Wii Internet Channel now supports Flash!

Good news developers! As a followup to my earlier (rather short) post regarding future Flash support for the Wii, it seems as though my hopes have come true (mostly).

I recently was able to get my Wii connected to the internet again, when I stumbled upon a notice that the Internet Channel had a new update available. Curious, I prowled the web for any information regarding this new update. Sadly, I found no official source, however the Internet Channel's Wikipedia page state:

"In addition it updated Flash Player to Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 which corresponds to a full implementation of Adobe Flash version 8 with certain features of Flash 9." -- Footnote: The Wii Browser now Identifies its self as "AFL 9,1,122,0" to Flash applications as can be seen by visiting
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/155/tn_15507.html in the Wii Browser.

So, Flash Lite, that is a great start on Nintendo's part. Sadly, it doesn't contain the fancy 3d features of Flash 10 or even the Vector class I love so, but it is a start.

For people wanting to start developing in FlashLite, it is basically like regular ActionScript, but 'stripped down' missing several libraries. If I can find some time I'll try to track down a list of what classes FlashLite is lacking.

Until then, here are some helpful links for aspiring FlashLite developers:
Adobe's FlashLite FAQ - http://www.adobe.com/products/flashlite/faq/
Adobe's "Getting Started With FlashLite 2.x and 3.0" - http://livedocs.adobe.com/flashlite/3.0/docs/help.html?content=Part4_API_Ref_1.html
And of course, my favorite, the Language Reference, can be found on that same page as listed above.


Also, as a final note, here are a last few Wii/Flash links I have yet to look into which look (at least two of them) promising:

WiiFlash (http://wiiflash.bytearray.org/)
Connects directly to the WiiMote using your computer's BlueTooth connection, and accesses it from Flash through your localhost address. Pretty smart. :) That would be a great workaround for many features not currently available natively in Flash. I seem to be getting "Security Sandbox" errors, but it seems like it's working for other people. Not sure if it works in online games, though.

WiiCade API (http://wiicade.com/home.aspx)
There is supposed to be some sort of support for which allows you to use the "arrow buttons" on the Wiimote as if they were the WASD keys on the keyboard. I'm not sure how they pull it off, and current games look quite crappy and cheap. If anyone has any experience in using this API, please comment.

Wii Opera SDK (http://wiioperasdk.com/)
It looks like a thirteen year old who just learnt how to use FrontPage developed the site, so I can't help but be a little suspicious. I have no earthly idea what kind of support this has, so again, any outside comments are appreciated.