Well, today is Easter. That means, if anything is going to go wrong with the kids’ gaming system, today is the day. Why? Because you can’t call tech support on a holiday (or a weekend for that matter) and get help.
My son wanted to play on the Wii and download one of the games that requires Wii Points. Like any responsible parent would, I enabled Parental Controls on the Wii when I set it up. And like 90% of the parents out there (based on the google searches I found), I somehow managed to forget the PIN. After trying every combination of numbers I could think I’d ever use, the Wii decided I’d gone too far, and asked me my recovery question. “What is my favorite movie?” Now, this should not be a hard question! But… every attempt in that area failed too! Still no Parental Controls unlock.
At some point, the Wii said, call consumer support, give them this 7 digit number and they’ll give you a master password. Wii Support is closed. Luckily, being a man of resources and desperate to stop the crying (me), I turned to my trusty search engine. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was not alone in my plight… I found a website that indicated a guy named Marcan had written a script that would provide a code. I obligingly clicked the link, which presented a very simple page, enter the number and today’s date. Viola a Parental Controls Master Password!
Now comes the test, I run downstairs with the number and enter it into my Wii… and… Life is good again!
The program to generate the code can be found at: http://wii.marcansoft.com/parental.psp
Now, I do have to say that I am a little confused as to what number I might have originally picked, or what movie for that matter… but it’s up and running now, and I’ve made sure to tell my wife the info as well. I now also have a nifty program GPass, which lets me store and encrypt passwords. So I just need to remember the key to unlock that program.