I've updated the OP. And here's the rest.
DVD Playback
The Wii has a DVD player in it. All the games are DVDs, obviously. But apparently Nintendo didn't want to pay the licensing fee - or whatever it was. And it would have caused the price of the Wii to go up.
I've seen apps here and there in .pal on other forums. But I've yet to hear of a working one that doesn't require a mod chip. Some people argue that the Wii wasn't built to handle the supposed stress of watching a DVD. But others came to the conclusion that it's no different if not less worst than playing a game.
Well, what about mod-chips?
You can load the homebrew channel among doing a ton of other things with a mod chip only. There are various models/versions out there. Some only work with certain version of the Wii. There is also a mod chip that required no soldering and simply clips in. Although from my research it seems these are more problematic and not worth the hassle. Your best bet is to try to find a local installer.
Why don't my saves work in SNES9x?
Make sure you go back to the home screen before turn off the game.
Apps that the homebrew channel can run
Here's the best list for that
[Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]
Do the Twilight Hack everytime you want to install an App?
No, use the Twilight Hack to install the Homebrew Channel, run everything else through there. Backup your original TP save and put it back when you're done (if you care about keeping your savegame like I do).
How do the emulators run?
Emulators (and all other apps) are run through the Homebrew Channel which lists all the apps on the SD card.
You can remove the channel just like any other channel, all other data is stored on the SD card, not the Wii memory, so theoretically Nintendo wouldn't know about it unless you accidentally left the SD card in.
Moving channels around
I added this because I had no idea if you could do it nor how. Simply hold the cursor over the channel and hit the back trigger of the wii-mote and the a button.
I've got a wii running 3.2e and zelda. I havent done this on a wii before, so what are the chances of bricking?
Loading the majority of homebrew via the Twilight Hack/Homebrew Channel is no risk to your console whatsoever. You might get the occasional code dump and have to turn your console off and on again, but most everything runs off the SD card so there's no risk of doing pemanent damage to the console itself. Some of the homebrew utilities, however, might permanently delete channels or brick your Wii if used incorrectly (the duplicate channel removers and firmware mess-around-ers), but if you're just looking to run emulators you won't ever need to touch either of those things.
Is there a huge reason to use this if I have no interest in using emulators?
Yeah, why not? People are making games for it and I think lots of interesting stuff will come in the near future. And come on, who wouldn't have ScummVM on the Wii?
I followed all the instructions and got the homebrew channel installed and it's all good, but for some reason, the sample apps that were linked in the OP won't work.
They'll all boot, but then don't accept any input and turn off my wii remote, any ideas?
Yeah, for some reason some apps unsync the wii remote, you have to resync it again unfortunately. I hope they fix that.
Also, some apps only use the gamecube controller, check the wiki in the OP.
Hmmm, I tried to install quake abut it doesn't show up in the homebrew channel.
For quake I have it in it's own folder named "quake" in the apps folder which contains:
QuakeGX.dol
readme.html
ID1 (folder)
->PAK0.PAK
->WII.PAK
Am I missing something here? I'm using PAK0 because I can't find my quake CD at the moment so I don't have PAK1.
You'll want it set up like this for Quake:
/apps/quake/boot.dol (rename the .dol file)
/apps/quake/icon.png (optional)
/apps/quake/meta.xml (optional)
/ID1/PAK0.PAK
/ID1/PAK1.PAK (if you have the full game)
/ID1/WII.PAK
Since the old apps is out of date and not working so good I thought I'd make up a my own bundle of the latest versions of the programs that I think are decent.
[Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]
My hosting isn't so great so if someone with better bandwidth could put up a mirror it'd be great. This pack contains the Twilight Hack and the Homebrew Channel with instructions to install them as well as the following applications all setup, tested and working:
Duck Hunt
FCE Ultra (NES)
Gen Plus (Genesis)
Hugo GX (TG16)
Open Tyrian
Quake GX (Shareware)
ScummVM
SD ELF Loader
SMS Plus (Master System)
Snes9x (SNES)
Tetris
Visualboy Advance (GBA)
WAD Manager
Wii Physics
The emulators all work really well and have the directories set up and just need the roms etc to be put in them. If there's any problems with it let me now.
So, am I to understand that I have to do the Zelda savegame load thing to install the WiiBrew channel?
To be more specific: I understand what the site is telling me, that a pure "drivechip" (what most people call modchips) isn't actually going to let me burn the channel to a DVD and have it loaded by the Wii, but I don't really understand why. Surely if the DVD could pretended to be all signed, the Wii would have no worries loading it and installing the channel?
You can download and burn an iso of the Homebrew Channel installer, and use it instead of bothering with the Twilight Hack. This method will work with any console that has a modchip/drivechip. I did it myself, it was super-easy.
But the Homebrew Channel shows up in the play history on the message board doesn't it? And related comedy question, can it be reviewed on the Nintendo Channel?
Yes it can. Disable the Data Sharing option in the Nintendo Channel unless you're feeling brave. There haven't been any reports of Wii Bricking from this, but you never know.
Looks like a port of MPlayer just got released. It's a pretty early build and very very no frills (You can't even pause a video).
However I did successfully get it to play mp3, avi, mov, wmv, and half of a flv (which then locked up) with no issues.
It's definitely something to keep an eye on as I can tell future versions will be great.
Right now everything has to go on the root of your SD card other than the program itself.
[Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]
What's the difference between a .dol file and .elf file?
None, they'll both load the application. If an application comes with both, you should just go with the .elf unless otherwise stated.
Does my SD card have to be a specific type?
Yes, it has to be a 2GB or less (anything higher has special security on it which isn't compatible with the Wii) and formatted in FAT16 or FAT32 (The Wiki and other boards will tell you FAT16, but I use FAT32 and nothing wrong has happened yet)
The Twilight Hack isn't loading properly, why not?
You might be trying to use the wrong save files.
Look at your CD's serial number (on the bottom, inside the ring. You should see a bunch of letters and numbers. What's important is the last bunch, the A0-# JPN/USA/EUR) Make sure the file you've put on your Wii is the right one. The initial release of the CD should be A0-0 JPN, so put the JPN save on your Wii and load up the first save file. A later release version will be A0-0 USA or A0-2 USA. If your CD has the latter, load up the second save file in-game using the USA save data.
Why does -such and such- application suck?
If you're positive that it's not your Wii's fault, remember that Wii Homebrew is still fairly new and on the rise. Not everything is working perfectly.
The most recent Wii update (V3.3) made a bit of a scare since it wipes out the special save file needed to load the hack and also makes loading Trucha signed discs impossible to load.
So how do I load my imports now?
A new application called Gecko Region Free (GeckoOS) was released, and it can be loaded right from the SD card via Homebrew Channel and it will load any retail Wii game from any region. (It does not support burned copies [yet?] of Wii games)
I'm not going to tell you where to get filez but google is your friend. I got a lot of results by just typing in what I wanted with .wad or wad or "download". A .wad can be pretty much anything you can buy/download from the nintendo store. Games, wiiware, VC, opera, etc. They show up and play as regular channels as they normally would.
Linear Mode
