Nintendo Wii Fanboy

We can't lie. Seeing individuals come up with crazy things to do to gaming hardware is often the highlight of our day, when we're lucky enough to see a great piece of work. Below, hit up the link to check out 5 of our favorite Wiimote mods.

Click here to continue >>

We had two questions upon watching this footage of a Roomba being controlled by a Balance Board:

1. What the heck is a Roomba?
2. Why?
   

Google answered the first for us -- apparently it's a robotic vacuum cleaner or something, which we now want -- while the second is explained to us by hacker "Ron" Tajima. Through endearing Engrish subtitles, we learn that Ron has a dilemma: he wants to surf, but also needs to clean his floors. Hey, happens all the time to us. His solution? Hack the Balance Board so that it controls his Roomba, allowing him to "surf" the Board while also vacuum cleaning his way to lint-free carpets.

We especially like how "Surfin' USA" is played in the background while Ron wobbles away, just to make it really feel like actual surfing.


[Via Balance Board Blog]

You've got to love the Homebrew community. They're constantly trying to cut corners and this latest app, Ocarina, is no different. Instead of spending time inputting button commands in-game, you can simply inject them, Game Genie or Action Replay-style, into the game. For example, in Twilight Princess, the Ocarina app allows the user to climb ladders super fast, have infinite bombs and use a variety of items underwater. Among other things, Link can also use the Spinner in a really imaginative way.

[Thanks, RupeeClock!]

Seth Sternberger is responsible for the awesome video above, which brings back memories of Big, for some odd reason. It's just pure awesome. The specifics of how he completed this are a tad bit of a mystery, but Seth has some musical chops. Not only did he complete this, but he's also part of the chiptune outfit 8 Bit Weapon. We salute you Seth! Keep up the good work.

[Via Engadget]

Sit down if you aren't and don't start taking a sip of something before you click the play button on the video above: someone managed to get GoldenEye 007 to run on the Wii. As evidenced above, the title can be emulated on the Wii, but not in perfect form. There are still some issues with saving and frame rates dipping here and there. But, all in all, pretty impressive and manages to only strengthen our desire to have this one show up on the Virtual Console.

[Thanks, trefox!]

Those of you who aren't big PC fans might not know what Steam is. It's Valve's distribution service for PC games, demos, and has quite the large community of gamers supporting it. If your PC can handle it, we suggest you check it out.

One of its most popular titles available is Audiosurf. We've touched on the game before, but never really went in-depth with it. Now, Evan Jones has gone ahead and hacked the game to include support for the Balance Board. It's pretty damn cool, if you ask us. Check out his work in the video above.

[Via Joystiq]

For us, music is little more than something that plays in the background during the massacre of endless enemies. It is a trumpet's call, heralding our arrival in a virtual world where we call the shots. Outside of those worlds resides the music of man, which we cannot attest you knowing that much about.

When you use an entire, custom-made outfit (which proudly sports eight Wiimotes) and your body to create and manipulate music in real time, however, then you deserve the lowly props that come from being featured on a video game blog read by a record seven mothers. They've seen this video and agreed: people need to watch this brilliant use of technology in action. So listen to them and hit up the above video already.

If there's one thing we hate, it's having to do stuff. While we pride ourselves on being in tip-top blogger shape (our knuckles are immaculate), the rest of our body is a mushy mess of undeveloped muscle. When you spend most of your time clacking away on a keyboard, you'll be surprised at how quickly your body becomes pretty useless.

That's why we're just totally in love with the above video. If the Wiimote can control some curtains, imagine what else it can do. Pour orange juice? Hang a spice rack? Take our grandpa for a walk? The possibilities are endless!

You remember the "Twilight Hack," right? Well, Pong isn't the only thing folks are using this to run, as one man shows us his homebrew version of Tetris running on the system. Originally created as a homebrew project for the GameCube many years ago, this version of Tetris is lacking the bells and whistles most have taken for granted over the last decade or so. Still, it's impressive to see homebrew running on the Wii.

[Via QJ]

Remember those dudes that hacked the Wii? Brushing, the guy who presented the exploit at 24C3, was recently interviewed about his future plans for the system. The natural first step, according to him, is to implement a version of SDLoad for the Wii. Then, once that's out of the way, he would like to see a Linux Channel for the console. Still, Brushing notes that it will probably take a while before he and the groups he worked with are able to reach these goals.

Also, if you're worried about this development opening the floodgates for piracy on the Wii, don't be. Brushing seems hesitant, at least for the time being, to release the hacked information and keys to the public.

To read the full interview with the author of the Wii exploit, go here.

[Thanks, Craig!]

It would seem that the hacking community has finally cracked the Wii, as they've figured out a way to get code up and running on the console. It's a feat that hasn't been performed before and was accomplished after many Bothans people sacrificed time and energy to complete this task. See, inside of the Wii, the Hollywood chip doesn't just handle graphics, it's got a whole lot to do with authentication (you know, to make sure you've got a valid Wii or GC game disc in there). Well, these hackers have found out that upon booting up a GameCube game, this chip will turn off all of the cool Wii functionality (bluetooth, USB, etc.) and restricts the area of memory you're allowed to access. But, there isn't any kind of encryption dealing with the memory, so this is where the folks knew they should focus.

Now, the next part gets too technical for us, but just know that they found a way to get these authentication codes from the memory and trick the Wii into believing it was loading a Wii game (in this case, Lego Star Wars). This then allowed them to load their own code into the Wii. Judging by the clapping in the video, it's a pretty big deal and means that homebrew on the Wii is that much closer to being a reality.

Oh, and if you don't get the Angelina Jolie reference, head past the break.

Our Professor of (Glove)PIE, Mike Sylvester, looked at his Wii Guitar Hero III controller, looked at his computer, then looked back and forth at the two in an exaggeratedly comedic gesture, and finally the truth emerged. He saw before him a racing controller. Somehow. We don't know how he arrived at that conclusion, but that's why he's a genius and we're the ones writing about t-shirts we can't buy.

He solicited suggestions in the post, but we thought we would expand the discussion beyond possible PC hacks and into the wide, wide world of hypothetical discussion. You've got a guitar-shaped controller that's got buttons on the fretboard, a strum bar, a whammy bar, and -- oh yeah, a motion-sensing controller embedded in it. What do you do with it? "Guitar simulator" is already taken.

The media nonsense surrounding Manhunt 2 has only begun. Get ready for another year or so of shrill news reports, protests, boycotts, "experts," and, of course, Jack. Time to start defending your medium or ignoring everybody!

What's going to set off this new round of controversy? Just about a day after release, hackers have figured out how to unlock the censored material in the PS2 and PSP versions of Manhunt 2. The original kill sequences, rather than being removed from the game's code, were left on the disc. If the code's on the other versions of the disc, it's on the Wii version as well. That means that a tiny, tiny portion of this game's audience will have access to adults-only content!

Will Rockstar ever learn? Or have they learned? This controversy may get the game re-rated and re-edited, but copies will fly off the shelves in the meantime. Check after the break for a video comparison of Manhunt with both censored and uncensored Manhunt 2 content. Adults Only and all that, of course!

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Inspired by Nintendo's own design, the work of another DIYer, and Alisha's challenge, I ventured to design and build my own "balance board." For a little more than $20 in materials, I've conceived an oversized Wiimote shell to translate exaggerated body movements into game commands through GlovePIE. I'm going to show you how I made it, and how it plays.