Nintendo-Scene

Team WiiJii entered onto the Wii modding scene not too long ago with not only a complete out of the box solution for free open source modchip firmware, but arguably one of the most versatile modchip solutions. I recently caught up with x-monster from Team WiiJii to talk about their product, the state of the Wii modding scene and what we can expect from Team WiiJii next.

twistedsymphony: So who makes up Team WiiJii? Could you give me a brief rundown of the important players?

x-monster: Well mostly it is myself and my wife who run the show in a small local modding business based in London Ontario. We also work with a couple of provincial modders and we all provide feedback back and forth.

twistedsymphony: That’s pretty interesting, did either of you do meaningful work on other consoles that people might be familiar with; any Xbox or Dreamcast mods, or is the Wii the team’s first endeavor into the console scene?

x-monster: Well we were all end users of other companies’ products up until this project. We simply felt that there was not a Wii modchip on the market that met our needs. We looked at WiiFree and found most of the things we were looking for, it just had to be streamlined to our personal wants and needs. In doing so we ended up with a product we loved and hope others will too.

twistedsymphony: What about the WiiJii product do you think makes it stand out against other similar products like the WiiFree Easy Connect or Team Xecuter’s upcoming WiiFree kit?

x-monster: Size is the major thing of note, we chose the smaller version of the 12f629 because it was so compact. Also we feel that the quick solder methods are fundamentally flawed and more often than not ended up in damage to the board. The other nice thing is that ours is a complete kit unlike the other two where you need your own PIC programmer or as an optional purchase with Team Xecuter’s [product]. However, myself and everyone else in the team were very excited to see Team Xecuter take a firm stance behind the open source community with their WiiFree kit even though we feel ours is a better package. We are all long time fans of Team Xecuter and it was nice to see, after asking ourselves what would Team Xecuter do, we ended up with similar products.

twistedsymphony: It’s clear you like supporting the open source community, though with so many varying open source chips was there something about the PIC based chips that made you decide to go with the 12F629 as opposed to the Atmel chips used by some of the open source teams?

x-monster: Mainly it was the size but also we wanted the chip to have as few parts as possible because every part we did not add was one less part to potentially fail. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line and we built on the philosophy of it being the straight line.
Also when we were able to get the creator of IC-Prog on board with writing the software it was clear our best choice was the PIC. We still may release other versions that support the Atmel or 16F products but only if they get the amount of support the 12F has seen.

twistedsymphony: Did you seek out the IC-Prog creator or did he seek you out?

x-monster: We actively sought him. IC-Prog is amazing work, and we love it’s functionality, but we felt that a lite version would encourage more testing in the community. As installers it is great to see our local customers able to update their own chips with ease and feel safe doing so.

twistedsymphony: I can agree with that sentiment, getting into MCU programming can be a bit overwhelming for some. It sounds like you know your stuff. Despite not having any background in console modding, do you have a background in electronics?

x-monster: I Have taken some electronic engineering courses but never took it on as a career. However, it has been a hobby and passion that I will carry to the end of my time here on earth; finishing a new project is always the most rewarding feeling in the world. No matter if its a pre-made project kit or some new challenge, like repairing a laptop motherboard because you just have to make it work, its always something that I have enjoyed. I don’t think there is a piece of electronics I have ever owned that I didn’t have to “improve” in some way.

twistedsymphony: You mentioned earlier the potential of Atmel support, are there any plans for a WiiJii V2, perhaps with LED or even LCD support as well? How does that fit into your vision of a small, simplistic product?

x-monster: I am definitely looking at LEDs but I am having a hard time justifying it since it is intended for the back of the system. However, for the LCD we may add a header location for it but we do not feel that there is any viable reason for anyone to add this to the system. One, where do you put it? And two, do you want to draw that much power from the system board or have another thing to plug into the wall? Really the LCD mod was cool, do not get me wrong, but it serves no purpose whatsoever functionally. The main thing we want to do with the new version is to make it blend in more with the system, there is a definite debate between multi colored wire or pure white, but you can be sure V2 will be using a white PCB. Also we have one more thing up our sleeves that may just surprise everyone, if we can justify the cost.

twistedsymphony: You mention justifying the cost of any new features you’d add to the product. It seems the biggest critique of the current WiiJii is the price. How do you respond to those claims, and are you working on making the current WiiJii version cheaper?

x-monster: The WiiJii is 100% Canadian made and manufactured unfortunately this fact does not afford the low fab costs that outsourcing to Asia would allow. As we progress we are hoping to lower costs of manufacturing and thus the price as well but at this point in time the WiiJii chip and programmer cost is surprisingly close to its final sale price.
I would also like to point out that for what it offers the end user the WiiJii is the most affordable re-programmable kit available today. If we wanted to we could pre-load WiiFree on a PIC and mount it on a quick solder board and sell them for $2.50 and make more than we do now but that would defeat all of our goals with this kit. Honestly, at that price we would make the same per sale. However we did not design this to be the cheapest solution to make your Wii play backups we designed it to be the best solution for some one to test, tweak, and play with until their heart’s content.
The WiiJii chip is and never will be about the end result its about the fun of getting there.

twistedsymphony: A lot of people seem to think that the drive chip market is stagnating, that is to say, nearly everything that can can be done with a drive chip has been done. Do you agree with this sentiment or do you think drive chips still have some tricks up their sleeves?

x-monster: I would have to say I mostly agree with that statement. There is lots that can be refined but I do not foresee any major new features to pop up out of no where. However, they do what they’re supposed to do and they do it well. They work flawlessly and totally transparent to the system and to the end user unless you have an ego to stroke. Really, what more could you ask?

twistedsymphony: I realize the WiiJii simply uses microcontroller firmware available from other open source teams but is the team working towards or helping other teams with cracking the currently unmodifiable D2C chipped Wiis?

x-monster: We have not been in direct contact with any of the other teams. We have however been trying to obtain a system with this chip in it to “sacrifice” for public knowledge, and would love to gain contact with the WiiFree team and assist them in any way we can. Our fist goal within the team when we obtain a D2C is to lap the controller chip down to its circuits and scan everything we can to see if it is physical cut internally or a different chip altogether. This may or may not yield results but it sure sounds like a lot of fun to me.

twistedsymphony: Are there any plans to use a developer chip, such as the Infectus chip, to extract the contents of, or otherwise analyze the new chips?

x-monster: Other people are poised to make these attempts we are more interested at physically attacking this new chip.

twistedsymphony: If you had to guess, what do you think the next big advance in the Wii hacking scene will be, and who do you think will deliver it?

x-monster: The holy grail is a full firmware mod that allows the Wii to run homebrew and personally I believe when the breakthrough happens the open source community will be the people making this happen. As for who will make the first breakthrough I would honestly not know who it will be. Probably someone who none of us have ever heard of before with a truly curious mind.

*laughs* TUX on my Wii; can I have it? Please? I’ve just been sitting here thinking about how sweet it would be to have unsigned code running full tilt on Wii hardware and using Wiimotes to control Linux

twistedsymphony: Do you use Linux on your personal computer?

x-monster: I dual boot, sadly I need [Windows] XP for games.

twistedsymphony: Aside from WiiJii V2 are there any other products modders can look forward to seeing from team WiiJii?

x-monster: We have been actively pursuing the PS3. No, we have not made any progress yet, but if we do not see another team bring a product to market that we feel meets our needs we may collaborate on making our own. Honestly it has been hard to put down my Wiimotes long enough to care about messing with the PS3. *laughs* does anyone know a good Wii recovery support group?

twistedsymphony: So what kind of product did you have in mind for the PS3 and who would you like to collaborate with on that platform?

x-monster: (jokingly) Something to actually make it worth buying?
Just kidding.
As I am sure you know the PS3 like all next gen systems is using heavy security to prevent anything but their software from running on it. I would love to see What kind of creative homebrew could happen on that system and how much power Sony’s prized Cell processors could actually push out. Could you imagine a Wii or an Xbox 1 emulator on the PS3?

twistedsymphony: That would be quite interesting.

x-monster: But really, the future is uncertain and for now we are just glad to be a part of the scene.

twistedsymphony: Is there anything else you’d like to add before we wrap up?

x-monster: Yes, I would like to say just one thing. The WiiJii was made by testers for testers and we really hope that everyone who has one or gets one enjoys it as much as we enjoyed making it.

twistedsymphony: thanks for taking the time to talk with us today.

x-monster: No, thank you for taking the time to do it. Its been great man, keep in touch.

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