Wii-BOSS modchip releases
Even with the news of federal agents going after modders and pirates, its not stopping modchip makers. The new modchip is known as Wii-BOSS It officially releases today (August 3rd). This is a quick-solder Wii modchip solution with an external programmer and is open source, meaning you can flash any code to it via RS-232 (serial port).
“Almost all other conventional and homebrew modchips consist of two parts where the code is held, of which only the smaller EEPROM section of the chip can be changed easily. This EEPROM part of the code is very useful for small pre defined simple on or off selectable 1’s and 0’s and possibly a very small “additional feature” section. For example: Speed setting your chip or enabling multi-zone. However, if you want to update the entire chip, you need to physically remove the chip from the Wii, put it on a programmer, reprogram it, and then reinstall the chip into the Wii. This is not something you want to be doing constantly keep up with new optimized modchip codes for the Nintendo Wii.”
- The Wii-BOSS is designed as a ‘quick solder’ chip with an external ribbon cable that can be left inside the machine, taped down on the back of the Wii, or even hidden inside the memory card bay. This chip can be fully programmed inside the machine with any code that supports the 12f629 PIC Microchip.
- The Wii-BOSS is also designed to allow external booting off the ribbon cable, therefore protecting the user against ever having to pull the Wii apart ever again if their requirements for a particular style of modchip change. External adapters to make competitor modchips and PC applications like DVD-Tool boot externally have already been designed and will be produced soon after the initial release of the premier product for a very minimal charge. These will likely be included in future kits at no extra charge.
- The Wii-BOSS even comes packaged with its own RS-232 port external programmer. Software for the programmer is open source and therefore also provided free. The programmer is based on an open source project and therefore could be ‘modded’, theoretically, to be used as a standard RS-232 PIC programmer.
- R.R.P. for the entire packed is USD$25 including the Wii-SP JDM programmer. The cost will obviously much cheaper in bulk quantities. Wholesale quantities start from just 2 kits.
At the time of writing the wii-boss supported the following codes (in no particular order):
- Wii-Free - last stable release ver2.45
- YOASM - last stable release ver1.7
- Winja – last stable release ver2.0 (deluxe currently not available)
- Open-Wii - last stable release ver1.3
- Wii-skas - last stable release unknown
- MaxBoot - last stable release ver1.0 (redirection code for external booting)
Supported software for the programmer:
Source: Wii Boss
