Let's surf some Wii

Mike Bantick
Friday, 24 November 2006 08:04

Your IT - Entertainment

Want to see what is on offer online, before you get your Nintendo Wii ? Armed with a Firefox browser and a little know how, you can check out what your Wii points will purchase, once the little white box is squirreled away in your entertainment unit.

It is happening quicker and quicker now days, in fact for this particular hacker, before he even fired up a game on his new interactive entertainment console. 

By sniffing communication packets making their way back to Nintendo homebase, inquisitive individuals have discovered a way to get the  Wii shop interface to be displayed on any – well at Firefox at least –  internet browser.

One does have to ask why? I mean, point any browser search engine to the subject, and you will soon get the information you are after.  Classic SNES games from A$7.50.

But I guess the inevitable answer is, “because we could” As we see with enterprising folk and their penchant for investigating the latest gizmos innards.  It is all about trying to get more out of your purchase.

Sony have embraced this ideal to some degree by quite openly endorsing the ability to load Linux onto the PS3 – whilst at same time continuing to lock down the PSP’s home brew capabilities.

For others it is simply a chance to get notoriety, hence we have the smashing of consoles purchased only minutes before hand.  Or why not turn your PS3 into a grill, and post the pictures on the web?