tool for checking compatibility of your device. Regardless, you'll still need a fairly large USB drive since most games are DVD5, and a few are DVD9 (Brawl is just over 7.5GB).

That said, the current backup loaders simply load the DVD in the drive and that's all. I'm sure it's not a restriction, it's just easier to burn DVDs than fool with buying a huge drive to hold game images that may or may not even work on the Wii to begin with. Plus I'm sure that I'm not alone in preferring to have a hard copy around. My ISO backups are in the cloud. (GET IT? lololol)

Many homebrew applications can access USB storage devices (MPlayer-Wii, most of the emulators, a few others) and to the best of my knowledge there's not a very restrictive upper limit on external storage on the Wii, if there even is one. But there IS a somewhat restrictive list of supported devices. Of course external storage hasn't been tested on a ridiculously wide scale, but a list IS there, along with a tool for checking compatibility of your device. Regardless, you'll still need a fairly large USB drive since most games are DVD5, and a few are DVD9 (Brawl is just over 7.5GB).

That said, the current backup loaders simply load the DVD in the drive and that's all. I'm sure it's not a restriction, it's just easier to burn DVDs than fool with buying a huge drive to hold game images that may or may not even work on the Wii to begin with. Plus I'm sure that I'm not alone in preferring to have a hard copy around. My ISO backups are in the cloud. (GET IT? lololol)

SSBB's save data includes the friend code and online data, which could potentially cause problems when copied to a different Wii, so copying is disabled for SSBB saves. If you happen to have Twilight Princess, though, there are a number of homebrew solutions. I highly suggest renting TP if you don't have it, if only for the Homebrew Channel.

SSBB's save data includes the friend code and online data, which could potentially cause problems when copied to a different Wii, so copying is disabled for SSBB saves. If you happen to have Twilight Princess, though, there are a number of homebrew solutions. I highly suggest renting TP if you don't have it, if only for the Homebrew Channel.

SSBB's save data includes the friend code and online data, which could potentially cause problems when copied to a different Wii, so copying is disabled for SSBB saves. If you happen to have Twilight Princess, though, there are a number of homebrew solutions. I highly suggest renting TP if you don't have it, if only for the Homebrew Channel.

SSBB's save data includes the friend code and online data, which could potentially cause problems when copied to a different Wii, so copying is disabled for SSBB saves. If you happen to have Twilight Princess, though, there are a number of homebrew solutions. I highly suggest renting TP if you don't have it, if only for the Homebrew Channel.

Video game consoles have multiple controllers and a large monitor. But the consoles sold in English-speaking countries have a lockout chip and historically anti-indie policies.

Historically != Modern Approach

* WiiWare
* XBox Live
* PlayStation Network

These are all services that Indies are able to break into these days. For a small investment (free - $600 for XBLA, $2000 for a WiiWare dev kit) you can make your game for one of these consoles, then offer it for download for a small fee.

Case in Point: Defend Your Castle went from a single-player flash game to a local multiplayer title that happens to be the third most popular game on the WiiWare service.

Now if you mean "Indie" to mean "Homebrew", you're barking up the wrong tree. Go get a copy of DevkitPro + a copy of Twilight Princess for the Wii. That will allow you to develop local multiplayer for a console. Another option is to support XBox 360 controllers on Windows PCs. They are designed as USB devices intended for plugging into either a computer or a console. You can then encourage players to purchase these controllers.

Assuming your homebrew title is good enough, that is...

... going to make something other then emulators and ports of Doom/Quake/Etc?

There is a port of Quake, and it works very well. http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_apps/Quake Controls work very similarly to Metroid Prime 3 if you have played that.

Wow, something _other_ than. I fail at reading.

... going to make something other then emulators and ports of Doom/Quake/Etc?

There is a port of Quake, and it works very well.
http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_apps/Quake

Controls work very similarly to Metroid Prime 3 if you have played that.

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_apps/Wiibrator

Done.

Let's set thing straight. So far, homebrew on the Wii is an entirely different playfield from copied games. To play games on DVD-Rs, you need to hardware mod your drive, period.

Now, when you get to Virtual Console/WiiWare piracy, things get a little muddier. Unfortunately, if you can run homebrew, then you can effectively pirate VC games, because the terribly broken security means that you can pretty much just install them and they'll work. This might change in the future, when Nintendo fixes the problems.

Our (Team Twiizers') goal is to enable homebrew on the Wii, not piracy. We're not going to go out of our way to prevent piracy, but we also try to come up with methods of running homebrew that don't directly enable piracy. However, we can't work around the fact that, ultimately, if you can run unsigned code, then that code might be a game. We do have the advantage that pirates don't really have much of clue overall (so far), which is why we haven't seen a Wii ISO loader that can run games from an SD card yet. We sure as heck aren't going to write it, but if someone does, there's not much we can do about it.

As for homebrew, there is certainly a public, free, open source SDK available based on the GNU toolchain and an open source library to access the Wii hardware. In fact, most of the Wii's hardware is supported. Full graphics (though the API is mostly undocumented, it's all there), Wii Remote, SD card access, Gamecube pads, networking (WiFi or ethernet), USB mass storage, partial sound (no hardware acceleration yet), etc. See devkitpro for the toolchain and wiibrew for the community wiki.

The Wii has a dual-CPU arrangement much like that of the PlayStation 2: an overclocked GameCube CPU (Broadway) and an ARM9 I/O processor (Starlet). I/O to the USB ports, SD slot, Bluetooth chip, Wi-Fi chip, and built-in NAND flash run through Starlet. Each Wii program depends on a particular version of Wii IOS, the kernel that runs on Starlet. System updates from game discs contain the version of Wii IOS, and you have to perform an IOS update if the IOS version used by the game isn't already installed on your Wii console.

IOS updates do not change the homebrew compatibility of your Wii console because a version of IOS is only loaded when a Wii program requests it. The signature verification bug was fixed in newer IOS, but older versions of Wii Menu still depended on an old IOS susceptible to Trucha signing. Only an update to Wii Menu, like this update, can block homebrew because 1. it depends on a newer IOS that blocks Trucha signing, and 2. it has the code to delete broken Zelda saves.

sources: Starlet, IOS, and IOS Questions and Answers.

Yes, you are in the minority. Most households that I visit don't have a laptop, nor do they have a PC within 13 feet (4 m) of a TV. I wish your situation weren't the minority, as independent video game developers would finally have a market for multiplayer party games.

Most arcade games run in a "standard resolution" (usually 240p or 288p) raster format, which is smaller than the 480p supported by Wii.

The Wii has a dual-CPU arrangement much like that of the PlayStation 2: an overclocked GameCube CPU (Broadway) and an ARM9 I/O processor (Starlet). I/O to the USB ports, SD slot, Bluetooth chip, Wi-Fi chip, and built-in NAND flash run through Starlet. Each Wii program depends on a particular version of Wii IOS, the kernel that runs on Starlet. System updates from game discs contain the version of Wii IOS, and you have to perform an IOS update if the IOS version used by the game isn't already installed on your Wii console.

IOS updates do not change the homebrew compatibility of your Wii console because a version of IOS is only loaded when a Wii program requests it. The signature verification bug was fixed in newer IOS, but older versions of Wii Menu still depended on an old IOS susceptible to Trucha signing. Only an update to Wii Menu, like this update, can block homebrew because 1. it depends on a newer IOS that blocks Trucha signing, and 2. it has the code to delete broken Zelda saves.

sources: Starlet, IOS, and IOS Questions and Answers.

Yes, you are in the minority. Most households that I visit don't have a laptop, nor do they have a PC within 13 feet (4 m) of a TV. I wish your situation weren't the minority, as independent video game developers would finally have a market for multiplayer party games.

Most arcade games run in a "standard resolution" (usually 240p or 288p) raster format, which is smaller than the 480p supported by Wii.

The Wii has a dual-CPU arrangement much like that of the PlayStation 2: an overclocked GameCube CPU (Broadway) and an ARM9 I/O processor (Starlet). I/O to the USB ports, SD slot, Bluetooth chip, Wi-Fi chip, and built-in NAND flash run through Starlet. Each Wii program depends on a particular version of Wii IOS, the kernel that runs on Starlet. System updates from game discs contain the version of Wii IOS, and you have to perform an IOS update if the IOS version used by the game isn't already installed on your Wii console.

IOS updates do not change the homebrew compatibility of your Wii console because a version of IOS is only loaded when a Wii program requests it. The signature verification bug was fixed in newer IOS, but older versions of Wii Menu still depended on an old IOS susceptible to Trucha signing. Only an update to Wii Menu, like this update, can block homebrew because 1. it depends on a newer IOS that blocks Trucha signing, and 2. it has the code to delete broken Zelda saves.

sources: Starlet, IOS, and IOS Questions and Answers.

Yes, you are in the minority. Most households that I visit don't have a laptop, nor do they have a PC within 13 feet (4 m) of a TV. I wish your situation weren't the minority, as independent video game developers would finally have a market for multiplayer party games.

Most arcade games run in a "standard resolution" (usually 240p or 288p) raster format, which is smaller than the 480p supported by Wii.

It's all about the Wiibrator, baby.

Accelerometers only give you how much gravity forces are applied to each axis. If the accelerometer is not moving then only gravity is being applied to each of those. Assuming you are holding the wiimote with the buttons facing up, then when you roll it the x-axis accelerometer will change, and when you change the pitch the y-axis accelerometer will change. The only way you can change the z-axis accelerometer is by raising the wiimote or lowering it closer to the floor. So if you change the yaw position of the wiimote (hold the wiimote out in front of you with the buttons facing up then turn your body 90 degrees to the right) the force of gravity does not change on any of those accelerometer axis and so it is impossible to calculate how much you turned.

The image here may make it more obvious. The z-axis is pulled down by gravity, but it does not change if you yaw the wiimote. However roll and pitch can change the x and y-axis accelerometers, so they can be used to calculate the new angles.

This is why you need an external point of reference for pointing at the TV (since you only have pitch and not yaw), so Nintendo included the IR stuff.