Wii Homebrew Channel development shuts down over ‘stolen’ code

The GitHub repository for The Homebrew Channel (HBC), a popular piece of software used on hacked Nintendo Wiis, has been archived. Its maintainers are accusing the creators of “libogc,” a software toolkit HBC relies on, of stealing both Nintendo-made and open-source code and presenting it as their own, according to a ReadMe posted to the repository yesterday by hacking group fail0verflow. (Hat tip to X user OatmealDome.) HBC is a central piece of the Wii homebrew community, serving as a launcher for non-Nintendo-approved software without needing to re-run an exploit. Through it, you can do things like load GameCube and Wii game files, run older console emulators, and more from a USB-connected hard drive or the Wii’s SD card slot. HBC is also one of the cleanest ways to back up your own Wii or GameCube collection, as you can copy files from game discs using Nintendo’s own hardware. In its ReadMe, fail0verflow, which owns the HBC repository, writes that although they knew early on that ... Read full article.