Let's talk about ripping Wii U assets

[Pik]

Humor me for a sec... With a lot of Wii U blockbuster titles coming out soon, it would be nice to get a lock down on some of these textures/info files. Of course, it's common knowledge that Mario kart 8 has been looked into, and people have gotten into the textures months ago. (Since July)

So, what's the deal? Are these tools still exclusive to the ones who cracked it? Have they talked about future plans?

[Raccoon Sam]

I would like to know too.
Maybe I'm not searching deep enough but all I find are some exploits or technical demonstrations and stuff that doesn't really give the straight-up answer we — the rippers — need:
Can we extract files from Wii U games yet?

[TGE]

Short answer: yes

[The KKM]

Long answer? I'd presonally like to know, if only to try to search for any unused stuff in games.

[TGE]

People have done it, there's some source code on the web which might contribute to that. I myself don't know how to do it, but others seem to be able to.

[Mystie]

It seems to be the 3DS situation all over again. Remember earlier this year, when that one guy on Twitter was showing pictures of Pokemon X/Y and Super Mario 3D Land model rips he had done, but didn't give out any information publicly? Then remember how months later, more and more people cracked the 3DS, and then posted public tutorials and information on how to do so?

Yeah, that's what it looks like is happening for Wii U. Give it another month or two, and more and more people will hack into the Wii U, and make ripping/hacking public.

[Random Talking Bush]

There's only three people that I know of who can extract the files from Wii U games -- MrBean35000vr, Chadderz and crediar. The first two refuse to share anything because of copyright reasons and only have interest in modding Mario Kart 8, and crediar has the know-how to unpack games directly, but only cares about sharing the music files from certain games and nothing else.

[eureka]

That's one thing i NEVER got.
Like why hold back for "Copyright Issues"?
I mean, emulators are illegal but MILLIONS of people use them, i'm sure of it.
And no one has got arrested yet.
Not one person.
So i find it odd that people worry about that But Nintendo probably won't DO anything about it.
Like really.

[Lilothestitch]

That's one thing i NEVER got.
Like why hold back for "Copyright Issues"?
I mean, emulators are illegal but MILLIONS of people use them, i'm sure of it.
And no one has got arrested yet.
Not one person.
So i find it odd that people worry about that But Nintendo probably won't DO anything about it.
Like really.

If emulators are illegal, why do people use them?

[eureka]

If emulators are illegal, why do people use them?

Because, most people don't have the game console anymore, thus they turn to emulators, which can play the games on the computer.
Then there are the sprite rippers, (Like the ones here), that use emulators to rip them

[Lilothestitch]

If emulators are illegal, why do people use them?

Because, most people don't have the game console anymore, thus they turn to emulators, which can play the games on the computer.
Then there are the sprite rippers, (Like the ones here), that use emulators to rip them

That's why people use emulators.

[Phaze]

That's one thing i NEVER got.
Like why hold back for "Copyright Issues"?
I mean, emulators are illegal but MILLIONS of people use them, i'm sure of it.
And no one has got arrested yet.
Not one person.
So i find it odd that people worry about that But Nintendo probably won't DO anything about it.
Like really.

It's not quite because "copyright issues", but I guess this factors into it.

What I consider the main reason is because of pirate kiddies. I think that these systems have been blown open ages ago but the people with the knowledge refuse to give it out because it's just going to lead to an influx of skiddies and piracy. Frankly, I don't blame them anymore.

[Kosheh]

That's one thing i NEVER got.
Like why hold back for "Copyright Issues"?
I mean, emulators are illegal but MILLIONS of people use them, i'm sure of it.
And no one has got arrested yet.
Not one person.
So i find it odd that people worry about that But Nintendo probably won't DO anything about it.
Like really.

People...don't write emulators for the sole intention of cracking commercial game protection. That's pretty much what the sea of self-entitled dweebs on the Internet want. Most people who are into hacking, emulation etc. do it for the sake of learning about the system and if it's possible to actually replicate the inner guts of the console.

There's nothing wrong with one machine emulating another machine. It's all the things surrounding it - when you start hunting for backed-up games, or you yourself start sharing those backups with others, distributing other people's work for free and ACTUALLY INFRINGING COPYRIGHT that things start to get shady.

[eureka]

Regardless, i find it stupid that people withhold imformation just because of being afraid of being jailed or sued when Nintendo or whoever won't actually DO ANYTHING about it.
Like seriously, we've been doing this for YEARS and not ONE charge of copyright infringment has happened.
I'm positive.
I just BAFFLES me.

[Shade]

First of all, emulators aren't really illegal, roms are however, as Kosheh already pointed out.

Second, your argument is that, "yes it's illegal, but no one has been punished yet, so who cares?" Do you really not see the flaw in your thinking? And the threat is there nonetheless and I totally understand withholding the info to keep yourself out of trouble.