Hacking Back in the Wii scene

[Ballistic]

Well I still have my pre-launch Wii from ages ago modded with the Wiikey. Now that I'm back, the scene is stranger and more puzzling to me than it ever has been. So can anyone fill me in on what happened these two years?

My Questions:

• What are some possible mistakes or updates I should avoid to keep my Wii working as is (modded and all)?
• Are there solutions to a bricked Wii?
• Say I install a Region-Free launcher, does that mean I can load NTSC and PAL back-ups on it?
• Can I downgrade the Wii firmware if a game forced me to upgrade?
• Does upgrading the Wii firmware even do anything negative to the typical homebrew/back-up playing Wii system?
• Can Nintendo ban a system when playing back-up gameon Wi-Fi? Or will Nintendo do something worse?
• I'm very interested in the SoftMii (mainly for customizable themes), but what is it exactly? And will installing it brick/disable my Wii in anyway (be mature )?
• Any other tips to the noob just entering this new era of the Wii scene?

 

[WiiMonkey]

Well I still have my pre-launch Wii from ages ago modded with the Wiikey. Now that I'm back, the scene is stranger and more puzzling to me than it ever has been. So can anyone fill me in on what happened these two years?

My Questions:

• What are some possible mistakes or updates I should avoid to keep my Wii working as is (modded and all)?
Avoid updating to 3.3 or 3.4 or newer
• Are there solutions to a bricked Wii?
Yes Preloader, Starfall and numerous autoboot discs
• Say I install a Region-Free launcher, does that mean I can load NTSC and PAL back-ups on it?
Yes it does
• Can I downgrade the Wii firmware if a game forced me to upgrade?
Yes with ARC etc
• Does upgrading the Wii firmware even do anything negative to the typical homebrew/back-up playing Wii system?
3.4 stops wads from running correclty or all together
• Can Nintendo ban a system when playing back-up gameon Wi-Fi? Or will Nintendo do something worse?
Not that i have heard anything about this happening
• I'm very interested in the SoftMii (mainly for customizable themes), but what is it exactly? And will installing it brick/disable my Wii in anyway (be mature )?
It is a Noob package/easy installer to softmod your Wii (with every installation of patched Wii files there is a change of bricking)
• Any other tips to the noob just entering this new era of the Wii scene?
Just read tuts and guides carefully

Hope this helps (correct me if im wrong)

 

[WiiPower]

Here just a few hints, you have to look up yourself what it means, but with these you will know what to look for:
- Get to 3.2 firmware, upgrade always works without any problem with AnyRegionChanger, downgrade is more complicated, search a downgrade thread
- decide between starfall and preloader(you can't use both at the same time), but if you want the softmii stuff, it's preloader
- enable disc update blocking in starfall or preloader
- don't ever dare to online update!
- if a game requires an update, it doesn't require the update, it only requires to install a IOS. You can extract IOS from games with wufe and install with Wad Manager. The IOS required by a game is always on the disc, except some idiot had the idea to brickbklock the disc.
- to play games region free, you can try the softmii region free patches, but these have the smallest compatibilty from all solutions. Then come Gecko OS/Gamma and SoftChip which allow to play all games in PAL or NTSC, if the game supports it. If you get color issues with import games, try my toy.
- about softmii in general: it's cioscorp(you don't need that with a modchip, so skip that step!), preloader and ???, well i'm not an expert when it comes to softmii, look at their homepage

 

[roku93]

You can use both starfall and preloader. I do, and it works fine. I just couldn't bother with hacks.ini cause I already had starfall doing that stuff for me.

With scene, do you mean homebrew or piracy? Seems to me that it's piracy what you want. But you are familiar with HBC and the basics?

Just install preloader, don't bother with rest of the softmii package if you already have a modchip. If you want just the custom menus, use softmii tweaks to install them. It comes as a .dol with the softmii package.

 

[noobwarrior7]

- Get to 3.2 firmware, upgrade always works without any problem with AnyRegionChanger

some people end up without IOS37 and get channels that reset the wii.

aside from that small priviso, a true statement, ARC is good stuff.

you can just manually install an IOS37 wad.