Wii Dictionary

"app"A pre-compiled theme that will only work on the region and firmware it was made for. It can also come in the form of .csm, and can also be referred to as the starting "system app".

Note: This differs from a homebrew "app/application".
"App/application" A homebrew program developed to run on the Wii, from brick recovery programs to simple games.

"Backup" A copy of a Wii game, burned onto a blank dvd. Often used to prevent wear and tear damage to original discs, or to pirate Wii games.

"Banner" Animated graphic that is displayed on a channel's icon and startup screen in the system menu. A channel with a corrupted banner can cause a banner brick.

"Banner brick" A type of brick that occurs when a wad has been installed that contains malformed or corrupted images. It is identifiable by either a black screen appearing after advancing past the health warning screen, or by displaying the message "The system menu files are corrupt."

"Bannerbomb" Bannerbomb is an exploit used to run homebrew on your Wii. It will crash your wii, and can load an .elf or .dol (it's safe, don't worry) This is generally considered to be the superior way to install homebrew on your Wii, compared to the Twilight Hack.

"boot0" First phase of coding the Wii runs at power up. It is burned directly into the CPU, so it cannot be modified. Its function is to initialize the hardware and load boot1.

"boot1" Second phase of coding involved in the boot process. The program is stored in flash memory, but is verified against a digital signature stored in boot0, so any modification of it will brick the system. Because of this, the signature checking bug in boot1 cannot be patched in existing units, although new units have started to ship with a fixed version.

"boot2" Final phase of the boot process. This program is responsible for loading the system menu.

"Bootmii" Bootmii was created by Team Twiizers, and is one of the best/THE best method of brick protecting your Wii. It can be accessed before the Wii Menu, which enables you to recover from bricks.

"Brick" Bricking your Wii, means to make your Wii inoperable, or it doesn't operate properly. Eg, Your Wii won't turn on. It's called a 'brick' because the technology that you have just 'bricked' is now as useless as an ordinary brick. There are several types of bricks for your wii, such as Full Brick, Semi-Brick, Banner Brick, etc.

"Case mod" A type of physical modification that can be performed on a wii. It usually refers to the removal, enhancement, or swap of the "case" that encloses the wii's hardware, often to improve the aesthetics of the system.

"Channel" A wii application that is bundled in a .wad, which contains a Banner, Animations, and Sound, that are loaded from the System Menu. Used for launching wiiware, VC, and some homebrew.

"cIOS" A Custom IOS for Wii.
"cIOSCORP" Is a software modification for your Nintendo Wii to allow you to play almost all of your backup burnt wii and gamecube games via the disc channel without opening your console or having to use a loader application.

"cMIOS" A Custom IOS used for gamecube games

"Code Dump" A crash that displays code, (normally looks like random letters and numbers), helps identify problems with applications and games.

"Comex" Creator of the Bannerbomb hack, also created a version of the Twilight Hack involving the stage loader in Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

".csm" A precompiled theme, that will only work on the region and firmware it was made for. Also known as a .app

"DOL/.dol" The most common way executable format of loading homebrew on your Wii. Similar to .elf.

"DVDx"A homebrew application that installs a hidden "channel" which can be used by other homebrew applications to access home burned and factory pressed DVD content without the need for a modchip.

"Elf/.elf" An .elf file is an executable file for your wii. Similar to a .dol file.

"Emulator" An Emulator is a program that simulates a different type of hardware. Eg, Snes9x, is an Emulator that simulates a Super Nintendo on your Wii.

"Full brick" A type of brick that occurs when the system menu is fully corrupt. It can be caused by many things, including installing a system menu different to that of the wii's region, uninstalling IOS, cIOS, or mIOS files vital to the wii's functionality, or installing corrupt system menu files. They are identifiable either by a pure black screen upon booting the wii, or an Opera error message upon booting the wii. Unless sufficient brick protection has been previously installed on said wii, full bricks can be devastating, as sometimes SaveMii will not even work.

"HackMii" An installer which is used with BannerBomb which allows the hacking of your Wii. The installer includes BootMii, The Homebrew Channel, and DVDX.

"Hardmod" Hardmodding a wii is the process of installing a modchip in your wii, enabling you to play backup/downloaded games. This is an alternative to softmodding a wii, and until softmodding became mainstream, was considered to be the most reliable method of modification.

Note that hardmodding differs from "case modding" (see "case mod").
"Hash" A way of verifying file integrity, often as a security measure. A hash function is used when examining a file, outputting a short string or integer. This value can be stored for later comparison. If the file has been altered, repeating the same process with the same hash function will produce a different result. When the result is compared to the stored value, if it does not match, it is an indication that the file cannot be trusted.

"Hollywood" The Wii's integrated graphics chip, manufactured by ATi.

"Homebrew" Homebrew is unofficial software, created by ordinary Wii owners, without the help/use of Nintendo. Homebrew is the stepping stone for hacking your Wii, and is very useful for applications and games.

"Homebrew Browser" An application which allows you to download the latest homebrew applications and games all through your Wii. You don't need to take your SD card out, or use a computer. You can also delete homebrew you no longer want.

"Homebrew Channel/HBC" The Homebrew Channel (often abbreviated as simply "HBC") is a method of loading homebrew onto your Wii. Allows you to run .elf and .dol files without the need to run exploits, such as the Twilight Hack or Bannerbomb, everytime.

"Infectus" A modchip that can read and write data to and from the Wii's internal NAND. Very useful for hacking.

"IOS" An acronym for Input/Output System, used for operating the Wii.

"IOS 249" Custom IOS (cIOS) developed by Waninkoko. This Custom IOS is an IOS modified to add new features not available in the official IOS. It has been created to be used ONLY with homebrew software. Most commonly used for loading backup and USB loader applications.

"ISO" An image file. Wii games are usually in this format, and can be burnt to a disk to make a backup copy of a game.

"JDownloader" Not related to the Wii entirely, but is used for downloading multi-link games without hassle. It's a PC Application that is very popular for downloading games that have an unwieldy amount of links with which a normal internet browser downloader might have trouble.

"LU64+" Newer Wiis that were shipped in later 2008. In order to lower production costs, Nintendo redesigned some of the hardware, consequently lengthening the hardware load times. These new Wiis have updated IOS and a new version of Boot2v4. The new Wiis may be incompatible with older IOS versions and the bug which allowed the hacking of boot2 is fixed.

"MF" MF is an abbreviation for MediaFire, which is a popular site for uploaders to host files on.

"MIOS" An IOS used for Gamecube games.

"Modchip" A small device containing firmware, that is soldered or clipped onto your Wii, enabling you to play downloaded/backup games.

"MU" MU is an abbreviation for Megaupload, which is a popular site for uploaders to host files on.