Europeans and Australians,

We have suffered many times in our history. Waiting longer for games and getting the worst versions. Remember the time when our games were running slower and we had black bars? Remember waiting ages for games because they need to be translated in German, Spanish, French and Italian, while we are perfectly capable of speaking English. Yeah in Europe we have something that is called an education, most of us are fluent in English by the age of twelve. And the worst thing of all, we paid more for a gimped version of a game. But after many years of suffering we finally had 60 Hz version of games. We still get games late and we pay more, but at least we are not playing gimped versions.

Our American brethren had much more luck than us, their games were cheaper, better and they got them earlier. The American’s felt sorry for us, but they did not know our pain. How could they, they never experienced it themselves. To truly understand our pain, you have to experience it yourself. After many blissful years, that pain did reach the American shores. The pain had a name, it was called Reggie. It began with the late release of Endless Ocean, and then disaster struck. The disaster was “Disaster”, the game would not be localized. But it does not stop there; Trace Memory R still has no release date.

Back in Europe things are looking bad. No More Heroes was censored and MadWorld had the 50 Hz black bar horror we thought we finally got rid off. It’s time that we rise against this injustice. Brothers we have suffered enough, it’s time to take matter in our own hands. It’s time we take control over our Wii’s. It’s time to hack it. No more late releases, no more gimped version, no more paying through our nose. Brothers I urge you to join the revolution, because you can’t be a man if you can’t control your own Wii.

But how does this hacking work? It’s very easy the only thing you need is a SD card and a GameCube controller!

I will break it down in easy steps. 

Needed: a SD card, gamecube controller (works on firmware 4.0)

This is the plan, we will install the homebrew channel and BootMii, and then we will install the Homebrew Browser. The last step is installing Gecko OS.

Installation procedure BootMii
•     First check if your SD card has a folder named “private”. If you a folder named private, you have two choices. Remove the folder or rename it in something else. Like private_old. The reason is that we are going to install a folder that is named private.
•     Download aad1f_v108.zip on your PC and unzip it on your SD card. A "private" folder will be now on your SD card
•     Download HackMii Installer v0.2 on your PC. Open the folder and look for the file installer.elf. Rename this file to boot.elf. Copy boot.elf to your SD card. You shold have a folder ‘private’ and a 'boot.elf' file on your SD card. 
•     Put your SD card in the Wii
•     Press (Wii) => Data Management => Channels => SD.
•     A dialog should pop up saying "Load boot.elf?".
•     Select "Yes"
•     Read the warning message and wait for the "Press 1 to continue" prompt to appear (do so)
•     Take note of what you can and can't install then push A to Continue.
•     Select "Install the Homebrew Channel" with the D-pad and push A.
•     Answer "Yes, continue" and HBC will be installed.
•     Select the option best suited to you (boot2 or IOS) with the A button. 
o     If you have a newer Wii (from the 2nd half of 2008 onwards) then you can only choose IOS install.
o     Boot2 is much safer than IOS install, so you should choose that if you can.
o     There is no reason to choose both.
•     The installer will warn you that files need to be installed to an SD card. Insert one if you don't want to use your current one. (In other words you can switch SD cards)
•     The installer will ask you if you want to install BootMii, select Yes, continue.
•     BootMii should install. If you installed as boot2, reboot the Wii and it should start. If you installed as IOS, use the Homebrew Channel to start it (there will be a new button)

Starting BootMii
•     If BootMii is installed as boot2
o     Restart your Wii. The BootMii menu should load.
•     If BootMii is installed as an IOS
o     Start the Homebrew Channel and push the Home button.
o     Choose the BootMii option that should now appear.


After Installing
•     Go to your SD Card and remove or rename sd:/private. This disable BannerBomb so you can use the SD card for other things. Rename your old private directory back to sd:/private if you had one.

Making a backup
•     Navigate to the Options Menu (fourth one, a pair of cogs) using the Power button or Gamecube controller and push the Reset button or A.
•     Select the first option
•     Insert an SD card with 512MB free and continue, pushing the requested buttons
o     There will usually be several bad blocks during install. This is normal.

Homebrew Browser

The next step is to download the Homebrew Browser. This will allow you to download all sort of cool stuff directly to your Wii. So no more using your PC to download stuff on your SD card.

Installing Procedure Homebrew Browser

•     Download the Homebrew Browser here  and unzip it on your PC. You should have a folder named “homebrew browser”
•     Make a new folder on your SD card and call it “apps”
•     Put the folder “Homebrew Browser” and all its contents in the “apps” folder. 
•     You should have in the directory SD=>apps=>homebrew browser the following files:
o     Boot.dol, Icon, Loop, Meta, setting

Using Homebrew Browser
•     Start Homebrew Browser with the Homebrew Channel
•     Homebrew Browser will usually update its list of apps at startup. Let it do so.
•     Navigate the menus to find apps you wish to install.

Gecko OS

We are almost done; the last step is the easiest. We will download Gecko OS from the Homebrew Browser.  Gecko is the thing that allows you to play games from different regions!

Installing Gecko OS
•     Find Gecko OS on the Utilities page of Homebrew Browser
•     Push A to select and then press the Download button

Using Gecko OS
•     Use Launch Game to play your import game or local game without updating
•     Once you have launched a local game this way, you should be able to launch it in the Disc Channel without updates from then on
•     You can also use Rebooter to reboot your Wii to allow it to detect and play import games in the disc channel
o     This only seems to work on some Wiis, perhaps a firmware 4.0 thing
•     For Japanese games, ensure you turn the VIDTV patch on. It will make Japanese characters display correctly
•     For playing PAL games on an NTSC console, you might need to force NTSC mode in the options when launching the game

The Neogaf Link 

So if you start your Wii with the SD card you can imediately boot up BootMii. If you remove the SD card you will start up as you normally would.

Good luck!