RocketKnight
24th November 2006, 09:55
So it's only been out in the states for a few days but already they're busy taking it apart to find out how it works. A few of the most interesting finds are as follows:
1. Sensor Bar
The sensor bar is nothing more than an IR transmitter. The Wiimote is a receiver. The bar has several IR transmitters on either side, and the Wiimote uses the distance between them, the position of them, and (probably) the timing of them to help calculate your movement.
Proof you ask? These guys build their own Wii sensor bar using two remote controls they had in their house:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTGSkYRDpWY
So, if that's all it is, this means there's no data moving between the bar and the Wii. So couldn't you build your own sensor bar that runs off a battery, making it wireless? To the relief of home projector users, yes, you can!
http://doctabu.livejournal.com/64758.html
It's also interesting to note that PCs can pick up the Wiimote as a blue tooth device. If someone unlocks it and writes drivers, there's no reason it won't work on a PC with a wireless sensor bar.
2. Web browsing without Opera
It's genius really. A few people have been packet sniffing their Wii's wireless communications, and had a bright idea. Basically:
1. In your Wii DNS settings, point the primary server at your computer's IP address.
2. On your PC, install some freebie DNS server software, and then point "oss.shop.wii.com" to another web address, "google.com" for example.
3. On your Wii, launch the shopping channel. The Wii will browse to Google!
Video of the results: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2509fk1j8o
3. The inner-workings of the shop
It gets a bit iffy here. Some people have been playing with the code for fun, other people have used the code to host their own shop servers, the difference being they don't need any Wii Points to download the games. Will be interesting to see how Nintendo handle this one.
Anyway, if you want to see the Wii shop on your PC, do the following:
1. Install the Firefox User Agents extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/59/
2. Create a user agent called Wii: Opera/9.00 (Nintendo Wii; U; ; 1038-58; Wii Shop Channel/1.0; en)
3. Browse to the Wii shop after enabling that user agent: http://oss.shop.wii.com/oss/common/vc/W_01.jsp?language=en®ion=USA&country=US
Now, from here you can browse all over it, check out the javascript, etc. Links won't work but if you manually follow the links the pages are there. The block that's been hit for now is that several important functions seem to be built into the Wii. But, as I said, there is enough code stored in open javascript files for people to spoof certain features. I have a few ideas of my own I want to try out but I'll have to wait until I get the unit to make any further progress. Still, it's interesting all the same.
1. Sensor Bar
The sensor bar is nothing more than an IR transmitter. The Wiimote is a receiver. The bar has several IR transmitters on either side, and the Wiimote uses the distance between them, the position of them, and (probably) the timing of them to help calculate your movement.
Proof you ask? These guys build their own Wii sensor bar using two remote controls they had in their house:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTGSkYRDpWY
So, if that's all it is, this means there's no data moving between the bar and the Wii. So couldn't you build your own sensor bar that runs off a battery, making it wireless? To the relief of home projector users, yes, you can!
http://doctabu.livejournal.com/64758.html
It's also interesting to note that PCs can pick up the Wiimote as a blue tooth device. If someone unlocks it and writes drivers, there's no reason it won't work on a PC with a wireless sensor bar.
2. Web browsing without Opera
It's genius really. A few people have been packet sniffing their Wii's wireless communications, and had a bright idea. Basically:
1. In your Wii DNS settings, point the primary server at your computer's IP address.
2. On your PC, install some freebie DNS server software, and then point "oss.shop.wii.com" to another web address, "google.com" for example.
3. On your Wii, launch the shopping channel. The Wii will browse to Google!
Video of the results: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2509fk1j8o
3. The inner-workings of the shop
It gets a bit iffy here. Some people have been playing with the code for fun, other people have used the code to host their own shop servers, the difference being they don't need any Wii Points to download the games. Will be interesting to see how Nintendo handle this one.
Anyway, if you want to see the Wii shop on your PC, do the following:
1. Install the Firefox User Agents extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/59/
2. Create a user agent called Wii: Opera/9.00 (Nintendo Wii; U; ; 1038-58; Wii Shop Channel/1.0; en)
3. Browse to the Wii shop after enabling that user agent: http://oss.shop.wii.com/oss/common/vc/W_01.jsp?language=en®ion=USA&country=US
Now, from here you can browse all over it, check out the javascript, etc. Links won't work but if you manually follow the links the pages are there. The block that's been hit for now is that several important functions seem to be built into the Wii. But, as I said, there is enough code stored in open javascript files for people to spoof certain features. I have a few ideas of my own I want to try out but I'll have to wait until I get the unit to make any further progress. Still, it's interesting all the same.