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New Xbox 360 Homebrew Exploit

Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,

A YouTube user known as undertakencodes, posted a video of his Xbox 360 running Snes9x, a freeware Super Nintendo emulator. The video looks legit except for the light on his Xbox 360 coming on mysteriously before he inserts the disc. The exploit does not require any modification of your Xbox 360 and runs off the Xbox emulator. At this time the user has not posted any additional details. This could open the door to homebrew on the 360!

Xbox 360 Coolers Reviewed

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Accessories, Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Reviews, Xbox 360,

It is no secret that the Xbox 360 generates a bunch of heat when it runs. Overheating problems may be overblown, but there are a lot of people for whom heat is a real issue. While it is easy to get distracted by the shiny water cooling solutions, there are a couple of simple-to-use, inexpensive solutions for the average gamer. HardOCP reviews two of these, the Nyko Intercooler 360 and the Pelican Fan Stand.

Both fan solutions ultimately receive high marks from the crew at HardOCP, but there are some differences the end user should be aware of. The Pelican unit is USB powered, must be turned on and off with the power switch, and requires the Xbox 360 to be used in the vertical position. The Nyko unit powers itself through a pass through with the Xbox 360’s power supply, and can be used both horizontally and vertically. While the Nyko unit has a power switch, once it is on, the fan turns on and off with the Xbox 360.

HardOCP also ran some temperature tests against the coolers; the Nyko seemed to have a slight edge in CPU temperature, but others seemed to be a wash. Noise output was also tested in the comparison, and the Nyko seemed to be a great deal louder than the Pelican fan. For full details, check out the review on HardOCP’s site.

Rumor: Large Hard Drive, Original Xbox Homebrew Hack on Xbox 360

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, Rumors, Xbox 360,

Xbox-Scene reports on a set of images that they received from an anonymous source, purporting to be images of a work-in-progress hack for the Xbox 360. The images show:

The Xbox 360 System Blade showing a hard drive with 451 GB free
The Surreal 64 Nintendo 64 emulator for the original Xbox, with the Xbox 360 Shut Down overlay
The Avalaunch Dashboard replacement for the original Xbox, again with the Xbox 360 Shut Down overlay

Now, this kind of overlay would be a fairly easy image to fake in Photoshop. In the absence of video, it is hard to judge the veracity of these images. However, Team Xecuter has also stepped up to vouch for the accuracy of the screenshots. They cryptically suggest that “there is some way to go yet in various areas” but otherwise stand by the screens.
Read More | Team Xecuter Statement

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Day of the Tentacle To Go!: ScummVM for the PSP Released

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Adventure, Mods/Hacks, PSP, Retro,

ScummVM It’s been a good week for retro game fanatics with PSPs! Earlier, we reported on news from SEGA that they’ll be releasing a compilation of 28 of the best Genesis games for the PSP. And now, MaxConsole is reporting that a new build of ScummVM (which allows you to play games made with Lucasarts’ SCUMM engine) is available for the PSP. This will allow you to play a ton of those classic Lucasarts games you loved back in the day - think Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Loom, etc. Support has also been added for the The Legend of Kyrandia games, which were developed by Westwood Studios but also used the SCUMM engine.

For those of you interested in a bit of a history lesson, SCUMM stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion and (surprisingly enough) was created during the development of Maniac Mansion for the Commodore-64 (released in 1987). It saw various iterations and was used by Lucasarts up until 1997 on The Curse of Monkey Island.

Read More | ScummVM.org via MaxConsole.com

PSP Mod Chip Hits Stores

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, PSP,

After all the waiting, the first shipment of the Undiluted Platinum mod chip has started to hit stores. Those located in the United States can get the chip at this point from Modchipstore.com, who has confirmed stock. The chip runs for $99.95, and one can opt for professional installation for an additional $99.95.

The Undiluted Platinum offers dual firmware slots on the board, making it a perfect match for the Epsilon BIOS, and is simple to operate. Users can hold the L1 button during boot to get access to the original BIOS, allowing for unmodified use if need be, and a path to recover from an accidentally “bricked” PSP. The Undiluted Platinum firmware can be updated via USB connection. The modification includes roughly 30 solder points, so is probably not a good first project for an inexperienced modder.

Liquid Cool Your Xbox 360 And Have Fun Voiding Your Warranty

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, Release Dates, Xbox 360,

Koolance, a producer of cooling kits for PCs, has announced today that they’ll be producing the “Xbox 360 Complete Cooling Kit”. The kit includes tubing, processor heat-sink attachments for both the CPU and GPU, and a fan system / temperature read-out that will nearly triple the height of your Xbox 360. And if that’s not enough for you, the kit will only set you back about $395 US.

This might be every Xbox modder’s wet dream—although the slight benefits reaped from cooler-running processors doesn’t quite seem worth the price tag. And if you’re considering this kit for overheating issues, well then for $400 you might as well buy yourself a second Xbox 360, and just use that whenever your original Xbox 360 is in for repairs. <rant> Plus it seems like quite a steep price for fixing overheating problems that 1) should have been eliminated by Microsoft before release and 2) should be fixed for free if they’re hindering your playing experience. </rant> For now, we’ll place this mod firmly in the “just for show” category.

Koolance Offers Xbox 360 Liquid Cooling Kit

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,

Koolance, one of the big names in the PC liquid cooling field, has released a total conversion kit for the Xbox 360. For $394.99, just short of the cost of a new Xbox 360 Premium system, the modder will get Koolance’s famous Exos-LT cooling system and monitor. Also in the kit are such items as the appropriate tubing and hose clamps, the liquid coolant, and special mounting kits for the Xbox 360. Koolance does warn that the installation process can be a difficult process for the inexperienced, and that, of course, this modification will void your warranty.

For those gamers who have thermal issues, Koolance has released a tool that might help. Of course, for the price of the kit, one could replace a broken Xbox 360. The kit should also make the Xbox 360 much more quiet, and could be the basis of a great full conversion mod.

Epsilon BIOS and Undiluted Platinum Mod Demo Video

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, PSP,

QJ.net has a pointer to a video supposedly demonstrating the new Epsilon BIOS for the PSP, as used with the new Undiluted Platinum. The video link was stuck in the comments on a post about the new packaging for the modchip itself. The mod shows a PSP, with all the features of the 2.71 firmware, booting backup ISOs from the memory card for LocoRoco and Me & My Katamari as well as a home-brew application. The video ends with the a shot of the empty PSP UMD slot, showing that all the games were run off the memory stick. The video, assuming it is accurate, shows an Undiluted Platinum modchip that is clearly nearing release.

Tic Tac DS Game Case

Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Accessories, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile,

This past weekend I was in the need for a case for the few DS games I own, and luckily a Tic Tac case was nearby. After removing the Tic Tac wrapper and cleaning up the case a little bit, I was left with a carrying case that was perfect for toting 3 Nintendo DS games. It’s almost like all of these mint manufacturers plan for the re-use of their cases in the gaming community, what with the Altoids PSP game cases and all.

Potential Fix For Three Red Lights On Xbox 360

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,

Red Lights of Doom A gamer over in the ArsTechnica forums detailed how he was able to resurrect his Xbox 360 from the “three red lights” problem. Now, in this particular instance, he was able to grab a secondary error code that said the GPU was overheating, so those gamers that are getting the “lights of doom” should try and figure out what the actual issue is before diving into the console. Also, if your console is still under warranty, just get it fixed by Microsoft. There are pretty detailed instructions and pictures on how to disassemble the Xbox 360 and remove the thermal pad, but gamers attempting this fix probably shouldn’t try and use 409 to remove the thermal paste, since the cleaner doesn’t seem to react very well with aluminum; isopropyl alcohol might be a better solution here. At any rate, if you aren’t afraid of digging around the interior of the Xbox 360, and your warranty is already expired, it might be worth a shot to try and re-apply the thermal paste to the GPU. It is somewhat strange how often thermal issues have been affecting hardware recently, with both the Xbox 360 and the Macbook/Macbook Pro issues from Apple.

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