Hackmii News - 3.4 and recent updates

[wraggster]

News from Marcan:

Nintendo released a recent update that once again tries to secure some existing bugs on the console, breaks some things, deletes others. This time they’ve also gone around and modified the TOS. As usual, mass panic ensues.

The people who are panicking can be divided roughly into two groups (non exclusive):

The pirates
The clueless
This should go without saying, but we don’t want to have anything to do with the former group. Nintendo is obviously going to fight piracy (and that’s going to hurt homebrew). We’ll have to deal with the homebrew part, but don’t expect that to help piracy in any way. It may, or it may not. And if it doesn’t, pirates will have to deal with fighting nintendo themselves. The usual messages about WADs, “backups”, and all that crap are going straight to /dev/null, and we’re seeing quite a few bans due to piracy on #wiidev recently. Don’t ask us about it, don’t talk to us about it.

The clueless are panicking because, well, that’s the thing to do (OMG, new update! What will we do!). Read the Wiibrew page about the update. To clarify some things: the Twilight Hack is gone and probably won’t be coming back. There are other game exploits on the table (which haven’t been announced yet). Given the ability to run PPC code, we can install stuff and exploit IOS, as the HBC beta9 installer already shows. In short, homebrew isn’t going to go away. We can “do anything” right now. But we do need to figure out what to do.

All we’re concerned with is the ability to run homebrew (from-scratch programs), not necessarily modify the existing system. This means that we’re not necessarily concerned with getting things like menuloader and DVDX working again. Menuloader involves hacking the system menu - which is pointless if it can be replaced. DVDX enables DVD use - which is pointless if there are other ways or you use an entirely new IOS. We’re also not big fans about installable stuff - the utopian homebrew ecosystem would be contained entirely on removable storage and involve zero changes to NAND (implausible, but hey). Either way, the ultimate goal is to have homebrew that is able to use the Wii’s features, period. How that is accomplished is irrelevant, so old methods of doing things aren’t necessarily going to work in the future, nor do we care about it (we’ll find alternatives if necessary).

You may be wondering what it is that we’re doing anyway. Basically, we’re looking at the current situation, moving on with existing projects, and trying to figure out what the best course for the future will be. Quickly releasing hacks as soon as they’re available might not be such a good idea for the future - it’s best if we think it through a bit. We’ve also got tons of stuff to do. Prognosis is good, and hacks will come out eventually, but you’ll have to wait it out. And you shouldn’t expect anything in particular. Remember, it’s about the end result (homebrew), not about how we get there. Also, don’t take some ideas that we’ve thrown out there previously as definitive - we’re rethinking things right now.

In short, calm the hell down and just wait. Don’t update if you don’t feel like “change” - you’ve got that option so far. And if you’ve updated, my suggestion is that you wait. Avoid hacky workarounds - they can be worse than the problems they purport to fix.

http://hackmii.com/2008/11/34-and-recent-updates/

[Grey Acumen]

It really gives me warm fuzzy feelings knowing that my favorite console has someone who isn't a total retard as its main homebrew-enabling development leader.

Seriously, it's this type of professional attitude that is going to separate homebrew from piracy in the public eye.