Wii Hacks · Hacks, Cracks, Mods, Homebrew, Utilities

Gates bashes Wii graphics, and controller accuracy
By Colin Geddes

January 18, 2007 - Lets rewind the clock 4 weeks time. Bill Gates was praising Nintendo’s nextgen approach with their Wii console, stating that his competition is with Sony. Gates was encouraging Xbox 360 owners to purchase a Nintendo Wii over the much hyped PS3—essentially implying that the Wii was like apples to Microsoft and Sony’s oranges.

Now that the happy holiday season is over and the selling console numbers roll in, it’s obvious that the temporary “tag-team” has come to an end. In an interview with Dean Takahashi from the San Jose Mercury News, Gates was quick to reveal his New Years resolution for the future of the 360. It seems as though Gates had focused much weight on the success of the PS3 whilst positioning the Nintendo Wii on the back burner.

“We wanted to swap positions with Sony. We wanted to not be a year late, not be a big box, not be a more expensive box. How are we doing on that?”

Truthfully? Very well…

“Sony has always been our most direct competitor. Nintendo of course is a competitor. But look at the resolution you get with a controlled experience like that? Say to yourself, how in terms of using a game for a long period of time, what kind of accuracy and capability do you want?”

Gates continues to assert his opinion on the Wii’s revolutionary ease-of-use, approachability, and active gaming style:

“Look at the classic Nintendo positioning. Look at the graphics. Look at Nintendo’s execution in terms of online capability. We have this thing that nobody has ever seen before. When you say to your friend, hey let’s play online, you say then you have to buy an Xbox. That’s what 10 million people say. If you want to play online, get an Xbox. We’re not standing still.”

Sounds like a case of sour grapes, doesn’t it? It is no secret that Nintendo Wii outsold PS3 atleast 2:1, and that PS3 outsold Xbox 360. Also it’s no secret that the 360 is something that we have all seen before—outstanding graphics, online play, media centre—hey! wait a minute—this sounds a lot like a PC!

Adding LED lights to the A & B buttons on the Wii Remote and Classic Controller
By Colin Geddes

January 18, 2007 – A new mod has been hacked for the Wii Remote and Classic Controller that allows for blue LED lights to be added to the A & B buttons on both the Classic and the Wii Remote controllers. These blue LED lights are the very same seen on the bottom of the Wii Remote to indicate which player you are controlling. 

This mod obviously is not overtly complex, and the result is pretty damn cool! To utilize this on the classic controller, solder 3V mini blue LED’s to the red wire pin and use the black wire pin to ground.

The best part about this mod is that the additional lights do not have any noticeable affect on the Wii Remote battery life. Like the majority of current Wii mods, this mod is purely cosmetic. Come on…doesn’t it just look awesome?             

Apparent MadCatz leak

By Colin Geddes

January 17, 2007 - As many of you may know MadCatz has already released some accessories for the Wii. So far only the likes of controller skins and component cables have surfaced. Recently a Wal-Mart electronics department employee received a shipment of Wii accessories from MadCatz and displayed on the back of one of the product boxes is a picture of a unique looking Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Judging from the picture it looks like the MadCatz interpretation of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk is less boxy and possibly more ergonomic.

While few have complained of any discomfort with Nintendo’s design of the Remote and Nunchuk, this doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement (we all know about the wrist strap problems…) Many Wii owners would like to see an improved remote speaker, or possibly even making the nunchuk wireless.
Rumour, or reality? Decide for yourself. In the meantime I’m sure all of us Wii owners out there would be happy if we could get our hands on the difficult-to- find First Party controllers.

Wii owners will be pleased to hear that you can now visit www.wiihear.com to listen to streaming internet music through your Wii Opera browser.

We all remember Tamogotchi, if you don’t I suggest you go to ebay right now and buy one.  They were one of the biggest fads of the 90s and they helped fuel and new genre of games.  The simple egg shaped “game” was carried around on a keychain and required food, play and cleaning up its “poop”.  Tamagotchi has been released for Gameboy Advanced, and now, Tamgotchi is coming to the Wii.

“Tamagotchi Party On! is a seamless blend of both party game and board game as players swing, shake, and turn their Wii controllers in order to control their favorite Tamagotchi,” said Naruo Uchida, Namco Bandai Games America Inc.’s Vice President of Localization. “It’s the wackiest and cutest popularity contest ever as up-to-four players compete in fun mini-games to become the president of Tamagotchi planet.” spring.

Tamagotchi for Wii takes full use of the unique motions controllers by having you shake, swing, point, turn and twist the Wiimote turning the whole planet into a board game. Your mission is to pick out your favorite Tamagotchi pet and become the next president of Tamagotchi Planet. The title supports a single player mode with 15 mini-games including shaking hands, finding lost children and testing your public speaking skills. Or, have fun with up to three of your friends in multiplayer.

While on your presidential campagn, earn Gotchi points to upgrade your characters and customize your headquarters. Through the power of mini-games, you have six towns to win over if you want to become the next Tamagotchi President.

Original Source.

New peripherals transform your Wii Remote.
by Colin Geddes
January 16, 2007 – If you’ve ever dreamed playing Wii Sports with sports equipment instead of a remote control, Japan’s Miyavix has the answer for you! The accessory maker has announced the Pega Sports Pack, a set of attachments that will turn your Wii Remote into a golf club, tennis racket and baseball bat.
With a price of 2,780 yen (approx. $24 USD), the Pega Sports Pack includes a Wii Remote cradle three attachments. When the Wii Remote is inserted into the cradle, the attachments can then be fastened to the cradle. These attachments vary in length. The longest attachment is the baseball bat which is 40 centimeters long
All of the buttons remain unobstructed when the Wii Remote is placed into the cradle. That said, the Wii Remote’s sensor is covered when in the cradle. Additionally, Miyavix confessed that the cradle leaves a slight mark on the top of the Wiimote.
More details to come soon… check with your favorite importer for details on the Pega Sports Pack

There are a number of ‘drivers’ and applications floating around for using your Wii-Mote to control your computer and vice versa. It is being used as a mouse, keyboard and vibrator. A number of people are using it for other cool things like playing guitar.

For the linux software get WMD

For OSX get Darwiin Remote.

For Windows users get GlovePIE or BigRedPimp’s Wii-Mote App

The below post comes from Liquidice’s blog.

Carl Kenner is the man when it comes to the Wii Mote. Not only was the he the first person to have a working application for Windows that could read the Wii-Mote, but he did all of the programing with no wii-mote to test with.

Ever since that day he has been the driving force behind many wii-mote hacks featured on this site. His software, GlovePIE is the heart and soul of making the Wii Remote work in Windows, and several sites have started to spring up to host scripts for using the Wii-Mote with various different types of applications. He was one of the first to add Nunchuck support to his app, and his GlovePIE software can also handle multiple Wii-motes.

One of the last pieces of the Wii-Mote to be discovered is it’s speaker. Up until now, nobody has been able to successfully communicate with the speaker to produce sounds. Carl made a post today to the WiiLi forums including a script that will bring the Wii Mote’s speaker to life.

Here is the GlovePIE script you will need to test out the Wii-Mote’s Speaker from Windows:

// Carl Kenner’s Wiimote Speaker Test script! Version 2
// A = start sound, B = stop sound
// Minus = decrease sample frequency
// Plus = increase sample frequency
// It takes a short time to start (due to delays built into Poke)

// Change the next line to set the rate at which sound data is sent
// BUT it must be low enough for the wiimote to respond to the B button
// it may depend on your PC speed. Must be at least 91 for freq 13.
pie.FrameRate = 120 Hz

if not var.initialized then
var.freq = 13 // Set sample rate = 3640 Hz (so computer can keep up)
var.volume = 0×40 // volume = 40 ??? Seems to be about max
debug = var.freq
var.initialized = true
end if

if var.On and (not Wiimote.One) and (not Wiimote.Two) then
// Report 18, send 20 bytes, square wave, 1/4 sample rate freq
WiimoteSend(1, 0×18, 20 shl 3, 0xCC,0×33,0xCC,0×33,0xCC,0×33,0xCC,0×33,0xCC,0×33, 0xCC,0×33,0xCC,0×33,0xCC,0×33,0xCC,0×33,0xCC,0×33)
else if var.On and Wiimote.One then
// Report 18, send 20 bytes, square wave, 1/2 sample rate freq
WiimoteSend(1, 0×18, 20 shl 3, 0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3, 0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3,0xC3)
else if var.On and Wiimote.Two then
// Report 18, send 20 bytes, square wave, 1/8 sample rate freq
WiimoteSend(1, 0×18, 20 shl 3, 0xCC,0xCC,0×33,0×33,0xCC,0xCC,0×33,0×33,0xCC,0xCC, 0×33,0×33,0xCC,0xCC,0×33,0×33,0xCC,0xCC,0×33,0×33)
end if

if pressed(Wiimote.A) then
// Enable Speaker
Wiimote.Report14 = 0×04 | Int(Wiimote.Rumble)
// Mute Speaker
Wiimote.Report19 = 0×04 | Int(Wiimote.Rumble)
// Write 0×01 to register 0xa20009
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20009, 0×01)
// Write 0×08 to register 0xa20001
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20001, 0×08)
// Write 7-byte configuration to registers 0xa20001-0xa20008
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20001, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20002, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20003, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20004, var.freq)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20005, var.volume) // 40
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20006, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20007, 0×00)
// Write 0×01 to register 0xa20008
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20008, 0×01)
// Unmute speaker
Wiimote.Report19 = 0×00 | Int(Wiimote.Rumble)
var.On = true
end if

if pressed(Wiimote.B) then
var.On = false
Wiimote.Report19 = 0×04 | Int(Wiimote.Rumble) // Mute Speaker
Wiimote.Report14 = 0×00 | Int(Wiimote.Rumble) // Disable speaker
end if

if pressed(Wiimote.Plus) then
var.freq–
debug = var.freq
// Mute Speaker
Wiimote.Report19 = 0×04 | Int(Wiimote.Rumble)
// Write 0×01 to register 0xa20009
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20009, 0×01)
// Write 0×08 to register 0xa20001
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20001, 0×08)
// Write 7-byte configuration to registers 0xa20001-0xa20008
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20001, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20002, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20003, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20004, var.freq) // max volume?
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20005, var.volume)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20006, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20007, 0×00)
// Write 0×01 to register 0xa20008
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20008, 0×01)
// Unmute speaker
Wiimote.Report19 = 0×00 | Int(Wiimote.Rumble)
end if

if pressed(Wiimote.Minus) then
var.freq++
debug = var.freq
// Mute Speaker
Wiimote.Report19 = 0×04 | Int(Wiimote.Rumble)
// Write 0×01 to register 0xa20009
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20009, 0×01)
// Write 0×08 to register 0xa20001
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20001, 0×08)
// Write 7-byte configuration to registers 0xa20001-0xa20008
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20001, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20002, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20003, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20004, var.freq) // max volume?
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20005, var.volume)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20006, 0×00)
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20007, 0×00)
// Write 0×01 to register 0xa20008
WiimotePoke(1, 0×04a20008, 0×01)
// Unmute speaker
Wiimote.Report19 = 0×00 | Int(Wiimote.Rumble)
end if

This is a huge accomplishment and you can bet that soon enough the hackers will be streaming all kinds crappy 4 bit sounds to their wii-motes. Let the fun begin!!!
Once again Carl, great work!

Next up is integrating the Speaker functionality into the other Windows Wii-Mote apps, as well as the Linux and OSX wii-mote programs. Developers will want to check out the WiiLi wiki for information on how to initialize the wii-mote speaker and send sounds to it.

This program has been out for a while but it is worth mentioning due to the number of availible Mii characters on the net. Download celebrity characters like Don King or Brad Pitt. You can also upload your own Wii characters for others to use.

The best site I have found for Mii characters is MiiPlaza.net. The site is great because you can also find friends to add to your Wii console.

The all in one application that allows you to create, upload and download is theMii Mega-Mall

The first Disk Dumper for the Wii has finally been released. This is the first step in being able to create playable backups. Apparently on an LG drive it took 50 hours to dump the image; others have reported it taking significantly less. It might be a good idea to dump your favorite games onto your PC for later burning.. If that disk gets scratched before you can back it up you will wish you had!

The file can be downloaded here.