One Hour of Nintendo Piracy Facts

when you think about piracy or anti-piracy  measures in games you probably think about   pc gaming the nintendo ds or game boy advance  or maybe even the dreamcast or playstation   but one console that probably doesn't come to  mind is the nintendo 64. due to the system using   cartridges pirated copies were more expensive  to reproduce this meant that pirates in the late   90s and early 2000s instead set their sights on  the dreamcast mps-1 as discs were a lot cheaper   to reproduce with that said it wasn't as if  developers just left their n64 games without   any form of copy protection many n64 titles  actually have anti-piracy including titles like   the legend of zelda ocarina of time and several  titles made by rare such as donkey kong 64.   so in this video we'll be showing you some of the  most noteworthy examples of anti-piracy measures   in nintendo 64 games starting with the much-loved  platformer collect-a-thon banjo-tooie rare knew   that banjo-kazooie was a hit with the nintendo  64 and they wanted to make sure its sequel sold   just as well by introducing new anti-piracy  measures but we're sure the team didn't expect   their efforts to be so effective that tui is  often touted as the most copy protected n64   title in the entire system's library in fact the  rom for banjo-tooie wasn't entirely cracked until   december 2012 over 12 years after its release  although tui could be played relatively issue-free   on nintendo 64 emulators on pc prior to december  2012 the game wouldn't work properly on flashcards   like the everdrive this is partly a result of the  emulators being able to emulate boot chips and   the like but it's also due to the game having many  anti-piracy checks the first test occurs when the   game is powered on where it checks for the correct  save type banjo2 uses a two kilobyte eeprom   but if the save type for the game is incorrect  or there simply is no save chip present on the   game's cartridge the game acts as if there's no  controller plugged in this means no buttons will   respond and a no controller message will display  on screen the second level of copy protection   comes in the form of a cic lockout chip which  the game checks for with ntsc copies of the game   checking to see if a cic nus6105 chip is present  and pal copies looking out for a cicnus7105 chip   this check is done by using the challenge response  feature found in these chips which banjo-tooie   makes heavy use of throughout gameplay with 268  different checks in total the responses from the   cic chip are used to decrypt files associated  with the game's assets so if any of these   checks end up failing the game can't decrypt the  data and will be unable to load a required asset   into the game this results in all manner of  crashes and since this happens hundreds of times   throughout the game it's essentially unplayable if  you're not familiar with nintendo 64 anti-piracy   and who blame you you might be asking yourself  what the hell are these cic chips the game uses   well it's a fascinating series of chips that  many n64 games use for copy protection including   several more games in this video so we're going  to briefly explain how it works cics are boot   chips and ever since the nes and snes nintendo had  implemented cics in their systems to curb piracy   however it wasn't long before pirates worked out  a means of circumventing the anti-piracy measures   that utilize these chips and so it became open  for the masses to play downloaded roms for the n64   nintendo didn't stray too far from the measures  they already knew and continued to utilize cic   chips however nintendo knew that these were simple  to bypass so a change in implementation was made   instead of the n64 including a corresponding cic  chip it instead used a pif bus this handled the   system's initial boot code for the system as  well as handling controller inputs but mostly   it handles security on the console it checks  that the cartridge contains the correct cic chip   thus checking if it's been pirated and that it's  a cartridge with the same region as the console   with the snes it became simple enough to disable  the circuit which the cic in both the cartridges   and the system utilized but the n64 now had a chip  which handled multiple functions and didn't work   in sync with the chip on the cartridge this means  that stopping the circuit the chip is running on   would just result in games failing to boot  entirely this meant that n64 devices which   ran backups would often require the use of a  legitimate cartridge as well in order to use the   cic chip located on the legitimate game in total  there were five different cic chips on cartridges   per region which meant that you'd need to use a  game which utilized the correct chip for the game   you wanted to run this was a problem for people  wanting to play star fox 64 for example as it was   the only game to use the cic nus 6101 chip on the  cartridge which meant you'd need a legitimate copy   of star fox 64 in order to play a backup copy  over time many clever people worked out the deeper   inner workings of both the cic and the piff and  ultimately came up with a means to get around   their methods we mentioned before that banjo-tooie  had stringent copy protection but this was typical   of rare who would aggressively protect their games  from piracy while most companies simply put faith   into nintendo's built-in anti-piracy measures rare  implemented additional security in most of their   games and jet force gemini was one of these titles  if the game detected a different variant of the   cic chip than what is supposed to be included in  the game it would still boot but during the game   all weapons would be disabled if the player tried  pressing the z button to fire they'll simply hold   their weapon out and do nothing meaning that it  would be impossible to progress past the first   lifeforce door in goldwood additionally if the  player is controlling juno they'll no longer be   able to run and be forced to move through the  world at an incredibly slow walk speed most n64   backup devices used the 6102 and 7102 variants of  the cic chip because this was the most common cic   in n64 cards but jet force gemini used 6105 and  7105 variants which made the game difficult to   pirate successfully this was more strict than  rare's earlier anti-piracy measures but the   methods used in earlier titles such as dilly kong  racing could still leave would-be pirates a little   vexed diddy kong racing makes the typical checks  for the correct cic chip but interestingly if it   finds a chip of a different iteration the game  will actually let the player progress to a race   with a catch from there they'll be subjected to  the pause menu continuously appearing to disrupt   gameplay we say this is less strict because  technically this does mean that the player could   complete the game if they continuously unpaused it  but this would probably be excruciating to endure   or perhaps a great speed run category to watch  on games done quick donkey kong 64 was similarly   not quite as harsh at preventing the player from  making progress but it wasn't exactly forgiving   of pirates if a different cic chip than the one  included in the retail cart is being used the   game will boot and play completely fine the only  problem is the player would have to be willing   to leave their system on even when they're not  playing as the game will randomly delete save data   from the cartridge during gameplay without warning  but these examples are fairly simple deleting save   data stopping the game from booting or preventing  progress what about some whacked out nonsense that   makes pirates confused and flustered perfect  dark contains a huge number of piracy checks in   this data with some being pretty simple and some  being pretty bizarre all of the game's anti-piracy   measures occur when specific actions are taken in  game and if one of the checks fails to determine   the title is running unmodified and legitimately  they will trigger the first check occurs during   the power on phase causing the game to simply  never boot another check is made when opening the   game's cheat menu which will simply crash the game  when opening a door the game will rewrite its code   to prevent doors from opening if a simulant picks  up an item in multiplayer all guards will suddenly   be able to see the player through walls and when  a guard uncloaks this disables the ability for the   player and other characters from going up and down  slopes another fun form of copy protection happens   whenever a character throws a grenade which will  trigger an infinite number of explosions to spawn   around the player and not just that but whenever  there is an explosion the game will then make   all explosions massive and if a player breaks  glass the game's audio frequency is modified   to an incredibly high value resulting in  all characters sounding like chipmunks   rare certainly got creative with this one but  nintendo have also gotten a bit wild with their   anti-piracy measures themselves one of the biggest  titles on the nintendo 64 and the one most likely   to be the shining jewel in a would-be pirate's  sights is the legend of zelda ocarina of time   just like every other game we've mentioned zelda  utilizes a check for the correct cic lockout chip   and if a chip other than 6105 or 7105 is detected  several measures are put in place one alteration   is made with how the code manages the fishing  minigame this measure makes it so that fish from   the pond at lake hylia always let go after being  caught for 51 frames about 2 and a half seconds   making the fishing minigame impossible this  in particular seems like a strange piece of   anti-piracy as the fishing segment isn't needed  to beat the game and is only needed if you want   to 100 complete it that said a different measure  will absolutely stop you in your tracks if you're   playing a pirated game the bars found in ganon's  castle which block the exits during the escape   sequence might give you some trouble zelda will  normally open these bars for the player but if   the wrong chip is detected the bars will simply  stay in place zelda however will not but probably   the most bizarre change to occur involves the  3d model for adult zelda during cut scenes   this can first be seen during the cutscene  in which sheik's identity is revealed where   chic transforms back into zelda to reveal her  with a rather extreme slick back puff hairstyle did you know despite piracy largely being  something that harms a game console sales   the lack of piracy on the gamecube actually hurt  the system's performance in some regions according   to an article from ign's southeast asian branch  the gamecube's inability to run pirated dvds and   game discs was a big reason many gamers in the  area turned to the original xbox and playstation   2. piracy has been reported to run rampant in  southeast asia and although you might think this   harms a console's sales it's actually one of the  reasons why nintendo's handhelds like the game   boy advance and nintendo ds sold so well in the  region it wasn't until nintendo released the wii   that they once again saw home console success in  southeast asia with a big factor in its high sales   being its ease of access for piracy despite the  gamecube having far less piracy than nintendo's   other systems the big n still published  an official anti-piracy training manual   that showed consumers how to spot fake gamecube  games some of nintendo's tips included looking out   for a colored tone to the bottom of discs instead  of a silver one poor quality printing on the top   of discs distorted looking or low quality game  boxes incorrect box sizes missing components and   unrealistic price points this guide would actually  come in handy for some like certain residents of   the united kingdom in staffordshire in the  uk on april 5th 2005 an official anti-piracy   operation confiscated around 20 000 dvds and cds  including games films and music at a car boot sale   which is sort of like a giant communal garage sale  the estimated value of the counterfeit merch was   over 500 000 british pounds which adjusted for  inflation is over a million us dollars in today's   money while much of the stock was fake game  discs for the then newly released doom 3 on xbox   there was also software previously unseen by the  uk anti-piracy officials fake gamecube mini dvds   this was noteworthy as the gamecube was much  harder for pirates to crack than microsoft's   xbox or playstation 2 and signified a breakthrough  it happened with gamecube modding somewhere behind   the scenes one of the main hurdles for pirates  was the system's use of many dvds which were   more difficult to replicate than standard sized  optical disks that was until the uk-based company   daytel figured out what made the system's disk  so hard to crack the gamecube mini's dvds each   have their own unique burst cutting area or bca  as do most regular cds dvds and blu-rays this bca   is read by the system's optical laser lens just  like a barcode but not only do the mini dvds have   unique bcas they also have six unique marks burned  on the discs that are at a very specific and equal   distance these marks have to be burned onto the  disc with a special laser and can't be replicated   using a standard dvd rider the gamecube checks  not only the bca but that the six marks are in the   right spot and if everything checks out the game  starts up if one of these marks is even slightly   off however the gamecube won't boot the disc this  is of course only the case if the gamecube hasn't   already been modded with special hardware to  interfere with these checks but daytel figured   out a simple way to get their software running on  the gamecube by adding a custom bca that tricked   the console into thinking the disk had the six  marks in the right place after this was discovered   daytel published their first action replay mini  dvd for the gamecube in 2003. this action replay   disc let players input cheat codes into save files  on your memory card for home brew software on the   other hand daytel seemingly reversed this process  rather than having a custom disk save custom data   onto a memory card daytel released their own  sd media launcher which allowed you to load   your own software from the system's memory card  slot including gamecube game iso files outside   of daytel's sd media launcher tons of other custom  memory cards were made to load files from your own   sd cards usbs or even devices that aren't intended  for data like the usb gecko the usb gecko is a   custom memory card that was designed for gamecube  development and homebrew games and apps but is   more popularly used for loading game cheats and  exploits but these aren't the only ways to boot   up gamecube iso files in 2003 sega released  a port of their dreamcast original online rpg   fantasy star online on the gamecube one of the  game's key features on the gamecube was its   compatibility with nintendo's broadband adapter  which allowed the game to connect to the internet   to keep itself updated and let gamers play  with each other on the game's dedicated servers   some hackers figured out that by changing dns and  ip address settings they could trick the game to   connect to custom programs running on their own  pcs using an exploit dubbed pso load the program   developed for the exploit disguised itself as  an official fantasy star online server that   leaves the game always waiting for a connection  this would allow hackers to send custom gamecube   executable files to their system and run them from  fantasy star online this exploit could not only   be used to run custom files from the gamecube but  allowed the gamecube to send data from itself back   to your pc this hack was an efficient way to send  your currently loaded gamecube game to your pc is   an official backup file while it was a successful  way to run homebrew it was quite time consuming   as any time you wanted to run homebrew you  must first load into fantasy star online like the wii the gamecube also has its own  homebrew utility similar to the popular home   brew channel in the form of swiss swiss is an  all-in-one home brew tool that allows you access   to file browsing custom dvd support and offers  support for previously mentioned custom memory   cards like the usb gecko swiss even lets you  force 16x9 widescreen and progressive scan on   real hardware the gamecube not only had homebrew  for the native console but also homebrew for its   add-ons such as the gameboy player gameboy  interface is home brew software that allows   anyone to play game boy games without the use of  nintendo's game boy player startup disc and also   lets you play game boy to game boy advance games  in various different modes the software standard   edition allows you to play game boy games more  cleanly on modern displays such as lcd and oled   tvs and monitors with hardware like usb gecko  the standard edition can also be used as a game   boy advanced development kit other versions  of the game boy interface are optimized for   speed running game boy games as well as a version  that's more optimized for video capture devices   other features outside of software variants  include using the game boy advancer nintendo   64 controller as a controller for the gamecube  and even offered rumble support for the gba   using official nintendo games and cartridges such  as drill dozer warioware twisted and the nintendo   ds rumble pack outside of the game boy player  additional gamecube ports could also be used   as an exploit for homebrew the sd2sp2 chip is a  custom pcb board that lets players use their own   sd card as a form of memory for the gamecube what  makes this unique compared to custom memory cards   is that sd2 sp2 takes advantage of the gamecube's  serial port too interestingly enough unlike the   high speed port and serial port 1 which are used  for the game boy player and nintendo's broadband   adapter respectively the gamecube's serial  port 2 was never used officially by nintendo   giving hackers access to both official nintendo  accessories as well as their own hardware like   sd2sp2 as long as their gamecube has the right  homebrew setup the gamecube also has plenty of   hardware modifications that aid in homebrew one of  the more popular hard mods for the gamecube is a   mod chip named xenogc this mod chip is applied to  the system's optical drive logic board and injects   its own custom patch onto the system this patch  would give a lot more freedom to your gamecube by   adding features such as region free game loading  making your gamecube act as both a pal and ntsc   console made dvd-rw content readable which allowed  you to play custom gamecube discs and much more   one important play in the mod chip's popularity is  its easy accessibility to hard modding newcomers   and its cheap pricing but like most mods that were  designed for hobbyists to play around with it was   also abused by pirates despite nintendo's efforts  to make gamecube games difficult to reproduce one   feat hackers and programmers have found success  with is emulating the system's hardware itself the   popular gamecube emulator dolphin was officially  released on september 22nd 2003 almost exactly two   years after the gamecube's official september 14  2001 launch in japan since its release the dolphin   emulator has actually surpassed the original  gamecube and features many of which are used   to modernize the gamecube playing experience such  as adding a 16x9 widescreen support forced region   change gpu overclocking seamless online play and  by far its most popular feature wii emulation   since it's open source the dolphin emulator can  even be modified to include even more features   most recently a group of programmers led by  an engineer going by the alias fizzy created   a custom version of dolphin named slippy which  adds features like online matchmaking to super   smash brothers melee while the dolphin emulator  is still updated and worked on to this day   a specific version of the software was worked on  very briefly this emulator was titled the dolphin   triforce and the goal of the emulator was to run  official triforce games on your own hardware the   triforce hardware was an official collaboration  between namco sega and nintendo and was used   by the trio of companies for their own arcade  games such as donkey kong jungle fever f-zero ax   and mario kart arcade 1 2. the triforce was made  using official gamecube hardware specifically the   gamecube's custom graphics chip by ati nicknamed  flipper the triforce could be modified by namco   or sega at their own will with sega even  opting to use the same optical disk format   as their dreamcast console dolph and triforce  naturally let players emulate these arcade titles   and this isn't the only connection the gamecube  has to emulation in july 2018 security expert   james chambers figured out that you can load  custom nes rom images onto your gamecube using   nintendo's popular title animal crossing within  animal crossing you can obtain a generic nes   console item usually nes console comes bundled  with one of 19 nes games in animal crossing   most of which are locked behind e-reader cards or  official giveaways when trying to interact with   the generic nes console however the game will  bring up the message i want to play my nes but   i don't have any software chambers found out what  the game was actually trying to do is find nes rom   images in your loaded memory card chambers was  able to not only load official nes roms but was   also able to get custom nes roms he made himself  into the game many have theorized why nintendo   would include such a feature chambers himself  believed nintendo could have used the feature   to sell promotional memory cards with the nes  roms pre-loaded onto them animal crossing could   be used to load much more than just any s-roms  though the same exploit used to load nes roms   would soon be reverse engineered into loading  custom gamecube files known as dole files did you know the nintendo ds can be used to  spread malware as demonstrated at defcon a hacking   convention in las vegas nevada at the con two  men named ki chan ah and dong zhu ha demonstrated   a variety of ways the ds could be cracked and  infected in order to raise awareness for example   malware can be placed in a pirated copy of a game  then uploaded online where it can spread to other   systems after the code is loaded onto the ds  the malicious code can take over the network   the ds is connected to and spread the malware to  anything from computers and smartphones to smart   tvs interestingly malware existed on the nintendo  ds as far back as 2005. one example is trojan ds   brick a which was often disguised as a rom loader  people were often tricked into using it with   their ds where the code would immediately erase  the ds's firmware and other critical functions   the system would become inoperable or bricked  and the screen fittingly displayed a brick wall   another result of hacking the ds was inevitably  piracy according to a report by the computer   entertainment software association in 2010  pokemon platinum diamond and pearl were the   three most pirated games on the nintendo ds  according to the cesa the trio were pirated 5   375 178 times in japan alone costing nintendo an  estimated 269 million dollars in lost sales in an   effort to combat the ds's rampant piracy nintendo  joined forces with 54 other japanese companies   including square enix capcom and tecmo together  they lobbied the tokyo district court to ban the   sale of r4 carts in japan r4 carts were a popular  brand of flash cartridges which were able to run   rom files directly onto the ds including illegally  obtained games while the petition was ultimately   successful the ban only affected the r4 brand in  particular leaving many competing flash carts to   fly under the radar nintendo followed this up  with a suit against the magikon flashcart brand   which they also won however stores continued to  sell magikon and other flash carts regardless   nintendo filed yet another lawsuit seeking  compensation for damages from flash cart sellers   the company also set up a website asking people  to report retailers selling flash carts and other   piracy related devices and pirated games in  south korea the korean custom service cracked   down on a ds piracy ring charged with selling  over 90 000 pirated games game copiers and a   legal contraband worth an estimated 87.2 million  dollars in an attempt to evade authorities the   ring operated their business out of internet  cafes and on websites based in other countries   some of the pirates even hired employees to  help manage their stores paying them out of   bank accounts created with false names nintendo's  crusade didn't go over so well in france nintendo   suffered a major loss in a lawsuit against davinio  group a french flash cart manufacturer the suit   went all the way up to france's highest court  where the judge ultimately ruled nintendo was   in the wrong for trying to deny users the right  to use flash cards furthermore the judge pushed   nintendo to be more supportive of independent  development unsurprisingly nintendo wasn't keen   on the idea and took precautions to make the next  iteration of the des the nintendo dsi unhackable   however hackers announced they'd cracked  the system just three days after its launch   nintendo attempted to fight back through firmware  updates for example while the dsi's 1.41 u update   claimed to provide behind the scenes improvements  to the system's performance it actually focused on   anti-hacking measures the update attempted to lock  out a number of the most popular flash cart brands   many ds flash carts had updatable firmware of  their own though giving flashcard users a way   to respond to and circumvent nintendo's attempts  to lock them out although nintendo ceased updating   the dsi in 2012 hackers have continued  to find new methods to crack the handheld   for example a popular hacking method using the  dsi's flipnote studio app became impractical   on new systems when the dsi shop closed in 2017.  this effectively meant anyone who didn't already   have flipnote studio installed could only  hack their dsi by modifying the handheld   hardware inside then in late may 2019 hacker  shutterbug 2000 found a new method dubbed the   memory pit which exploited a vulnerability  inside the dsi's camera app since the app   came pre-installed on every dsi system this once  again opened the doors to dsi hackers everywhere   as well as adding anti-hacking measures and  firmware to curb piracy many developers including   nintendo placed anti-piracy measures in their  games some efforts were straightforward such   as with kirby mass attack which simply prevented  the game from booting or progress from being saved   other measures were sneakier like in dragon quest  v hand of the heavenly bride if the system detects   a pirated rom the game will play out as normal for  a while until the player reaches a ship from here   the game will be stuck on an endless loop with  the ship never reaching its destination a simpler   variation of this technique was used with final  fantasy crystal chronicles ring of fates if the   ds detects the game as a pirated copy the play  session will be cut short after 20 minutes and   the message thank you for playing will appear on  the screen the legend of zelda spirit tracks also   attempted to stop players from playing a pirated  copy in this game the touchscreen's ui which lets   the player control the train's speed and movement  will never appear if the game isn't a legit copy   this means players will inevitably fail very  early on in the game and be unable to progress   possibly the most creative anti-piracy measures  can be seen in the ds version of michael jackson   the experience if the system detects foul play the  game won't display vital touchscreen cues and also   drowns out the game's music with the sound  of vuvuzela's vuvuzela's entered the western   mainstream thanks to the 2010 fifa world cup in  south africa where south african fans constantly   used vuvuzelas this inadvertently drowned out  anything else in the stadiums and annoyed many   despite nintendo's battle against hacking  most hackers aren't pirates at all   in fact the ds has a lively home brew scene that  enjoys creatively and legally using their ds's in   a number of imaginative ways for example steve  chapman grew tired of lugging around his heavy   cumbersome energy-hungry laptop when using his  dslr camera pushing him to look for a smaller   alternative chapman wrote after mentally specking  out what i would need i realized the solution was   right in front of me because i bring it with me  for mario kart ds wireless races on long night   jobs chapman made his own specialized program  and connected the camera's cord through the   ds's game boy advanced cartridge slot after some  experimentation chapman's ds dslr creation was   able to outpace his laptop and performance chatman  was even able to use the ds's built-in microphone   to have his camera take pictures via audio  cues saving him hundreds of dollars on buying   an official accessory for the same purpose other  hackers have looked to software modding to expand   what their dss can do leading to the creation of  many homebrew apps for example the homebrew app   moonshell ds allows users to turn the handheld  into a multimedia player ds twitter and fb4nds   allows ds users to post on their twitter and  facebook accounts via the handheld and the remote   touch app can be used to control your computer via  the ds there's hundreds of home brew applications   and entire communities have cropped up around  their development the ds is made for a popular   emulation device too there are custom built ds  emulators for everything from the nes and genesis   slash mega drive to more niche programs like scum  mvm which emulates point-and-click adventure games   of course people didn't forget about the games  many hackers have used their skills to alter and   improve some of their favorite games via rom hacks  the legend of zelda spirit track's d-pad controls   rom hack allows gamers to play spirit tracks  with more traditional button based controls   other rom hacks add new characters to super mario  64 ds including waluigi donkey kong and sonic the   hedgehog meanwhile castlevania dawn of sorrow  definitive edition seeks to completely overhaul   the original game with new character portraits a  reworked luck system tweaked controls bug fixes   and other quality of life improvements some rom  hacks change up the base game entirely to create   a new one instead such as new super mario brothers  3. this hack is a complete remake of the original   super mario bros 3 using the new super mario  brothers engine and includes custom content as   well on the other hand some hackers have created  their own entirely original homebrew games   still alive des is directly inspired by valve's  portal but reworks the concept into 2d lone wolf   ds officially takes joe denver's choose your own  adventure game books and recreates them on the ds   the game handles all of the dice rolls and  stats allowing the player to focus on the story   these games and many more are completely  free requiring only a flash cart to enjoy   hackers have even managed to bring the nintendo  ds's wifi capabilities back online after nintendo   shut down its servers in 2014. programmer michael  lele recalled i'd been following another online   service revival for the resident evil outbreak  games however because the us versions of those   games use a different network that never  got analyzed in time before it was shut down   they'll probably never be supported i didn't want  that to happen to literally every ds and wii game   so i went to work recording data from as many  games as i could and trying to get others to   help after being donated a server to use  lily and a group of like-minded hackers   joined forces to build a python scripted  alternative to nintendo's wi-fi service   using the homebrew server compatible games  once again function as they originally did with   working friends lists matchmaking leaderboards  and other online features the homebrew server   also periodically sends out heartbeat signals to  ensure everyone in the party is still connected   the team is since focused on improving the  server and expanding its compatibility among   the ds's library brenton a member of the team  stated the project has since grown to be much   more than what i envisioned and i'm grateful to  have people who are willing to dedicate their   time and skill to helping out in whatever  ways they can i'm happy with what has been   accomplished which is enough to make me feel  like my time and energy has been put to good use   did you know the wii was a hotbed for piracy  throughout its lifetime in a report the wii was   named the most pirated console of 2010 with almost  26 000 available torrents the most pirated wii   game in both 2010 and 2011 was super mario galaxy  2 which comfortably cleared a million downloads   in both years not all of the wii's unofficial  content involved bootlegging though very soon   after the console's launch an independent website  called wii kade hosted flash based games intended   to be played with a wii remote gamer sutra even  reported on week 8 on november 20th of 2006 just   one day after the wii's launch in north america  and before the wii's opera browser was even   available wiicade was created to promote smaller  developers and helped them program games for the   wii's unique hardware additionally the wii was  subject to a lot of homebrew software and hacks   an important figure in the wii hacking community  was ben bushing buyer while ben didn't gain much   himself he bought a wii after playing one at  his boss's home in 2008. bushing tended to hack   everything he owned and the wii was a prime target  as it was a new piece of hardware that hadn't been   cracked yet bushing was introduced to other wee  hackers by a co-worker and they would pass ideas   back and forth about cracking the wii meanwhile  nintendo would include the latest version of the   wii system software on almost every game they  released presumably so players without internet   access could update their console but this also  gave hackers a large amount of code to work with   the wii central processing unit was a power pc  chip named broadway but hackers were unable to   disassemble the wii's software as power pc code  further experimentation revealed that it was   actually arm code arm which stands for advanced  risk machines is an architecture software often   used in lighter devices like smartphones due to  its low cost and power consumption strangely the   wii didn't seem to have an armed chip anywhere the  team soon learned that the chip was buried deep   within the wii's graphics processing unit named  hollywood a hacker called sega nicknamed the chip   starlet as a play on the wii's hollywood gpu  and broadway cpu as well as controlling most   of its peripherals starlet was responsible for  the wii's security making it the major obstacle   for hackers to defeat but amazingly this technical  hurdle was overcome using a simple set of tweezers   the hacker tumbink was able to obtain the wii's  encryption keys from his console's memory by going   through the gamecube architecture running homebrew  code in gamecube mode was easy thanks to a better   understanding of the gamecube the problem was  running the console in gamecube mode locked away   all of the wii's features the starlet chip was  also responsible for limiting the amount of memory   in use while running in gamecube mode essentially  the starlet would only let the processor see the   lower 25 of the wii's total memory important  codes such as the common key that allowed the   decryption of most wii content were kept outside  of that range so it couldn't be accessed via the   gamecube mode by shorting some address lines using  a pair of metal tweezers starlet would be tricked   into changing which 25 percent of the memory was  visible essentially hackers could slide the window   of visible data to show different sections of ram  the wii's memory was not cleared in gamecube mode   merely restricted and so the hackers could  use this trick to map out restricted segments   including the decryption keys the plundered data  was then sent to tumbing's computer via a serial   port soldered onto the gamecube controller port  the hackers chose the name team tweezers in honour   of this their first major breakthrough and the  first dent in the wii's armor bushing said the   amount of hoops the team had to jump through  spoke to the quality of nintendo's security   decompiling the code was a long and tedious  process with no documentation to guide them   the team had to infer the purpose of each line of  binary code by examining and comparing the cpu gpu   and the disk all at once each discovery made it  easier to progress a piece of code responsible   for resetting the system in wii sports also  helped the team understand the same code in zelda   team tweezers were responsible for creating the  earliest known way to install homebrew software on   a wii without hardware modifications the twilight  hack named after the legend of zelda twilight   princess the twilight hack exploited the buffer  overflow error caused when the console tried to   load in an edited twilight princess save file the  file was manipulated so that link's horse's name   literally contained a small program this program  is much longer than the game's character limit so   it cannot be entered in the game legitimately  however the game doesn't check the character   limit while loading a save file so when the game  tries to load the horse's name into memory it can   load the program memory which just so happens to  be the next region that the system will execute   the hack runs a boot file from the root of the  sd card allowing unofficial content to be loaded   on the wii in the wake of this discovery team  tweezers homebrew channel saw its first public   release with beta 7 on may 24 2008 the channel  was intended to let users launch unofficial   applications on the way listing them from an sd  card or usb mass storage device development of   the twilight hack was tricky without access to the  proper debugging tools it was difficult to ensure   that twilight princess crashed in a consistent way  nintendo began to fight back as well on june 16   2008 they released system menu 3.3 which was  designed to check for and delete the twilight hack   this led to the release of the 0.1 beta 1 version  of the hack which managed to circumvent nintendo's   fix it took until system menu 4.0 to be released  on march 23 2009 for the twilight hack to be   truly overcome but despite this the relationship  between team tweezers and nintendo wasn't always   adversarial on july 17 2008 pushing announced  on hackme.com that he'd contacted nintendo to   advise them about a potential security issue one  that would allow pirated wii games to be played on   an unmodified console bushing refused to disclose  any details about the bug only notifying nintendo   and asking for an engineer to get in touch with  him the decision was met with some backlash from   the community bushing received multiple emails  some demanding to know why he was helping nintendo   some asking him to divulge the information and  some even posing as a nintendo representative   to trick him into disclosing the details about  the exploit in response bushin's post was updated   to include the addendum i did not post my email  address here to invite you to debate this with me   suffice it to say that i have put more thought  into this than you have and when you find your   own exploits you can decide how to handle them  team tweezers chose to present this bug to   nintendo for three reasons firstly the bug could  be presented as a piracy related concern allowing   them to contact with official channels secondly  the bug wasn't useful for legitimate homebrew   and thirdly it was a design flaw and so nintendo  were unlikely to be able to patch it anyway team   tweezer's attitude towards the bug was reflected  of their overall philosophy they were completely   disinterested in piracy and they refused to enable  any bootlegging through their hacks bushing wasn't   worried about legal repercussions as they  hadn't broken any laws and mod ships were far   more problematic for nintendo bushing expected a  response from nintendo only if the homebrew scene   actively contributed to piracy unfortunately  for team tweezers it wasn't long before the   homebrew scene contributed to piracy on may 26  2008 the hacker one in coco released the wii   word manager 1.0 a wad is a native wii file for a  game or app the wad manager exploited a bug that   let the software work as if it had an official  signature effectively blowing the doors to piracy   wide open it proved to be controversial as a  result and team tweezers refused to endorse it   despite members bushing and marcan being thanked  in the credits for the release in fact the team   took efforts to thwart its interactions with their  homebrew channel in the 1.0.4 update a feature was   added where the homebrew channel would turn itself  upside down if it detected the user had modified   its contents or installed it using a wad manager  one in coco continued to be a controversial figure   in the scene in september 2008 he released an iso  loader for the homebrew channel allowing isos to   run on unmodified hardware making pirated games  easier than ever to run ironically bushing had   warned nintendo about that exact exploit a few  months earlier the iso loader was leaked online   before its official release leading to one incoco  quitting the project team tweezers were annoyed   with one in coco's conduct market accused those of  promoting the iso loader of using tweezers work to   promote piracy he described one incoco's apps  as thin rappers around existing code or tools   written by others in a post titled thanks one in  cocoa bushing credited the release of the first   pirated virtual console release to one in coco's  release of his nand fs dumper which exploited the   wii's permission system letting it read titles on  the console team tweezers foresaw their homebrew   efforts being used for piracy which was one of the  main reasons they never stopped releasing tools   and code for the community bushing believed that  team tweezers not releasing any more information   delayed the spread of the piracy by around four  months he made an appeal to hacker's morality   saying developers need to eat too and offered  practical reasons for not pirating games on   the wii he suggested that piracy would speed  nintendo's response to exploits and loopholes and   ultimately hinder the homebrew scene as a  whole nintendo had already proven themselves   to be strewed strategists in february 2008  dettel released their freeloader import disk   in pal territories which let users bypass the  system's region locking to play games from all   around the world in response nintendo updated  the wii with iso 37 to block its use but never   bothered to activate the code bushing speculated  that this was designed to stall the tell at this   point the pal disks had already been pressed  but the imminent threat of iso 37 stall dattel   from releasing an ntsc freeloader until the patch  had been implemented but the imminent threat of   iso 37 would stall detail from releasing an ntsc  freeloader until the patch had been implemented   and they could find workarounds bushing estimated  that if nintendo were to plug the hole that when   incarco exploited with the nand fs dumper it would  take months for him to find a way to downgrade the   wii's ios the scene's differing philosophies  created a rift in the wii hacking community   team tweezer were insular with holding info and  sharing bugs with nintendo to help steer the scene   clear of piracy however the detractors saw this as  a needlessly elitist attitude expecting nintendo   to group them all together anyway the increasing  popularity of wad managers and editors increased   scrutiny on the homebrew scene due to  its flourishing association with piracy   complaints also came in from users that edited  their we files without proper expertise one common   cause of grief was known as banner brick where  a user would attempt to install or change an   incorrectly sized banner this would result in  the wii immediately crashing once it was past   the health and safety screen as though the  system files were corrupted solutions to the   problem were dependent on the user's console  revision and whether or not they had homebrew   applications such as boot me installed before the  brick in a worst case scenario a user may have   to send the console to nintendo to be fixed  the ease of wii hacking led to the creation   of many community mods and homebrew games the  most famous of which is undoubtedly project m   project m was a mod for super smash brothers  brawl that tried to bring it more in line with   melee's gameplay the project m development team  made it clear that they didn't support piracy or   permanent alterations to nintendo's systems the  mod could be installed using a legitimate copy   of the game and a 2 gigabyte sd card the project  started in 2010 with a relatively humble goal of   replicating falco's melee moveset in brawl but  eventually expanded to include brawl's entire   roster as well as some additional characters like  roy and mewtwo the developers were careful to   avoid introducing characters that might jeopardize  their already tenuous standing with nintendo these   included third-party characters that may have made  nintendo fearful of legal action and newcomers to   super smash brothers for wii u and 3ds that may  have led nintendo to viewing them as competition   despite their best efforts nintendo banned the  phrase project m on their miiverse messaging   service and put pressure on twitch and fighting  tournaments to limit project m's exposure   project m was extremely popular enjoying  3 million downloads over its lifetime and   was even featured in major tournaments however  it was suddenly discontinued in december 2015. did you know the switch's hacking scene has  often been compared to a cat and mouse game   between hackers attempting to crack the switch and  nintendo's efforts to stamp them out for instance   the switch's 7.0.0 update used a scrambled  batch of code in an attempt to slow hackers down   this ultimately bought nintendo a mere four hours  before hacker elmirak cracked the update nintendo   has not responded to hackers lightly outright  banning the switches of identified hackers from   accessing online services reports have surfaced  that nintendo even banned unhacked switch consoles   that merely connected to hacked switch consoles  a bug found in the switch's nvidia tegra x1   allowed hackers to access the switch's boot rom to  install a range of programs on the switch hacking   group fail overflow explained this bug is in the  recovery mode which is a usb based rescue mode   intended for initial flashing of tegra devices  and recovery of bricked devices the recovery mode   only allows signed images to be loaded but thanks  to the bug arbitrary code execution is possible   by overflowing the recovery mode with data from  another computer hackers were able to circumvent   nintendo's security methods this led to some  pretty interesting programs running off the switch   for instance some hackers transformed the switch  into a handheld linux machine capable of running   the dolphin gamecube and wii emulator as the bug  was on a hardware level in the boot rom it cannot   be patched by nintendo through software updates  however hackers noticed that nintendo quietly   released a hardware revision of the switch around  july of 2018. this new model had a new boot rom   specifically to thwart the exploit nevertheless  the millions of original model 1 nintendo switches   released before the hardware revision remain  permanently hackable to this day despite   nintendo's known zero tolerance approach to  hacking one hacker spoke up kate tempkin creator   of a switch cold boot software launcher fusey  gelly personally disclosed the details of her   exploit to both nintendo and nvidia temkin wrote  i can tell you it wasn't fun to find a bug with   such a broad impact it significantly complicated  the ethics involved given the potential for a lot   of bad to be done by any parties who independently  discover these vulnerabilities i thought it best   to disclose this immediately the hacking group  fail overflow also revealed the information around   its hack and distanced themselves from pirates  saying the bug will be made public sooner or later   so we might as well release now along with  our linux boot chain and kernel tree to   make it very clear that we do this for fun and  homebrew and nothing else an example of for fun   hacking is german android developer max keller's  experiments installing android onto the switch   there's also bee bird a homebrew application  that allows users to overclock their switch's gpu   to potentially achieve better in-game performance  indie game developer amir rajan attempted to join   in on the fun by secretly including a ruby code  editor and interpreter in his eshop game a dark   room as an easter egg by connecting a usb keyboard  and pressing the tild key while running the game   players could effectively turn their  switch into a ruby programming machine   after the game's release rajan posted how to  access the secret online this surprise was not   well received by nintendo who promptly removed  the game from the eshop altogether a darkroom's   publisher circle entertainment was left scrambling  to deal with the fallout rajan told eurogamer i   deeply regret how this has blown up a simple toy  sandboxed environment has been framed as this   massive exploit it was a last second spark of  inspiration and i snuck it in assuming that   plugging in a usb keyboard and pressing the tilt  key wasn't part of the test plan i don't know what   to say except i'm sorry and all i wanted to do was  allow kids to discover what i discovered 25 years   ago to be fair to nintendo seemingly innocent  switch hacks have been abused in the past for   example hackers managed to break into the switch's  dev menu an application used by developers for   creating content for the system a hacker going  by raci yukaku discovered a means of successfully   uploading custom profile avatars onto the switch  that could be seen by other players unfortunately   a select number of individuals used the exploit  to upload especially lewd images as their profile   pictures reports of gamers running into their  balloons in super mario odyssey's luigi's balloon   world mode surfaced soon after ray sukaku lamented  i don't condone that behavior and this is why we   can't have nice things the story made waves  through the gaming press prompting a nintendo   spokesperson to officially comment on the matter  the spokesperson said a very small number of   consumers have been using modified nintendo switch  systems to display inappropriate or unauthorized   material in certain online games nintendo always  strives to provide a positive experience for   all consumers and this includes continuously  monitoring all threats to its product security   and taking swift and strong action to prevent them  modified nintendo switch systems have been banned trolls are far from nintendo's biggest concern as  there's a darker side to the switch hacking scene   piracy pirates have managed to leak numerous  switch games such as diablo 3 dark souls   remastered and super mario party before they even  hit store shelves while many games are leaked a   few days before their official release this isn't  always the case pirates managed to get hold of   super smash brothers ultimate almost two entire  weeks before the game's launch posting pre-release   games online isn't a simple process with  middlemen operating between pirates and leakers   these middlemen safely hand over dumped games  from leakers to the pirates who make sure the   middleman's identity is not revealed there can be  others involved as well such as those who reverse   engineer nintendo's tools and programs to break  them open for hacking there's also coders who   create and improve pirating software among others  some people have managed to download games early   directly from nintendo by using software to gain  access to the company's servers upon obtaining the   game keys which are typically used by reviewers  to unlock digital review copies the games are   opened up for anyone to play even then playing a  pirated game isn't as simple as downloading a file   instead pirates must access the switch's recovery  mode download and install a boot menu to launch   homebrew software and then use another custom  program to actually play the pirated game though   hacking on the switch has been a long collective  effort not all hackers play nice for example one   particularly devious pirate uploaded a version of  d-author to 4chan d-author is a piece of piracy   software typically used to generate authentication  tokens to connect a computer to nintendo servers   however this version of the program had been  maliciously altered to steal each user's switch   certificate an important code unique to every  switch console that allows the system to connect   to nintendo's servers it would then upload  the certificates to the pirate's own server   simon the author's original creator suspects the  malware was created in a huge pirating scheme   he told motherboard whoever did this required lots  and lots of certificates as they knew they'll get   caught out pinpointed by nintendo and banned  quickly in retaliation simon created a spamming   program built to upload random nonsense onto the  pirate server in hopes of overloading it another   user went as far as to dox the pirate incidents  like these aren't uncommon on the switch's   pirating scene either a group of pirates under  the banner team executor have attempted to profit   from switch piracy by selling their own pirating  software executors sxos is a custom firmware that   claims to make pirating easy allowing users to  play games on the switch directly from a microsd   card despite being pirating software sx os comes  with some particularly nasty anti-piracy measures   the program contains a brick code that will  completely lock up the switch's emmc internal   memory basically rendering the console useless if  it detects the user is trying to crack the program   sx os brick code along with accusations that  executor has stolen work from other hackers   to create their firmware has earned the team a  number of enemies among the hacking community   kate tempkin stated i completely detest what  i've seen of their practices and methods not   just do they publicly endorse piracy and seek to  profit from keeping information to a few people   but they're also willing to drop a zero day that  affects a broad swathe of devices on the public   without any responsible disclosure all in all  i think the team executor seems to be without   morals or scruples and i am happy to do as much  as i can to reduce their profitability and thus   de-incentivize these kinds of awful behavior  nintendo for its part has gone a step further   than just wielding its ban hammer they devised  a means to ban the pirated games too each switch   game card has its own unique certificate built in  from the factory just like the consoles themselves   digital eshop games are coded to specific consoles  and nintendo accounts upon purchase by tracing   these certificates nintendo can easily determine  whether a game card is an original legitimate copy   and if a user's account legally owns the digital  games they play for example if someone grabs a   pirated switch game that has been dumped online  nintendo can recognize the duplicated certificate   and ban not only the pirated copy but the original  game card as well as every subsequent pirate copy   of the game as soon as it goes online while  pirates can attempt to avoid being banned by   strictly playing illegally obtained games offline  as technical writer kyle orland hypothesizes the   switch's system firmware could also theoretically  detect pirated games being played offline   then bury a flag in the hardware to activate  a network band the next time the player logs   online this method has raised some concerns as  those who purchase pre-owned switch games could   unwittingly buy a legitimate game  card that has been permanently banned   regardless nintendo hasn't stopped there and has  even started taking pirates to court in december   2018 nintendo of america filed a lawsuit against  california resident mikhail uskadulnak who sold   and installed team executor's piracy products  onto switches as well as other pirated content   through offer up nintendo alleges that mikel  illegally hacked 100 switch consoles and expects   a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for each  copyright infringed furthermore nintendo hopes   to sue anyone else involved with mikelle's  pirating operation such as those connected   to team executor the team stated we believe even  in the usa our product should be absolutely legal   but ultimately it will be on this court to decide  we hope it will be with absolute fairness and not   under the pressure of another big corporation did  you know that doom 2016 was in development for so   long that one of its developers had four  children between the game's conception   and its release or that black and white 2  will whisper the player's name when somebody   dies for more pc facts check out the video on  screen i love my pc i just got myself a new one   uh finally upgraded to the modern age of rtx  architecture it's pretty cool man though i haven't   actually played many games on it yet because  i've been too busy talking about them instead

Channel: DYKG Clips

Views: 1,780,782

Keywords: nintendo piracy, nintendo, nintendo 64, n64, nintendo gamecube, gamecube, nintendo wii, wii, nintendo switch, switch, n64 piracy, gamecube piracy, nintendo ds, ds, nds, ds piracy, wii piracy, switch piracy

Id: SvL93pNRbfY

Length: 56min 5sec (3365 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 31 2022