Marcan, reknowned Wii and Wii U hacker, has posted logs to clarify many of the rumors going around, and also to give his thoughts on recent developments and 'the scene' in general. It includes commentary from people such as neimod and tueidj and covers a variety of subjects currently being discussed (with minimal censoring), so it's worth a read for anybody who's curious what's going on.
This post contains a majority of the important viewpoints and statements, organized by subject matter. In order to see the original context and questions, please follow the "Full IRC Log" link at the bottom of this post.
Forum Post
Full IRC Log
This post contains a majority of the important viewpoints and statements, organized by subject matter. In order to see the original context and questions, please follow the "Full IRC Log" link at the bottom of this post.
< marcan> 31 trustworthy people have the info from last year. if nobody has released anything yet it's because nobody is motivated/interested enough to do anything with it.
< marcan> I think there's a collective "meh" sentiment about the WiiU. it was fun breaking it but nobody really feels like building an ecosystem out of it
< marcan> and we saw what happens when you just throw your stuff at people and tell them to run with it (see PS3), so that's not going to happen
< marcan> 31 is a lot of people; if nobody feels like it maybe it isn't worth it.
< marcan> (also, there's a very real chance that the wiikey guys are just fishing for info and don't really have a viable product, so releasing now would be a stupid move as far as avoiding helping warez)
<@marcan> heck, other than random twittards, I've heard basically no noise/pestering for us to release stuff
<@marcan> I think there really isn't as much interest as there should be to make this viable/worth it
<@marcan> part of it is that the wiiu indeed isn't selling well, I think
<@marcan> *I should qualify that I value noise from real devs. there's plenty of noise from gbatemp, but we all know they just want warez.
< marcan> I think there's a collective "meh" sentiment about the WiiU. it was fun breaking it but nobody really feels like building an ecosystem out of it
< marcan> and we saw what happens when you just throw your stuff at people and tell them to run with it (see PS3), so that's not going to happen
< marcan> 31 is a lot of people; if nobody feels like it maybe it isn't worth it.
< marcan> (also, there's a very real chance that the wiikey guys are just fishing for info and don't really have a viable product, so releasing now would be a stupid move as far as avoiding helping warez)
<@marcan> heck, other than random twittards, I've heard basically no noise/pestering for us to release stuff
<@marcan> I think there really isn't as much interest as there should be to make this viable/worth it
<@marcan> part of it is that the wiiu indeed isn't selling well, I think
<@marcan> *I should qualify that I value noise from real devs. there's plenty of noise from gbatemp, but we all know they just want warez.
< marcan> delroth: it's getting better because for the past few generations we did all the work for the warezors, so they got lazy and incompetent
< marcan> if we get lazy and unmotivated, they might be too incompetent to break the new ones
< marcan> <insert 'get off my lawn' remark about warezors knowing what they were doing in the 90s>
< marcan> delroth: I bet they spent a week fishing sectors out of RAM like they used to on LG? drives for wii games
< marcan> or something equally retarded
< marcan> it's too easy when you have full control of the software, and the PC warezors, unlike the console ones, haven't had the opportunity to get lazy
< marcan> if we get lazy and unmotivated, they might be too incompetent to break the new ones
< marcan> <insert 'get off my lawn' remark about warezors knowing what they were doing in the 90s>
< marcan> delroth: I bet they spent a week fishing sectors out of RAM like they used to on LG? drives for wii games
< marcan> or something equally retarded
< marcan> it's too easy when you have full control of the software, and the PC warezors, unlike the console ones, haven't had the opportunity to get lazy
< marcan> not as awesome as us though, we did have to pull of a pretty epic <censored> attack for the wii u
< marcan> it's a bit scary how well these things work sometimes
<@marcan> heck, the most interesting bit so far was the compat VI
<@marcan> and we already reverse engineered that
< marcan> it's a bit scary how well these things work sometimes
<@marcan> heck, the most interesting bit so far was the compat VI
<@marcan> and we already reverse engineered that
<@marcan> sure, it's a basic PPC, but the multicore stuff is trickier (and not that common in 32-bit ppc)
<@marcan> also, it has bugs.
<@marcan> as in need to patch libpthreads to make it work kind of bugs.
<@marcan> it's kind of sad.
<@marcan> (they'd never pass this stepping off as a general purpose CPU, but I guess it was good enough for a console)
<@marcan> oh, running on one core would be easy (basically wii compat mode), but where's the fun in that
<@marcan> Muzer: fwiw you CAN get three cores in wii mode, with restrictions, with some tricks. but good luck getting libogc ported to multicore (so there's really no point)
<@marcan> yeah, but someone still needs to do the RE and write some drivers for it.
<@marcan> I don't trust myself to move this forward, and people are disinterested enough that I have my doubts that the whole ecosystem really would prosper
<@delroth> marcan: my take on this is just that the wiiu is not an interesting console.
<@marcan> delroth: yeah. I mean, the controller is cute, but everything else is just bog standard
<@marcan> sure, three cores, woohoo, but we have quad-core ARMs now
<@marcan> also, the SIMD is still made of fail
<@marcan> that's still what I find the saddest about the CPU
<@shuffle2> i think it would be interetsing to know how some other hardware is working (like compat gpu/dsp,bd) but not incredibly interesting to use them, unlike the gamepad
<@marcan> shuffle2: dsp is just the same old dsp with more sram. bd is SATA/AHCI. compat gpu I still think is just a bolted-on GX
<@marcan> and the wiiu GPU is just a stupid outdated radeon
<@marcan> there's really nothing interesting
<@marcan> also, it has bugs.
<@marcan> as in need to patch libpthreads to make it work kind of bugs.
<@marcan> it's kind of sad.
<@marcan> (they'd never pass this stepping off as a general purpose CPU, but I guess it was good enough for a console)
<@marcan> oh, running on one core would be easy (basically wii compat mode), but where's the fun in that
<@marcan> Muzer: fwiw you CAN get three cores in wii mode, with restrictions, with some tricks. but good luck getting libogc ported to multicore
(so there's really no point)<@marcan> yeah, but someone still needs to do the RE and write some drivers for it.
<@marcan> I don't trust myself to move this forward, and people are disinterested enough that I have my doubts that the whole ecosystem really would prosper
<@delroth> marcan: my take on this is just that the wiiu is not an interesting console.
<@marcan> delroth: yeah. I mean, the controller is cute, but everything else is just bog standard
<@marcan> sure, three cores, woohoo, but we have quad-core ARMs now
<@marcan> also, the SIMD is still made of fail
<@marcan> that's still what I find the saddest about the CPU
<@shuffle2> i think it would be interetsing to know how some other hardware is working (like compat gpu/dsp,bd) but not incredibly interesting to use them, unlike the gamepad
<@marcan> shuffle2: dsp is just the same old dsp with more sram. bd is SATA/AHCI. compat gpu I still think is just a bolted-on GX
<@marcan> and the wiiu GPU is just a stupid outdated radeon
<@marcan> there's really nothing interesting
< marcan> yeah, at this stage with Steam on Linux and Android, I'm having a hard time seeing that big a future for traditional consoles
< marcan> why buy closed platforms when open ones are cheaper and better
< marcan> m_b_v: that's the point - publishers just need to get their act together and start releasing for android and PC.
<@marcan> I'm too lazy to port Linux to the Espresso when I can be writing karaoke software. or something.
<@marcan> ouya is open IIRC, though I didn't back that project. I find the hardware lacking.
<@delroth> just like xbox360... no "real" homebrew scene because it has nothing interesting
<@marcan> delroth: and PS3, except for SPU stuff under linux (which was popular at one point, but now that a random x86 has more GFLOPS and GPUs whoop its ass, nobody cares any more
<@marcan> the GC was the last console with sensible disc media
<@marcan> they managed to keep loading times sane
<@marcan> heck, the GC was awesome in almost every way
<@marcan> (in its day)
<@marcan> best controllers, best game media storage/performance balance, nice CPU and GPU (for its time)
< inf> i heard development for it was pretty easy too right?
<@marcan> the GC? yeah, compared to the PS2 anyway
<@marcan> the xbox1 was easy too, but that's just because it was a PC running Windows NT
<@tueidj> ninty thought the gc GPU was so nice, they reused it for the wii
< marcan> why buy closed platforms when open ones are cheaper and better
< marcan> m_b_v: that's the point - publishers just need to get their act together and start releasing for android and PC.
<@marcan> I'm too lazy to port Linux to the Espresso when I can be writing karaoke software. or something.
<@marcan> ouya is open IIRC, though I didn't back that project. I find the hardware lacking.
<@delroth> just like xbox360... no "real" homebrew scene because it has nothing interesting
<@marcan> delroth: and PS3, except for SPU stuff under linux (which was popular at one point, but now that a random x86 has more GFLOPS and GPUs whoop its ass, nobody cares any more
<@marcan> the GC was the last console with sensible disc media
<@marcan> they managed to keep loading times sane
<@marcan> heck, the GC was awesome in almost every way
<@marcan> (in its day)
<@marcan> best controllers, best game media storage/performance balance, nice CPU and GPU (for its time)
< inf> i heard development for it was pretty easy too right?
<@marcan> the GC? yeah, compared to the PS2 anyway
<@marcan> the xbox1 was easy too, but that's just because it was a PC running Windows NT
<@tueidj> ninty thought the gc GPU was so nice, they reused it for the wii
