Thats right, to help us bring back WiiBrew we are hosting a contest. But not just any contest, A MEGA contest.

So what is a MEGA contest? Ok the rules are pretty simple.

The contest is going to b a post based system.

Points will be gained by a lot of diffrent ways. From: Post, referrals, game reviews ECT.

Now you MUST enter this contest to be in the running for the prizes (Yes i am getting there) The contest sign up will be in the same thread with the rules in the forum section of the site. So every oen check it out.

Now since i know this is all that matters, to the prizes. Full prize list will be posted tomorrow also. But as of now there is for sure a few domains, SIGs and custom avatars up for grabs.

So stop by tomorrow and check it out !

Graphixbrew's Official Signature Contest - Details

Did you ever make a signature that was breath-taking? Or have you ever wanted to make one?
Well now you can enter that sig and get it judged, At
Graphixbrew's First Official Signature Contest. See below for details

Prizes
1st Place gets

-Custom title (a reasonable one)
-mentioned on the front page
-Custom Userbar

2nd Place gets

-mentioned on the front page
-custom userbar

3rd Place gets

-custom userbar
=====OR=====
-Mentioned on the front page



Rules
1. No ripping, you will be disqualified and banned if you do.
2. It has to be your own work
3. Must not exceed 530x150 Pixels
4. This is a freestyle Contest
5. Renders and C4D's May be used
6. All material in the renders must be appropriate for viewers under 18.
7. No racial or sexual content
8. You may ONLY submit ONE signature

Contest starts November 30th, 2007 and ends December 20th.

Enter HERE

Dont have Photoshop or a decent paint program? if so PM ME.

Team Infectus, with their multiplatform Infectus chip, has announced the release of their new chip designed specifically for the Wii. This new chip has been dubbed 'Argon' and will only be working on D2C consoles. So why all the fuss? Well, this new chip boasts a minimal 13 wire installation over the 31 wires required for the D2Ckey. On top of that, the chip will work with some kind of external programmer to reflash the modchip.

Team Infectus, being the kind soles that they are, will also be releasing a firmware flash for their original Infectus chip so if any Wii owners with a D2C have an Infectus chip, they can reprogram it.

Short excerpt from their news release (note, their English isn't perfect):

"What is ARGON?
ARGON is the new MODCHIP made form INFECTUS TEAM that work ONLY on WII D2C CONSOLES, this modchip is the direct competitor of D2CKEY modchip.
All the features are the same of D2CKEY, but this modchip will be UPDATABLE!

How work update of this modchip?
ARGON have on PCB a little connector with a flat cable that the user can install outside console. When is necessary an UPDATE all who have an INFECTUS or in the future with a little esterna programmer all can reprogramm their modchips.
SO BIG ADVANTAGE OF "ARGON" IS NOT ONLY THE 13 WIRES BUT THE POSSIBILITY OF UPGRADE!

How much cost an ARGON WII modchip?
The price will be about 1 eur more than D2CKEY PRICE RANGE"

Read more at the Infectus official site.

You may be already aware of this, but the Wii has a maintenance mode that can be accessed by holding down the + and - buttons and then pushing A at start up. Here is what Nintendo has to say about it. Here is the message unedited:

“Message(#6851-000631-36386313638)

Hello,

At this time, the “Maintenance Mode” you discovered has no functionality for consumers. If at some future point a consumer application for this mode is made available, it will be revealed on our website (www.nintendo.com).

Even though it appears—with the exception of the Wii Message Board—that everything functions normally in this mode, we do not recommend using it at this time.

Sincerely,
Nintendo of America Inc.”

So as of yet it has no function, but it is possible that at a future date this could be a really cool tool, or maybe just taken out in the next firmware. OR (And this could be a long shot) used as a hack, only time will tell.

But I just thought we would give you a heads up so you can see what you think.

While experiemental versions of YAOSM were out allowing play of SMG backups, the official update is now out. Not only boasting SMG support, partial support of action replay as well.

Feaures:

- Supports DMS/D2A/D2B chipsets

- Wii originals

- Wii original imports*

- Wii backups

- Wii backup imports*

- Gamecube originals

- Gamecube original imports**

- Gamecube backups

- Gamecube backup imports**

- Gamecube homebrew

- All medias (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW)

- Dual Layer support

- Fully configurable speed setting

- Automatic region detection

- Stealth (well, at least as much "stealth" as any other Wii modchip currently available)

- "Safe" Configuration disc

- Optional status LED

- Optional disable switch (solder wire to reset switch)

- GameID overriding for some GameID's that was blocked by firmware 3.0

- Support for Super Mario Galaxy backups

*Partial support.

See http://wiki.gbatemp.net/index.php/Wii_Region_Patcher_Compatibility_List for more info.

**Partial support, for 100% support use GCOS.

See: http://psx-scene.com/forums/yaosm/55455-gcos-multigame-version-howto.html and http://psx-scene.com/forums/404629-post1.html

Considering installation of the D2Ckey requires soldering 31 wires, the same group will soon be releasing their FlexPCB to make installation easier. As quoted from their site:

"The FlexPCB for D2CKey streamlines installation of D2CKey reducing the overall time spend fitting the chip. The FlexPCB is available seperately at additional cost. Although installation with the FlexPCB is quicker, installation of D2CKey is still best left to professional, experienced mod chip installers!"

Source: www.d2ckey.com

First off, I would like to apologize for neglecting the Wiibrew site. With this in mind, it's time to fill the news page as a lot has happened.

Up first is the D2Ckey.

From www.metriodmods.com

There was a time when all those with the dreaded D2C chipset mourned over the fact they were unable to play backups or use GC homebrew. This all changed Oct. 10th with the release of the D2Ckey. With a simple 31 wire install your D2C Wii is now unlocked. You can find more information at http://www.d2ckey.com

Next big thing in the Wii scene was the dump of a demo kiosk copy of Super Mario Galaxy. The whole Wii community was left scrambling when a new "modchip detecting" protection was found. In reality, the game was not detecting chips, rather required a new patching method that current chips could not provide. While D2Ckey chipped Wii's were safe with their 31 wire installs, Cyclowiz, Wiikey, Wiinja, and open source chips were left in the dust. Since then all retail chips have seen updates to address this problem. Links to these updates will be posted in the download list.

Prompted by the SMG issue, the modchip scene has thinned out. The only retail modchips with apparent continuing customer support are the big 3: Cyclowiz, Wiikey, and Wiinja. None of the other 'retail' chips have yet to come back into the scene with an update. On a sad note, the open source scene has just met the end of one of the best open source chips, Wiifree. YAOSM has been handed the torch, which they have definitely earned, and is now at the forefront of the open source scene right along OpenWii which both have updates for the SMG problem.

So, just to reiterate, the only chips working with SMG are:

D2Ckey

Wiikey

Cyclowiz

Wiinja

Datel Drive Doctor

OpenWii

YAOSM

The Wii Scene is now balanced with working mods for all versions of the Wii on the market. How long will this peace last? Only time will tell.

Despite my last article which had turned out to be a bad sign and had created more disappointing fans, this is no joke, from all the glory we have been imagining, of all the rumors we've been hoping for it to be true, the dream has finally come true.

Our favorite classical Sega character is now officially playable in the upcoming Wii hit title Super Smash Bros: Brawl.

Here is Sonic's appearance of the upcoming game.

The Nunchuck fits in the handle on the backside

of the shield and the Wiimote connects straight onto the sword.

This is how it works.

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from 22 offices assisted by representatives of the electronic industry today executed 32 federal search warrants in 16 states as part of an investigation into the alleged sale and distribution of illegal modification chips and disc copyright circumvention devices. This investigation represents the largest national enforcement action of its kind targeting this type of illegal activity.

The search warrants were executed at businesses, storefronts, and residences located in California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin at locations associated with subjects who are allegedly involved in the direct importation, installation, sale, and distribution of the devices that are of foreign manufacture and smuggled into the United States.

The modification chips and circumvention devices allow users to play illegally obtained, pirated and/or counterfeit software on video game consoles including Sony's Playstation 2, Microsoft's XBOX and XBOX 360, and Nintendo's Wii. Modification chips and swap discs for gaming consoles violate laws under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA). According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the makers of the gaming consoles, game developers, and others in the industry have incurred billions of dollars in losses worldwide due to sales lost to those selling counterfeit and pirated video games.

Full story can be found here.

Examples of chips siezed (including Wiinja, Wiikey, and Cyclowiz) can be found here.

Another modchip supporting open source code will be releasing soon. This set also includes a programmer for those of you who also want programmed PICs on hand. From the WiiBoss site :

Wii-BOSS! The world first fully upgradeable internal modchip for the Nintendo Wii.

At the time of writing the wii-boss supported the following codes (in no particular order):

The Cyclowiz chip always supported dual layer media, that is up until version 3.0 of their firmware. The 3.0 version of their firmware broke this compatability, but 3.5 is here to put it back! There will be some slight tweaking required to fully support DL media. You can find more information at the official site.

Download here:

NTSC-U

NTSC-J

PAL

One of the best masterpieces throughout the history is finally

returning in Lego Form. Brought to you by LucasArts who made

the humerous game Lego Star Wars. No news or announcements

on which platforms, but the possibilities for the Wii still stays

strong.

Straight from the horse's mouth...

"Six months ago, in a quasi-simultaneous launch, the two first Wii modchips were released, one of them being CycloWiz. It was already ahead of the competition, as it was the only upgradable modchip available then. Since then, we've been working hard in order to make sure CycloWiz stays the best in terms of quality, features and support.

Within six months, many things have changed, and one of the best evolutions is the creation of open-source modchip projects. While, as of today, they currently lack many features that commercial chips support (such as audiofix, DVD upgrade support (with the notable exception of OpenWii on ATmega), compatibility with old GC Multi-Disc games), it's surely a very interesting and promising aspect of the Wii modding scene that shouldn't be ignored.

When you buy a new PC, you want it to be able to run Windows and Linux, even if you plan to use only one of the two OS at first. Why shouldn't you have this freedom with the modchip you buy? Today, we're opening up the CycloWiz platform to open-source firmwares, and we want that to be very user-friendly, with the possibility of upgrading from/to any of the firmwares using DVD upgrades. There's no need to change your firmware today, this feature only concerns a few people for now, mainly developers, but it might become very useful in the future.

There are currently two major open-source projects, Wiifree and OpenWii. Wiifree is clearly the most popular, but OpenWii gained some attention lately as it became upgradable on one architecture. We decided to start by supporting Wiifree. A beta port of version 2.45 was uploaded in our forums. It features all the Wiifree features plus DVD upgrade support and chip disable support.

Technically this is possible because CycloWiz is a fully upgradable modchip. Many other modchips said to be upgradable are only partially upgradable, meaning that the modchip's program's data can be reprogrammed, but the program itself can't. Radically changing the firmware on partially upgradable modchip is out of the question.

Now what about an official upgrade? We won't drop support for official firmwares. In fact, we're working hard on the next version. One of the main challenge is to add support for D2C chipset. We won't tell you like another team that we're "almost done". It is a real challenge. To get technical, the Gamecube drive had two backdoors that could be used to run modchip code. Those two backdoors were also found on the Wii chipsets, and a new one was even added. Unfortunately, all three were removed on the new D2C chipset. Well, kinda :) There is clearly a way in, but a lot of work is still needed. Of course, we'll keep you updated in case anything exciting happens!"

Download it here: Cyclowiz Wiifree v2.45beta

Team Cyclops has released a new tool to upgrade your Cyclowiz chips. If you don't want to use a DVD, or can't because of a bad flash, you can now use this new tool and a homemade cable to wire up your Wii to reflash/upgrade your Cyclowiz. This cable is the same cable used for the WABmodcheap mod, except things might be different on the Wii end. For support visit the Team Cyclops forums .

From their forums:

"We've been asked several times about the possibility of flashing the CycloWiz from PC. Mainly for two reason: to recover from a bad flash, or to use CycloWiz V1 on a D2B console. It is now possible!
The application requires a dvdtool parallel port cable that is very easy to build, but soldering skills are needed anyway.
It is currently in beta stage but has been successfully tested on different drives and with Windows Vista and XP."

Download the tool and manual here: CycloWiz PC Flasher v1.0 beta

The same company that produced the Wiic modchip will be producing a chip with a PS/2 port. This should allow the use of a keyboard as well as other devices that Wiic programs the chip to use. Although this may sound useful, my guess is that the keyboard might not be able to run in Wii mode. If this were true, then the keyboard would not be able to be used for the web broswer. You can check out the official site at www.wiickeyboard.com , but as of now there is not too much information posted.

Posted on the MaxConsole forums (thread here) there maybe be someone who bought a Wii in California with a J2A chip. This poster, sl2obel2ts, has also posted a small and blurry picture which is below. Now since this is the only supposed sighting of this J2A chip, and the picture is not of the best quality, the status of this will remain as rumor until more evidence comes forward. For the sake of future Wii owners I hope this is just a hoax.

Update: I just found out that this story is fake according to the websites staff, sorry members

no confirmination yet, I also apologize for the false article.

According to G4 TV's News Section, Super Smash Brothers Brawl's director Masahiro Sakurai has confirmed that Sonic The Hedghog is already in the game during a spanish interview, but he is still waiting for Segas approval. Since the game is almost done, Sakurai has given Sega until July 26th to make their decision.

Eke-Eke at the TehSkeen forums has updates not 1, not 2, but 4 emulators. Since each of these emulators has numerous changes, here are the links to each emulator's thread over at TehSkeen. You can also find download links in the download list here.

Genesis Plus Build 070720

Gnuboy GX Build 070720

NeoPop Build 070720

SMSPlus Build 070720

More than 9 weeks from the initial release date, the Wiikey team has updated their news with the following message:

"A release candidate for the long-awaited update for wiikey was delivered on Friday night to some of our beta testers. This is the final step to releasing the highly anticipated and long delayed update for wiikey.

In all development work there are unforeseeable delays, and wiikey is no exception. We would like to thank our loyal customers for their support and patience!"

This announcement should definately be taken with a grain of salt. For all anyone knows this could just be another broken promise from the Wiikey team. There is however one glimmer of hope to the legitimacy of the update. Eurasia.nu is apparently one of the testers of the update, and has posted this on their website:

"We have received WiiKey Update RC1 and are currently testing it on a D2A console. Regarding the GameCube audio fix feature we have checked [updated] Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, The Naruto Games, Wave Race: Blue Storm, The Legend of Zelda Collectors Edition, Super Monkey Ball, Resident Evil 1 so far and they work fine. Thanks goes to Schweino for pointing out problem titles. More tests and screenshots to follow, stay tuned..."

Guess we'll all have to sit back and see how this all pans out.

Appleguru, member at the WiiNewz forum, has spotted a "new" board revision in the states. This new revision is really the same board revision seen in Asia months back. Nintendo has taken this board and simply cut the typical 3 pins that we have been seeing for a while.

The only chip affected by this is the Wiikey, and still Wiikey installation is possible by soldering to the pin of the missing pad. In can be seen as the orange pin in the picture here.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, said to play "better than any first-person console game ever" by ign.com, hits US stores August 27th. Europe will see this new game some time in September and Japan taking third with December 31st.

According to hands on accounts at E3, this 480p widescreen-game looks great and should boost the Wii's reputation when it comes to game-play graphics.

The upcoming big hit and most exciting game that every fan has been waiting for, has been set to launch this winter exclusively for the Wii, December 3rd, 2007 which will be only avaible in the North America country.

Still no news on the release dates for other
regions, only time will time will tell, but for
now, Japan and Europe is scheduled for around
the years of 2007 and 2008.
                                                        

A flaw found in Adobe's Flash player, an input validation error, may allow someone to run code loaded using the Flash player built into the Wii's Opera browser. While this may lead to some kind of exploit much like the PSP's image viewer, it seems the general concensus is that Opera's Flash player may be too limited to actually build something useful.

"Critical vulnerabilities have been identified in Adobe Flash Player that could allow an attacker who successfully exploits these potential vulnerabilities to take control of the affected system. A malicious SWF must be loaded in Flash Player by the user for an attacker to exploit these potential vulnerabilities. Users are recommended to update to the most current version of Flash Player available for their platform."

Source: http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb07-12.html

Team Wiinja has release their Ninjashell pack, which is a collection of emulators, utilities, and homebrew applications. List of contents includes:

* Multigame Gamecube Viper/Qoob/Ninjamod Disc Loading
* Single Gamecube NTSC/PAL Loading
* DVD DOL Loader
* Gamecube Memory Card Manager Courtesy of Scognito
* Gamecube GCOS 1.5 Courtesy of Emukid
* Gamecube SDLoader Courtesy of Costis
* Bell's Modified 4'7gbyte Linux Multimedia Player (MFE) by GCLINUX Team
* Wiinja SD Dumper with Softdev's cooperation (to use with SD Adapter)
* Original Softdev's SNES Emulator modified by Krullo
* Lastest SNES emulators
* Lastest NEOGEO CD Emulator
* Lastest Gameboy/Gameboy Color Emulator
* Lastest FCE Ultra Emulator
* Lastest Sega's Genesis/Mega Drive Emulator
* Lastest Sega Master System Emulator
* Lastest NeoPop Emulator
* Lastest Engine / Turbo GraphX Emulator

You can find the link to download and discussion thread here .

Source: Team Wiinja's Site.

Nintendo Press Conference:

Bowser Returns!!



You know him, he has been kidnapping the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom throughout his whole life.
The big bad meanie, the king of all koopa's is back and better than ever!! Why better you ask? Well sure he
was a tough guy from the previous game in Melee, everyone character you face was a giant. Take Donkey Kong
for example.

But this is just no giant we're talking here. We're talking brutal, powerful and something that would
blow you away if you were the one in the stadium. Were talking Giga Bowser. Thats right, the powerful version
of Bowser is making a comeback to the Super Smash Bros series and will be playable.



Whenever your playing as regular Bowser, you will need to snatch up a Smash Ball to go into "Final Smash" mode. This will give you the ability to transform normal Bowser into Giga. Keep in mind though that you
will need to be quick when defeating an opponent, as bowser will not be in his bad form for long.

Now a lot of people know how RPG's can be quite exciting, while others do not. The BBC thought this certain
RPG was more fascinating then we thought. Neil McGreevy gave his account on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
for its outstanding performance in the great over acheiving Zelda series game for Wii:

Not as senseless as you thought eh? Well there you have it folks, happy new year!

1. Pokemon Diamond (DS): 209,379
   
2. Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (PSP): 178,370
3. Pokemon Pearl (DS): 164,670
4. NSMB(NewSuperMarioBrothers) (DS): 154,107
5. Wii Sports (Wii): 152.756

1. DS(Lite): 485,584 Consoles Sold
2. Wii: 279,277 Consoles Sold
3. 138,588 Consoles Sold
4. PS3: 76,882 Consoles Sold (break point)
5. PS2: 46,209

The sales for the Wii in Japan just surge through the roof! In the third week of december, sale prices went sky high, as the new hard to buy games arrived throughout the country. Over atleast 297,000 units were shipped and sold sais Media Create Co. Ltd. For Japan that is more than almost half triple the amount of current weekly sales. Media Create also sais that the supply is limited to how much Wiis can be stored as of now. 

With so little time left, Nintendo is greiving boldly at the edge to await its millionth wii console sale (I sure would of wanted to be that guy if I hadn't of baught one too early ;} ) Up to the day before new years, over 800, 900 million consoles have been sold! It jumps straight ahead of the PS3 and 360, for PS3 only 76,000 consoles were sold this week, as for 360 only 16,000. You guys know the scores, so keep at those sales Nintendo!

via news4gamers

Nintendo is offering to replace the original version of the wrist straps for the Wii Remote with a newer version. Because Wii consoles shipped starting in early December already utilized the newer version of the strap, you will need to determine which version of the strap you have before ordering a replacement. To view the difference between the original and the new version of the strap, please click here.