The Nintendo Wii Homebrew Guide
Homebrew refers to programs such as games, utilities and other software that are developed at home by individuals rather than by software companies. Homebrew programs have been made for many systems, including PlayStation, XBox, Wii, cell phones and others. Gaming companies discourage the use of homebrew by developing countermeasures that lock their consoles from homebrew, but clever hackers have developed special software that is capable of over-riding these countermeasures.
The Wii homebrew Twilight Hack was the original Wii homebrew emulator. Emulators are a type of software that simulates a specific hardware environment (such as an older model of gaming console), enabling users to play Wii gamecube homebrew and other types of Wii homebrew on their Wii console. Nintendo responded to the Twilight Hack by developing a Firmware version 4.0 that completely disables the Twilight Hack (though some other versions don’t disable it). Hackers countered that move by developing the Wii Homebrew Channel, which is a Wii homebrew loader that allows users to launch unofficial software.
If you install the Homebrew Channel on your Wii, it will appear on your regular Wii Menu. The Homebrew menu will display a list of applications found on a Wii homebrew SD card, a type of memory card. When you first launch the Homebrew Channel it will check for updates and will enable you to automatically download them if you want to.
The Homebrew Channel is compatible with many types of controllers, including the Classic Controller, the Wii Remote, the Nunchuck plus Wii Remote, and the Les Paul Guitar Controller. The Homebrew Channel has a Wii Homebrew Browser that can download applications to do a variety of things. You can also download other apps from the official Hackmii Website.
Wii homebrew has been a big hit with gamers, especially with old-time gamers who enjoyed playing on Nintendo’s second console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), which was released in 1990 and was the global sales leader. A lot of people consider the SNES to represent the “Golden Age” of gaming, and they were greatly disappointed when Nintendo dropped all support for the SNES system. But now, with the games coming back due to an explosion of Wii homebrew SNES emulators, old-time gamers now have the best of both worlds: getting to play their old favorites on the incredible new Wii console.
There are other Wii homebrew games that have enjoyed immense popularity as well, like Duck Hunt, Jewel Quest, Minesweeper, PONG, Tetris for Wii, Battleship for Wii and Wii Chess. A lot of people have taken also to Sega Genesis homebrew. Other homebrew, like Media Player, Wii Calculator and Wii Paint, have also proven very popular. Nintendo, of course, has denounced the practice of using Wii homebrew emulators as “flagrant piracy.”
QJ.net offers good reviews of the latest Wii homebrew emulators for games and apps.
There are several Wii homebrew installers on the market that allow you to install the Homebrew Channel on your Wii console without a Wii homebrew mod chip. Three of the best are Wii Homebrew Installer, Homebrew Help and HomebreWare. Instead of buying an installer, you can—for a similar amount of money—join a Wii download site that allows you to not only play homebrew games but also to play new Wii games. These sites also offer a lot more, and they are perfectly legal. The best of these is definetly My Wii Downloads.