Nintendo thwarting Wii modders with epoxy-locked chips; Wii Backup Loader abandoned

[wraggster]

News via engadget

A double shot of bad news for the Wii hacking set today -- not only do new Wiis appear to have a modchip-proof layer of epoxy around the DVD-ROM IC chips, Waninkoko has abandoned the Wii Backup-Loader project. The modchip news isn't all that surprising -- Ninty's been fighting a losing battle against chip devs for a while now, and gluing things down with epoxy is a logical solution -- but Waninkoko quitting is a bit of a shock, since we just caught wind of the Wii Backup-Loader a few days ago. Apparently he's not happy that it was leaked this morning, so he's dropping it.

Shame the wii homebrew scene has already been hurt with the piracy release

[giopagent12]

Wow, that sucks.
I mean the modchip problem.
I don't honestly care that Wanikoko abandoned the project.
Reason for that is because tehskeen is working on one as well. ^_^

[Solidsnake3000]

No one gives Wanikoko the respect he deserves.

[ICE]

Two big blows for Wii pirates! Hooray!

[giopagent12]

Wanikoko is an amazing wii homebrew coder, and it's a shame he decided to quit the project.
He should have been a bit smarter about the choices for beta testers.
But yeah, no disrespect against Wanikoko intended.

[kingslime80]

I think Wanikoko did the right thing about the loader. Even from a non-piracy standpoint it could have got him/her (I make no assumptions :P) in big trouble in the long run. I'm not surprised that Nintendo went the Epoxy route, I'm just surprised they didn't do it sooner.