x-box - softmodding

[TCD]

I have a 16 Mbps/No limit flatrate for 35€ (~55 CAD). Monopolies are really bad for the prices I hope that will change someday. We had the same situation 10 years ago and opening the market really helped it (even if the 'Telekom' wasn't happy with it ).

[gklinger]

I'm using cable broadband rather than DSL and my provider doesn't have a legal monopoly so much as a practical one. No one else has spent the money to build the infrastructure necessary to compete with them. Anyway, our broadband rates aren't very attractive in Canada and this post is way off-topic.

[Visper]

Am I a weird guy? because one of my fave xbox games is "Trigger Man", awarded by IGN with a 2.0 rating

[Anubis]

I guess this is your own review.

I like Ninja Gaiden on XBox.

[Visper]

Originally Posted by Anubis

I guess this is your own review.

It must be a review from one of the programmers

Presentation, graphics and sounds are shit but I agree with the "lasting appeal". I usually don't play modern games but when one gets me hooked, I can't stop playing until I beat it and that's what happened with Trigger Man

[Adropac2]

Galleon is a charming game as is Beyond good and Evil.Red Star never released on Xbox but it's well worth tracking down if you can as it's pure class.And of course Halo is worth the price alone of an Xbox these days - i bought mine at launch for 300 quids and it was one of the best things i'd ever done.That and my us N64

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Adropac2

"The Red Star" never released on Xbox but it's well worth tracking down if you can as it's pure class.

Oooh. An unreleased classic, sneaked out the back door eh? Need to track this one down...

[Adropac2]

Oops

[alexh]

I think such talk is not strictly permitted here

[Adropac2]

Actually i think it was one of the actual guys that worked on it that leaked this before Acclaim went tits up (could be wrong)

And of course i only meant as in back up, sorry i thought you had the original PS2 version of course

[alexh]

There was a pre-release version sneaked out The_Red_Star_Pal_Unsigned_Xbox-Xtasy but look at the date... I wonder if that is why the X-box version was cancelled?

[Adropac2]

Sorry Alex what does the date signify?

Glad they did release though and to be fair you want all that hard work to be seen.Would have been a crying shame had we not got this in some form.No such problems with the PS2 though which is certainly odd

One of my faves this

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Adropac2

Sorry Alex what does the date signify?

It's only a few months after the close of Acclaim and 2 years before the commercial PS2 release!

[Adropac2]

Ah i think i see , you suggesting that the leak forced there not to be an xbox version in the end? is that what you meant

It's all a bit odd, perhaps they didn't think much money could be made from the smaller xbox audience, but having a finished version already, why would they

All a bit strange ah well

I tell what is rather good now that Xbox 1 is no longer, cheap sealed games.Mostly 3 or 4 quid with the really special ones like Panzer costing a bit more.Still yet to get myself a sealed Beyond though

For anyone wanting to try some missed xbox games from these years, Freedom Fighters is a little different as is Metal arms and Psychonauts.Well worth a look

[Anubis]

I played Brute Force for a first time last night. It is nice game with couple of nice touches such as smart AI (AI trying to use surroundings to cover etc.) even in normal mode.

I also played a bit PoP Warrior Within, one of the PoP games that I was missing. I was surprised how playable this game is, but had some problems to block enemy attacks. (That girl that is wearing costume a la Dizzy killed me first time I got to that point)

OutRun 2 is really nice game, especially arcade part.

[Adropac2]

To be honest Brute wears a bit thin after so long but maybe you feel differently.It was hyped up to be the next Halo by MS themselves, Bill Gates himself i think actually - it wasn't

Outrun2 coast to coast is basicly the extended version and very nice it is.Doesn't quite boast the tightness of the original 86 game but it's a real nice game like you said - wasted on people that don't understand or use scoring of course.Chuck it on hardest to make it more satisfyingly fun

Iv'e heard from firiends and just the media generally that Pop got worse with each version they did.I don't think that would stop me playing them all though but they might have a tough time beating Sands of time

Crimson Skies is rather fab

[Anubis]

Later PoP games are more like more of the same. Some interesting stories, but repetitive gameplay.

I like Crimson Skies, so that's the reason I have it.

Last night for a first time I tried Alien versus Predator Extinction. I just did tutorials, and game does look promising. It is a bit unusual to play strategy game on console, but it is not impossible. (I completed WarCraft II and C&C on PSX many years ago)

As I mentioned on other topics, I did play some AnD just for funny cut scenes.

[hitchhikr]

Oki i did the hotswap stuff (by just removing the plug from the dvd drive), just plugged the hd into the pc, booted in windows, used xplorer360 to drag'n'drop the exploit and the Unleash X files into it and voila (as a matter of fact a very few amount of files are really needed).

I looked into the exploit i used and seen that it's rather simple as it's using a small piece of code embedded inside C:\FONTS\ERNIE.XTF to load & run a xbe file called E:\SYSTEME\PBL.XBE which supposedly flashes the rom with XBIOS.BIN (although i doubt that this operation was successful on a crystal xbox) and run the file E:\SYSTEME\DASHBOARD\HACKDASH.XBE.

So the exploit sequence in the XBOX goes like that BIOS > c:\XBOXDASH.XBE > load all 3 fonts (BERTY.XTF, ERNIE.XTF & S.XTF) and C:\MEDIA\CELLWALL.XBG > *exploit triggered here* > E:\SYSTEME\PBL.XBE > XBIOS.BIN (if possible) > E\SYSTEME\DASHBOARD\HACKDASH.XBE (the dashboard loads E\SYSTEME\DASHBOARD\CONFIG.XML & all it's data from the directory E:\UDATA\9e115330) and that all.

Sorry for the dirty details but i've read quite a lot of tutorials all around and they got me confused a bit for nothing + i like to "demystify" such stuff.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by hitchhikr

I looked into the exploit i used and seen that it's rather simple as it's using a small piece of code embedded inside C:\FONTS\ERNIE.XTF to load & run a xbe file called E:\SYSTEME\PBL.XBE

I'm not sure this is a recent softmod. But if it works who cares. Just make sure you didnt use a REALLY old one that suffers from clock loop!

Originally Posted by hitchhikr

PBL.XBE which supposedly flashes the rom with XBIOS.BIN

The onboard flash is read only unless you modify the motherboard! PLB (Pheonix BIOS loader) does not flash anything. It patches memory and re-routes BIOS calls to XBIOS.BIN which is loaded into memory in a sort of TSR. Later softmods use NKpatcher. (Details)

Originally Posted by hitchhikr

(although i doubt that this operation was successful on a crystal xbox)

It is quite unlikely that it would work on a box with a Xcalibur video encoder.

Originally Posted by hitchhikr

Sorry for the dirty details but i've read quite a lot of tutorials all around and they got me confused a bit for nothing + i like to "demystify" such stuff.

As I said I am not sure this is a safe softmod. Need to research a bit more. Now that you've got access to your hard drive via FTP it might be worth re-working it with NDure. The last and arguably best softmod.

[hitchhikr]

The files i used i extracted them from the ndure install (the ones which were meant to be included in the linux iso file).