A veritable treasure trove of forbidden hobbyist delights.
The end of last week saw a an absolutely gigantic leak of Nintendo files. How big? Well, most reports state that the amount of data that was recovered easily crests 2TB of data. But that’s not really the important part. What is happens to be just wht that data contains.
The reports come from the usual internet hives of scum and villainy; 4Chan, Reddit, and ResetEra. And those reports both state and show a number of incredibly valuable (as well as some not-so-valuable) files: everything from the source code to the Wii, iQue Player, GameCube, and N64, as well as internal documents, most notably a presentation in regards to why Nintendo used Friend Codes instead of usernames.
Notably, this also includes a number of demos; particularly several from Spaceworld 1999. Aside from Mirror House Cornflakes and a few tech demos, there’s the rumor floating of a demo of Mother 3 from back when it was being developed for the N64.
Per Atheerios’ post on ResetEra, here’s everything that the leak supposedly contains, as well as what previous leaks contained:
-Source code for boot0/1/2
-Block diagram/datasheets for every system component & Verilog for AES/SHA
-Documents from BroadOn describing feature planning and implementation + APIs + docs for internal software
-Full IOS SDK
-Source code for IOS (IOS is the Wii Operating System)
-Planning docs for implementation of the system from 2004-2006
-some wii sdk library source code (DVD, EXI)
-source code and info on manufacturing and publishing systems
-some misc. nintendo stuff (internal WPAD SDK from 2005, Wii Overview from RVL_SDK 1.0)
-“sdboot”, a special manufacturing version of boot2 which loads data from the SD card; is very buggy and likely exploitable for boot2 code execution on all Wiis (it is retail signed)
-gamecube and ique stuff as well (internal gamecube docs including physical disc layout, massive 2GB+ iQue dump including full CVS for that as well)
The biggest and craziest thing in this leak is the datasheets, block diagram and Verilog files for every component. Verilog is a hardware description language; is used to describe circuits via code, so with this we can learn how every single piece of the Wii was made.
Apart from this, here’s everything that has leaked during the past few weeks:
Debug Builds of Blue and Yellow
Source code for Blue and Yellow
Japanese Debug Builds of G/S
Symbol Map for Crystal.
G/S Source code
Spaceworld ’99 demos
Official GameBoy emulator
Internal lists that list everything released (including unreleased ones) for all Nintendo systems up to the DS
Pokémon Gen 7 debug builds, official 3DS legality checkers, a O-Power distribution CIA and a VC Mew distrubtion CIA
Source code for the N64, Gamecube and Wii
Possibly the most exciting part of the leaks overall, however, is the source code for the Wii, GameCube, and most importantly, N64. That said, that data is also a double-edged sword; the Dolphin crew, for example, will typically refuse to even look at such files, as they believe they may put the emulator on shaky legal ground. Still, in the N64’s case, it’s important, since that console, much like the Sega Saturn, has continued to be a challenge when it comes to emulation. It’s certain to make those that like to archive gaming info happy.
As for who managed to obtain the data, that’s still a mystery. Some suspect a previous hacker who already got into legal trouble by the name of whack0. But there’s no hard confirmations right now.
As to how, well, supposedly RouteFree (the iQue developers Nintendo worked with) was hacked:
Nintendo hasn’t responded to the leak publicly, yet. One wonders just what form that response will take.
Sources: VideoGamesChronicle, NintendoLife, Digital Trends, Siliconera
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