The Twilight Hack is currently the only safe, public way to enable homebrew on an unmodded Wii. The Twilight Hack is achieved by playing a hacked game save for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess which executes a homebrew application from an external SD card. Examples of such homebrew elf files can be found on the Homebrew apps page.
The latest release is compatible with version 3.3 of the Wii System Menu.
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Download
Fanmail goes here: Twiizers Fanmail
Usage / Installation
Required Materials:
- SD card (you may want to format the card to ensure a consistent filesystem)
- SD card reader
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess that has been played at least once
- Some homebrew to load
Inside the zip file you will find versions of the hack for all three regions. You may copy all of them to your SD card, but you will need to choose the correct one to copy to your Wii based on your version of Zelda: Twilight Princess. USA users, additionally, need to determine the correct save slot to load once inside Twilight Princess. The easiest way to check your version is to compare the text string which is on the inner circle of the data surface with the ones below.
| Region | Inner circle text | File | Save slot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europe/Australia (EUR) | RVL-RZDP-0A-0 JPN | /private/wii/title/rzdp/data.bin | Twilight Hack |
| Asia (JPN) | RVL-RZDJ-0A-0 JPN | /private/wii/title/rzdj/data.bin | Twilight Hack |
| America (USA) | RVL-RZDE-0A-0 JPN | /private/wii/title/rzde/data.bin | TwilightHack0 |
| America (USA) | RVL-RZDE-0A-0 USA | /private/wii/title/rzde/data.bin | TwilightHack0 |
| America (USA) | RVL-RZDE-0A-2 USA | /private/wii/title/rzde/data.bin | TwilightHack2 |
Step by Step
- Begin by formatting your SD card to FAT16 if it is not already (in Windows it's just called "FAT"). FAT32 should also work in the latest release. (Formatting will erase ALL data!)
- If you get an error such as "Failed to read boot.elf (-1)!" then reformatting your SD card with the Official SD Card Format Tool may help.
- To do this on Mac OS X, open the Disk Utility (in Finder click the Go menu, select Utilities and find it there). Your SD card should show up as two entries. Choose the second entry, and then go to the Erase tab. Select the FAT16 option in the Volume Format dropdown, and assign a name to the device (if you want to), then click Erase. Confirm that you want to erase, and then follow the rest of this guide when it's done.
- Copy the "private" directory from the download to your SD card.
- Take your homebrew Wii executable (elf or dol file) and save it in the root directory of your SD card as "boot.elf" or "boot.dol" as appropriate.
- Now, put the SD card into your Wii and turn it on.
- Go into Wii Options --> Data Management --> Save Data --> Wii.
- Find your Zelda save, click on it, click "Erase", and click Yes.
- Open the SD card and select the "Twilight Hack" save that corresponds to your game region. Note: Some people are having problems with the Wii not "seeing" the save file on the SD card. If you are experiencing this, try setting the archive bit for the data.bin file - in Windows this can be either be done from the file's properties dialog (right click on it in Windows Explorer and check the box) or from the command line using "attrib +a
". More info at #wiihelp on Efnet. - Click copy and then yes. Now exit out of the menu.
- Insert The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess game disc and run the game.
- If you have the USA version of the game, load the "TwilightHack0" or "TwilightHack2" version of the game as appropriate (see above).
- Otherwise, load the only "Twilight Hack" save game.
- Once in the game, either walk backwards or talk to the man standing in front of you.
- Enjoy.
Changelog
0.1beta1
- The Twilight Hack is now compatible with version 3.3 of the Wii System Menu.
- Improvements in video configuration. The entire console should now be visible in all video modes, and scrolling has been improved.
- For the USA version, the two variants of the hack have been packed into one save file. Just select the save slot that corresponds to your version of Twilight Pricess when you start the game.
- New savegame icons by drmr. The new icons now show which region that version of the hack is for.
- This version now tries to load boot.dol, and falls back to boot.elf if boot.dol is not found.
- Many, many bug fixes.
0.1alpha3b
- Experimental version with FAT32 support. Only try this if you receive an error message while loading boot.elf.
0.1alpha3b Mirrors: Mirror by chaoshq.de • Mirror by Oste Hovel • Mirror by otto888
0.1alpha3a
- Correctly loads geckoloader code from USBGecko flash.
0.1alpha3a Mirrors: Mirror by chaoshq.de • Mirror by Oste Hovel • Mirror by otto888
0.1alpha3
- Front SD slot is now supported; SDGecko slot support has been removed.
- FAT16 is now supported; you should save your ELF executable on your SD card as "boot.elf".
- RZDJ is now supported.
- Added support for Geckoloader stub: If you have a USBGecko installed and have already run the Geckoloader program to install into flash, then the Twilight Hack will try to load that stub if it does not detect an SD card.
Explanation
The Twilight Hack works by employing a lengthly character name for the horse in the game ('Epona') in order to facilitate a stack smash. This gets triggered when talking to the man next to you when you start the savegame as he loads the name to use it in his dialog or upon attempting to enter the next zone, before the man talks to you and reminds you to go the other way to get the horse.
FAQ
- Can it load files from the internal SD slot?
- Yes.
- Can I load GameCube homebrew with this?
- No.
- What about if I use doltool or dol2elf?
- No. These tools merely change the container file format, it does not convert between GameCube/Wii code.
- Does this work with the new v3.3 update?
- Yes, v0.1beta1 does.
- Can we use games other than Zelda to achieve the same effect?
- Eventually.
- What about our current saves?
- There's no easy way to merge saves between files. Use the Twilight Hack to install the Homebrew Channel, then copy your old savefile back into place.
Main FAQ Page: Wiibrew FAQ
Known bug
- After you load the save, the Wii Remote pointer may move to the bottom of the screen and stay there. It is purely a cosmetic bug and does not affect operation. The Wiimote pointer will return to normal after a reboot.
Article Source: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Twilight_Hack
