Homebrew Strikes Back

The Wii has been fighting against piracy almost since its launch. Ever so often there is a Wii System Update pushed to your consoles and, more time than not, these updates are primarily focused on shutting down unauthorized code running on their hardware.

Well about a month ago there was one of these updates and it was solely aimed at this unauthorized code. This update wiped out a lot of modifications that you may have done to your Wii as well as block the avenues that let you install them in the first place. The new sheriff in town had a name and it was Wii System Menu 4.3. The only problem is that this sheriff only sees in black and white, where there is no middle ground. Not only does this block piracy but it also blocks the huge homebrew community that the Wii has developed. Homebrew is just programs made by people looking for no monetary compensation and can range from a simple calculator all the way up to an operating system like Linux. These type of designers are typically harmless to the Wii’s market but are nevertheless associated with the much less desirable software pirates, so therefore it is blocked as well.

The new Homebrew Channel Interface

Today is a day of rejoicing my fellow home-brewers. The people who initially hacked the Wii, Team Twiizers, have brought us yet another workaround for this newest system update. May I present to you HackMii Installer v0.7, which is said to work on even the most stubborn of Wii’s (Korean). Apparently this workaround can be installed by the game exploit known as Indiana Pwns, which was also created by Team Twiizers.

So happy modding my fellow home-brewers and pirates. I may see you out there on those virtual binary seas.