Retro Video Gamer

Need help modding my xbox, no rom chat though.
Discuss  :D

I modded my xbox sometime ago to run XBMC, the best media center you can possibly have..

What help do you need mate?

I have never modded any system. Always wanted to do the Xbox mod. Guess the DreamCast spoiled me on any mods. I would like to hear your progress and help if I can.

Well I picked up an xbox for £9 at a cash converters, and thought Hmmm I can put mame on this and put it in my arcade cabinet.

I have found out there are four ways to mod this beastie,

1. Modchip
2. TSOP Mod
3. Softmod
4. Hotswap

http://only99cents.wordpress.com/2008/0 ... your-xbox/ (http://only99cents.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/the-different-ways-to-mod-your-xbox/)

now I want to try the TSOP method....

QuoteA TSOP mod requires you to open up your xbox, solder a few points, then use an exploitable game and gamesave to flash your onboard TSOP chip with a bios. The soldering is easy and the flashing is easy.

However there is one xbox in the process of getting this mod- but there are some problems flashing the bits to the bobs.

Maybe Doug can explain! 

Having previously softmodded a couple of xboxes (Bert and Ernie font hack through 007 Agent under fire exploit) and also TSOP'ed my own xbox again using 007 AUF as the way in to flash the bios (TSOP) it's always been pretty simple. But recently I set up 3 Xboxes (1.1 and 1.2 versions) for my brother with the points soldered for TSOP, but the problem has been getting the 00& AUF gamesave exploit to work to gain access for the flashing part.
I have tried several of the hacked gamesaves but none are working for me now, tried a Raincoat one, Evox (my favourite dashboard) ones but so far all just come up as corrupt gamesaves when I try to run them.

I'm beginning to think it may be an updated dashboard on the consoles locking them out but I don't recall ever having that problem previously. Anyone any comments so I can get this one done and we can help Carl to do his mod?

Looks like I have a V1 mine was built in Hungary.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/versions_0.php (http://www.xbox-scene.com/versions_0.php)

I wonder If mine will swallow the stuff without problems?

Shouldn't be a problem, if I can just get a gamesave hack working here...

just bought this from ebay, might try the game save route first.

But need a controller still.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390526892835? ... 1439.l2649 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390526892835?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649)

and splinter cell of course.

I went the chip route with Evo x slayer auto installer.

Not throwing stuff away pays off, I found my old Logic arcade stick- it has xbox compatibility and a memory card slot!

Splinter cell just purchased. If this works It will be epic

well, the cadr and Mame cd have turned up already.
Splinter Cell was  £1.27! inc P+P just waiting for that now.

Quote from: "Carl"well, the cadr and Mame cd have turned up already.
Splinter Cell was  £1.27! inc P+P just waiting for that now.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300850391252? ... 1439.l2649 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300850391252?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649)

no splinter cell yet, but heres a vid that I found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ_yCtcOwtY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ_yCtcOwtY)

Looks like we both bought the same, Splinter Cell and gamesave on mem card 
I'm hoping this will work but found out that my brother has given me his original Xbox to do, which was chipped (the modchip was removed as it stopped working) and has a large hard drive installed with loads of stuff on I mustn't lose. I think this hard drive may be what is stopping the gamesave hacks from working. He has two more for me to try when he can get them to me though.

Quote from: "dougtitchmarsh"Looks like we both bought the same, Splinter Cell and gamesave on mem card 
I'm hoping this will work but found out that my brother has given me his original Xbox to do, which was chipped (the modchip was removed as it stopped working) and has a large hard drive installed with loads of stuff on I mustn't lose. I think this hard drive may be what is stopping the gamesave hacks from working. He has two more for me to try when he can get them to me though.

The hard drive sounds like the culprit to me, did you get a mame dvd with yours? I assume I can save that to the herd drive ones its unlocked, avoiding ftp transfer.

I did get the CD, not sure what's on it as I haven't looked. Hopefully it may be a setup program for you which will automatically add all the stuff you'd want. There are a few good ones (like SlaYeRs) which do all the copying of files etc. to get you started.

well that was easy!

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-jxjzrS52nlw/UR_DfWefekI/AAAAAAAABBo/GqJcP6THhCk/w507-h515-p-o-k/100_3264.JPG)

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4kQPKxCVHOg/UR_DfchMd1I/AAAAAAAABBk/8aR1BPVPSOE/s646/100_3265.JPG)

just waiting for the PlayStation to x box controller converters and I am set.

Great news then Carl. 
Cabinet looks good too, I think you'll be happy with the Xbox as its inner workings too, nice front end and all on the joystick control. I've spent hours earlier trying to sort out the PC in my cabinet and locating shortcuts that the buttons kept tripping, something you won't need to worry about.

Also got the Splinter cell game yesterday, and the gamesave on memory a few days ago. Immediately softmodded the box I've been playing with. Now all the stuff which was already on the huge hard drive is available once again. 

thats great news doug, Mame ox is to massive for my harddrive, so I had set the box up to auto run the dvd.


would I be right in saying that I could transfer the game saves to a fresh card for any good people here?

Should be able to, copy from hard drive back to memory card using MS dashboard. Apparently some of my problems were with transferring the save, I was FTP'ing direct to the card which I now read can cause problems. It has to go to the Xbox HDD and then onwards to the card using the Xbox dash to copy it. Unfortunately my originally modded xbox has no MS dash on it which works now. 

there must be a retail dash hack somewhere!

the softmod wont install unless you make a back up of the retail dash so I guess it must exist in a file on a softmod xbox, maybe you can transplant it.

I got obsessed with the idea of playing Phantom Dust on the xbox and ended up having to "Soft Mod" it via the "Mech Warrior" exploit, I dunno how much we can talk about this here but if its ok to talk about in more detail let me know, otherwise I'll just help people via pm. I'm sure its cool to discuss but I'd always rather check first before posting personally

Discussion regarding modding and possible hacking chat, should be okay, but at no time, have links to be posted to point to the subject matter, iso Roms or otherwise is forbidden to discuss, but please try to keep it in a generalised manner, rather than in dept or in a mapped out on how to etc..

Great little topic btw..loved reading about it..

I have EvO mod chip in mine..

I received my xbox to playstaion controller converters so now my cabinet is fully operational!

I would recommend the adapters as xbox pads seem to be rocking horse shit on ebay, so a shame to mod one for a stick.

ok well if anyone wants assistance with the softmod option PM me and I'll happily discuss over email.

I'll explain briefly what I did without providing any links or anything, hopefully this won't be in breach of anything I'm just keen to share what a hassle it was to go through lol

So I found out that there is a way to modify the xbox with software rather than putting in a chip and messing around with an expensive, technical solution, and basically it means that your Xbox boot system will be different and can have optional things like storing games on the harddrive, movies, being able to play any region etc, so that's what I did to try and play Phantom Dust on the Xbox, and it worked much to my utter amazement!! because for some stupid reason they never released it to PAL

eventually I considered the idea of changing the harddrive so as to store more stuff on it locally but gave up on it as it took a lot of messing around to find a harddrive that would work and I ended up having to do a lot of pricking around on my pc with cables and unscrewing the xbox and dicking around with IP forwarding and ports etc so I gave up lol But at least I can play any region game I want now

Share anything you like as long as its not illegal ROMs

this is no different to the splinter cell soft mod?
No probs talking about that, just no linking to rom sites etc.

This whole thread is about actually doing the mod, thats fine. We might want to mod our xboxes but then throw them of a cliff! nothing illeagal there, so fire away! 

well yeah ok if its cool to talk about it. I found out from a nameless site that a couple of games had an exploit where you could mod the software by performing something, though I can't remember what it was, I'd have to go back and learn it all again lol. But basically I used the Mech Warrior exploit that allowed me to softmod my console. I can give you a link to the site where I learned how to do it all but I can't guarantee that the site won't have roms, which is why I hesitated to say anything

Hey Carl, if you have a Cash Convertors near you they may have some Xbox controllers if yo're still looking. Our local one had 2 for sale at £1.50 each an ideal price for hacking

I'm still trying to win a Crystal Xbox for my games room...

That is cool but I am now using these.....
(http://i01.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/569532269_1/Swith-font-b-Adapter-b-font-for-PS-PS-2-font-b-PS2-b-font-Converter.jpg)
very good too!

Picture doesn't show Carl, I had a USB to PS adaptor I used to use on my PC until I discovered the Xbox controller was a better fit for me and easy to make a USB adaptor for. Horses for courses though and whatever works best for you is the one to have 

if you find xbox conrtollers, it could be worth a flip on ebay.

I've soft-modded quite a few xbox's.

@Carl, I take it that Blaze memory unit worked? I never got any 3rd party units to work properly. I thought it had to be an official memory unit.

This is one of mine
(http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee342/stvd_games/P1030189.jpg)
(http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee342/stvd_games/P1030188.jpg)

yeah that was the other thing I wanted to mod and change my HDD for, I was considering putting emulators on it etc, that would be awesome. Do you guys have any cheap HDD suggestions that I could buy that would work with my PAL original Xbox? at the time I was hoping to not buy but if I can get one for 20 quid or so I might be tempted

Quote from: "dot.fyre"I've soft-modded quite a few xbox's.

@Carl, I take it that Blaze memory unit worked? I never got any 3rd party units to work properly. I thought it had to be an official memory unit.

This is one of mine
(http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee342/stvd_games/P1030189.jpg)
(http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee342/stvd_games/P1030188.jpg)

that looks very slick indeed! 

yep the card worked fine, no problems with it at all.

My HDD's never cost more that £20.
The one in the picture has a 320GB but that
has around 30-40 Xbox games on it too.

I'd say for emulation only, a 40 or 80GB is fine.
Never had a problem with any HDD working.
Mine were all bought second hand. SATA works (apparently)
with an adapter I guess. ATA is easier.
I did the hotswap method using the Chimp program.
I won't lie, I was pretty nervous the first time I tried it! 

Hi dot.fyre, is that XBMC in use there as the dashboard?

Yep. Don't ask what version though! 
I never update it.
My motto is, "If it works, leave it alone."

I used the AID disc (Auto Installer Deluxe).
It allows you to set the dasboard as XBMC (or evox, avalaunch etc.)

how does that work? I'm interested to know more, I have IDE drives etc, but are you saying it would work better with a SATA via adapter?

TBH I don't know, maybe they'll be faster but
I doubt you'd notice. SATA with an adapter would probably give you
problems with fitting it in. Space is tight in the xbox.
It's an IDE that's in it already so replacing it with another (bigger) IDE HDD
is the easiest thing to do.

right... which is what I did but it never seemed to work via the method I used so I was wondering if you could ellaborate a bit on the one you used?

Is yours softmodded?
How did you install it? Just put it in?
As I said I used chimp. I'll simplify it a bit but if your going to do it
I suggest getting a better FAQ than what I'm about to do! 
Setup your softmod.
Make sure Chimp is installed as an app.
Open xbox.
Ready your HDD - set to slave IIRC.
(you also need a way to power the new hdd)
Boot xbox.
Find your Chimp app. Don't run it yet.
At this point you pull out the IDE lead from the xbox DVD and plug it into the new HDD.
Power the new HDD up.
Run Chimp. (again I suggest getting up-2-date instructions on this)
Basically, it clones the std HDD to your new HDD.
Wait for it to clone the hdd.
You then lock the new hdd (within chimp)
Power off the xbox.
Replace the old hdd with the new one.
Replace the xbox's dvd IDE lead.
Check it boots using the new HDD.
Done.

Sounds a bit fiddly and to be fair the first time I did it it was.
And nerve racking.
But it's fairly straight forward.

I think I'll do some googling for this before going forward, I assume you have to put any emulators or whatever else you want on the drive, onto it AFTER you do the Chimp swap?

Mine is softmodded yeah it turns on and boots in softmod mode if I press the eject button I believe

Yep, just clone the drive with the minimum of data on it (it's quicker obviously) ie. soft-mod it and maybe even set up what dashboard you want.
Then if anything goes wrong (fingers crossed, it wont) you'll still have your original HDD, already soft-modded and ready to go back in.


How did you upgrade the HDD before?
I tried (and failed) several times to do it by connecting to a PC.  Using a program (can't remember the name) to extract the HDD password. Burning a CD with the info on it blah blah blah.
Never worked. But I did completely lock-up 2 HDD's. Neither would read in the xbox or PC once I'd finished with them. 
Never had any problems with the Chimp hot-swap method.

Mine in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p4DdUJpO9I (//http)

Lots of information. Thank you all for explaining in-depth!

XBMC is an awesome program, running it on my PC.