From ab56b92076efe27fc98992ca04a629f4fa6ae94a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Asger Gitz-Johansen Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2025 20:45:02 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] wip: feat: xbox modding post --- Dockerfile | 2 +- content/posts/xbox-modding.md | 114 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 115 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) create mode 100644 content/posts/xbox-modding.md diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile index 2b7b686..ea201c2 100644 --- a/Dockerfile +++ b/Dockerfile @@ -4,9 +4,9 @@ WORKDIR /hugo RUN hugo new site /hugo RUN git clone https://github.com/yihui/hugo-xmin.git themes/hugo-xmin ADD hugo.toml /hugo/hugo.toml -ADD content /hugo/content ADD static /hugo/static ADD shortcodes /hugo/layouts/shortcodes ENV PORT=1313 EXPOSE $PORT +ADD content /hugo/content CMD ["hugo", "serve", "--baseURL", "https://blog.gtz.dk/", "--bind", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "$PORT"] diff --git a/content/posts/xbox-modding.md b/content/posts/xbox-modding.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5798e92 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/xbox-modding.md @@ -0,0 +1,114 @@ ++++ +date = '2025-01-27' +draft = false +title = 'Softmod your Original Xbox Today' +tags = ['technical', 'games', 'modding'] +categories = ['technical', 'personal'] ++++ + +If you want to skip the personal story, the tutorial part starts [here]({{< ref "xbox-modding.md#softmodding-the-xbox" >}}). + +The original Xbox is a phenominal little machine. +In this post I will go over my journey of modding my own personal xbox. +Feel free to follow along, but this is mostly just a recollection of my journey for the sake of writing it down. + +## First Things First +If you own an Xbox Original and you haven't removed the clock capacitor yet, DO IT NOW. YOU SHOULD'VE DONE IT SEVERAL +YEARS AGO, IT *WILL* KILL YOUR XBOX. +Even if you are not sure if it's removed or not, please check to make sure. This is incredibly important. + +With that out of the way, let's begin. + +## The Beginnings +It all started with I was about 14 years old. +I remember it clearly. +It was early 2010 and I had saved up my allowance for a while and wanted to buy something for myself. +So as any 14 year old buy with marginal financial freedom, I went to the local GameStop just to browse. +I was already an avid Halo fan, so I was looking around at the Halo 3 and Gears of War copies that they had, as well as +the other xbox 360 games showing off on the store shelves. +But alas, I did not own an Xbox 360, or any (real) videogame console for that matter. +So I opted to buy something else, I don't remember what excactly. +What I do remember is that when I went up to the counter, I saw that they had a used Xbox original (back then we called +it the xbox 1) for sale! +And only for 1001kr! Which was... not excactly cheap at the time, but hey, I didn't know better. +I had saved up just over 1000kr! And the Halo 2 Collectors edition was bundled with it! Holy crap!! +This was a match made in heaven and I bought it on the spot in favor of whatever else I wanted. +Proud, and with my heart pumping (this was the biggest purchase I had ever done at the time), I took it home and +deliberately hid it from my mother, because she wouldn't approve of me spending my hard earned allowance on a videogame +console. + +A couple of years earlier, my sister and I received a small CRT TV with an in-built DVD player for our rooms so we +could watch movies and (some) TV in our rooms. This CRT had an S-VIDEO input. +I remember that it was such an adventure trying to figure out how to plug the Xbox to the TV. The figure-8 cable scared +me when it sparked when I plugged it into the Xbox and I thought I broke it, but I just had to change the input on the +TV. And when I finally got it working I was rewarded with the comforting green glow of the internal clock needing to be +set. I promptly pressed 'A' without changing anything, inserted the Halo 2 disc and played for the first time on my very +own video game console. + +I sneak-play'ed so much Halo 2, that I missed a lot of homework, and sleep. I distinctly remember one night I played +(with no sound mind you) for uncountable hours. Oh to be a kid again. I know that at one point my mom found out and she +didn't actually care that I "wasted" the money. She only cared about my bedtime (ugh!) and my homework (double ugh!) - +which is fair, but still. + +A couple months after the purchase, I wanted to try out the Xbox Live features and play Halo 2 online (I did not know +you'd have to pay for it) so I found a way to connect an ethernet cable to the box and tried connecting. +But I was not able to get any connection. I kept trouble-shooting and then I realized that LITERALLY THE WEEK BEFORE +Microsoft had closed the Xbox Original live service down. What a bummer dude. Welp. At least I had the Halo 2 campaign. + +## Getting a Taste for Modding +Much later. I am now in my ??'s. + +TODO: + - Building my own PC + - Building skills + - Fixing my laptop (which broke all the time) + - Modding the Wii + - Modding the Playstation 2 + +The first game console that I modded was a Wii that I bought on a flea-market for next to nothing. +Side tangent: The Wii is the _easiest_ console to softmod. You only need an SDCard - that's it. +This Wii modding lit a fire under me, and I started taking apart + +## Softmodding the Xbox {#softmodding-the-xbox} +There are a couple of directions you can take when it comes to modding the OG Xbox. +I will be exclusively *softmodding* mine, as if I were to solder anything that is required for hardmodding it, I would +at best brick the console and at worst burn my apartment to the ground. +This mod _does_ require purchasing some hardware, namely: + + - **An xbox (male) to USB (female) adapter.** + + These are increasingly difficult to find, so if you tend to drag your feet on projects like these (like I tend to) + buy it now! Or you might have to make one yourself. + + - **An older USB stick.** + + The Xbox will reject most modern USB flash drives - it has to be a fairly small one (I used a 4GiB one), and no, you + cannot just set the partition sizes to be small, the hardware has to be old. + + - **A DVD burner and some (writable and blank) DVDs.** + + This is mostly just to burn a single DVD with the softmodding tools on it. I think you can buy pre-burned discs, but + if you have a DVD burner (generally just a good doohickey to have), it's much easier to just use `xfburn` to burn the + disc yourself. + +### Software +I am using GNU/Linunx, but all of these are also available on Microsoft Windows - I haven't checked if OSX have these, +but I wouldn't be surprised. + +## TODO: + - Link to MrMario (check for peertube link as a backup) + - Xbox softmodding tool disc + - Extras (chimp) + - Holy crap the IDE hot-swapping + +## Upgrading the Xbox +Now that we have softmodded it, we can choose to upgrade the aging IDE harddrive with a slightly newer and larger +harddrive! This is totally optional, but I highly recommend it as it'll enable you to store many more games on the +console itself, rather than mucking about with DVD discs and a dying DVD drive. + +## Thanks +I would like to thank [bringus studios](https://www.youtube.com/@BringusStudios) for keeping the interest of console +hacking alive and a special thanks to [mr mario](https://www.youtube.com/@MrMario2011) for his fantastic tutorials. +Please check both of these creators out. + +{{< centered image="/6616144.png" >}}