Wii Hacked for Better Homebrew Games

arbourp writes to mention that hackers Michael Steil and Felix Domke have demonstrated a way to hack the Wii that makes running homebrew code much easier. "The hack advances the possibility of running homebrew code with access to full system resources on the device, not just programs that Nintendo has sanctioned. Such games might be developed to run from a DVD drive, at least in theory. No such games are available as yet and Nintendo may respond by attempting to revoke compromised encryption keys. However history shows such countermeasures are likely to ultimately prove futile."

Comments

Re:Why a console? Why not your own breed?

[Yosho]

That post really needed some more to be organized into coherent paragraphs, but I'll answer anyway...

is it because of the "scene" or is it because you "can"?

Yes, it's because they can. They enjoy the challenge.

When you have broken the system security to release your own homebrew - then what? Challenge over?

Yep, and then you move on to a new challenge. In reality, though, breaking the system security is just one of the first steps to making homebrew software; there are still many challenges left.

Now realize this my friend - why not create your OWN hardware with your OWN challenges?

Because that's a different kind of challenge, and not as fun to some people. Why don't you forge your own plate armor? Or learn a new language? Or study Tai Chi? Those are all challenges, but they're different and appeal to different types of people. Some people -- the people who are working on this kind of project, in fact -- think that breaking a system's security and making homebrew software is much more fun than making their own hardware.

Point is - whatever you end up doing - make sure you use that time you got - wisely - otherwise you're technically just wasting your time doing it!

If you spent your time having fun, is it really wasted?