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The Wiibrew Weekend Warrior: 3D homebrew engine, DVD access library coming, a parting of ways between devs, more

Howdy, Wiibrewers! The Wiibrew scene has been pretty busy this week with devs releasing some pretty wicked programs left and right. There’s even a new engine that serves as a foundation for 3D Wiibrew games! There’s also some unsettling news this week as friction between Team Twiizers and Wiibrew dev waninkoko seems to have escalated to new heights. We’ll get to that in a bit. Let’s get cracking in this week’s Wiibrew Weekend Warrior.

Wiibrew Pick of the Week

This program may not be for everyone – non-devs in particular – but everyone can surely appreciate the implications of this new release from technik. The Revolution Engine is a game engine, serving as a foundation for Wiibrew devs who want to create their own 3D games. It’s still in its infantile stages, so it’s still a little simple, but it’s exciting to think of the new generation of 3D Wiibrew games born from it.

Link: Revolution Engine 0.1 public release – create your own 3D homebrew games

Wiibrew Programs

GeeXboX, one of our favorite media players for the Wii, saw an update this week with several new features. The program now has improved support for widescreen mode, and and improved Wiimote connection/reconnection routine. It still doesn’t have native DVD support, that may change soon when Team Twiizers releases their DVD Access Library.

Link: GeeXboX v0.1 alpha1: improved widescreen mode, new features

Also updated this week is Homebrew Browser and Homebrew Manager – two very useful programs, especially if you have a very large Wiibrew library.

Homebrew Browser, which lets you download and update Wiibrew straight from the Wii, now has several new features, and a bug fix that prevents accidental exiting to the Homebrew Browser. Homebrew Manager, essentially a homebrew XML organizer, now has added FTP support, thanks to FTPii.

Link: Homebrew Browser v0.2.1a: new features, bug fixes
Link: Homebrew Manager 1.3 Beta: now with FTP support

Wiibrew Games

Guitarfun – always a fan favorite – saw an update this week thanks to developer Hermes. The game now features online support to play between a Wii and PC using a LAN, although play through WiFi had a few errors, and direct play between two consoles has not been fully tested yet.

Link: Guitarfun v2.9 Beta: now with online support

One release I’m particularly excited for this week is OpenTyrianWii, a translation of the classic Tyrian shooter for the Wii from homebrew developer nuvalo.

The port support the GameCube controller, USB mice and keyboards, and of course, the Wiimote. The dev said that nunchuck and classic controller support will come in future versions.

Link: OpenTyrianWii: Tyrian Wiibrew port

Updated this week is UNO, a Wii translation of the classic card game. Now on version 5, the game now has improved graphics and other improvements.

Link: Wiibrew game UNO v5: improved graphics, new features

This quirky new release is from Wiibrew developer drei000. Called WiiLife, it’s a translation of Conway’s Game of Life, a popular cellular automation program. It appeals to me more for its mathematical, aesthetic, and philosophical aspects than anything.

Link: WiiLife: Conway’s Game of Life for the Wii

Wiibrew Tools

Big news this week in the homebrew community is Wiibrew dev waninkoko’s new program, the Wii Region Changer. It’s big news not just because it’s an extremely useful program, but because of the goings-on behind the program. But we’ll go more into this later. Back to the program (no pun intended – I think); Wii Region Changer does what its name suggests: it changes the regional settings of your Wii. Here’s a vid of it in action:

Link: Homebrew – Wii Region Changer v1.0

Also big this week from waninkoko – he’s been pretty busy lately – is the Wii Custom Firmware tools. He’s updated the Custom IOS Installer to rev03, and the Uninstaller to v1.1. He’s even released a new firmware downgrader.

Link: Wiibrew CFW: Custom IOS Installer rev03, Uninstaller v1.1, Downgrader v1.0

Another (!) big update this week is Ocarina, from Wiibrew dev Link. Ocarina is a stand-alone Wii(RD) code handler, and may be the closest thing we have to a GameShark for the Wii yet. Essentially, the program starts a game and searches for cheat codes in the SD card.

Link: Wiibrew program, Ocarina: the stand-alone Wii(RD) code handler

Wrapping up this week’s releases is tona’s AnyTitle Deleter, which allows you to delete almost any title from your Wii, including previously un-deletable ones, such as IOS, MIOS, and some system channels. A very useful program if you need some space on your Wii.

Link: AnyTitle Deleter: space-freeing program for the Wii

This week’s just brimming with excellent news from the Wiibrew community. Remember how bushing of Team Twiizers contacted Nintendo regarding the Wii hack exploit that he found? While Nintendo did answer him, it may be that they’re not that interested as they didn’t follow up on it to start a dialogue with bushing.

This is good for us, and likely bad for Nintendo. Due to Ninty’s apparent lack of interest, Team Twiizers will soon be releasing – if they haven’t yet, by the time you read this – the DVD Access Library which will open a way for the Wii to read DVD-Rs and video DVDs.

Link: Wiibrew News: Team Twiizers to release DVD Access Library

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news this week. waninkoko’s most recent release, the Wii Region Changer, seems to have escalated some friction going on between him and Team Twiizers. Marcan and the rest of Team Twiizers assert that waninkoko’s programs are dangerous, and that some of his programs have also led to piracy. The team has consequently decided not to share any more information with him.

Link: Hold your homebrew horses: semi-bricking Wii Region Changer wrings drama

The friction behind waninkoko and Team Twiizers has been going on for some time now. The Wiibrew community is divided on this one. Freeplay and PSPegasus express two of the greater extremes of the argument. Here are this week’s comment(s) of the week, taken from the article above:

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Nintendo looking to holographic data storage for the Wii?

Storage space on the Wii has been a growing problem for some time now. Even Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime was forced to admit that it’s now a “mainstream problem.” Still, it seems that Nintendo’s solution may be a bit overkill, if this newly uncovered patent has anything to say about it.

According to the patent, Nintendo is working with InPhase Technologies to use Holographic Data Storage. This storage tech may very well be the next stage media storage after Blu-ray. Their storage technology aims to store anywhere from 300 GB to 1.6 TB (yes, that’s terabytes) of space. I did say overkill.

It’s all speculation for now though. Will it be used as a storage solution for the Wii? Or will Nintendo finally compete in the next batch of consoles in terms of hardware performance? At any rate, this is very promising news, and I for one, am very excited to see where they’re going to go with this.

• Reggie Fils-Aime: Wii’s limited storage now a “mainstream problem”
• Nintendo working on a Wii storage solution, but it won’t be external
• Nintendo job post for Wii USB devices: hope for a hard drive?
• AnyTitle Deleter: space-freeing program for the Wii

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Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Update

While I’ve never played Kingdom Hearts, I have several friends who have, and they highly recommend it.  Here are a couple screenshots and some updated info about the game.
   
Here’s what Siloconera had to say about a possible delay of KH358/2D:
Roxas’ DS spinoff was scheduled to come out in 2008.  However, a revised release list from the DKΣ3713 gives [...]

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The Wii Weekend Warrior: of game delays, the next Wii, and… just what is the core gamer anyway?

The Wii scene has been pretty quiet this week. Not surprising, as this is the low that happens between E3 and the Leipzig Games Convention. I actually expected it to happen last week. Still, some updates did trickle in this week on several games, and news on a new Wii! However, the big subject this week seems to be about Nintendo.

Have they really abandoned the Wii’s core gamer? (VG Cats’ had a hilarious comic about it, as reader lavino pointed out.) A lot of you certainly had some strong opinions on the matter. We’ll get to that in a bit, so let’s get started with this week’s Wii Weekend Warrior!

Although still a few months shy of its second year out, the Wii already has a successor in the works, according to Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata.

Iwata gives a small clue as to what it does so far: it’s “a kind of box that consumers reluctantly buy in order to play our games.” Admittedly, that’s not much to go on, but it’s all we got.

We won’t see it anytime soon of course, with Wii sales still breaking through the roof and the ozone layer. In fact, the Wii is selling so well that Nintendo isn’t planning on making different color models any time soon, saying that the current model already flies off shelves so fast that a makeover isn’t necessary to sell them.

So, considering how well the first Wii is doing right now, can Wii 2 live up to the standards it has set? Can Nintendo really top the phenomenal craze that the Wiimote has sparked? Even Iwata isn’t sure of that himself.

Link: Wii 2 already in the works; can it live up to expectations?
Link: Dunaway: no new Wii colors or slimmer DS from Nintendo, for now

Yoda and Darth Vader are making an appearance in Soul Calibur 4 – which got me to wondering what it would be like if Luke Skywalker would appear in the next Red Steel game. This doesn’t have to do with anything of course, so let’s move on. (Maybe Chewbacca… or Jar Jar? Over my dead body.)

Red Steel 2, which was criticized for how loosely its sword controls followed the Wiimote, will be utilizing the Wii MotionPlus accessory, so I doubt there will be any complaints about the controls when the game is released.

Some bad news this week. Due to the recent merger between Activision and Blizzard (now collectively known as Activision Blizzard, doi), Ghostbusters: The Video Game has been delayed to 2009, seeking a new publisher. Also announcing a delay is Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, which didn’t make its July release. Sorry, attractive people. (Padme duking it out with Strong Bad… hmmm…)

If the delays bummed you out, you can check out new screens for Lego Batman: The Videogame. There’s nothing like a Man-Bat Lego figure hovering threateningly with its red beady eyes to perk up your day. (Yoda as a Lego character? … Ok, gotta get Star Wars outta my head.) Check out the screens after the link below.

Link: More Lego Batman screens show a cuter Gotham posse than ever
Link: Red Steel 2 swordplay: will utilize Wii MotionPlus accessory
Link: Ghostbusters delayed to 2009, needs new publisher
Link: Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People won’t make July release

The Wii is a phenomenal hit, no one can deny that, not even the ones who call the console a fad. In fact, Nintendo just reported a whopping US 990 million profit for their first quarter, up 34 from last year. That’s enough moolah to end world hunger. Well, no, not really, but that’s still a lot of dough (get it? get it? dough! oh shut up).

Given that, and Nintendo’s lack of effort to speak to the “core gamer” at their E3 press conference, a lot of people believe that they have abandoned their original gamers in favor of the mass market. Personally, I’d rather wait until the next games conference before I can say as much, considering how most of those who attended E3 brought as little, if not less, than what Nintendo had to offer. E3 just didn’t have the pulling power this year.

Perhaps the problem lies in the definition of what the core gamer is, and what a hardcore gamer is. Yes, the Wii lacks more hardcore games for its library, but has Nintendo really abandoned its “original fans”? Or is it more accurate to say, the “core gamer”? Who makes up the core gaming community anyway? I leave these thoughts from ISOHaven, Techni, and schmede for this week’s Comment(s) of the Week:

Link: Has Nintendo abandoned its core community?

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WiiMU v1.3: bug fixes, new features

This one goes in my list of homebrew to watch out for. WiiMU is an ambitious project from homebrew devs SquidMan and crediar that aims to totally replace the Wii’s System Menu. While it’s still rough around the edges, it’s making some great progress.

Now on version 1.3 (although the dev also lists it as v0.1a3 or simply just version 3), the program now has several new features and bug fixes, including a configuration viewer. Note though, that this version has two known issues you should look out for, as noted by the devs:

There are some slight problems with 0.1a3. First, on the channel list, you may get two listings of a channel. Choose the first one. Second, the elf file is named WiiMU.elf. You must rename it to boot.elf for it to work. These issues have already been brought to attention and will be fixed in a4

The source code is included with the download archive. Be sure to read the documentation included in the download archive for more details. Here’s the changelog for this version:

• Fixes a bug in which certain users couldn’t get the list of channels.
• Adds save file browsing. Copying does not work yet.
• Adds a configuration viewer. Will eventually allow changing.
• Adds launching a disc.
• You can control the menus with every Wiimote and every GC controller

Download: WiiMU 1.3

• WiiMU v1.2 – total replacement to Wii System Menu

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Wii DVD Dumper v1.2 and Custom IOS Downgrader v1.1

Although Team Twiizers and Wiibrew developer waninkoko aren’t seeing eye to eye right now, waninkoko still managed to update two of his custom firmware programs, the Wii DVD Dumper and the Custom IOS Downgrader. No changelogs were provided with these new updates, so we don’t know exactly what was changed.

We have yet to hear from waninkoko on the current situation between him and Team Twiizers, but he did give what may be a sly comment on the side. In his blog, he gave the following comment as his parting note for the holidays and the release of the new updates:

2008/08/01 – My last gift before holidays. Three new applications for Custom IOS! As always they are not useful and dangerous. Enjoy them (if you can).

At any rate, practice caution when using these programs, and consult the readme for additional information.

Download: Custom IOS Downgrader v1.1
Download: Wii DVD Dumper v1.2

• Wiibrew custom firmware: Custom IOS installer, DVD dumper
• Custom IOS Installer rev03, Uninstaller v1.1, Downgrader v1.0
• Hold your homebrew horses: semi-bricking Wii Region Changer wrings drama
• Homebrew – Wii Region Changer v1.0