Here's a tutorial on setting up a little flash arcade for your Wii, even if it's not hacked.
How do I use it?
Setup
Downloading Flash Games
Troubleshooting
Now, as you can imagine, lots of neat things could be done with this technique. Simply modifying the current files can turn this into an image gallery, and if you have the ability to make flash 7-compatible files (Sothink's Swf Quicker is a cheap alternative to flash 7) and some programming know-how you could turn this into a media player, streaming FLV files or MP3s from your computer onto your wii, without homebrew!
I got the idea for this from a better (but busy) coder who wishes to remain anonymous, and he tossed around a bunch of other neat ideas.
However, I will not be developing anything further because I don't have a wii, I just felt the need to make this in hopes that other people would take the idea and build off it. Remember, this can be used even on virgin/new wiis as long as they have the opera/internet channel, so if you program a useful web application then even non-tempers/brewers will be able to benefit from it!
Again, I don't actually have a Wii to test on, so if I made some mistake (like if a page isn't centered properly or the largest flash sizes could be increased by ~40 pixels to fill remaining screen space) please post and I'll do my best to correct it.
How do I use it?
[*]After it's set up, all you need to do is place flash files into a folder on your PC.
[*]Visit the arcade's page on your Wii, and you see a list of the flashes like this.
[*]After clicking on the flash you want, you choose the resolution (smaller ones have less lag).
[*]After you choose the resolution you want it to play in, it automatically plays, and at low quality to avoid lag.
[*]Visit the arcade's page on your Wii, and you see a list of the flashes like this.
[*]After clicking on the flash you want, you choose the resolution (smaller ones have less lag).
[*]After you choose the resolution you want it to play in, it automatically plays, and at low quality to avoid lag.
- Advantages
- Way faster loading times because the files are on the local network.
- You can pick from various resolutions so the flash games run faster.
- Lets you play flash games without a bunch of stupid ads slowing you down.
- You can play games you've saved even if the internet's down in your area.
- Sets the games to low quality automatically (but the author of the flash can override this).
- Requirements
- A computer running Windows/Linux/OSX that's not from ~1990.
- A home network (such as having a router).
- A Wii with the opera/internet channel, it does not need to be hacked/brewed.
[*]Arcade.zip
The arcade list/UI.
[*]XAMPP Lite 1.7.3 (Windows)
XAMPP 1.7.3 (OSX)
XAMPP 1.7.3 (Linux)
The server software (with PHP included and already set up).
[*](Optional) bootOpera
In case you want to boot to this from within a loader, change the CFG file and put the URL in it.
The arcade list/UI.
[*]XAMPP Lite 1.7.3 (Windows)
XAMPP 1.7.3 (OSX)
XAMPP 1.7.3 (Linux)
The server software (with PHP included and already set up).
[*](Optional) bootOpera
In case you want to boot to this from within a loader, change the CFG file and put the URL in it.
Setup
[*]
[*]Download the XAMPP file (for it's a self-extracting RAR), run/extract it and choose a folder where you can get to it easily.[*]In the XAMPP Lite folder, go into the "htdocs" folder, and make a new folder in there, for this example we'll name it "arcade".[*]Download Arcade.zip, and extract it's contents into that folder you made.
[*]In the XAMPP Lite folder, find XAMPP_start.exe (or your OS's equal) and run it to start the server. Once running, the server will be a background task without a visible window, you can use XAMPP_stop.exe to close/stop it.
[*]The server is now running, and you can access it via opera on the wii by visiting your IP address, followed by a slash and the folder name.
For example, if my computer's IP address was 192.168.1.101 and I named the folder "arcade", I'd tell opera to go to "192.168.1.101/arcade".[*]Simply put .swf (flash) files in the flash folder and they will be on the list the next time it's viewed, you don't need to restart or change any settings if you add/remove files while it's running.
- Windows Users
- In your start/globe menu, click "run" (if you're on Vista/7, click in the white box at the bottom).
- Type "CMD" without the quotes, and press enter.
- In the black box that comes up, type "ipconfig" without the quotes, and press enter.
- OSX/Linux users
- Open the terminal or command line.
- Type "ifconfig" without the quotes, and press enter (you may need to sudo).
[*]Download the XAMPP file (for it's a self-extracting RAR), run/extract it and choose a folder where you can get to it easily.[*]In the XAMPP Lite folder, go into the "htdocs" folder, and make a new folder in there, for this example we'll name it "arcade".[*]Download Arcade.zip, and extract it's contents into that folder you made.
[*]In the XAMPP Lite folder, find XAMPP_start.exe (or your OS's equal) and run it to start the server. Once running, the server will be a background task without a visible window, you can use XAMPP_stop.exe to close/stop it.
[*]The server is now running, and you can access it via opera on the wii by visiting your IP address, followed by a slash and the folder name.
For example, if my computer's IP address was 192.168.1.101 and I named the folder "arcade", I'd tell opera to go to "192.168.1.101/arcade".[*]Simply put .swf (flash) files in the flash folder and they will be on the list the next time it's viewed, you don't need to restart or change any settings if you add/remove files while it's running.
Downloading Flash Games
While there's multiple methods to do it, this is the quickest and most reliable, effortlessly bypassing any javascript URL obfuscation.[*]Setup[*]For Firefox, install this plugin.[*]For Chrome, install this plugin.[*]Go try to play a flash game, and you'll notice that anywhere flash tried to load up, it's covered by something like this.[*]Right-click in the yellow block and choose Copy Link Location. If you accidentally left-clicked to unblock it, simply refresh the page.[*]Open a new tab/window and paste into the address bar, press enter. It should load up the entire screen as either the yellow block, or the flash (either one works).[*]Press CTRL+S.[*]Save the SWF and put it in the flash folder.
Troubleshooting
- I try to start XAMPP and the black command line box talks about a socket/connection/port error, or it closes instantly without actually starting the XAMPP server.
Skype likes to serve on the same ports as a standard web server, it could be causing a conflict. You can go into it's settings, to Advanced, and Connections, there UNcheck the option to use ports 80 and 443. If you've done that and still get a connection error, and you're on a professional, business, or ultimate version of windows, you may need to disable IIS (the windows web server). To do that, go to the start menu, to "run" (or click in the white box at the bottom on vista/7), and run "iisreset /stop" without the quotes.
Now, as you can imagine, lots of neat things could be done with this technique. Simply modifying the current files can turn this into an image gallery, and if you have the ability to make flash 7-compatible files (Sothink's Swf Quicker is a cheap alternative to flash 7) and some programming know-how you could turn this into a media player, streaming FLV files or MP3s from your computer onto your wii, without homebrew!
I got the idea for this from a better (but busy) coder who wishes to remain anonymous, and he tossed around a bunch of other neat ideas.
QUOTE said:
Again, I don't actually have a Wii to test on, so if I made some mistake (like if a page isn't centered properly or the largest flash sizes could be increased by ~40 pixels to fill remaining screen space) please post and I'll do my best to correct it.
