By now everyone should have heard about the Wii and the numbers that it's pushing. So what else has the Wii been able to do? Well, with a few tweaks you could have a console playing your favourite Duck Hunt game from the '80s or downloading free applications online. So how is that? With the installation of the Homebrew Channel.

What is a channel

A channel is a term used by Wii to separate different software applications for doing different tasks. For example, the news channel is where you go to get all your news reports from around the world.

The Homebrew Channel is a self-updating homebrew application loader by Team Twiizers which allows users to load homebrew applications without having to run the Twilight Hack every time. Once installed, users can access the channel from the Wii menu just like any other Wii channel. It can launch homebrew applications from an SD or SDHC card or via TCP/USB Gecko using Wiiload. The Homebrew Channel can be downloaded from the official site.

Installation

Nintendo Wii - File

Using Twilight Hack (assuming the Twilight Hack is already installed on your Wii):

1. Download the installer from the official site.

2. Expand the archive to find README.txt, wiiload and boot.elf or boot.dol.

3. Place the boot.dol file in the root of your SD card.

4. Run the Twilight Hack and allow the installer to load.

5. Press the RESET button on your Wii.

The installation should be automatic from this point on, and your Wii will reboot.

Using DVD

The DVD method requires a drivechip and won't work on 3.3 firmware update or newer. DVD images for 1.01 are currently unavailable, though you can install beta8 and then update.

Configuring Applications

In order to make an application appear in the Homebrew Channel, the following steps must be taken:

1. Make a folder on the root of your SD card called 'apps'.

2. In the folder 'apps,' create a folder for the application (for this example, ScummVM will be used).

3. Copy the files for the application into its folder (example : apps/scummvm/).

4. Find the executable file (either .elf or .dol) and rename it to boot.elf (or boot.dol if it was a .dol file) if it is not already named that (example: apps/scummvm/boot.dol). If the app comes with these files, copy the icon.png and meta.xml files into this folder.

Now the application will appear in the Homebrew Channel. However, if the application did not come with icon.png or meta.xml, its appearance on the menu is ugly, and difficult to distinguish from other applications. To fix this, text and an image can be added.

O'Neil Walker

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