Wii Brew's Wii Pack Generator delivers no-fuss homebrew

by Ross Miller { Jul 30th 2008 at 3:15PM }

For those who still haven't tried Wii homebrew, the folks at Wii Brew have made it even easier than before. Introducing the Wii Pack Generator, "a web-based utility that allows you to select from the most recent, up to date, and high quality homebrew for your Nintendo Wii and create a custom pack." Click on the files you want and the application will give you either a .zip or .exe file you can use to extract the components into an SD card. A video tutorial of the Twilight Hack, required for Wii homebrew, is embedded after the break.

Tags: homebrew, twilight-hack, wii-brew, wii-pack-generator, wiibrew

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

yomachaser @ Jul 30th 2008 3:24PM

Can we keep thief articles off joystiq and the various "fanboy" blogs please? You're hurting the industry that makes your jobs possible.

zero2dash @ Jul 30th 2008 3:25PM

Homebrew is not the same as pirating.

FOXHOUND @ Jul 30th 2008 3:29PM

Normally, I'd totally disagree and praise the post... but because this post has a picture blatantly depicting ROMs and whatnot, I see your point.

For reasons that are more style over substance though, I'm going to change the cover and disc drive blue-light on my Wii console to black casing and a green disc dive light. I probably won't use the homebrew & hacks though.

Snowblind @ Jul 30th 2008 3:32PM

Being able to play US games in Europe isn't really hurting the industry.. If Nintendo are going to take that amount of time to release things over here, I see no reason to wait.

FOXHOUND @ Jul 30th 2008 3:39PM

*correction to my post. Got interrupted while typing.
The line should've been:

"but because this post has a picture blatantly depicting *EMUs and ROMpaths* and whatnot"

Microswirl (MKWii:1676- 4270-3674) @ Jul 30th 2008 4:02PM

Those thieves are also stealing yomachaser's hearts. Defensive much?

Seriously people, you can't pretend the primary purpose of the Twilight Hack isn't piracy when there's a friggin picture of NES and Genesis emulators right up at top of the article.

CubeGuy @ Jul 30th 2008 4:16PM

You have to keep in mind that there are some pretty sweet old school homebrew programs out there. In fact, I do most of my tinkering on the NES emulators because I don't have the energy to learn how to code for newer consoles.

Tim @ Jul 30th 2008 4:22PM

I don't count it as piracy when I ALREADY BOUGHT ALL THE GAMES I HAVE ROMS FOR A LONG TIME AGO. Only a fool would repay for all the games they already bought. This just saves me the trouble of hooking up my dusty old NES.

Monkeys Suck @ Jul 30th 2008 4:39PM

First off, I'm not going to deny that emulators/the Twilight Hack are gateways of piracy. BUT, there are many, MANY non-piracy uses. For example:

-Modified levels in ROMs (Think Kazio Mario World), so emulators are OK for that
-Making your own game ROMs from scratch
-Making your own games to run specifically on Wii like XBLA.

For the love of God, stop saying that homebrew = piracy. The picture may show that there is piracy, but there are people, like myself, who code for the hell of it, and like to make stuff not just for PC, but for anything that we want.

4MyFriends @ Jul 30th 2008 7:37PM

"Homebrew is not the same as pirating."

The same tools used to bring homebrew to the Wii are also the same ones used in piracy. Also none of the 3 hardware manufacturers want you to do such things on their hardware as it distracts from purchasing software.

4MyFriends @ Jul 30th 2008 7:38PM

Vidikron (FU) @ Jul 30th 2008 7:52PM

"The same tools used to bring homebrew to the Wii are also the same ones used in piracy. Also none of the 3 hardware manufacturers want you to do such things on their hardware as it distracts from purchasing software."

Same could be said for your PC.

yomachaser @ Jul 30th 2008 10:13PM

Same could be said for your PC.

Not really as both homebrew and piracy are using eula/dcma breaking software and techniques. Your pc doesn't automatically play stolen software either you downloaded the crack (illegal) or you downloaded it precracked (illegal).

BananaBoat @ Jul 30th 2008 10:37PM

I love it when people that have no idea what they are talking about, come out in force to bash something. Let's get something straight; Homebrew is in no way, shape, or form, illegal, nor are emulators. Roms are a gray area (You are allowed a backup, but not if the original is functioning. Or atleast that used to be the case. How you'd make a backup if the original wasn't functioning is beyond me).

The Wii homebrew scene is split into two parts right now. There is the team I support (not monetarily of course....a banana's gotta eat) that develops legal homebrew like Wii Quake, Wii Tetris, etc (and various other gray area things like region free game playing, which hurts absolutely noone. Can't say I've tried it yet since there are zero import games for the Wii that I want to play). This team basically does everything in it's power to keep an isoloader, or a softmod (that would allow backed up games to be played) from being created. On the other side of the fence, is a team of douchebags that have set out to make sure that Nintendo comes down hard on the decent homebrew developers, because they create things like Wii Ware and Virtual Console game loaders. Unfortunately, the same asshats are about a month (or less) away from creating the isoloader or softmod that the homebrew community is trying to keep from being created.

In other words, if you are trying to equate homebrew with piracy, you are sorely mistaken as to what homebrew is.

(Full disclosure, the import game playing functionality is why I installed the homebrew channel. Unfortunately, no games have come out that I want to buy...so...I'm pretty much stuck with Wii Tetris for now)

BigD145 @ Jul 30th 2008 10:46PM

You can still buy NES games (not the ones released on the shopping channel) directly from Nintendo? Really?

zero2dash @ Jul 30th 2008 3:24PM

Sweet, thank you for posting this. I've been meaning to do this to my system (I didn't download the most recent update so I'd still be able to), and now that I see this...I will do it tonight, using this as a guide. Again - thanks for posting this.

Ben @ Jul 30th 2008 4:50PM

You can still download the newest patch, the newest Twilight Hack works around the latest firmware update (3.3). Unless you have a modded Wii (i.e. have a mod chip installed) and want to run Trucha Signed discs, you don't have to worry about the new patch.

SoulBlade @ Jul 30th 2008 3:27PM

Ah two very different initial posts. Gotta love it.

Heh {XBL: P4nic 4tt4ck} @ Jul 30th 2008 4:52PM

"Yes, because everybody wants to pay 800-1200 Points for twenty-year-old NES games that sold millions of copies ALREADY."

Since Bioshock sold millions of copies and I own it for the PC, can I have the 360 version for free?

yomachaser @ Jul 30th 2008 3:32PM

Homebrew is not the same as pirating.

I see a whole lotta emulators in there and not much "homebrew" so what I said stands.

Having emulators on a system with Virtual Console sitting right there(giving devs the money they earned) is a slap in the face.

The Fatass of Kickassness @ Jul 30th 2008 3:39PM

Uh, look again. There's WAY more homebrew than there are emulators up right now.

Jakka (Not sure why he got banned?) @ Jul 30th 2008 3:46PM

"Having emulators on a system with Virtual Console sitting right there(giving devs the money they earned) is a slap in the face."

Yes, because everybody wants to pay 800-1200 Points for twenty-year-old NES games that sold millions of copies ALREADY.

mietha CAG @ Jul 30th 2008 3:59PM

Reality check please. The "devs" of EVERY SINGLE GAME on the "virtual console" get exactly 0 dollars. The money goes to the company that currently owns the rights to the games which, in many cases, isn't even the same COMPANY that originally released it. How in the hell do you think devs are getting a cent, or do you just not know what a "dev" actually is?

Duke @ Jul 30th 2008 4:22PM

I don't know why you guys are attacking him so much.

"Yes, because everybody wants to pay 800-1200 Points for twenty-year-old NES games that sold millions of copies ALREADY."

Does that change the legality of it?

"The money goes to the company that currently owns the rights to the games which, in many cases, isn't even the same COMPANY that originally released it."

Those companies paid for the IP they own right?

You guys are being a little hard on the guy. You may defend the homebrew issue, but one's personal justification has little to do with the actual right and wrong of it.

PunchyMcJunk @ Jul 30th 2008 4:45PM

Yoma,

When you say that "Homebrew is not the same as pirating", you are right on the money. But then you extrapolate that emulation DOES equal piracy, where the two do not have to mutually inclusive.

yomachaser @ Jul 30th 2008 5:35PM

Punchy,

Let me be more clear then, homebrew as a concept is amazing and I see no harm in most of what been done in that scene, but pirates get their code to run via the same methods.

All I'm saying is that if the homebrewers are in then so are the pirates so any measure is done to kill the piracy (that as a gamer you should dilike) the homebrew kinda has to go too.

Now I think we live in a unique time in the industry because each console now has a space for homebrewers to run wild on (xbla,xna,wiiware,psn) that I don't see why they still want to crack the system to get in.

PunchyMcJunk @ Jul 30th 2008 6:55PM

Actually, the WiiWare Development kit is both expensive and exclusive. Nintendo has already denied the opportunity to several well-established developers.

http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/06/05/wiiware-developer-shares-rejection-letter/

I can't speak for XBLA (not nearly as selective... just look at all the crap there) or PSN, but I'm certain the development kits aren't just there for the taking, otherwise the homebrewers would have them and be distributing their software without having to go through the Homebrew channel interface.

drewmg @ Jul 30th 2008 3:35PM

new to homebrew, got a few questions.

a) can i undo this hack, if i would like to return my wii to factory settings?

b) does this disable any of my normal wii content like virtual console or downloaded channels?

c) does nintendo have the ability to know i've done this by virtue of my system being available on wiiconnect24? any chance they'd try to disable (brick) hacked systems?

yomachaser @ Jul 30th 2008 3:38PM

Each time you update the system there is a chance that it will brick if there is homebrew on it.

Oh and they must (at some level) be aware of hacks and such as the Wii reports quite a bit of data back to big N.

Mark C @ Jul 30th 2008 3:44PM

a) You can delete the Twilight Hack as it is simply a save file. You can also remove the Homebrew Channel through your Wii settings menu. One thing you cannot remove is your play history, but the homebrew channel itself is not illegal.

b) nope. If you choose to illegally install virtual console games (bad!), you should stay away from the Wii Shop channel...as it messes with your Wii's account's 'tickets'

c) I've heard that Nintendo can tell better what you do with your Wii if you have the Nintendo Channel installed. As for WiiConnect24...I've heard some recommend that you turn it off, but personally I don't think its that big of a deal.

And I doubt Nintendo would brick any Wiis for homebrew alone.

Jody Anthony (gamertag and psn: JodyAnthony) @ Jul 30th 2008 3:44PM

I know the homebrew channel leaves a record of itself in the daily activity log thing, but thats all I know about.

Z @ Jul 30th 2008 3:50PM

Yes, you can restore everything back to the way it was. Just erase the channel the same way you would any other channel (like "everybody votes").

It does not disable any wii features, only adds to the experience. Has nothing to do with Virtual Console.

That being said- I'm gonna try this soon. I can't stand that when Nintendo hasn't given us a channel in a while, they give us things like "Everybody Votes Channel". This Homebrew Channel's probably the coolest thing that's been released on Wii, and yet Nintendo probably wants to get rid of it.

Limezor @ Jul 30th 2008 4:06PM

Isn't bricking illegal? I mean, you BOUGHT the console, you should be able to do what you want with it...

Duke @ Jul 30th 2008 4:24PM

Lime, I think that they are able to block your account if someone breaks the TOS.

Roto13 @ Jul 30th 2008 4:25PM

Mark C: Thank you for that comment. It answered some questions I had about Wii Homebrew. I think I'm ready to finally install it myself. :P

BananaBoat @ Jul 30th 2008 10:50PM

Ask yourself this: "Will there be an online game for the Wii this generation that is amazing, that I'll want to play online?" if the answer is no, then by all means, mod away (well, first consider the remote possibility that your Wii could brick during the modding process, but the chance is slim). Personally I know without any doubt that there will not be a game this generation that I care to play online with my wii. Thus I have no reservations about installing the Homebrew channel (if it were for the 360 or the PS3, I wouldn't even consider doing it). On top of that, my Wii doesn't even have a connection to the internet, so basically it's not sending Nintendo any information period (unless it...you know...is sentient and is finding it's own path to the internet. Spooooooky).

Nintendo will never "brick" your console. The harshest punishment that Nintendo could hand down would be to kick your console off of their network (via it's MAC address probably). In this case, you wouldn't be able to play any online games, but your wii would be fine. I'm sure if they ever did that, there would be a fix the next day to change the identifier of your console, to something that isn't banned. Also, the homebrew community is young at this point, and I'm sure they'll find a way to completely mask the homebrew channel once and for all, sometime in the near future. Also, be sure to turn off wiiconnect24 as it will install updates that could brick your Wii (not intentionally, Nintendo wouldn't do that...or woullllddd theyyyy)

Jody Anthony (gamertag and psn: JodyAnthony) @ Jul 30th 2008 3:43PM

I have the homebrew channel installed, as well as the homebrew browser that lets you download things directly through the wii. No emulators installed though. Played around with all the other stuff available (the duck hunt clone, etc) and to be frank there is really nothing of interest out there for me.

Gonna keep the hbc installed as a just in case, but thats it.

As for emulators/roms, I have enough games in my house that I bought that are sitting around that I'll never play through. I have no need to download more.

Asok @ Jul 30th 2008 4:00PM

Eh. It's fun and all, but the Wii homebrew scene is still in its infancy. If Nintendo doesn't find a way to damper it for good, I'd suggest anyone who hasn't hacked their Wii yet to wait a while. Used copies of TP will go down eventually, and there should be more interesting homebrew popping up soon. I know a few good projects are under way but still buggy and beta-y. Otherwise, go ahead and jump in, and enjoy emulation, Quake, and Ballion.

BAAALLIIIOOONNNN

playwhutyalike @ Jul 30th 2008 4:24PM

*Public Enemy kicks down the door*

"1989 the number another summer (get down)
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hittin your heart cause I know you got sould
(brothers and sisters, hey)
Listen if youre missin yall
Swingin while Im singin
Givin whatcha gettin
Knowin what I know
While the black bands sweatin
And the rhythm rhymes rollin
Got to give US what we WANT
Gotta give US what we NEED
Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power

playwhutyalike @ Jul 30th 2008 4:26PM

I guess what I'm saying is I would like to see better games released on the VC. I mean, what is stopping me from downloading the Rom emulator to play games I'm waiting for. Oh, yeah, it's illegal.

Fight the Power!

Jfk Aok @ Jul 30th 2008 4:40PM

It's pretty pathetic how you use a song about racial plight and imply it into something like video games. Entitled tards are tarded.
What power? What are you talking about? You don't know...you just don't want to pay for things that you want.

playwhutyalike @ Jul 31st 2008 3:24PM

Relax, I was just fucking around. Everybody wants to not pay for things they want.

"Entitled tards are tarded" Wow, what a zinger. I haven't seen variations of that on Joystiq done over and over and over and over.

yomachaser @ Jul 30th 2008 4:32PM

I love how I keep getting voted down! I guess you guys hate games then because 3rd parties always move away from machines that seem to be too pirate ready (see Dreamcast and PSP).

Also I'm fully aware that homebrew =/= piracy ,but they both get into a system via the same unsigned code tricks and if piracy gets deep roots it won't matter how cool some homebrew app is if the actual retail games dry up.

Go ahead and blank out all my comments though I'm sure having a release schedule as "busy" as the PSP's is a good thing and I'm clearly spouting nonsense.

Monkeys Suck @ Jul 30th 2008 4:56PM

First off, the only thing that can be pirated through this so far is Virtual Console/WiiWare. People who actually dump the updates and deassemble them say that a soft mod would probably never happen since the disc detection is at a hardware level.

Second, there are legal uses for emulators, even just creating emulators for the sole purpose of a challenge of getting one console to run another console's work. There are also modified ROMs and user-created games that can be run through emulators.

Lastly, you say that you don't equate homebrew and piracy, but in fact you are. They get through by the same means, yes, but what the person chooses to do with it is another story. That's what separates the homebrew community from the pirates. The homebrew people look to create, rather than to take. Plus, don't all console games dry up eventually, when the next one hits? Not only that, you bring up example of DC and PSP, but look at the Nintendo DS. Flash cartridges exist, and a big homebrew community exists for it. Where's the drop in sales? Where's the drop in 3rd party?

Ben @ Jul 30th 2008 5:21PM

"I guess you guys hate games then because 3rd parties always move away from machines that seem to be too pirate ready (see Dreamcast and PSP)."
Your argument that 3rd parties move away from the consoles that are the easiest to pirate on makes no sense. The Dreamcast never sold well to begin with, neither did the PSP. The bottom line is developers don't want to spend money developing games for consoles that don't have a large install base. Look at the sales charts.
Also, by your logic, the Gamecube should have had the most 3rd party support because the original Xbox was so easy to hack (Easy chip install and ability to run 40+ games from the hard drive, not even having to burn discs, what could be easier?) as was the PS2 (just need a modchip). The Gamecube on the other hand was difficult to mod as you had to do a lot more hardware work. Why was it that the GC had the least 3rd party support and was 3rd place in sales?
Now the Wii, arguable the easiest current consoles to hack (with a modchip) has the most 3rd party support out of all three consoles. The 360 has slightly more 3rd party games than the PS3, and the 360 is also incredibly easy to hack (and if you do it right and play it safe, you can even play on Live)... I'm not sure whether or not you can even mod a PS3 to play Bluray games, so let's just say it's the least susceptible to piracy, yet has the least 3rd party support, why? It has the least install base.

aristokrat @ Jul 30th 2008 5:23PM

And, um, I think the fate of piracy on the Wii is already determined. Everybody I know with a Wii here at my university has a mod chip installed. Judging from the state of things though, I'd say Microsoft is Nintendo's best anti-piracy measure, because everybody would rather play games for their Xbox than bother with pirating any Wii games.

aristokrat @ Jul 30th 2008 5:34PM

The Wii has the biggest 3rd party support of the 3? What? Care to reveal a few games? Unless you mean by shovelware, but I don't know if that counts.

With regard to the PS3 and piracy, apparently the hackers are pretty stumped by the PS3's architecture. It seems that there is some mix of super high level software security mixed with unknown implementations of hardware secuirty. It's probably the most robust of the systems with regard to anti-piracy and hacking in general, putting aside the cost issues of a BD-R drive and discs.

zero2dash @ Jul 30th 2008 6:22PM

'I guess you guys hate games then because 3rd parties always move away from machines that seem to be too pirate ready (see Dreamcast and PSP).'

Yes, it certainly hurt all the 3rd parties from releasing Playstation and Playstation 2 titles.

/sarcasm

zero2dash @ Jul 30th 2008 6:30PM

...and before you try to counter "well you needed a MOD CHIP on the PSX and PS2", let me remind you that *drumroll please* no you don't.

You can swap games on the PSX and you can swap games on the PS2 also. No mod chip required. Hell you don't even need to BUY anything to swap games either (even though it makes things easier; see also: swap magic on the PSX and slide cards/flip top lids on the PS2). The Saturn was the same way.

The only systems that aren't easily pirated are cart systems and that has changed with flash rom carts being available.