Modchip

So i never bought a modchip, because it was never needed.
I wanted my homebrew, i had no real desire to pirate game.

Now it looks like a modchip may in the future be the only way to reliably run homebrew in the future.
Could anyone recommend a good (easy to install, reliable) modchip for a wii bought Christmas time 2007?

Well not relevant, modchip enables homebrew on systems that has still trucha bug in the ios that the system menu uses... On a fresh install of 3.3 and 3.4 this is not the case...

Exactly. Modchips are entirely useless for homebrew now.

Not entirely

The D2pro just came out with an update that skips over the update partition in a game disc, original or backup. So if you want to play new games in the future, but not have to update to play them, then a modchip will be best. Even for playing originals!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2008 03:01PM by DrLucky.

Damn it. I thought modchips used some sort of method that wii can't jsut patch away. It seems like it should be possible to use it to run homebrew as its able to run backups.

After all, isn't a backup improperly signed too (hence the need for a chip)?

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symbiant
Damn it. I thought modchips used some sort of method that wii can't jsut patch away. It seems like it should be possible to use it to run homebrew as its able to run backups.

After all, isn't a backup improperly signed too (hence the need for a chip)?

Nopez, a backup is an exact copy of the original in terms of actual data on the disc read by the system... Difference hence the protection is in the physical form of data on the disc and the disc itself which is bypassed effectively by drive modchips... So without trucha or any other exploit you don't have any control on the contents of disc on an unmodded system...

I still think a chip is a good solid bit of "insurance"...

but just because of the 3.4 update doesn't mean we need to freakout like this... team Twizlers has a whole list of exploits at their finger tips...

Speaking of, How did they find the Zelda Exploit?

And another question, (purely educational, something that has always bugged me)
How does the Wii (or any system for that matter) tell the difference between an original and a copy?
The backups are exact backups...

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DrLucky
How does the Wii (or any system for that matter) tell the difference between an original and a copy?
The backups are exact backups...

Don't quote me on this, but I think it's that the official games use a certain type of disc that is not publicly available, and also the way that the disc is burned.

i had considered the possibility of it being a "special" disc... but I think that such discs could have been recreated by the pirates and "backup-ers" and sold where modchips are sold...

It's is a special disc. Technically is similar to the DVD, but the main difference is the way how the media is read. The Wii drives reads the disc starting from the edge and going to the disc center. This kind of media can't be recorded or read using ordinary hardware. So, a homemade backup is an identical data copy... But physically, it's completely different. The Wii disc drive is actually capable of reading ordinary media, but only with the special debug commands (the method used by most modchips) or with a special "driver" (to put it more simple), and that means DVDX and the DIP module of "warez" cIOS.

Also, that's the reason why only some few computer DVD drives are capable of reading Wii discs, and only with customized drivers, if I remember.

Oh, ok....

So why hasn't someone just come up with a burner or driver for burning the games "inverted"? (not trying to figure out how to pirate, just learning here...) And if that is the case, how does a mod chip make the Wii read the disc "backwards"?

AFAIK the backwards recorded data are not the problem.

Anyway: for the drive of the Wii it is easy to tell a DVD+(-)R(W) apart from a factory created DVD-ROM.
The most important function of a modchip is to tell the drive to lie.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2008 11:45AM by daniel_c_w.

The data isn't recorded backwards. That's a retarded myth that never seems to die. It's a lie.

Just like every other console protection out there, wii discs are special and include a BCA barcode (part of a physical parameter measurement protection system), a modified data format, and special markers in sectors in the lead-in. There is no way of replicating all of this without all of a burner with a modified firmware, special disc blanks, and a BCA writer. The latter cost several thousands of dollars.

We have considered the possibility of jury-rigging together a machine capable of burning wii discs deemed "originals" (as bad as it sounds, it looks like it might be doable given quite a bit of time and research) as part of a project (i.e. just for the hell of it), but it would be a one-off kind of thing, not something you could reliably rebuild. And it would involve big lasers and heavily mutilated DVD burners at least.

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marcan
The data isn't recorded backwards. That's a retarded myth that never seems to die. It's a lie..

Thank you.

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marcan
The data isn't recorded backwards. That's a retarded myth that never seems to die. It's a lie.

Go to hell, Wikipedia!!!!
Thanks for explanation, marcan.

The way I understood it, DVD drives can tell somehow (besides the BCA) whether a disc is pressed or burned, and consumer-grade equipment can't fool it. I might be wrong though.

In any case, there are two different protections you need to get around to run homebrew from a disc:
1) DVD drive will not read burned discs.
2) Software will not load unsigned code.
Modchips only get around #1. The trucha bug only gets around #2. With that bug fixed, a modchip can only get you halfway there.