Earlier today, we reported on the better-late-than-never news that DVD playback has come to Wii, thanks to the console's burgeoning homebrew development community. We decided to give the hack a go ourselves and recorded a brief video tutorial of how you too can unlock the immense potential of the Wii's disc drive. Okay ... so you can just watch DVDs, but this is big stuff for Nintendo, folks.

The actual process is so simple – and the results, even for a first release, so impressive – that we're boggled by the fact that Nintendo hasn't simply added this functionality to the Disc Channel as part of a system update. It's a matter of downloading a small file, a hombrew video player, copying them to an SD card, and using the Homebrew Channel (a guide to installing which we've posted about previously) to apply a two-second patch. Keep reading after the break for our full impressions.

This week, the staff at DS Fanboy dedicated themselves to all things homebrew. If you own a DS and aren't checking out some of these hobbyist applications, you're missing half the fun of the system. Let DS Fanboy help you get started, find the best games and other software, and troubleshoot your problems, and you'll be reproducing Rembrandts* in Colors! in no time.

*provided you actually have some shred of artistic talent

Getting started

	DS Fanboy's (semi) ultimate homebrew guide Covering some of the most common Slot-1 cards that can turn your DS into a lean, mean, homebrew machine.
	Homebrew glossary DLD-what? Slot where? We've got the answers.

Filling up that SD card

	Widen the horizons of the DS The best apps for making your DS do all the things a handheld was never meant to do.
	Japanese homebrew games that will blow your mind From the wacky to the completely awesome.
	Emulating the gaming world on DS Your favorite old consoles, back in handheld form.
	Don't buy these: homebrew recommendations There are dozens of amazing homebrew apps available, and we've got a small sampling of our favorites.
	Homebrew: Using the DS as a PDA Why carry two things when one will do just fine?
	More Naughtiness on the Nintendo DS All the pornographic puzzles you can fit on a single microSD card.

Checking out the community

	Confessions of a Homebrew Virgin New to this whole deal? You're not the only one.
	Homebrew dev dishes on the DS scene The man behind Laser Hockey DS on the scene, his recommendations, and the lessons Nintendo could stand to learn from homebrew.
	Homebrew support group Got problems? We bet someone has an answer.

We decided to create a gallery outlining the steps you'll go through to play the game online. Click here to get acquainted. While Europe is laughing that they already have the game, US gamers finally get their hands on Mario Kart and midnight tonight.

(Note: Due to technical difficulties, we had to physically take pictures of the game running in 480i. The quality of the images does not affect what Mario Kart Wii actually looks like.)

Our pals at Engadget know cables and hacks. And those are two great tastes that taste great together; Engadget shows how to make an Xbox 360 VGA cable out of a lowly composite part.

Unlike the PS2 and GameCube, the Xbox 360 cables include every pin -- even the ones not used by the cable-specific video connection. Because these pins already connect to the console, it's just a matter of wiring a VGA socket to the previously-unused terminals.

Total cost? $7. Get out the soldering iron, and save your money for games.

See also: PSA: Use the right cables for your TV

Last week's Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard update added support for the Windows Media Video (WMV) video codec. The feature was a welcomed gain for non-Media Center users who have been limited to photo and music sharing between their Windows PCs and Xbox 360s -- and to anyone who's longed to watch video files on 360 via a thumb drive or CD/DVD.

Unfortunately, licensing fees and digital rights concerns have limited the patch to WMV-support only. Being Microsoft's proprietary format, WMV is neither popular or oft-used, taking a backseat to preferred codecs like DivX and XviD. And so, we're still left scrambling for a solution to getting our video content onto Xbox 360.

If, like me, you have your Xbox 360 placed near your wifi-enabled computer, but away from your wireless router or modem, then you'll want to take advantage of the Xbox's ability to "borrow" your computer's internet connection. For Windows users, this process is simple; it's just a matter of "bridging" your computer's wifi connection to your PC's ethernet port which is plugged into your Xbox. For Mac users, the process ain't so easy. What follows is a guide for getting your Xbox 360 to accept Mac OS X's internet sharing option.