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Patching the Wii News Channel to serve local news (2025)

raulnegron.me

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Re: Patching the Wii News Channel to serve local news (2025)

#11

Post by CursedSilicon »

ipython wrote: post #9
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #4

Since it's HTTP, you shouldn't need to patch the Wii News Channel: you can do all of this in DNS.

I was just about to say the same thing - why go through all the effort to patch the binaries when you can just redirect the DNS to your own server? Then I saw something about signing with RSA - btw OP, the link doesn't work in your blog - there's some markup issues. But there's no discussion of where the RSA key comes from (just that you create one with OpenSSL). Does the Wii just accept any "signed" content? If so,…

There was notoriously a bug with the Wii's RSA implementation

https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Signing_bug

Re: Patching the Wii News Channel to serve local news (2025)

#12

Post by rucury »

dfajgljsldkjag wrote: post #5

I used to check this occasionally back when the console was new. It is interesting to see that people are still keeping it running. I guess there is a niche for everything.

For me, it's just such a nostalgic and pleasant to use interface. I still keep the Wii up and running to play some retro games every now and then (it's a great emulation system as well). Being able to learn more about how these "old-school" Nintendo web apps work was something I had been curious about for awhile!

Re: Patching the Wii News Channel to serve local news (2025)

#13

Post by rucury »

ipython wrote: post #9
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #4

Since it's HTTP, you shouldn't need to patch the Wii News Channel: you can do all of this in DNS.

I was just about to say the same thing - why go through all the effort to patch the binaries when you can just redirect the DNS to your own server? Then I saw something about signing with RSA - btw OP, the link doesn't work in your blog - there's some markup issues. But there's no discussion of where the RSA key comes from (just that you create one with OpenSSL). Does the Wii just accept any "signed" content? If so,…

"btw OP, the link doesn't work in your blog - there's some markup issues"

Whoops, thanks for catching that! Just fixed it, here is the link just in case: https://github.com/rnegron/WiiNewsPR/blob/11df0e242bb1f4134e...

"Does the Wii just accept any "signed" content? If so, wow, 2007 was a crazy time..."

Yup! I suppose they assumed that hard-coding the URL was enough of a safeguard!

Re: Patching the Wii News Channel to serve local news (2025)

#17

Post by cheschire »

msephton wrote: post #10

After playing until late into the night, I would browse the weather channel, searching for places on Earth experiencing thunderstorms. Clicking on the icon would play a short audio sample of thunder. The whole thing was overflowing with personality and charm. Wii remains my favourite video game system of all time, and I've owned them all—from nuon to gamepark and back.

My wife and I spent a lot of time on the Everybody Votes channel.

She was way more in touch with what the general populace voted on than I was and frequently picked the option that turned out to be popular in our region.

Such a unique game console.

Re: Patching the Wii News Channel to serve local news (2025)

#18

Post by hn92726819 »

CursedSilicon wrote: post #11
ipython wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just about to say the same thing - why go through all the effort to patch the binaries when you can just redirect the DNS to your own server? Then I saw something about signing with RSA - btw OP, the link doesn't work in your blog - there's some markup issues. But there's no discussion of where the RSA key comes from (just that you create one with OpenSSL). Does the Wii just accept any "signed" content? If so,…

There was notoriously a bug with the Wii's RSA implementation https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Signing_bug

Unrelated, but in that link:

> Interestingly, the code continues to check the entire hash after a mismatch.

This is a standard practice in cryptography, but maybe not at the time.

Re: Patching the Wii News Channel to serve local news (2025)

#19

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

jonhohle wrote: post #6
dfajgljsldkjag wrote: post #5

I used to check this occasionally back when the console was new. It is interesting to see that people are still keeping it running. I guess there is a niche for everything.

I really liked the Wii interface as a TV interface. It felt very much like a modern way to navigate a TV. Modern TVs have some of those features, but none with the whimsy and fun of the Wii.

The Wii had the best and most responsive Netflix interface on any system I've used before or since. It's a shame they ended support for it, or I'd probably still be watching Netflix via Wii.

Re: Patching the Wii News Channel to serve local news (2025)

#20

Post by kmeisthax »

jonhohle wrote: post #6
dfajgljsldkjag wrote: post #5

I used to check this occasionally back when the console was new. It is interesting to see that people are still keeping it running. I guess there is a niche for everything.

I really liked the Wii interface as a TV interface. It felt very much like a modern way to navigate a TV. Modern TVs have some of those features, but none with the whimsy and fun of the Wii.

Funnily enough, there was even a channel that let you control your TV with the Wii sensor bar - although they only ever released it in Japan. The Wii U had a similar feature worldwide but Nintendo actually killed it after a few years.
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