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First Wii Mod Chip Shipping Out

Posted by Zonk on from the enjoy-your-indie-games-with-waggle dept.

Via Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog, and their commentary on the device, a review of the first Wii mod chip at the MaxConsole site. The review offers step-by-step instructions for putting it in place, and then rates the resulting options opened up by the device. Most interestingly the chip is apparently updateable via a DVD, allowing for new functionality to be released for as time goes on. At $50 and with just a little soldering to get in place, the Wii CycloWhiz sounds like a great deal for anyone looking to do some outside-the-box thinking with Nintendo's console.

5 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Updateable via DVD? by Chairboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    You appear to have mistaken "DVD Movie Playback" with "Support for the DVD disk format". The Wii has a DVD drive.

    How very awkward.

  2. Summary by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    The modchip works. It lets you play Wii and GC backups. It lets you play GC imports, but PAL games don't work on NTSC without GCOS, the first version of which was just released for the Wii. It makes SOME PAL games work on an NTSC control. No idea about NTSC on PAL. Wii imports DO NOT WORK. It's $50. Personally I'd wait for the next version, unless you're buying it only to play backups. I want region unlocking.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. No homebrew though. by noretsa · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the article it sounds like this hack is very similar to the XBox360 DVD firmware hack in that it tricks the system into thinking the disc is a different type than it really is (pressed as opposed to DVD-R). However, the executables are still signed and the only thing this enables is "back ups" aka piracy.

    This strategy will not enable custom user applications which is what a lot of us really want. However, this is definitely a step in the right direction. Even though the executables are signed, it is likely that the data on DVDs is unencrypted. Maybe by modifying this data a more effective exploit can be found?

  4. Fact check: summary, articles all inaccurate by nxtw · · Score: 5, Informative

    - The Wiinja chip was announced first.
    - No chip is actually shipping yet to end users -- CycloWiz has however been shipped for review to MaxConsole. Foundmy lists it as being in stock starting Thursday.
    - The CycloWiz appears to be selling for around $40, not $50.
    - The CycloWiz (NOT CychloWiz) is NOT firmware upgradeable.
    - The WiiKey is reportedly firmware upgradeable.

    The Wiinja requires wires to older it in, while the CycloWiz has a "quicksolder" interface that lets you directly solder the chip to the motherboard. (I think I'd prefer wires -- but you can still use wires with the quicksolder interface.)
    The WiiKey supports both, apparently -- I assume this means that you can solder the chip using wires if you prefer and that the chip facilitates this easily by having pads for soldering wires directly.

  5. I love the smell of BIAS in the morning by twistedsymphony · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would suspect the Max Console review is a bit inaccurate... considering the shop that manufactures and sells the chip also runs the servers that host Max Console... No conflict of interests there or anything.

    Also Firmware upgrades via DVD was supposedly added to the CycloWiz at the last minute, you're right on your other accounts though.

    --
    Collector's Edition