Homebrew/Hacked Consoles - This is MY console. I decide whether or not I can run unsigned code!

[I'd abeeb bear]

I've hacked just about everything at one point or another. I started keeping that a secret because the second someone hears you are capable they think you're going to do it for them, for free, and in some cases they think you're going to give them an SD card because you just surely have extra being a tech guy and all. Homebrew is fun, but there's never been a truly special homebrew app or game that wowed me enough to see that as a real reason to hack a console. We all know what CFW is really for.

 

[Starscreams Cape]

I have a homebrewed WiiU that got some real play for a while. Downloaded a ton of games.

 

[mister meaner]

I have a homebrewed WiiU that got some real play for a while. Downloaded a ton of games.

I haven't even used my WiiU in a very fucking long time so remind me, did you have to pay for a game from the shop to be able to mod it? I remember the hack i used required me to override a game, and then i think i couldn't move the overriden icon for the game on the main menu after it was installed lest i brick the console.

 

[Starscreams Cape]

I haven't even used my WiiU in a very fucking long time so remind me, did you have to pay for a game from the shop to be able to mod it? I remember the hack i used required me to override a game, and then i think i couldn't move the overriden icon for the game on the main menu after it was installed lest i brick the console.

Oh man, this is probably 3 years ago now. I am a brave soul when it comes to this stuff, but I'm also a non-tech person. Just a dabbler. I seem to recall maybe having to pay for something small to open up the ability to get in. I know I just watched a ton of YouTube vids at the time and so long as you were deliberate and followed them in detail it worked. I ended up with Haxxchi or something like that.

EDIT - I think essentially I did this, which did require a DS game purchase.

Wii U Hacks Guide - Install Haxchi CFW (eShop DS Game Required) - CFWaifu

Full guide on how to install Haxchi CFW on your Wii U for homebrew features and more. Haxchi can be configured for permenant CFW after reboot (CBHC).

www.cfwaifu.com

 

[mister meaner]

Oh man, this is probably 3 years ago now. I am a brave soul when it comes to this stuff, but I'm also a non-tech person. Just a dabbler. I seem to recall maybe having to pay for something small to open up the ability to get in. I know I just watched a ton of YouTube vids at the time and so long as you were deliberate and followed them in detail it worked. I ended up with Haxxchi or something like that.

EDIT - I think essentially I did this, which did require a DS game purchase.

Wii U Hacks Guide - Install Haxchi CFW (eShop DS Game Required) - CFWaifu

Full guide on how to install Haxchi CFW on your Wii U for homebrew features and more. Haxchi can be configured for permenant CFW after reboot (CBHC).

www.cfwaifu.com

BINGO! We did the same shit brother. Good thing I know now that I actually CAN move the icon, I just can't move it to a USB.

 

[The Cunting Death]

I have so many goddamn homebrew games on my Raspberry Pi and actual consoles
I'll post a link to my favorite ones later

Here's just a few

homebrew stuff - Google Drive

drive.google.com

Spoiler: list/guide

Awexome Cross 98 for GBA
Population Tire for DS
Game and Watch Octopus for the Sega CD (this shit was so obscure I only found it on a very obscure Spanish homebrew site)
Fix it Felix for Genesis
Google Chrome's Dino Runner for DS and GBA
Mario Kart Virtual Circuit for Virtual Boy
Super Mario Vorld 1 and 2 [technically hacks but whatever]

If you want the cooler stuff, pm me.
On a somewhat unrelated note: I found an Super Mario World rom hack page on archive.org, it included a ton of things, a few of them are the original levels that were supposed to be submitted for the Super Mario Vorld collabs including my levels. I only uploaded my level once and it feels really fucking creepy seeing it where I know I didn't upload it.

 

[Billy_Sama]

I love the challenge of modding and hacking system to either repairing them or running any software you can put on it. It also helps make a discountinued console more relevant like the Dreamcast and PSP other than trekking to find original games for it.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

I bought a McBoot Memory Card for my PS2 this year because I wanted to see if I could download God Hand and Marvel vs Capcom 2 since they’re ridiculously expensive on eBay at the moment

Also, I watched a lot of Blaine Locklair videos over the Spring of this year regarding home brewing consoles

Not only entertaining, but very informative as well

 

[Chatspiracy Theorist]

basically any console ive owned, ive hacked (except for my 360 and xbone, former i just never got around to it and the later ive just never installed dev mode - no real homebrew games that i cant get on anything else)

i do it for fun and for dev features and normal stuff that cant be accessed like dev settings on the sony consoles and homebrew

Spoiler: hacked consoles

vita
3dsxl x3?
3ds
wiiu
ps3
ps4
ps1
ps2
switch lite
4x OG xbox'

some notable things ive hacked for the lulz was my dads GPS - it runs windows CE so i "jailbroke" it and yes - it played doom

another notiable one is installing doom and pokemon on my graphing calculators in school, made exams fun

 

[TwinPeaksEnjoyer]

I starting hacking my consoles/Handhelds if possible since the PSP and Wii days. Man what a great time that was.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

It's been a long time since I modded something but I did it on my 3DS a couple of years ago. Just so that I could play Aria of Sorrow, a game that I own. Coming back to the mod scene now(2018?) felt like coming back to society after squatting in the wilderness since the mid 90's. Things are wild, yo. I'm no stranger to piracy and I support the effort to remove DRM from games, partially for archival purposes, no-CD cracks, the ability to make something portable and other quality of life things. I've pirated games that I own and games I don't own.

The FreeShop made me feel uncomfortable though, that really felt like a step too far. I think I had to patch and repackage the Aria rom that I found on the internet to get it to work properly, could have been some other game, so there was some effort involved there. Personally I don't think piracy is stealing but that freeshop program... It was too easy, too convenient.

 

[MooseGump]

Freeshop really was that easy because of Nintendo's defenses consisting of paper towels, shit even pirated games would still trick the official eShop into thinking you bought them

Nowadays Freeshop doesn't work anymore because they changed into a ticket system that blocked Freeshop, so unless they figured it out or connected to an archive we're back to transferring cias

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Freeshop really was that easy because of Nintendo's defenses consisting of paper towels, shit even pirated games would still trick the official eShop into thinking you bought them

There was a code or string of characters needed, that was all. I found that by googling [whatever it was called].

The OG Xbox was a homebrew beast as previously mentioned. It was the best media player around, MAME just worked, mods could be added to Morrowind and I never had to pay for that really shitty Matrix game. All of this controlled through XBMC. I am absolutely convinced that Microsoft took some inspiration from that when designing what the Xbox 360 would be able to do. I don't know how many people remember that the 360 could play video from a network share, things like that.

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

I've modded a few consoles in the past, Wii, Vita and Wii U from memory, I can't remember if I did anymore than that but I think that's about it.

Ended up selling both my Wii and my Vita because the performance was straight up dogshit and struggling to play GBA games despite that much power is fairly pathetic.

If the Wii U had a better processor I'd say it'd be one of the best consoles for modding, but I cannot justify playing it for long given how fucking terrible and sluggish the whole UI is. At times it feels like the fucking Wii was more powerful at moving from menu to menu.

Now I've got a slimline PS2 I've been tempted to hack, but given how fucking easy it is to emulate PS2 games at about 1.5 the resolution anyway I don't see the point given how fucking slow loading used to be on that generation of consoles.

Real talk modding old consoles is 90% tinkering for the sake of tinkering and 10% actually enjoying the games. A heavily modded console is still limited by the specs of the console itself and I don't think many of us would want to go back to the 2 minute loading screens in the age of near instantanious SSD level speeds.

 

[Pissmaster]

I've modded a few consoles in the past, Wii, Vita and Wii U from memory, I can't remember if I did anymore than that but I think that's about it.

Ended up selling both my Wii and my Vita because the performance was straight up dogshit and struggling to play GBA games despite that much power is fairly pathetic.

That's because the premiere GBA emulator right now is mgba, and its main developer is a troon. It doesn't use dynamic recompilation for reasons that I've never found, but I assume it's because of some "muh authenticity" reason, since it's supposed to be cycke accurate.

A lot of GBA games run fine on the Vita if you install some plugin that lets you run it at 500mhz. Of course, it's retarded that the same games that ran just fine on the PSP 14 years ago now stutter on the Vita, but, leave it to troons and their endless autism to try and fix what wasn't broken in the first place.

 

[Broseph]

The only "console" that I ever modded is my SNES classic with HackChi. I bought a 64GB USB stick and an OTG connector and filled my SNES up with a shit ton of games from NES, SNES, GBA and arcade roms. I've also been playing lots of SNES games with translation patches that were never released over here like Terranigma, Front Mission Gun Hazard, Trials of Mana and the Sailor Moon RPG which are all fucking awesome games. I even went the extra mile and bought a wireless 8bit do controller which has been worth every penny since it makes playing Street Fighter a million times easier with analog sticks instead of that POS dpad on the SNES controller.
Seriously this thing is a godsend if you're into retro gaming, and yet the Nintendo spergs keep paying for the Switch online in the hope that Nintendo might put some good SNES games on the Switch instead of obscure shitty games that no one wants when they could just buy a SNES classic and save themselves the trouble.

 

[Pissmaster]

Seriously this thing is a godsend if you're into retro gaming, and yet the Nintendo spergs keep paying for the Switch online in the hope that Nintendo might put some good SNES games on the Switch instead of obscure shitty games that no one wants when they could just buy a SNES classic and save themselves the trouble.

It always perplexes me when retards just flat out won't do emulation, but insist on using official solutions because it's legal. Shit, I'll even be happy to accept the argument that you just like the flow of the Switch's SNES app. Just say that. The whole "buh-buh-but it's illegal!!!!" argument is such a faggot reason.

List of things I have played SNES games on that worked great:

• Original Xbox
• Wii
• New Nintendo 3DS
• Wii U
• Raspberry Pi 4
• Literally any computer running Windows 98 and beyond
• Macbook Pro
• iPad 2
• iPhone 4S
• Literally anything running Android

Of all those, I prefer the Wii for SNES games. The Classic Controllers are perfect for them, and the emulator is very good. Not perfect, missing some features too, but it does the job. SNES9X's port doesn't run Super Mario RPG, but you can just install the version from the Wii Shop Channel and play that. The iPad 2, a tablet from 10 years ago, also ran SNES games very well, and you could sync a Wii controller to it as sort of a proto-Switch. Not that I'd recommend it today due to iPads aging poorly thanks to Apple being the kings of planned obsolescence, though it's funny to me that I got to play Secret of Mana on a portable with a bigger, better screen, and with a better controller, than anyone who did via official means, nine years later.

 

[Synthwave Obsessed]

I have a hacked PS2, New 3DS, and a Vita. The PS2 was the first console I modified and it was to run pirated games and to lend backups to friends at school. The 3DS and the Vita are recent things from the past few years and I think the homebrew scene honestly has given the Vita more love than Sony ever could.

The next thing I want to hack is a PS3 because it's apparently good for emulation. I would love to hack a Switch, but the jig is up on the versions that can be hacked. Good luck finding one without it being super overpriced. At least point I'm waiting for a solution to the problem. But hey. Totally optimistic, but maybe a solution will come out before I full the old 2nd gen PS3 out of my mom's basement and hack it.

 

[Gru]

I hacked a Wii U recently and it's probably the best experience I've had with a hacked console. Not only do I get all the perks of Wii U homebrew like the stellar virtual console injections, even if it's quite a bit more of a pain than the 3DS, due to needing to find the right base VC game, hoping this gets cracked to a level like the 3ds eventually, but I can also use all the Wii homebrew, including stuff like Nintendont to play Gamecube games, and I can play Wii games with HDMI compared to my old AV outputting Wii.

The Wii U may have sucked in terms of the base product, but once you crack open the thing I daresay it's Nintendo's best console due to how much it can do. Not to mention if you already have a regular capture card (which I do), and already have a Wii U or can find a good deal, it's the best way to capture DS footage without emulating on PC (Which is good, but using a mouse is a pain in the ass for more touch oriented games) or shelling out for a 3DS capture card (expensive up the ass).

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

The Switch annoys me so much because if hacked it'd probably be the perfect emulation machine but Nintendo finally wised up about their piracy measures being stuck in the 1970s and closed all the good loopholes. Even something as simple as backing up save data would be a godsend so I'd be able to commit to long games without having to worry about the data corrupting.

Oh and another reason why hacking anything from the PS1-PS2 era is faggy: memory cards. I was tempted to hack my PS2 the other day with a cheap memory card exploit, only to realise that I'd be juggling memory cards if I ever wanted to actually play a decent library of games. If I emulate them then I don't have that problem because I can literally just emulate a monster memory card that holds everything.