Slashdot Mirror
New GameCube Network Loader Runs Homebrew Games
An anonymous reader submits: "Cube Hacker is reporting that a new network loader has been released which allows you to execute retail code by exploiting a known bug in Sega's online game, Phantasy Star Online. Obviously piracy is not condoned but this certainly opens the door for future home-brew development! Linux on GameCube anyone?" Update: 10/13 23:33 GMT by S : Previous update removed, due to it only referencing retail titles.
I don't get it. Does this mean that you can now execute non-official code on a Gamecube? The Slashdot post doesn't really explain it properly, and the linked site is intended for people who knew what this all means in the first place. I'm sacrificing myself here so that other people don't have to look stupid too.
www.maxconsole.com has lots more information about this subject matter.
Linux on GameCube anyone?
For the love of god, no. Can't we have a (modern) console that just stays as a gaming machine?
If you want an everything-box that can run Linux, go buy a PS2, Xbox, or just a cheap computer, but leave the Cube. It's designed to be for gaming and gaming only.
I guess that sounds incredibly jealous, narrow-minded, or fanboyish of me, but that's my gut reaction upon seeing this story.
Maxconsole shows a tutorial on how to actually use this and explains it in more depth! maxconsole has lots more information on this , I don't know why cubehacker was mentioned at all.
Article is /. but one thing worthy of note is that the copy protection on Gamecube also involves spinning the CD the wrong way round. To make a Linux distro you are going to need a very special CD burner
I thought it spun normally, but instead the laser reads from outside to inside and not inside to outside?
From what I have read, the hack consists in exploiting a weakness in the sega video game PHANTASY STAR ONLINE using the same method than with the xbox memory card exploit: a modified saved game that will cause a buffer overflow. Exploiting the overflow allows the user to gain control of the ethernet adaptor, enabling him to transfer the 'loader' bootstrap, causing the reboot of the Nintendo Gamecube, and from there, the loader will open a connection to the user's computer, and using the server software included in this pirate release, will allow the user to upload game files in the gamecube 'generous' 48mb of ram. Nintendo will send their death squads at these guys.
Article is /. but one thing worthy of note is that the copy protection on Gamecube also involves spinning the CD the wrong way round. To make a Linux distro you are going to need a very special CD burner.
...I own a gamecube. I just popped open the lid and checked. The disc spins clockwise. I don't know if that is what you define to be "the wrong way around"...
Maybe it spins in different directions depending on what hemisphere you live in, kinda like water down the drain.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
Gamecube: $99 X-Box: $149
See my point?
Not really, no. I have both an XBOX and GameCube and they are both great gaming machines, but the XBOX is for obvious reasons the XBOX is a much better PC-replacement for running alternate OSes like Linux. The GameCube may be cheaper, but because of its design (the memory system, CPU, etc) it would make a crappy general purpose Linux box.
that the webserver was running on the Gamecube as well.
All the software is available from dextrose
Auto-check your UK lottery lines
They're probably using a gamecube for a server
The entire point of the system being discussed here is that it bypasses any need for using the special GameCube formatted discs. The system in question uses an exploit someone found in Phantasy Star Online (a networkable GameCube game) to download executable code over a network. Someone exploited this to make a loader which will stream in game data over a network from some other system, such as a PC. The only disc that will be in your GameCube is an original copy of Phantasy Star Online, everything else will be streamed in from the other networked system, whether it be a Linux distro or warezed GameCube games.
So that you can use your Xbox running linux to serve a copy of linux to the gamecube when it loads it over the LAN. That way it can play nice with your PS2 running the linux kit on your all-linux all-console network.
Thinking further on this: This is a security hole that allows remote execution of code on the affected machine. Sure sounds like what's needed to write a worm!
Any bets on how long it'll be until the first ones show up?
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
as pc replacement they're both crap(no, really, they are).
currently as 'stream content and run some stuff from pc world' modded xbox takes the crown though.
now, xbox's value as a general pc replacement has been dropping steadily since it got introduced. as for games.. well, i guess everyone to their own(yes, i'd like to play kotor but thats just about it). but gc is starting to look like a healthy addition to my dreamcast now, though it'll probably take another few years before i can afford it the way i want(but eventually i want to play sunshine, and at the moment thats just about the only game i think might be worth the money on gc, apart from party games like smb)..
well, i'd still like a ps2 also, if only for gt3.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
The first person to develop a mod chip and learn to press silvers will make cash hand over fist in Hong Kong - the land of piracy.
The various mobs have their hands in street level piracy (silvers, bootlegs) up to their elbows. The top warez groups get huge "donations" in exchange for 0-day access to new cracks and releases.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
The copy protection scheme works in several ways. You DO need to have a special DVD burner, since the LENS is what's different on the Gamecube. It can't read regular DVDs. Also, the retail discs use a special barcode imprinted on the disc to prevent the cube to be tricked into reading fake discs.
There's a special debugging Gamecube which can read burned games, it's called the NReader, and you can only get it from Nintendo if you are a) a developer b) an important gaming news house.
The catch is, this NReader can't read retail discs, it can only play those burned specially for beta testing or magazine reviews.
Also, the PSO loader works by tricking PSO into loading special code by resolving the DNS of the Sega PSO server to your own PC. Then you have access to the GCN. Animal Crossing is a port of the same N64 game, so it fits on the GCN's memory without having to read the disc more than once, that's why it's completely playable.
The situation is far from the "retail games pirated!" outcry.
- Otaku no naka no otaku, otaking da!!!
Arrhhhggg! when will this stupid myth die?!? Everyone, please do me a favor. Turn on your gamecube (well, assuming you own one) and then press the 'open' button....which way is the disc spinning? That's right! clockwise!
Man, for the life of me, I could not understand why it was such a big deal that the "New GameCube Network Loader Runs Hebrew Games." I mean, don't they sell Nintendos in Israel? I found myself quite literally scratching my head over the matter, and even headed over to nintendo.co.il.
Oh. Homebrew. D'oh.
-Waldo Jaquith
I own a GameCube, and I've never opened the cover to see a disc spinning counterclockwise. GameCube discs seem to store the boot sector on a data layer that goes outside-in (like the second layer of a DVD) rather than inside-out (like a CD or the first layer of a DVD), and this may be how the myth started.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Factor 5's "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader" uses the ARAM as a "swap file", paging code and data to and from main memory. We did something similar at Pandemic for "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", and it worked fairly well. That 16MB came in handy. :)