While our American rebels were sleeping on Tuesday evening, an incredible feat was pulled off within the Wii homebrew scene – a tool called the TruchaSigner. Essentially, without getting into too many technical details, this utility allows any users to open up a Wii disc image, extract and replace whatever they want, and recompile a security signature for the disc. This security signature (called a private key, if you’ve followed the whole RSA encryption drama that’s happened last year) normally detects a status quo in the data and will only boot if it’s according to Nintendo’s golden master.
Well… things are a lot different now. With the introduction of TruchaSigner into the scene, the Wii’s stock RSA protection has, for now, been reduced to being about as useful as a security method as a screen door. It still stands, but, that ain’t gonna stop people from just running right through it.
A lot of people in the Wii Homebrew scene have been toying with the utility for the past two days, and have already come up with some pretty incredible modifications: they’ve removed copy protection from Super Mario Galaxy, changing the speed of characters in Mario Strikers: Charged, swapping a character’s move-sets in SSBB, and, heck – they’ve even found incomplete character data in Brawl!
Paying attention to the list of modified disc images, though, made me notice one in particular: Manhunt 2, the Wii’s outraged media chestnut, has been uncensored much in the way that it was uncensored in the PSP version. The patch removes the censor mosaics from the game, effectively making this a very, very violent version of that Sims patch that would let you watch them pee. Considering that those censor mosaics seemed to be the only thing that kept the likes of Jackie T. at bay, it’s hard not to consider this a shot across the bow of the news media.
In this reporter’s opinion, I think that the advancement is great –– fascinating, even. Not only from a technical standpoint, but, from a moral one as well. The controversy surrounding the Hot Coffee Mod is something I’m sure you’re all still familiar with – as gamers, it was kind of a watershed event in our little media’s maturation. However, considering that this was a game that game moralists (is that even a term?) worried would actually teach kids how to strangle someone with piano wire, it’s news that’s enough to make you want to brace yourself for the coming storm.
Unlike Hot Coffee, you’ve gotta be seriously intuned with the underground, fast-moving and warranty-voidin’ Wii scene. Not only do you need a soldered-in drive-chip, but, you’ve also gotta have the know-how to actually find these modified disc images on the Internet. The Wii still isn’t known for its piracy scene – or, at least, not as much as that of the PSP. However, I have a sinking feeling that this kind of thing is going to blow up anyway.
What are your thoughts, rebels? Do you think that this patch is going to stir up the hornet’s nest or crawl underground with the worms? Do you feel that the patch is right on the money or just a tad unnecessary? Do you think I should trim my mustache?
