No-Solder Modchip For The Xbox

toothfish writes "There's a review of the latest generation of Xbox modchip over at xbox hacker- no solder, flashable BIOS, 15 min. install, etc. Stuff like this should make it easier for the average Xbox user to run emulators, Linux, and such. No word if it does or does not work in the latest iteration of Xbox though. Anyone from australia order one of these guys yet?"

Microsoft is fighting a losing battle...

[Ma$$acre]

In order to maintain falsely inflated software revenue from their XBox titles, they are forced to combat hacking on their hardware. Strangely enough, Sony pretty much does the same thing with regard to their software.

Even though it has been possible for some time to steal and burn PS games, I don't see many folks going out and renting a bunch of games to pirate. And I think Sony has seen the movement for what it is, a way to hack together a cheap Linux box. Microsoft, with their HDTV output is a natch for the community at large. Of course, they aren't Sony and have their OS revenue to protect as well. Thus the difference.

Now, how long before we see the Cube Linux Pack with special Nintendo Keyboard and Mouse?

Seriously though...

[autopr0n]

I mean, what's the draw of hacking the Xbox? I understand the desire to port Linux, whatever to exotic hardware like the PS2, Dreamcast, game boy advance, etc... But the Xbox is just a PC with some lockout hardware. And on top of that the system is just ugly and the games are boring (at least what I've seen advertised... totally derivative crap, mostly). Hardly even worth pirating, IMO.

Aside from Jet set radio future, are there any cool, innovative games for the Xbox? I do own one, it would be nice to have some fun with it, now that I've completed JSRF

Xbox - Multimedia station

[Dexter77]

Xbox with a modchip is very interesting concept. Since you can do almost anything with it. With 120G harddisk installed you can have :

* Portable Divx player with ~150 movies
* MP3 Player with ~2000 'CD quality' albums
* Up to 60 Xbox games on the disk
* NES and SNES emulator with every game ever published
* N64 and MAME Emulator with hundreds or even over thousand games
* Audio CD/VCD/SVCD player
* etc

Can you find any other console/mediabox/anything with these features under 400$ that you can just plug in to TV or amplifier?

This is the "Maxtrix" chip right?

[Smid]

I've been trying to track down info on this recently, but Lik-Sang has been down for days now...

Lik-Sang bought over the open-Xbox project, I think a month or so ago, and trying to work out if this is a renaming of it...

But effectively a no-solder flasher of the bios, right? Delivered with an unflashed chip, plus a flash programmer...

Strikes me is the weakness is getting the flashed bios's off the net.

Lots of information seems to be lacking for me at the moment.

1) Is this compatible with this new Xbox revision

2) Will we be able to switch it off (I want my Xbox to be unmodded really, just modded occasionally to do some things), otherwise future original MS games with barf modded Xbox's, and Xbox live...
3) What will the flashes cover? Dvd regioning? (My biggest concern). Booting unsigned discs? (Linux on Xbox) Playing import games? (this is what its been quoted for) Playing backups? (Not too bothered about that one really).

Well, this is just a set of questions. Be nice to know the answers...

The Xbox as WebTV replacement.

[jerryasher]

I'd really like to find an easy to use set top box.

My mother is basically wheel chair bound, and has visual problems. She watches a lot of TV, and has never used a computer.

She has a WebTV and can surf the web, but her WebTV will not let her watch more than 128K of movies. And I don't believe any WebTV model will. That makes those movies of my kids that much harder to distribute to her.

So I'd like to find a set-top box internet access solution for her. I haven't done a lot of looking, but it seems that the Xbox running Linux with a cordless USB keyboard may be a winning solution.

She could surf the web to see the kids, download and play their movies, print their photographs out, and all from a machine designed to work well with TVs. And when her other grandchildren come over, well they can do the first person shooter thing.

So I have high hopes for this Xbox project. I believe it can really offer a social good to a class of people that don't have a good internet solution.

Then again, if you know of other, better, also inexpensive set top box internet solutions, do let me know.

DING DING DING DING!

[Anonymous Coward]

You win! Give this man a prize!

You're right...the X-Box IS an experiment. It is Microsoft's first tentative step towards a completely-locked-down totally Microsoft-controlled PC. The success of the X-Box guarantees this will happen.

Forget about Compaq et al--Microsoft wants to own the hardware, as well as the software. Keep an eye out for it. The second they slap a keyboard, and mouse on the X-Box, the Microsoft PC will be born (and Windows will "suddenly" only work with the Microsoft-certified hardware). It will be completely DRM from the ground up (the X-box already IS).

Folks, supporting the X-Box only brings us closer to the inevitable "darker ages" of home computing (we're already deep inside the dark ages right now, in my opinion).

Re:not more xbox stuff... pleeeeeease

[RobotRunAmok]

The irony -- admittedly a literary device lost on most SlashDotters -- is that in the console arena, MS is the scrappy underdog. Their presence there is a tremendous boon to game players (ardent 14-year-old PS2 fan boys not included, of course). It is the XBox which is causing $ony to drop prices, expedite online muti-player, and generally just keep in line and look over their shoulder. They have entered an industry in dire need of a competitive shake-up, and are one of the few companies with the resources to be taken seriously by the existing $ony and Nintendo monoliths.

Microsoft Xbox -- it's a Good Thing.

Of course, if you subscribe to the conspiracy theory that Bill Gates is the Grand Lizard of the Illuminati and that XBox is his tool to effect a plan for World Domination hatched during the Fall of the Knights Templar, a simple discussion regarding game industry economics is probably not going to sway you much...