A brief guide to homebrewing Nintendo Wii application

1. @KnightBaron

3.  Wiimote, an interesting controller
 You can also use Wiimote with computer
 Extending your Wii capabilities
 Enable you to do more things right from your
living room
 It’s fun!
 Trivia: There’s also a Linux distro for Nintendo
Wii

4.  Nintendo’s SDK
 Web Application
 Each user need to buy “Internet Channel” from Wii
Shop
 Can’t access low-level resource
 Homebrew Application
 It’s Free!
 No support from Nintendo

5.  Why homebrew?
 It’s free. You don’t need to pay royalty fee to
Nintendo. You don’t even need to buy the SDK.
 It’s open source
 Active community
 Is it legal?
 Yes, non of the code used in homebrew
development comes from Nintendo
 It shouldn’t void your Wii’s waranty.

6.  Is it safe?
 It’s quite safe as long as you follow the instruction
of the program
 If you code it yourself. It’s safe as long as you don’t
mess with Wii’s internal NAND Flash
▪ Even if you end up messed your Wii. There’re many tools
to help you revive it

7.  Code and compile an application with free-
opensource libraries.
 Feed custom code we compiled to Wii with
Loader
 Twilight hack
 The Homebrew Channel
 Banner Bomb
 Others loader

8.  Install the Homebrew Channel (HBC)
 http://hbc.hackmii.com/
 There’re many method to install depend on your
version of Nintendo Wii
 Install optional hacks (DVDX, PatchMii, etc. )
 Load an application
 SD Card (SDHC is supported)
 TCP Loader (Mainly use for debugging / testing)

15.  It is strongly recommended that you DO NOT
update your Wii through Nintendo
 I recommends everyone to stay with System
Menu 3.2 unless you really need those new
features presented in the newer System
Menu

17.  Nintendo Wii (of course!)
 devkitPro ( http://www.devkitpro.org/ )
 devkitPPC – C, C++ compiler with quot;powerpc-
gekkoquot; architecture
 libogc – collections of library for Nintendo Wii (
and Gamecube )
 (Optional) Programmer notepad – Text-editor /
Lightweight IDE prepared for developing
Homebrew Application

18.  (Recommended) Network connection for Wii
 (Wired / Wireless)
 (Recommended) TCP Loader
 Wiiload
 Others loader
 (Optional) USB Gecko – Wii ( and Gamecube )
interface for your computer
 http://www.usbgecko.com/
 It’s not really necessary

20.  (Workshop) A helloworld application
 (Workshop) A little example on using the
controller
 I recommends going through Wii
Programming Tutorial by teknecal
 http://www.codemii.com/category/wii-
programming-tutorials/

21.  Create meta.xml and icon.png for your
application to support HBC
 You don’t need to do this but it’s highly recommended
 Wiibrew ( http://wiibrew.org/ )
 Homebrew Browser
 Online directory for Homebrew Application.
Accessible right from your Wii!
 Request your program to be added from
http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Talk:Homebrew_Browser#Wa
nted_Apps/

22.  DO NOT mess with Wii’s internal NAND flash
storage UNLESS you know what you’re
going to do
 Keep yourself up to date
 Recommended site
 http://wiibrew.org/
 http://hackmii.com/
 http://codemii.com/
 http://wiiuse.net/?nav=docs

26. ONScripter

28. And many more…

30.  Twitter – http://twitter.com/KnightBaron
 Blog – http://knightbaron.sytes.net/
 E-mail – knightbaron@gmail.com

31. And welcome to the world of homebrew development