YouTube (Wii)

This game is defunct. Do note the game no longer works at all without modifications. This is most likely due to the game's servers being shut down (as of June 28, 2017). As a result, further official developments with the game are unlikely to happen.

The Wii's YouTube channel allowed you to stream YouTube videos directly to your TV, especially useful if you didn't want to use a computer or didn't have one.

Curiously, a very similar file structure and mentions of its codename (Gumball) suggests that this was built off the Kirby TV Channel of all things.

The service was discontinued on June 28, 2017 in favor of the HTML5 players that were being used by newer systems.

Development-Related Text#

Present in the application's files are some development-related settings, including non-working URLs for different variants of it.

debug_content_url   file:///trusted/wii_dev_shim.swf

# Debug settings
#  load from web-trunk-qa:
debug_flash_vars    dev=1&app=file://trusted/remote/https://web-trunk-qa.youtube.com/wiitv
#  load from web-release-qa:
#debug_flash_vars   dev=1&app=file://trusted/remote/https://web-release-qa.youtube.com/wiitv
#  load from horcrux (no-auto-build):
#debug_flash_vars   dev=1&relax=1&app=file://trusted/remote/http://horcrux.sbo.corp.google.com/wii/leanbacklite_wii.swf&urlmap=s.ytimg.com/yts/swfbin/apiplayer%3Dhttp://horcrux.sbo.corp.google.com/wii/apiplayer.swf%3Bs.ytimg.com/yts/swfbin/vast_ads_module%3Dhttp://horcrux.sbo.corp.google.com/wii/vast_ads_module.swf
#  load from prod:
#debug_flash_vars   dev=1
#  load from prod/Charles-ready:
#debug_flash_vars   dev=1&relax=6

banner.ini#

The banner folder (which contains the Wii save file icon and banner sprites) contains a file named banner.ini, which contains the following text:

# generic banner setting file
#
not_copy        on
anim_type       loop            # loop / bounce
title_text      YouTube         # UTF-8/URL Encoded
comment_text           %20             # UTF-8/URL Encoded
banner_tpl      banner/banner.tpl
icon_tpl        banner/icons.tpl
icon_count      1           # texture_index: 0 -> 0
icon_speed      0, normal   # texture_index, (slow|normal|fast)

static.sel#

static.sel contains the filename for YouTube's ELF executable file. Now why does it seem so familiar?

VODF_us.nand.elf

VODF_eu.nand.elf

VODF_jp.nand.elf

Unused Graphics#

"The YouTube app on this device is no longer available" screen#

While this screen isn't stored anywhere in the application's files, accessing the URL https://www.youtube.com/wiitv (normally used by the application) previously brought up a screen (in an SWF format) notifying the user that YouTube is no longer supported for their console. This screen went unused because if you were to try to access the application normally, you would just get the standard Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection discontinuation message and as a result would not be able to see this screen. This URL has now been released for use as a custom channel URL, presumably due to the discontinuation of Flash.

git_hash.jpg#

Leftover in the US v0 and v257 versions of this application are these .JPEG images, which feature a build date and (in v257) a list of modified and added/removed files.

runtime_dialog.arc#

The layout folder contains multiple folders labeled US, EU, and JP, that have different languages (except for the JP folder, which only has one) and each one containing a file called dialog.bin. This file has two files in it: cursor.arc, which contains the sprites for the cursor, and runtime_dialog.arc, which contains some layout sprites.

These are the sprites in the latter in the US and JP subfolders:

More interestingly, these are the sprites from the file of the same name in the EU subfolders:

The sprites from EU further suggests that the Wii's YouTube channel was in fact built off of the Kirby TV Channel as these sprites are from said channel. Additionally, all of the sprites above also originate from the Kirby TV Channel's layout folder (the cursor.arc file is also present in said channel's files).

Leftover Python Script#

The US v0 version of the application contains a leftover Python script used for generating certificates, update_certs.py.

#!/usr/bin/python

import glob
import os

os.chdir(os.path.dirname(__file__))
certs = glob.glob("certs/*")
delimited_list = ",".join(certs)
line = "certificate_files " + delimited_list + "\r\n"

f = open("config/certs.pcf", "w")
f.write(line)
f.close()