Wii U gamepad hacked, reverse engineered to stream from a PC

You probably can't do it yourself just yet, but this is a promising start.

Read the whole story

 

[glutto]

Looks like a cool mod.
I wondered when someone would take control of the WiiU gamepad.

 

[fermixx]

It involves programming, electronics, telecommunications, encription, enough complexity to be called simply 'magic'.

<quote>
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke

 

[Asvarduil]

I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

 

[xwred1]

Typo: the con is actually called Chaos Communication Congress, not Community Congress.

The actual talk is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC1CqQK_beU

There was another talk with some guys rooting different parts of the Wii-U also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZRz0xikaAU

 

[Archangel Mychael]

fermixx[/url]":3m6x96fe]It involves programming, electronics, telecommunications, encription, enough complexity to be called simply 'magic'.

<quote>
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke

I don't understand why this was downvoted.

 

[Drakkenmensch]

You fools! Don't open the WiiU pad, you will unleash the terrible force of darkness that powers it after remaining sealed in its containment jail for decades!

You will let loose upon the world...

THE U-FORCE!!!

 

[jandrese]

I'm not too worried about our U-Force overlords. They would be pretty easy to sneak up on and unplug. They're terrible at spotting humans.

 

[Black Frost]

The big trick here is the video streaming and controls to match it. You already could use it as a controller via Bluetooth but with this remote play becomes very real of a possibility. Wii U and PC further becomes the go to model this gen.

 

[ackmondual]

If I ever upgrade my Wii to a Wii U, I doubt I'll ever do this, but it provides a warm, fuzzy feeling to know there's hacking going on. On a similar note, even though I don't have Homebrew on my Wii, it's nice to know it's there.

 

[ackmondual]

Archangel Mychael[/url]":2md6lj06]

fermixx[/url]":2md6lj06]It involves programming, electronics, telecommunications, encription, enough complexity to be called simply 'magic'.

<quote>
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke

I don't understand why this was downvoted.

Even though my social etiquette isn't great, my online social understandings aren't that great either (although I presume the users on Ars Technica were always at a higher class), so here's wondering this too.

 

[Deleted member 1]

Asvarduil[/url]":2s64quic]I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

I give credit to Nintendo when credit is earned.

The WiiU controller if it was on any other console might have changed the entire console market. Being able to play Madden 25 on your controller, perhaps in the other room while your parents watch a movie, would push a large amount consoles into the household.

What I think this proves is that Nintendo almost created a Nvidia Shield type controller for their hardware. Its a real shame both Xbox One and PS4 both use AMD graphics otherwise we might have been able to see Shiled being able to interact with them both ( or one or the other ).

One can argue that Nintendo, made some poor calculations, about the desire of a modest upgrade from the Wii. I don't think one can argue the WiiU Gamepad was a horrible ideal itself. Interesting to point out that Wii U also uses a AMD GPU.

 

[xizar]

I'd be interested in seeing the stream go the other way, as well, strictly for the purposes of video capture for my YouTube videos.

It's crazy the amount of work it took to do this, though. I, as an ignorant mass, would have thought you could just figure out the bluetooth frequency and broadcast stuff on that channel (after reverse engineering the signal and figuring out how that info is broadcast.)

 

[punkmaggit]

TheDarkerPhantom[/url]":2p37hunf]

Asvarduil[/url]":2p37hunf]I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

I give credit to Nintendo when credit is earned.

The WiiU controller if it was on any other console might have changed the entire console market. Being able to play Madden 25 on your controller, perhaps in the other room while your parents watch a movie, would push a large amount consoles into the household.

What I think this proves is that Nintendo almost created a Nvidia Shield type controller for their hardware. Its a real shame both Xbox One and PS4 both use AMD graphics otherwise we might have been able to see Shiled being able to interact with them both ( or one or the other ).

One can argue that Nintendo, made some poor calculations, about the desire of a modest upgrade from the Wii. I don't think one can argue the WiiU Gamepad was a horrible ideal itself. Interesting to point out that Wii U also uses a AMD GPU.

The Vita provides the off-play features on the PS4 similar to the WiiU. I used my Vita the other day to play AC4 while my wife watched a show and it was nearly flawless.

 

[daneren2005]

TheDarkerPhantom[/url]":18u1rsw5]

Asvarduil[/url]":18u1rsw5]I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

I give credit to Nintendo when credit is earned.

The WiiU controller if it was on any other console might have changed the entire console market. Being able to play Madden 25 on your controller, perhaps in the other room while your parents watch a movie, would push a large amount consoles into the household.

What I think this proves is that Nintendo almost created a Nvidia Shield type controller for their hardware. Its a real shame both Xbox One and PS4 both use AMD graphics otherwise we might have been able to see Shiled being able to interact with them both ( or one or the other ).

One can argue that Nintendo, made some poor calculations, about the desire of a modest upgrade from the Wii. I don't think one can argue the WiiU Gamepad was a horrible ideal itself. Interesting to point out that Wii U also uses a AMD GPU.

Err, you can't? The pad is awkward to hold and awkward to interact with. Except for a few niche use cases, it gets in the way of the entire experience and gives very little in the way of a benefit. While I can see it as a cool add-on, it was a terrible choice for a primary controller.

 

[GoodBytes]

daneren2005[/url]":380w6i8r]

TheDarkerPhantom[/url]":380w6i8r]

Asvarduil[/url]":380w6i8r]I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

I give credit to Nintendo when credit is earned.

The WiiU controller if it was on any other console might have changed the entire console market. Being able to play Madden 25 on your controller, perhaps in the other room while your parents watch a movie, would push a large amount consoles into the household.

What I think this proves is that Nintendo almost created a Nvidia Shield type controller for their hardware. Its a real shame both Xbox One and PS4 both use AMD graphics otherwise we might have been able to see Shiled being able to interact with them both ( or one or the other ).

One can argue that Nintendo, made some poor calculations, about the desire of a modest upgrade from the Wii. I don't think one can argue the WiiU Gamepad was a horrible ideal itself. Interesting to point out that Wii U also uses a AMD GPU.

Err, you can't? The pad is awkward to hold and awkward to interact with. Except for a few niche use cases, it gets in the way of the entire experience and gives very little in the way of a benefit. While I can see it as a cool add-on, it was a terrible choice for a primary controller.

Don't comment on thing you don't know nor experience. The gamepad is actually surprisingly comfortable, like the great majority reviewers said.

 

[leptonverde]

tendoNin

This makes me want a WiiU, So i can poweron my raspberry pi and play emulators from the wiiU tablet .

 

[koolraap]

The slide deck makes for an interesting read. I hadn't been tempted to buy a WiiU until now. Presumably if Nintendo updates the WiiU hardware they'll plug a few of the security holes, not sure how much they're going to invest in a turkey.

 

[r3tina]

It would be awesome if they (or another group) got this to the point where you could use the gamepad as a generic controller and output device and play any game remotely on your pc. Combined with Steam Big Screen (or rather, small screen in this case) this could be huge.

 

[Arlondiluthel]

punkmaggit[/url]":34whig9l]

TheDarkerPhantom[/url]":34whig9l]

Asvarduil[/url]":34whig9l]I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

I give credit to Nintendo when credit is earned.

The WiiU controller if it was on any other console might have changed the entire console market. Being able to play Madden 25 on your controller, perhaps in the other room while your parents watch a movie, would push a large amount consoles into the household.

What I think this proves is that Nintendo almost created a Nvidia Shield type controller for their hardware. Its a real shame both Xbox One and PS4 both use AMD graphics otherwise we might have been able to see Shiled being able to interact with them both ( or one or the other ).

One can argue that Nintendo, made some poor calculations, about the desire of a modest upgrade from the Wii. I don't think one can argue the WiiU Gamepad was a horrible ideal itself. Interesting to point out that Wii U also uses a AMD GPU.

The Vita provides the off-play features on the PS4 similar to the WiiU. I used my Vita the other day to play AC4 while my wife watched a show and it was nearly flawless.

Yeah, the Vita provides a similar functionality, for almost $500 more.

 

[NeoTechni]

TheDarkerPhantom[/url]":2zv7lk7r]

Asvarduil[/url]":2zv7lk7r]I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

I give credit to Nintendo when credit is earned.

The WiiU controller if it was on any other console might have changed the entire console market. Being able to play Madden 25 on your controller, perhaps in the other room while your parents watch a movie, would push a large amount consoles into the household.

What I think this proves is that Nintendo almost created a Nvidia Shield type controller for their hardware. Its a real shame both Xbox One and PS4 both use AMD graphics otherwise we might have been able to see Shiled being able to interact with them both ( or one or the other ).

One can argue that Nintendo, made some poor calculations, about the desire of a modest upgrade from the Wii. I don't think one can argue the WiiU Gamepad was a horrible ideal itself. Interesting to point out that Wii U also uses a AMD GPU.

Then give the credit to who deserves it, sony. They invented it seven years before nintendo copied it

 

[daneren2005]

GoodBytes[/url]":1veuav31]

daneren2005[/url]":1veuav31]

TheDarkerPhantom[/url]":1veuav31]

Asvarduil[/url]":1veuav31]I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

I give credit to Nintendo when credit is earned.

The WiiU controller if it was on any other console might have changed the entire console market. Being able to play Madden 25 on your controller, perhaps in the other room while your parents watch a movie, would push a large amount consoles into the household.

What I think this proves is that Nintendo almost created a Nvidia Shield type controller for their hardware. Its a real shame both Xbox One and PS4 both use AMD graphics otherwise we might have been able to see Shiled being able to interact with them both ( or one or the other ).

One can argue that Nintendo, made some poor calculations, about the desire of a modest upgrade from the Wii. I don't think one can argue the WiiU Gamepad was a horrible ideal itself. Interesting to point out that Wii U also uses a AMD GPU.

Err, you can't? The pad is awkward to hold and awkward to interact with. Except for a few niche use cases, it gets in the way of the entire experience and gives very little in the way of a benefit. While I can see it as a cool add-on, it was a terrible choice for a primary controller.

Don't comment on thing you don't know nor experience. The gamepad is actually surprisingly comfortable, like the great majority reviewers said.

...so your rebuttle is not uh, the Wii U sitting in your living room doesn't exist?

 

[fishburn]

Archangel Mychael[/url]":ycb0o2b2]

fermixx[/url]":ycb0o2b2]It involves programming, electronics, telecommunications, encription, enough complexity to be called simply 'magic'.

<quote>
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke

I don't understand why this was downvoted.

I think it was downvoted by people who understand the technology well enough that it is distinguishable from magic.

I have always heard this quote in the context of seeing completely alien technology from a more advanced civilization.

 

[teknik]

GoodBytes[/url]":1gjgemoa]

daneren2005[/url]":1gjgemoa]

TheDarkerPhantom[/url]":1gjgemoa]

Asvarduil[/url]":1gjgemoa]I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

I give credit to Nintendo when credit is earned.

The WiiU controller if it was on any other console might have changed the entire console market. Being able to play Madden 25 on your controller, perhaps in the other room while your parents watch a movie, would push a large amount consoles into the household.

What I think this proves is that Nintendo almost created a Nvidia Shield type controller for their hardware. Its a real shame both Xbox One and PS4 both use AMD graphics otherwise we might have been able to see Shiled being able to interact with them both ( or one or the other ).

One can argue that Nintendo, made some poor calculations, about the desire of a modest upgrade from the Wii. I don't think one can argue the WiiU Gamepad was a horrible ideal itself. Interesting to point out that Wii U also uses a AMD GPU.

Err, you can't? The pad is awkward to hold and awkward to interact with. Except for a few niche use cases, it gets in the way of the entire experience and gives very little in the way of a benefit. While I can see it as a cool add-on, it was a terrible choice for a primary controller.

Don't comment on thing you don't know nor experience. The gamepad is actually surprisingly comfortable, like the great majority reviewers said.

The game pad is amazingly comfortable and the size of it is perfect actually. Once you use it for a while going back to more "Traditional" game pads is actually awkward and uncomfortable, in fact the transition back to the old is more difficult than the transition to the new was due to the surprising comfort of the thing.

And playing games without a pause menu actual does provide deeper context. The game pad doesn't need to be in your face and a major part of the game.

What we are seeing here with Wii U is the start of the merging of Nintendo's console and hand-held devision. As machines become smaller and more powerful soon I bet there will be a simple hd dongle which is streamed to for TV gaming with the next major Nintendo system and it will be a super powerful hand held.

The Nintendo is doomed crowd is silly, they are rolling in money and the DS is the most successful console ever so...

Besides how many sonic games were actually good after sega stopped making hardware? how are they now?

 

[taswyn]

Asvarduil[/url]":57kzdijt]I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

Your main misconception was that "you could get away with just spoofing packets" as if that's automagically easy when dealing with something that might not (read: probably not) be a completely vanilla off the shelf protocol running over a potentially customized (in this case, fully encrypted) communications layer. Otherwise it is basically a tablet that gets streaming information (what to display) from the main console and sends back user input. Of course, all of this is encrypted. It just happens to be encrypted using custom wifi firmware code doing the encrypting. The devil, as always, is in the details.

A lot of things that are relatively easy to cobble together into a customized functioning unit are a great deal more difficult to emulate, particularly when you have to black box them. Encryption in particular is problematic if you don't have the keys and don't know the algo.

I'm not trying to be harsh, I just see people make this mistake a lot (it happens a lot on router firmware boards, for instance, where people assume someone can just churn out a firmware matching their router like it's nothing without having access to the particular router to run a dump and debug). Just because something is generally analogous to something common or even using *some* OTS components does not mean that reversing and customizing it are going to be trivial. At the same time, just because reversing something is non trivial does not make it especially different in a general sense from the more common case it might be compared to.

 

[killing_time]

Archangel Mychael[/url]":m48uogdp]

fermixx[/url]":m48uogdp]It involves programming, electronics, telecommunications, encription, enough complexity to be called simply 'magic'.

<quote>
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke

I don't understand why this was downvoted.

i assume it would be because of suggesting that the WiiU is sufficiently high enough up the tech ladder to be called "magical."

I don't think it is but I liked the quote enough to up vote it.

 

[Ars Moriendi]

I would mod my WiiUPad or get a vita if I could control my pc game sin the living room. Streaming my ps3/4 never got me jazzed but this use case for some reason does. (maybe because I got a wiiU for the xmas and don't have to put out for more hardware)

 

[taswyn]

Archangel Mychael[/url]":14iiq6za]

fermixx[/url]":14iiq6za]It involves programming, electronics, telecommunications, encription, enough complexity to be called simply 'magic'.

<quote>
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke

I don't understand why this was downvoted.

I downvoted it because the same applies to pretty much every piece of modern technology to (roughly) about the same extent. If this seems like enough complexity to be called 'magic' in the vein of the quote, then honestly there's no point in bothering with the quote to begin with, because this particular case just doesn't stand out from anything else today all that much.

It also seems to show a questionable understanding of the original context and intent of the quote by Clarke: the point at which you can break it down and understand the underlying technology, even in the sense of general building blocks, is the point at which it is no longer indistinguishable from magic. It's meant to apply to technology so obscure and obfuscated that there is no way to make sense of what allows/drives it to function from the observer's point of view (note: this isn't necessarily just a "casual" observer, either).

From the perspective of our modern civilization and modern engineering, the Wii U's pad definitely does not fit that bill.

 

[mDuo13]

fishburn[/url]":1784haa8]

Archangel Mychael[/url]":1784haa8]

fermixx[/url]":1784haa8]It involves programming, electronics, telecommunications, encription, enough complexity to be called simply 'magic'.

<quote>
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke

I don't understand why this was downvoted.

I think it was downvoted by people who understand the technology well enough that it is distinguishable from magic.

I downvoted it because the quote is not really applicable to the conversation AND it's an overused quote anyway.

Back on the subject of this hack, I think it's a great idea. The WiiU gamepad is pretty cool, especially for off-screen play. It's great to have the option to play stuff like Xenoblade or Mario 3D World while the TV is occupied, and it's surprisingly comfortable & responsive. (As expected for Nintendo, all the buttons and whatnot are perfect.) I'd love to see it become a de-facto standard controller for DIY projects the way the Wiimote has... but unfortunately, there are a lot more obstacles in the way of that happening. This project demonstrates that the encrypted communications can be worked around, the extended battery should make it a lot more viable, but I'm not sure that the low sales of the system can be overcome by clever hacking.

 

[ProdigySim]

It makes me sad to see Nintendo use such proprietary crap again. The WiiU gamepad is so close to being perfectly compliant with communication standards, but because Nintendo doesn't want to make it "easy" we have to modify our entire WiFi stacks to be able to use it.

As far as any of this being "magic" anywhere near magic... I don't think so.

1. Take the WPS standard, add a ROT3 at a couple of steps.
2. Stream video using a rarely used WiFi timestamp as synchronization.
3. Add in a couple simple network protocols to wrap your data.

That's all that's happened here. It would only be magic if Nintendo had somehow chosen not to make things proprietary for once.

 

[ajmas]

One thing that that I found impressive about the gamepad is the responsiveness, in the sense that video and audio on the screen is shown on the gamepad with no apparent delay. This is something I wouldn't find amazing with an analogue transmission, but I always get the impression that with digital there is so much protocol overhead and processing that this seems harder to pull off.

 

[Asvarduil]

taswyn[/url]":19i1qdcb]

Asvarduil[/url]":19i1qdcb]I had always wondered about this.

My misconception was that the WiiU control pad was pretty much a tablet that communicates to the main Wii U console; its duties are the same as a tablet (e.g. get input, relay very specific outputs based on instructions from the core console. Okay, okay, not the last bit, but still. Ideally, with enough tomfoolery, you could get the gamepad to run independently from the console. In theory.)

It seems I was wrong, if it takes this much reverse engineering. If it were merely a tablet, first you wouldn't need this level of effort, and secondly you could get away with just spoofing packets.

It's interesting to see what Nintendo's doing from an engineering standpoint. I'm not sure it's good, but it is interesting...

Your main misconception was that "you could get away with just spoofing packets" as if that's automagically easy when dealing with something that might not (read: probably not) be a completely vanilla off the shelf protocol running over a potentially customized (in this case, fully encrypted) communications layer. Otherwise it is basically a tablet that gets streaming information (what to display) from the main console and sends back user input. Of course, all of this is encrypted. It just happens to be encrypted using custom wifi firmware code doing the encrypting. The devil, as always, is in the details.

A lot of things that are relatively easy to cobble together into a customized functioning unit are a great deal more difficult to emulate, particularly when you have to black box them. Encryption in particular is problematic if you don't have the keys and don't know the algo.

I'm not trying to be harsh, I just see people make this mistake a lot (it happens a lot on router firmware boards, for instance, where people assume someone can just churn out a firmware matching their router like it's nothing without having access to the particular router to run a dump and debug). Just because something is generally analogous to something common or even using *some* OTS components does not mean that reversing and customizing it are going to be trivial. At the same time, just because reversing something is non trivial does not make it especially different in a general sense from the more common case it might be compared to.

No offense taken; that was really instructional. So far, in my career I haven't yet had the need to consciously black-box reverse-engineer anything...yet.

 

[dooza]

ProdigySim[/url]":hx3oqfu0]
That's all that's happened here. It would only be magic if Nintendo had somehow chosen not to make things proprietary for once.

Absolutely, especially when all the other manufacturers are so open with their hardware.....

/sarcasm.

 

[zaqzlea]

dooza[/url]":2w59abbv]

ProdigySim[/url]":2w59abbv]
That's all that's happened here. It would only be magic if Nintendo had somehow chosen not to make things proprietary for once.

Absolutely, especially when all the other manufacturers are so open with their hardware.....

/sarcasm.

At least, you can connect the Xbox and PS gamepads via USB and maybe also via bluetooth (not sure about this one, please CMIIW).

Edit: looks like only PS3 and PS4 allow "unofficial" bluetooth support. Also, they require some drivers for USB.

 

[mikael110]

Arlondiluthel[/url]":3vw0lgs7]
Yeah, the Vita provides a similar functionality, for almost $500 more.

Even on launch the vita didn't cost anywhere near $500 bucks, on launch it was $249 for the basic wifi model, and now you can get it from just $199 retail price.

 

[betam4x]

zaqzlea[/url]":176pkdny]

dooza[/url]":176pkdny]

ProdigySim[/url]":176pkdny]
That's all that's happened here. It would only be magic if Nintendo had somehow chosen not to make things proprietary for once.

Absolutely, especially when all the other manufacturers are so open with their hardware.....

/sarcasm.

At least, you can connect the Xbox and PS gamepads via USB and maybe also via bluetooth (not sure about this one, please CMIIW).

Edit: looks like only PS3 and PS4 allow "unofficial" bluetooth support. Also, they require some drivers for USB.

The XBox 360 controller is amazing on a PC, though apparently the PC requires a separate wireless version. I think nintendo should have ditched the touch screen concept and went balls to wall with great hardware and tablet/DS compatibility. The hardware alone made me say 'blerg' and skip that generation. I bought the wii at launch and I own a 360. Almost bought a day one PS4, but i'm not that big into console gaming (have 400+ steam games that aren't going anywhere...steam has been getting my money since they started taking credit card payments.) What sold me on the wii was it was an AMAZING party machine. Then Microsoft came out with the kinect, which ended up being more accurate than the wii and more fun. The wii has collected dust in my household every since.

I think if nintendo wants to get back on track, they need a new console asap. Give the new console awesome hardware (a step or two above the PS4) and backwards compatibility with wii u titles. It may even be worth having both wii u binaries and next gen binaries on the same disc all while providing some type of cross platform compiler. Stage it out, make games compatible for one to two more years while making a small amount of games next gen exclusive, and they could pull off a comeback.

 

[Midnitte]

betam4x[/url]":3p4g6ly2]

zaqzlea[/url]":3p4g6ly2]

dooza[/url]":3p4g6ly2]

ProdigySim[/url]":3p4g6ly2]
That's all that's happened here. It would only be magic if Nintendo had somehow chosen not to make things proprietary for once.

Absolutely, especially when all the other manufacturers are so open with their hardware.....

/sarcasm.

At least, you can connect the Xbox and PS gamepads via USB and maybe also via bluetooth (not sure about this one, please CMIIW).

Edit: looks like only PS3 and PS4 allow "unofficial" bluetooth support. Also, they require some drivers for USB.

The XBox 360 controller is amazing on a PC, though apparently the PC requires a separate wireless version. I think nintendo should have ditched the touch screen concept and went balls to wall with great hardware and tablet/DS compatibility. The hardware alone made me say 'blerg' and skip that generation. I bought the wii at launch and I own a 360. Almost bought a day one PS4, but i'm not that big into console gaming (have 400+ steam games that aren't going anywhere...steam has been getting my money since they started taking credit card payments.) What sold me on the wii was it was an AMAZING party machine. Then Microsoft came out with the kinect, which ended up being more accurate than the wii and more fun. The wii has collected dust in my household every since.

I think if nintendo wants to get back on track, they need a new console asap. Give the new console awesome hardware (a step or two above the PS4) and backwards compatibility with wii u titles. It may even be worth having both wii u binaries and next gen binaries on the same disc all while providing some type of cross platform compiler. Stage it out, make games compatible for one to two more years while making a small amount of games next gen exclusive, and they could pull off a comeback.

Actually there is also an adapter you can buy to use the xbox version. The hardest thing about using a ps3 controller on your computer (if you don't have a ps3) is having a miniUSB cable. .

 

[Abresh]

daneren2005[/url]":21koze1w]Err, you can't? The pad is awkward to hold and awkward to interact with. Except for a few niche use cases, it gets in the way of the entire experience and gives very little in the way of a benefit. While I can see it as a cool add-on, it was a terrible choice for a primary controller.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with that statement. Controller is too big for the little ones to use comfortably (I saw two children trying to use one in Best Buy not long ago and they were having issues).

If they had decreased the size of the screen a little bit and made like an Nvidia Shield controller, that would have been awesome.

 

[GenocideOwl]

SO I guess this turns the WiiU pad into a big, clunky, less powerful but still more battery sucking Nvidia shield?

 

[dnms38]

mikael110[/url]":96yww0dj]

Arlondiluthel[/url]":96yww0dj]
Yeah, the Vita provides a similar functionality, for almost $500 more.

Even on launch the vita didn't cost anywhere near $500 bucks, on launch it was $249 for the basic wifi model, and now you can get it from just $199 retail price.

Ps4, $400. PS vita, 200. Wii u, 300. It costs double to use off screen with the vita. I think that's what he meant