modding xbox? not 360
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From: newcastle wa
modding xbox? not 360
my buddy gave me his old xbox (original black one) for free. so i don't have any games for it yet, no game store is willing to buy it, and i don't wanna throw it away so i was thinking of modding it for fun may be and see what i can do. so what can i do? what kind of mods are out there and what will it do after mod it? or should i not even bother and grab a hammer and take it to an open field like office space?
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From: MAHT-O-MEDI
I have several of them. 4 old ones all modded.
I would first tell you if you want to have fun with it, you need a mod chip. I recommend an Xecuter 2.6. There are some newer ones, but since it is the only one I am familiar with its the only one I can help you with if you PM me.
They cost about $30.
You need to then solder this into your mother board. I can now do this in ten minutes in my sleep but my first one I fried the motherboard and it was junk.
Once you solder in the chip you should find any old large hard drive
and replace the ten gig that comes with the machine. Then you need to find the software on the internet to boot onto the hard drive. I forget what it is called, but xboxscene forums (modding section should help you alot)
Once this is acomplished the modchip takes over and you can run the machine more like a computer. Any game you put in the tray can now be copied to the hard drive as long as you have space, and played from the hard drive. You can also load MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) The modchip also unlocks the DVD rom as a progressive scan player. It would always play dvd's before, but now will diplay them in 480p if you have an HD tv and component cable.
Mame is a program that will run old roms for just about every pre 1997 arcade game you can think of. There are over 1200 of them. Lots of people make mame cabinets, google it. ANything you can think of you can find. Defender, Ms. Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. These are not cheap knockoffs, these are the actual programs as they played in the arcades.
You can also load StepMania onto it which is an emulator of Dance Dance Revolution and find the files for thousands of songs online or make your own.
I use one of my old Xboxes to do just that in a Mame cabinet. Its great for parties.
I would first tell you if you want to have fun with it, you need a mod chip. I recommend an Xecuter 2.6. There are some newer ones, but since it is the only one I am familiar with its the only one I can help you with if you PM me.
They cost about $30.You need to then solder this into your mother board. I can now do this in ten minutes in my sleep but my first one I fried the motherboard and it was junk.
Once you solder in the chip you should find any old large hard drive
and replace the ten gig that comes with the machine. Then you need to find the software on the internet to boot onto the hard drive. I forget what it is called, but xboxscene forums (modding section should help you alot)
Once this is acomplished the modchip takes over and you can run the machine more like a computer. Any game you put in the tray can now be copied to the hard drive as long as you have space, and played from the hard drive. You can also load MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) The modchip also unlocks the DVD rom as a progressive scan player. It would always play dvd's before, but now will diplay them in 480p if you have an HD tv and component cable.
Mame is a program that will run old roms for just about every pre 1997 arcade game you can think of. There are over 1200 of them. Lots of people make mame cabinets, google it. ANything you can think of you can find. Defender, Ms. Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. These are not cheap knockoffs, these are the actual programs as they played in the arcades.
You can also load StepMania onto it which is an emulator of Dance Dance Revolution and find the files for thousands of songs online or make your own.
I use one of my old Xboxes to do just that in a Mame cabinet. Its great for parties.
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 11,949
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From: MAHT-O-MEDI
Some plywood, formica, arcade controls (from Happ Controls) a chipped xbox, an old obsolete tv and bingo, and arcade machine that has 1200+ games!!!!
Heres Dig Dug
Here's Galaga
Here it is as a DDR machine
Heres Dig Dug
Here's Galaga
Here it is as a DDR machine
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Joined: Oct 2003
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From: MAHT-O-MEDI
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Originally Posted by vader1,Feb 28 2009, 03:22 PM
Its not TOO expensive.
Xbox used runs about $50
Modchip ~ $30
200 gig used HD ~ $30
Two sheets of plywood $50
I used 4 8-way joysticks with six fire buttons, 1 player start button, and 1 "add coin button" (if you don't want real quarter slots you push a button and it adds 1 credit) for about $100
Graphics were about $60 for the Star Wars marquee and Xmen side stickers.
Plexiglass for the front and marquee $50
Spray paint and misc part and cables $50
Four of the cheapest controllers I could find to use to solder the arcade controls to ~ $40
Probably about $460 for the whole machine.
I had a free 25 inch TV given to me for the project, a set of computer speakers and subwoofer laying around, and an old cheap flourescent light to backlight the marquee.
I slopped it together in about a weekend just to get it done. You can do a much nicer job if you take the time but I was just looking to make a quickie toy.
Its kind of cool to have if you have a big party, one minute guys are playing Donkey Kong, then they switch to Guantlet (WARRIOR NEEDS FOOD, BADLY!), then Stargate, Pac Man, an older version of Golden Tee, Smash TV. Its all there. If you saw it in the arcade, its on the machine.
You can build it the way you want with a trackball for centipede, a rotary controller for the old TRON game, or whatever you like. You just need to figure out how to solder the wires correclty. If you do not want to wire all that stuff up, it just plays of an xbox controller and the program lets you configure the control any way you want.
The hard drive also has all the old xbox stuff like Halo 2, Forza, Madden.
Xbox used runs about $50
Modchip ~ $30
200 gig used HD ~ $30
Two sheets of plywood $50
I used 4 8-way joysticks with six fire buttons, 1 player start button, and 1 "add coin button" (if you don't want real quarter slots you push a button and it adds 1 credit) for about $100
Graphics were about $60 for the Star Wars marquee and Xmen side stickers.
Plexiglass for the front and marquee $50
Spray paint and misc part and cables $50
Four of the cheapest controllers I could find to use to solder the arcade controls to ~ $40
Probably about $460 for the whole machine.
I had a free 25 inch TV given to me for the project, a set of computer speakers and subwoofer laying around, and an old cheap flourescent light to backlight the marquee.
I slopped it together in about a weekend just to get it done. You can do a much nicer job if you take the time but I was just looking to make a quickie toy.
Its kind of cool to have if you have a big party, one minute guys are playing Donkey Kong, then they switch to Guantlet (WARRIOR NEEDS FOOD, BADLY!), then Stargate, Pac Man, an older version of Golden Tee, Smash TV. Its all there. If you saw it in the arcade, its on the machine.
You can build it the way you want with a trackball for centipede, a rotary controller for the old TRON game, or whatever you like. You just need to figure out how to solder the wires correclty. If you do not want to wire all that stuff up, it just plays of an xbox controller and the program lets you configure the control any way you want.
The hard drive also has all the old xbox stuff like Halo 2, Forza, Madden.
What software are you running on it? I have a modded xbox with XBMC on it right now...this would be a cool project to breath some life back into the old forgotten xbox. Does it boot up to a list of games?