Totally new to all of this - please help/guide me thru this

Hi, I just got my wii last summer, and I was just wondering about all this "homebrew stuff".

First of all, i have my wii as version 4.3u I think.

And, as I understand, there are hardware mods, and then there are exploits?

Either way, I think it's easier if I explain what I want: virtual console games and a snes emulator on my wii (i looked up snes9x GX, but I still don't know how it works or how I can get that program on my wii).

Also, is there a chance that maybe my wii might brick if i play these things? Thanks, any guidance is appreciated!

Hardware modifications on your Wii are not up for discussion on this forum, since they're most likely linked to playing illegally obtained games. And if you took the time to read the rules, it's a no-no here. Your definition on "homebrew" needs to be corrected.

In order to use any emulator of any kind, you first have to have (obviously) installed the Homebrew Channel through one of the 3 available methods for you. These are Smash Stack, Indianapwns or Yu-Gi-Vah. Feel free to search for these on wiibrew.org, as they have them up for download along with the instructions on how to use these.

Once you have HBC installed, you require either an SD card or a USB drive formatted to FAT32 (or if it fails, FAT16). Create a folder called "apps" (without the quotes) in the root of your device, and place inside it any folder containing a file named boot.dol in it, so you can launch the app from within HBC. For example, SNES9x GX requires for you to place it's folder called "snes9xgx" (minus quotes) inside the apps folder in order to properly launch.

All of SNES9x's roms go inside a folder called roms, which is inside another folder called snes9xgx which must be in root.

If that sounded confusing, lemme try and rephrase it this way:

Your emulator should be like this (assuming you'll use an SD card): sd:/apps/snes9xgx/boot.dol (along with a couple more files)
Your roms should be like this (again, assuming the same thing): sd:/snes9xgx/roms (all save files and savestates will go to the "saves" folder)

Regarding Virtual Console games... you can purchase these through the Shop Channel on your Wii. And no, there's no risk of bricking if you purchase them (unless you were to lose power mid-transfer, during installation... but that's most likely never to happen. Of course, don't go about buying games during a thuderstorm, hah). SNES9xGX also proves to be safe in this matter, as much as possibly every emulator available on wiibrew.org, so don't worry.

I personally assume you meant something else. I'm not stupid. I hope you caught my drift with my bit on what's allowed for discussion here and whatnot before insisting on that matter, heh.

Hope I helped.

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Magil
I personally assume you meant something else. I'm not stupid.

ROFL for a moment I think you were! JK! xD

Sparks24:

That is correct, piracy of any kind is not allowed in this site. I think that as Magil stated above, you are misunderstanding the concept of 'homebrew'.

All the help you will get from this site is only how to install non-illegal applications. If you want to play virtual console games, BUY THEM! you will be doing good to the Wii community and the developers.

And Magil... I don't think your Wii would brick if you download VC games during a thunderstorm and the power goes off, LOL, the worst scenario would be that the download gets corrupted and you have to start downloading it again :P

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Magil

I personally assume you meant something else. I'm not stupid. I hope you caught my drift with my bit on what's allowed for discussion here and whatnot before insisting on that matter, heh.

Hope I helped.

Thanks a lot to both posters. Yes, sorry I'm new to all of this, I assumed homebrew was the...other thing. Thanks for clearing that up.

I've got a few more questions though.

1) Looking at teh SD card file path, it looks like APPS are the whole point to homebrewing? What kind of apps can you possibly have? Also, is it possible to have other kinds of emulators besides SNES?

2) Also, for the exploit Indian PWNs, I see youtube videos, with everyone going through the same thing. Do you constantly have to repeat going thru with the exploit everytime you want to play something from your SD card? I know you mentioned something about installing HBC after all that, but I'm still confused. Thanks!

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sparks24
1) Looking at teh SD card file path, it looks like APPS are the whole point to homebrewing? What kind of apps can you possibly have? Also, is it possible to have other kinds of emulators besides SNES?

There is a wide range of homebrew applications you can run on your Wii that go from media players to games. There are also emulators for many consoles. If you want to see what applications are available for you, check here: [www.wiibrew.org]

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sparks24
2) Also, for the exploit Indian PWNs, I see youtube videos, with everyone going through the same thing. Do you constantly have to repeat going thru with the exploit everytime you want to play something from your SD card? I know you mentioned something about installing HBC after all that, but I'm still confused. Thanks!

The exploit only has to be done ONCE if you use it to install the Homebrew Channel. After doing so, The HBC will display all the applications you have stored in the APPS folder of your SD card and you can launch them from there saving yourself from having to run the exploit again and again.

Get the Homebrew Channel from here (download HackMii installer): [www.bootmii.org]

Copy the BOOT.ELF file to the root of your SD card, and run it with the exploit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2010 08:12PM by Axel.

you have to run the exploit to gain access to "doing whatever you want" with the wii. Whatever boot.dol file you have on the root of your sd card is what is going to run when you do the exploit.

SO! you could just put the homebrew app you want to run on the root of the SD card, run the exploit and then it will run your custom homebrew app... but that would be a pain to run the exploit everytime.

SO what you do is you put the hackmii installer boot file in the root of your sd card and run the exploit once!

this will install a channel called the homebrew channel (and a few other options such as bootmii but we'll cover those later.. for now, just do the HBC).

Once the HBC is installed, it will show up as a channel on your wii and you can then go there and load apps from your sd card... no more exploit required. (this is what he was talking about with the sd:/apps/"appname"/boot.dol setup)

And yes they have a ton of other emulators besides SNES... and a ton of homebrew apps that have been created for your enjoyment.

Here they are

check out the emulators section since that seems to be your main interest, but there are lots more apps too.

EDIT: and stay away from youtube videos, they tend to be for doing illegal and have a bunch of extra steps that are not required and do things that CAN brick your wii. wiibrew.org and here is the best place to get u started.

EDIT2: damn you axel! i'm too slow.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2010 08:19PM by mdbrim.

Thanks again to the last 2 posters. U've helped me a lot! :)

Good information, my only question is, when the wii releases a new update, is there any way to revert the system back to completely stock, no modded fw?

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Randum
Good information, my only question is, when the wii releases a new update, is there any way to revert the system back to completely stock, no modded fw?

If you are asking on how to un-mod a wii, well if you have good soldering skills then yeah, it is possible. If you are asking on how to remove all traces of Home-Brew from your wii then you use the Hackmii Installer to Uninstall the HBC.

yeah if by unmod you mean make it back to a normal wii then it's easy... you just uninstall the homebrew channel.

If you have patched IOSes you will need to remove them first or else Nintendo will find out.