Hackers reverse engineer Wii U GamePad to stream from PC
Thought using the Wii U GamePad as a simple PC controller was a neat trick? Try this on for size: a small team of hackers has figured out how to stream PC games to the tablet-esque controller natively, circumventing its host console. The hack was shown this week at the 30th Chaos Communication Congress, where the group revealed how it reverse engineered the GamePad controller. After weaving a complex tale of dumped firmware, decoded video and buggy streams, the team showed a simple drawing app streaming from a laptop to the Wii U GamePad. Impressive? Sure, but the crowd didn’t erupt into applause until they booted up a Gamecube emulated session of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.
Despite some crashes, the demo appeared to be fairly playable — though the team warns that the available code is aimed primarily at developers. The group eventually plans to build user-friendly tools for Windows and OSX, as well as an Android port designed to allow users to substitute the Wii U GamePad with their own tablets, streaming from the console to the slate of their choice. It’s not quite ready to replace your NVIDIA Shield, but the project is brimming with potential. Check out the presentation’s slides at the source link below, or read on for a video of the hack in action (the fun starts about 47 minutes in).
Via: NeoGaf
Source: Libdrc, Slides (Google Drive), 30C3
Nintendo Network stutters under holiday traffic, Pokemon Bank and Transporter delayed
Unwrap a Wii U this holiday season? Apparently, you weren’t the only one: the company’s Nintendo Network seems to be stumbling over increased traffic. “Players are having trouble setting up Nintendo Network IDs and downloading content in the Nintendo eShop on both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS,” Nintendo writes on its US support page. “We truly regret the inconvenience, and wish to reassure everyone that providing a solution is our top priority.”
The network issues are sure to be a thorn in the side of new users pursuing the Wii U’s requisite updates, not to mention current owners hoping to check out this week’s eShop sales. Folks planning to pick up Pokemon Bank and Poke Teleport (a pair of programs designed to allow players to save, store and transfer their pocket monsters between new and old versions of the games) will have to wait too — both apps have been delayed until the network issues can be resolved. With any luck, that won’t take too long, but if you care to nip at Nintendo’s heels you’ll find the company’s official announcement at the source links below.
Source: Nintendo (1), (2), (3)
Nintendo’s high-capacity Wii U GamePad battery available in US, $32 for 8 hours of playtime
Tired of tethering your Wii U GamePad to a wall socket? You no longer have to: Nintendo has finally made the screen-toting controller’s high-capacity battery pack available to US gamers. The 2,550mAh battery first debuted in Japan this summer, promising to boost the device’s middling 3-5 hour battery life to almost eight. The upgrade took months to crawl its way west to Europe, and is now available to North American buyers in Nintendo’s online store. The price of an extending gaming session? About $32, give or take shipping. We’re glad to have it available, but admittedly, we wish it came just a little sooner.
Via: NeoGaf
Source: Nintendo
‘NES Remix’ takes classic NES games and…remixes them for Wii U, available today for $15
NES Remix is a new game collection from Nintendo for the Wii U that takes 16 classic Nintendo games — from Super Mario Bros. to The Legend of Zelda — and picks specific pieces of them for remixing. For instance, an Excitebike level is shown as if the driver had a headlight in a dark arena, and a famous Mario level is shown entirely backwards. In so many words, NES Remix is a series of classic game vignettes remastered and re-released in a new package for the Wii U, which sounds…fantastic? We’re gonna call it fantastic.
Beyond sharing specific accomplishments in each piece of NES Remix, you can also share level clear times to compete with friends and the larger community — the first real addition we’ve seen to MiiVerse sharing since it was introduced last year. The games on Nintendo’s game page include Donkey Kong (featuring Link!), Excitebike, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Clu Clu Land, Baseball, Tennis, Ice Climbers, Golf and Balloon Fight. We’re told there are 16 games represented in total, though a list of all 16 is nowhere to be found. We’ve dropped a trailer for it just beyond the break. It’s available now on the Wii U eShop for a whopping $16.32 (w/ tax). Woof.
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Nintendo
Source: Nintendo
Nintendo finally updates 3DS with Miiverse, Nintendo Network ID support and unified eShop wallet
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