Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472 with a smaller thought for the week. Let’s get started!
I mentioned last week how my family picked up a replacement Wii for Thanksgiving this year. Most everything appeared to be working at first, but when my sister, Taz (Tzarina8472), found Animal Crossing: City Folk needed a firmware update to play. I’m planning to hack this Wii at some point to get on its large homebrew scene, but firmware updates can patch out needed vulnerabilities.
My early research hinted that any version would work, but I later confirmed this on WiiBrew.org [1], whose FAQ’s opening introduces itself as an authoritative reference. All firmware versions have exploits, but updating to or past version 4.2 risks a system brick, and the WiiBrew FAQ does not recommended it for any Wii.
If there exists some website that lists what Wii games need what firmware, I couldn’t find it. Turns out games that may need a firmware update come bundled with the version they need. Luckily, the problematic 4.2 firmware was released the year after this of Animal Crossing. The system went from firmware version 3.2 to 3.3 (best guess from memory).
Final Question
What would you do with a freshly hacked Wii?
I look forward hearing your answers on in the comments below or on my Socials.
Work Cited
[1] “Wii Brew,” WiiBrew.org, Nov. 18, 2021. [Online]. available: www.wiibrew.org/wiki/Main_Page [Accessed Dec. 5, 2022].