Fan-Made Nintendo Network Replacement 'Pretendo' No Longer Requires Hacked Wii U

Good to know! Thanks!

Bold move so soon after the Yuzu shutdown, but I think they should be alright, as they aren’t taking away any money from anyone.

@JakedaArbok
This isn't emulation. It's not a bold move at all, it's a necessary one.

The crux of Nintendo's argument against Yuzu, is that it allowed people to play Nintendo games on non-Nintendo devices, for free. This here, is different. This is taking an existing piece of Nintendo hardware, and modifying it (perfectly legal), and allowing it to play existing games online. Nothing Nintendo can do about that.

Great!
Although I think it's only a matter of time before it gets patched

Nice! I have no desire to hack my two OG wiiu.

I've been a bit wary to install CFW to my Wii U, so this is great news. Hopefully there's an undiscovered exploit that will allow stock 3DSes to connect to Pretendo.

It’s great that is possible to do it without hacking your Wii U, I feel that if I tried to hack it I would end up bricking my console

Is there anything stopping Nintendo from pushing an update that addresses the "Wii U's ver. 5.5.5 SSL module" hole here? I'm fairly illiterate when it comes to this sort of technical jargon...

Curious if and how quickly a patch will be released. The bug is now public.

AYY THERE'S THE WIIMFI 2!!!

@Miiverse1281 I uhhh.. Have 2 Wii Us. One thats bricked from an attempt to mod it and the one I replaced it with im not trying to mod a console ever again something always goes wrong for me lol

Would this allow one to utilize the online features of Xenoblade Chronicles X again? I didn't take advantage of it while I could.

@Nintoz Their infrastructure for releasing patches has been shut down.

@arcata yeah it sucks that attempting to mod it can result in bricking but hey at least we have an option that doesn’t require modding

This is excellent news. I am glad they held off on the info so Nintendo wouldn't patch the system. I signed up for a Pretendo account and I'm considering doing a monthly donation for all of their hard work. Long live Wii U and 3DS!

If Nintendo tries anything against this, they aren’t getting a single penny from me for the rest of my life. I’m on that edge already.

It's a cool thing they're doing but it's such a shell of what once was, both for the extremely limited list of supported games and tiny playerbase. Those days of miiverse bursting with posts after a new game dropped or cruising Wind Waker to find so many dicks in
message bottles are sadly gone forever.

"In a blog post released today, the brains behind Pretendo marked the launch of 'SSSL', a 'private SSL exploit for the Wii U' which 'allows users to connect to Pretendo Network from a stock Wii U, with no homebrew or custom firmware at all.' "

"stock Wii U"?

Love the name. Pretendo? Kudos to whoever thought that one up!

@Nintoz There's the thing- what would they patch it with? Nintendo just shut down their only means of officially patching.

Very very good to hear. Love playing PS2 games online even today thanks to fans like these.

@Miiverse1281 For sure! I cant wait to try this!

@Mario500 “Stock WiiU” just means a WiiU without modifications such as jailbreaks. You could do this online workaround without modifying the software on the console, from what I understand all you have to do is change your DNS settings.

Very happy to have this option.

I'd like to continue playing Super Mario Maker and Splatoon 1 online.

Hopefully that's "not available on 3DS" is a "yet" statement... I really don't want to hack my consoles.

@Korgon

"Love the name. Pretendo? Kudos to whoever thought that one up!"

(note: a certain (1990) "Muppet Babies" TV program episode named "It's Only Pretendo" (World Wide Web address with information regarding its content: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0956949/ ))

How long will it take Nintendo to take it down? I guess we'll find out soon.

@LadyCharlie I guarantee you, Nintendo will still try to shut this down, anyway, even if they have no legal right to do so, under the claim that it "devalues their brand" and "violates copyright."

The makers behind Pretendo better have some good lawyers handy, because if they don't, they'll have no choice but to shut this down to avoid incurring Nintendo's wrath and getting mired into a costly legal battle.

@LadyCharlie Worth mentioning that modifying the DNS of a Wii U using official firmware is likely fine, but Pretendo’s original method requires console hacks, which violate the DMCA in the United States. I’m honestly not sure they’re completely in the clear, legally. Granted, they’re not enabling piracy, so Nintendo may simply not care.

The Wii U and 3DS are technically still online so watch Nintendo actually patch this still. I could see them do that just because they noticed posts like this tbh.

@Yosher Yeah, as much as I like this news, I'm getting Letterbomb flashbacks.

Where one doesn't have to hack or mod the console, I'll consider this as a possible way to play a few games still.

So I tried this, and then it asked me for my Nintendo Network ID password, which it says is incorrect. I don't know where I can change that password anymore since I think Nintendo shut all that down too, unless I'm just blind and missing it.

Thing is I'm pretty sure the password is correct, too. Anyone have the same issue?

Edit: When changing the settings back, it even allows me to log in again. Don't even need to insert my NNID password this time as it logs in by itself. I'm so confused. lol

Just came here to say, seeing the term Pretendo for the first time gave me a good hearty chuckle!

@Yosher To get in, you have to register with Pretendo and use their own account system.

The article doesn't mention this but you need to create a Pretendo account in order to use the hackless method. From what I've heard, you cannot connect to the servers with the hackless method using existing save data associated with an NNID and have to create a new save file. The only way to use your existing save file is to hack your Wii U and install Pretendo.

@VGFreak1225 Thank you!! Completely missed that part lol.

Does having to create a new account through Pretendo mean that my Splatoon 1 progress will be reset? I’m cool with keeping my rank, but I would also be cool with being forced to reset and see how fast I can get back up!

@edhe Right now Pretendo only works for a handful of games and with limited features. XCX is not ready yet, but the team does intend to restore it. I don’t know for certain, but BLADE Reports may work through Pretendo’s Miiverse replacement, “Juxtaposition”.

@Mario500
Huh. Learn something new everyday. Cheers for that!

It may be true that people just want what they can't have, WiiU tanked commercially, all their biggest games are already on switch, yet, people are still mad Nintendo is ending online support to a born-dead more than 10 years old system, I just don't get it

Going to be busting out the wii u soon if Nintendo does not get those Zelda games on the switch.

@BugCatcherGarl Not when the gap between the two install bases is as big as WiiU-Switch. I guarantee you that the percentage of people who will insist on using Pretendo over NSO will be a rounding error.

I'm surprised at all the people amused by the name Pretendo. We called the SNES our Super Pretendo all the time at our house and so did my friends. But I am becoming a dinosaur at 38.

People can be quite annoying with 'Oh no, Nintendo is shutting down XYZ, I hate them.'

First, Nintendo cannot shut that down simply because you only need to change the DNS.

Second, it's entirely valid for Nintendo to shut down software that allows playing THEIR games on non-Nintendo hardware, which includes emulators or fan-games.

People should simply create their own games without using Nintendo's IPs, and everything would be fine.

@heisnbrg That last point is completely irrelevant.
And I think people can be quite when people believe we should all just let corporations decide when video games are available and only make them available when it suits their financial bottom line.

It's also entirely valid for us to us not give a **** about Nintendo's feelings about emulators. It's entirely valid for us to treat video games as works of art that deserve to be continue to be enjoyed forever. It's entirely valid for us to not view games as merely disposable means to give corporations money. To be just throw out like the trash when they are no longer meaningful to the copyright owners (except for whining purposes). Even though yes, some of them are trash made only to make money.

And we should only enjoyed the retro games Nintendo chooses to feed us with their emulators that have never been half as good as fan emulators, because Nintendo is surely not willing to pay its developers enough to care as much as the fans do about quality?

So, forgot old games existed and move on to Switch so we can forget those games existed in a few years and repeat the cycle until we're dead. Everything would be fine if we did that, huh?

To everyone saying the servers to update and patch this exploit are gone, you are incorrect. Nintendo shut down the ability to purchase new items from the eShop and they shut down the ability to play online. The eShop and update servers still exist. They could push an update for any game they want, or the entire system. Accounts still exist, and so do servers to download things. I don't think they will push an update, but they absolutely could if they wanted to.

@KingMike Retro games are still available on ebay, flee markets and retro shops. I recently found out I missed two Fire Emblem games, one on the GBA and one on the DS. So I bought both of them on ebay instead of stealing the roms online.

People just don't want to pay for these, and their excuse for stealing them is, 'Bo ho, Nintendo does not make these games available for a modern console'.

@heisnbrg You cannot buy them from Nintendo anymore, and unless they are going to release them again for purchase (not rental) then there is no difference between buying a used copy and downloading the rom. The only thing that buying a used copy does is line the pockets of a greedy scalper selling the games for far more than they are worth, and nothing is stolen when downloading the rom because Nintendo does not sell these anymore and thus you are not able to steal the game from them.

@dtlux1 Buying and selling retro games is not scalping. That's two different things.

And you have a weird understanding what is stealing and what is not. Fact is, retro games are still available for purchase online for a reasonable price. Just because you can't buy these games from Nintendo anymore is not a justify to steal them.

YESS I don't want to hack my wiiU I will just brick it probably!

@heisnbrg I do not steal them, I make copies of them :3

@dtlux1 To repeat myself: And you have a weird understanding of what is stealing and what is not.

Haha I like the name , Pretendo! Hehe

@heisnbrg Most of those are priced based on few wealthy people's desire to put the plastic on their shelf at any cost and not representative of most people's perception of its entertainment value.
That is: nobody is going to expect $1,500 worth of gameplay out of Dinosaur Peak. It is absurd to think that every person who wants to play that game should have to spend a grand and a half to play it, especially when the game probably cost something like $40 upon release (let's say it was, that's $85 today). The gameplay hasn't changed since 1994, so why should everyone be expected to pay a 17 fold price increase?
That again, was dictated by a few people who quite likely have no desire to actually play the game and simply need to have every game in existence on their shelf.
If the game meant anything to Taito/Square-Enix, they'd be calling Warner to get it licensed to keep it available, but they're not. Nope, Taito made their money thirty years ago and it's clearly just been trash to them since.
Just one example.

Where that line between fair and excessive pricing is different for different people.

Nothing was "stolen". The people who need plastic that has Dinosaur Peak on it can still get it. That is the only reason anyone is spending $1500 on it and that isn't being taken away by ROMs.

Further evidence is Stadium Events. That price has gone up and up, now into the 2 grand territory loose, even though it's literally a $3 game with a different title screen.

@KingMike That's just many very far-fetched excuses for pirating games that are still available for a reasonable price on eBay or in retro shops.

Your honest answer could just be "I don't want to pay for retro games on ebay and because of that I pirate them."

Cool but you already know Nintendo’s gonna release a patch to prevent it

@dtlux1 the question is why bother? Nintendo is not providing a service for Wii U online anymore, odds are the severs are completely offline so no cost either. This will probably get at most a shrug at Nintendo HQ as it doesn't require modding the system or allows piracy. It's pretty much user's personal private servers which have existed fine on PC and older consoles for decades with no issues from right holders.

@heisnbrg There are a lot of games that you can’t get for, your words, a “reasonable price.” Panzer Dragoon Saga, Magical Chase, Magic Knight Rayearth, to name a couple. Also, without emulation, you wouldn’t be able to “reasonably” play English-hacked Japan-only games (or any hack from one language to your native language).

I get what you’re trying to say, and if there is a way for me to pay Nintendo or the developers for access to a game, I do (I bought VC games on the prior consoles and have the NSO+EP sub on Switch), but there are so many games that don’t fit into what you’re describing. Also, your model isn’t sustainable. In 50 years should we still be trying to find old arcade parts to play arcade accurate versions of Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting? You might say these are fringe cases, but there are likely more people like this than you think. Not everyone is being stingy and deluded and to say so is painting with a broad brush.

@heisnbrg Well, we have different opinions between following the letter and spirit of what "stealing" is. There is a difference between pirating game currently available (like Switch) and games that haven't been sold by the copyright owners in 30 years. I like retro games, I buy them at reasonable prices (and fortunate that I've been able to get most of the ones I wanted). If the resellers are scalping on the merchandise (charging more than MSRP will quickly put it into consideration for that category), then the availability of ROMs doesn't change whether or not I was ever going to pay their asking prices. They'll eventually get someone that will pay any price they ask for the rare stuff.

I haven't bought games from my nearest retro store in years because I already bought a crap ton of games over the years before.