Just another update on our constant site updates. While nothing HUGE
has been implemented in the past few days, there has been a number of
small tweaks here and there.. so we figured we'd list them all in one
post.

Improved Wii version

Still no Wii Fit in sight for us, but this week we have more WiiWare impressions including hands on with Dr. Mario Online Rx, Nintendo's sales records, SimCity for Wii and DS, all the new releases and our first contest!

Contest - Win a copy of Dr. Mario Online Rx!


Enter this week's contest to win a copy of Dr. Mario Online Rx. To qualify, you must listen to the podcast and answer 2 questions correctly. The first question is in this episode. Call the show voicemail line with the answer and your username at 610-TRY-AFRO

Then, listen next week for the second question. We will draw a random name from the list of users who answer both questions correctly.

If you win and already have Dr. Mario, you can choose another game of equal value.

More show notes..

Star Soldier R Tournament Registration link

Listen/Download
N.G.O. Podcast!

Direct Download Episode 23: The Dr. Is In!
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Continuing our series on helping the average Wii owners to get homebrew running on their Wii's, we present our third update: Using the Homebrew Channel.


Released late last week, the homebrew channel is the latest and greatest breakthrough in Wii homebrew. It installs itself as a completely autonomous channel,
complete with it's own music, a gorgeous animated banner that's as nice
as anything that Nintendo has officially released on the Wii, automatic online updates, and easy management of all your homebrew applications.

In fact, the homebrew channel is so
good, that it almost completely invalidates everything we've written
about in guides 1 and 2. The only thing you'll need to know before this
is how to use the Twilight Hack(click here for Part 1 if you don't know how to use it!).

Step 1: Getting set up

First thing you'll want to do, of course, is to download the homebrew channel.
Rename the included ELF as boot.elf and place it in the root directory
of your SD card. Load up Twilight Princess and the Twilight Hack save
file. Activate the hack, and you will be presented with a disclaimer
screen explaining the risks of installing custom software on your Wii.
If you agree, follow the instructions on the screen(it's been a little
while since we installed this, but we think you have to press Reset on
the Wii.. just read the screen and it will tell you for sure).

After a few moments you will see a message that the channel install was successful. Your Wii should reboot itself, but we've seen a Wii hang at a blank screen. No problem, just restart it on your own and everything is A-OK.

Once the Wii starts up, you should see the beautiful homebrew channel sitting in your first previously empty channel slot.

Step 2: Installing applications

Technically,
all you need to do to install your applications is to create a folder
on the root of your SD card called "apps". Inside this folder, create a
folder for each application and rename the ELF file to boot.elf. If you
previously had the Homebrew Launcher set up, you can simply rename the "HOMEBREW" folder to "apps".

That's the easy way, but not the pretty way. The nice thing about the homebrew channel
is it's support of an XML document full of metadata such as the app
title, a short and long description, programmer, and version. For an
example of the XML document you'll want to create for each app, you can
download the homebrew channel applications package. This file contains a handful of Wii homebrew
titles complete with custom icons and XML documents that you can use as
a basis for your other installed channels. Just edit the file with a
text editor and insert the proper info for your applications.

If you'd like more examples of these metadata and custom icon files(and the applications themselves), you can download them from this thread at GBATemp.

UPDATE: Just use the Homebrew Browser to find and automatically install any homebrew you'd like!



We hope that our readers find these guides helpful and we'll continue to update them as the homebrew world changes, so be sure to visit regularly for the latest information.

Once again, we remind everyone to support Wii developers,.. especially independent ones, and respect intellectual property rights.

EA today officially announced SimCity Creator for the Wii and DS. Using the unique aspects of each system, the game promises to be the "most accessible and light hearted SimCity game" for "families and players of all ages".

Unfortunately, in our experience, those tag lines usually mean "dumbed down", and that's not what we're looking for in a SimCity game. It's also being tied to the "MySims" console franchise, so we're even more skeptical about it's ability to offer complexity and challenge to those who want it. We'll still be watching this one closely, only because we're absolute FIENDS for the series, but with each iteration(especially the utterly shallow SimCity DS), we lose a little more hope that the series will ever return to it's SimCity 3000 perfection.

SimCity Creator DS Screenshots

Activision knows that there might be a chance you've been under a rock for the past 3 years, so they were nice enough to send over this video explaining how you play Guitar Hero On Tour. ..continue reading How to play Guitar Hero On Tour

The Wiixercise Team, a group of students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA are currently hard at work on Winds of Orbis: An Active Adventure. The game uses both the Wiimote an ..continue reading Carnegie Mellon students create Wii-inspired game for children

..continue reading WiiWare Review Roundup: Final Fantasy, Defend Your Castle, Lost Winds, Star Soldier R

Activision just released this cool video showing a handful of big name drummers discussing the wireless drum set in the upcoming Guitar Hero World Tour game. ..continue reading Check out Guitar Hero World Tour's drums!

For everyone who decided to check out Star Soldier R on WiiWare, Hudson announced a tournament that should really inspire you to sink some time into the game. ..continue reading Hudson announces Star Soldier R tournament

Hmmm,.. doesn't look like too much coming out this week. We could have sworn Emergency Heroes came out months ago, but maybe we just weren't paying attention.

Other than that, we have a Kawasaki licensed game - you know what that means.. more shovelware from Destineer. We can think of much b ..continue reading New Release Tuesday: Emergency Heroes (again??)