Revision 279867317 of "Twilight hack" on enwiki

The '''Twilight hack''' is the name given to the exploit found by Team Twiizers of Wiibrew.org in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'' that permits [[Homebrew (video games)|homebrew]] developers and everyday users to run unofficial [[Wii homebrew|homebrew software]] from a [[Secure Digital card]] inserted into the slot on the front of the [[Wii]]. Notably, this is the first way found to boot homebrew software without the use of hardware modifications to the Wii console.<ref>[http://wiibrew.org/w/index.php?title=Twilight_Hack Twilight Hack - WiiBrew<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

The hack exploits a [[buffer overflow]] error caused by loading a specially crafted save file for ''Twilight Princess''. The save file stores the name of the [[player character|player's]] horse in the game (canonically "Epona"). This save file presents a name much longer than expected to the ''Twilight Princess'' game,  which causes the Wii system to crash when it tries to load the horse's name. With this crash, the system is made to run a loader program (which was loaded by the game as part of the name) instead of ''Twilight Princess'''s code which then proceeds to load a program from the Wii's front SD card slot. Any program that is placed on the root of the SD card, with the [[filename]] "boot.elf" or "boot.dol", will run.

[[Wii homebrew|Numerous applications]] have been written that can be run using this method. Since the hack loads an application through a glitch in ''Twilight Princess'', in the past the game had to be loaded each time the user wished to run a homebrew application. This is no longer the case. Certain programs have been made to install custom [[Wii Menu]] channels, such as the [[Homebrew Channel]] so that the applications can be run from the Wii Menu instead of through the ''Twilight hack'' every time.

On June 16, 2008, Nintendo released Wii Menu update 3.3 which automatically deletes and prevents the further storage of the unauthorized save files.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/16/new-wii-menu-update-3-3-nullifies-twilight-princess-hack/ |title=New Wii menu updat e3.3 nullifies ''Twilight Princess'' hack |first=Ross |last=Miller |publisher=[[Joystiq]] |date=2008-06-15 |accessdate=2008-07-01}}</ref> However, within eight hours of the update's release, community members found two bugs in the update that in conjunction can allow a slightly modified Twilight Hack to operate and have released a new version of the hack that will work on machines that have updated to 3.3<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hackmii.com/2008/06/june-16-wii-update/ |title=June 16 Wii update |date=2008-06-16 |accessdate=2008-06-29}}</ref>.
A release for 3.4 firmware was later released for the general public to be able to run the Twilight Hack, even though each time you startup your Wii it will delete the 'hacked' savefile from the system memory. Although this won't prevent you from copying the file from the SD card to the system memory back each time the Wii is turned on and running the exploit without restarting the Wii first.

But Nintendo has succeeded in blocking the Twilight hack in the system menu V.4.0 update.<ref>[http://www.elotrolado.net/noticia_la-nueva-actualizacion-de-wii-acaba-con-el-twilight-hack_15910 New Wii system update ends with the Twilight hack (ES) - ElOtroLado.net]</ref>

==See also==
* [[Wii Homebrew]]
* [[Homebrew Channel]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Twilight_Hack Official website]

[[Category:Homebrew software]]
[[Category:Wii]]