Here comes another aricle by bushing, writing about the history of Wii hardware.

He focuses on:

Updates to the disc drive
Updates to the “big chips” (Hollywood, Broadway)
Updates to the main PCB

Follow the link below for the full article!

http://hackmii.com/2009/08/wii-hardware-a-history/

bushing over at HackMii.com wrote an article, why it was not possible to softmod some Wii’s in the past. The article is a bit long but for sure interesting. The article is linked below.

http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/

Quadrax is logical game game where more than keen reactions you will need fast fingers and will have to use all your grey brain cells.

Quadrax was originally ZX-Spectrum game made around 1994 by Slovak company called Cauldron, which was later ported to PC (Windows).

This version of game is based on Quadrax IV: The Secrets of Pyramid PC-Windows version of game, which was simply ported from DirectX to SDL graphic system.

Changes:

Less memory usage
+ Screenshots-taking is now possible (Nunchuk C button) – Screenshots are saved in apps/quadrax/screenshots as .bmp files
+ Added level number in HUD
– Max. unlocked level is sometimes not saving correctly (send me an email if this occurs)
+ Camera movement added (Nunchuk joystick)

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Quadrax

Mplayer CE is a homebrew media player for the Nintendo Wii. It was initially created as a fork of the Team Twiizers MPlayer port, combining elements of MPlayerWii, GeeXboX and other great homebrew contributions. It is built with devkitPPC development tools and libogc libraries, fully homebrew driven and not associated with Nintendo in any way.

Some of the current features includes DVD, SDHC, SMB, USB 2.0 storage device support, multiple media, subtitle, playlist and streaming formats, customization possibilities, etc.

Changes:

– FTP support added (thanks to hax)
– NTFS support added for USB and SD (thanks to Shareese)
– SMB speed improved
– Hopefully finally eradicated the freezing bug
– Fixed noise bug when loading another stream

http://code.google.com/p/mplayer-ce/

Still Alive to is a puzzle game inspired by Portal: The Flash Version which is a 2D renewal of Portal, developed by Valve Corporation.

Portal consists primarily of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the character and other simple objects by using a Portal Gun. The unusual physics allowed by the portal gun are the emphasis of Portal.

Release notes:

Added:
– 2 player coop mode. Each player can shoot one portal and the 2nd player can join the game at any moment by pressing the home button
– You can download new maps directly onto the Wii (Thx Morukutsu)
– You can upload your created maps so that other people can play them.
– When watching a replay, pressing the (1) button allows you to take control of it
– Particles effect when exiting a portal

Corrected:
– Smoother infra red cursor. No more problems in the top left corner of the screen
– 60Hz users : The screen is no longer cut, you can see all of the game (Thx Morukutsu)
– Turrets : they stop aiming at you when they’re dead (red line)

Thanks to http://www.tehskeen.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=13528 for the news.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=158618

This powerful application allows you to design and create your own games for one of the most popular consoles around – the Nintendo Wii. All that you need is a PC running windows with the latest version of the .NET framework, a Nintendo Wii and an SD card.

Thanks to http://www.tehskeen.com for the news, via http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=238938

http://www.wiigamestudio.com/

Crazy Intro is an autoboot homebrew to use along with Preloader. You can use Crazy Intro to customize the opening of your Wii. You can display your selected picture and play the music of your choice at each start of your Wii. Also you can assign your frequently used channels to the directional buttons on the Wiimote. You can use B button to quickly access homebrew channel.

Changes:

Visual settings and button configurations separated. Now you can build & share themes. Each theme has their own folder under crazyintro folder in the sd card. You can select the theme used by editing the crazyintro.xml configuration file. You should use folder name of the theme. Now crazyintro.xml file only contains stuff like shortcuts & selected theme and so on.
All wiimote buttons are now configurable. You can even control what to launch with A and B buttons. Also +, -, 1, 2 buttons are configurable.
You can create complicated shortcuts. Say you don’t want your kids messing with the dangerous applications, you can create hidden shortcuts to those applications. They can be a hidden channel or a dol/elf on the sd card. For ex: pressing HOME followed by Left, A, Right, A would take you to any title deleter.
Autoboot function for mp3 playing themes. Boots your chosen shortcut, be it homebrew channel, system menu or any title on your wii… (of course when music stops)
Experimental dol/elf loading feature added, beware there are some compatibility issues in some applications at the moment.
Code is now open source : http://code.google.com/p/crazyintro/

Thanks to http://www.tehskeen.com for the news.

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Crazy_Intro

timbrug & mbloemendal have updated their v1.0 RC to v1.0. blueMSX emulates an MSX computer.

Changes:

* Updated to BlueMSX V2.8.2.
* Added full support for GameCube controller.
* Fixed problems with ‘save state’. Also improved speed of saving a lot.
* Allow empty screenshot elements in gamelist.xml files (did crash before).
* Missing ‘Screenshots’ sub directories are now automatically created (on generating screenshot).
* Solved showing wrong day of state files.
* Embedded game pack will only be installed when no game pack is already installed.

Thanks to http://www.tehskeen.com for the news.

http://www.wiimsx.com/

Revolution Engine is the very First homebrew 3D Game Engine for Wii. It is directly based on GX without any GL wrapper or anything similar. Natively designed for Wii, is capable of generating best homebrew graphics ever seen on this games console.

This is not a game itself, but a library you can use to make your own 3D games for Wii in a very easy way.

Quote:

Revolution Engine 0.4 alpha 3 Supports

*3D System
– Triangle meshes, Quad meshes and mixed meshes Rendering
– Advanced transparency
– Custom file formats for 3D meshes
– Vertex lighting, software based
– Multiple cameras
– Node Based

*Material system
– Textured objects
– U V coordinates
– Diffuse color
– Diffuse maps
– Specular color
– Specular maps
– Transparency
– glossiness
– Specularity
– Mixed through TEV, Multiple TEV stages
– Multiple shaders

*2D system, GX based
– Node Based
– True type texts
– Multiple Viewports
– Solid panels
– Image-based panels
– IR pointers for up to 4 players
– Buttons
– Windows

*Miscellaneous
– Content Manager (Under construction)
– Screenshot function

Thanks to www.tehskeen.com for the news.

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Revolutionengine

Sand Traps by Uffe Flarup is an original puzzle game for Nintendo Wii. The objective of the game is to tilt the board using your wiimote, in order to guide the sand towards the green exit.

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Sand_Traps