I just bought an oXbox for the first time (sorta)

[Ziggy]

Thanks for the tips, Jag!

1) Did you try ripping the game straight from disc drive to your softmodded XB HDD? Even if stock 8GB, can usually fit 2 or so games on there. Would tell you if disc is clean. You should see an app like DVD2XBOX that allows you to rip from console tray to HDD.

I did not yet try this, but maybe I will later today.

I'm on the latest version of UnleashX, and I see a "rip game to HDD" option in the menu. Can I use that? Or do I need the DVD2XBOX app?

2) Try clearing cache on softmodded xbox. Some people edit the configuration text files, but I always did this method and worked straight from dash file mgmt:
https://youtu.be/P3GDj3baylg?si=gpCezUCzvqmxJeOb
I would keep that XB_sound file if you see it too lol

With the latest version of UnleashX, there's a clear cache option right there in the menu. I've used it a few times, but still the game freezes. I will try and do it manually as shown in the above video.

DM me if you don't have the "HDD Ready" game files. Can FTP right over using an app like FileZilla. They're out on the web, but I think links were hidden from public searches at one point. I used this, even on games I owned, to save wear & tear on disc drive.

I'm a little confused if this is even totally necessary at this point. This page states that Cerbios has "native XISO Support." I take that as meaning I can load an XISO image to the HDD and boot it directly, without needing to build special folders or whatever ("HDD ready"). Is this correct?

Ultimately I plan to flash Cerbios on the softmodded 1.1, and put a mod chip in the 1.0 Xbox.

What size HDD is in the modded system? Lots of options these days to swap out.

Both Xboxes currently have their stock HDD in them, which IIRC are both 8GB. I plan to upgrade both after they get hard modded. I plan to put an SSD in both. I already have two 80 conductor PATA cables that were specially built for the Xbox, and in my box of spare parts I already have two 2.5" to 3.5" drive adapters. I just need to pick up two PATA/SATA adapters (I plan to get the StarTech ones) and the drives themselves. I decided to go with SSD because they are so freaking cheap now. I realize that the oXbox cannot take advantage of their true speed, but the seek time will still be an improvement. Not to mention they're lighter, draw less power and make less heat.

[Jagosaurus]

Nice on cache clear made easier. Dang, that always worked for my copy of Halo 2.

Yeah, sounds like that shortcut will accomplish the same end result as DVD2XBOX. I was working off the latest Unleashed X from 2016 only 8 years old.

I personally don't have much experience with mod chips/HW mods on the OGX. The rip to HDD from disc tray method essentially makes the file structure proper to run off the HDD, same with the "HDD Ready" game files out there. Mod chips may be able to boot raw ISO images, I just have no personal experience there.

... this thread has me wanting a modded 360 . Been eyeing that scene too.

[Ziggy]

All of this is what I think, and not necessarily 100% fact...

oXbox games are padded up the wazoo. So a straight ISO is a very large file (most are DL, over 4.7GB, from what I've seen so far) but the XISO image is much smaller. Apparently all oXbox games have a video partition on the disc, so if you put the game in a DVD player or computer you'll get some kind of video that says "this disc is meant for..." or something of that nature. An XISO image removes that video partition and whatever padding, it is simply just the game files. So for example, Tony Hawk 2X is a 6GB ISO, but a 789MB XISO.

When ripping games to the HDD, obviously you'd rather have just the game files as to take up less space. From what I gather, the DVD2XBOX or whatever rip disc to HDD app simply takes the needed game files off the disc and copies them to a folder on your HDD. I would assume that the "HDD built" files you can download are just that, the same as you would get if you used the rip to HDD function. And I think I've read that there's some apps out there that will allow you to convert an ISO to HDD ready files. Obviously that's an extra step, not to mention the time, which is why I think people made the HDD ready files available to download as an alternative to ISOs.

XISO seems like it's newer to the oXbox scene. Like I said, it removes the fluff from the image, but it is still an image versus HDD files. And actually, you get GameName.XISO.ISO, and you can still burn it to a DVD and play it in your Xbox. So it's a little more handy than HDD built files. But being that it's newer, it's not natively supported by everything out there. So for example, I can't load an XISO onto the HDD and boot it with UnleashX. But from what I'm reading, there are certain (newer) dashboards and/or BIOS that can natively handle XISO. Like the new Cerbios, that can load an XISO.

Anyway, everything I just said above might not be accurate. I'm still very new to the oXbox scene. Which makes it harder to get up to speed, because you sorta have to sift through what might be outdated. For example, I've seen plenty of pages in Google searches talking about the HDD built files, or converting an ISO to HDD files with an app. But this page says that Cerbios has "native XISO support." I'm just assuming that means I can load the XISO to the HDD and boot the game directly, without anything else needed.

And from what I've been reading, as far as soft mod versus hard mod goes... Hard mods sound like they can do a lot more. If you're soft modded, you just have to solder a couple of wires to enable flashing to the TSOP (unless you have a 1.6). Then you can flash a BIOS and do a lot more. Alternatively, you can install a mod chip and load the BIOS from there instead. The mod chip doesn't do a whole lot by itself, except allow you to flash a BIOS or load one from the mod chip. And IIRC, the mod chip that I got has enough space to flash multiple BIOSes, and then I can select between them when booting (you can have one auto launch, or make hot keys I think).

And speaking of that... I have yet to come across where I can download a BIOS from. No one really makes the links handy. I'm thinking of starting with Cerbios and EvoX M8+ on the mod chip, then seeing which one I like better and flashing that to the TSOP on the other Xbox.




ANYWAY... I got Tony Hawk 2X working!

I did follow that video you linked and manually deleted some cache files. Not sure if that would have helped load the DVD or not, because I just went straight for ripping the disc to the HDD. I didn't have enough room on the HDD initially. But then I noticed there was actually a game ripped to the drive already, it just wasn't in the game folder so it wasn't showing up under "Games" from the main menu. So I deleted it, then there was plenty of room to install Tony Hawk 2X. I actually used the XISO DVD that I burnt, and it took about 10 minutes to rip. I had to power cycle the console to get it to show up under "Games" form the main menu, but then it booted and worked perfectly! I'm not sure what happened there, but I'm just glad I got it working.

[Ziggy]

I installed the mod chip in my 1.0 Xbox yesterday.

After fiddling with it and learning more, I think the mod chip is really unnecessary unless you have a 1.6 revision console. So the Xbox has a TSOP chip which stores the BIOS (hence why people say "TSOP modded" etc). When you have a mod chip fitted, it bypasses the TSOP BIOS on the Xbox and boots a BIOS from the mod chip itself (although you still have the option to boot form the TSOP). I thought that was nifty, but really after thinking about it and learning more, it's really not needed at all. The 1.6 revision Xbox removed the TSOP, so a mod chip is the only option to boot a hacked BIOS on it. But all other revisions that have the TSOP, I think you're better off just flashing a hacked BIOS to the TSOP and forgoing the mod chip.

Where the mod chip excels, aside from 1.6 revision consoles, is the ability to repair an Xbox with malfunctions. If you have a corrupt BIOS or a bad DVD or hard drive, you can use a mod chip to fix those issues. Although you could always desolder the TSOP and flash it in an external programmer, and I think you could then fix those issues in more or less the same way, but I guess this doesn't get mentioned because most people don't have the ability/equipment to do that. But even if you do, fitting the mod chip is still probably easier to do.

Another benefit of the mod chip, at least the one I have, is the ability to flash multiple BIOSes to it. You can set it to auto boot a BIOS, or you can pick which one you want to load. The cool thing about that is the ability to try out different BIOSes without having to constantly reflash them (which is never advisable). So I have mine loaded up with the new Cerbios as well as EvoX M8+. I can easily swap between them simply by hard resetting the Xbox. I thought this was a great feature to have, since I'm pretty much brand new to the OG Xbox scene. But in reality, in 2024, I think you can just go with Cerbios and be done with it. EvoX M8+ does boot a little faster, but Cerbios seems like it's more capable.

All that said, I've found a drawback to using a mod chip that I haven't seen anyone talk about online. I have an Open Xenium mod chip with PrometheOS installed on it. Even if I have the mod chip set to auto boot Cerbios with no delay, when I boot cold boot my Xbox I have to sit through three splash screen. First the PrometheOS screen, then the Cerbios screen, then the dashboard splash screen. The PrometheOS and Cerbios splash screens are each several seconds long. So a cold boot is now much longer. I'm thinking if I removed the mod chip and flashed the TSOP, that would cut down on one splash screen when booting the console. And I might just do that! I guess I'll wait to decide between Cerbios and EvoX M8+, then flash the winner to the TSOP.

edit: I guess the mod chip as a safer thing then flashing the TSOP. You can always remove the mod chip. But if you have a bad flash, you're kinda screwed if you don't have the ability to desolder the TSOP.

Another thing I was sorta scratching my head over was what exactly a "soft mod" is, in terms of the oXbox. Because if you flash the TSOP or install a mod chip, you'll still only have the stock Xbox dashboard. So you always have to install a dashboard. But what exactly is a soft mod, outside of installing a dashboard? I thought all the soft mod did was install a dashboard, but I've read on some forums people saying hard mods and soft mods don't play nice together. I have no idea what that means. So I can only assume that a "soft mod" installs a dashboard but also has some other software trickery to do stuff with a stock BIOS. At the end of the day, all a "hard mod" is is a hacked BIOS, you still need software. That's why I'm a little confused. People are always saying that a hard mod is better than a soft mod. But don't you need both?

edit: OK, I found on some random forum post, a soft mod does install an exploit to the HDD. On a soft modded Xbox with a stock BIOS, when you boot the console the exploit is triggered which loads the custom dashboard. If you have a hacked BIOS (TSOP flashed or mod chip installed) then you don't need that exploit. Some people say they will clash, I've read one person say it doesn't matter.

Anyways... I think I have everything I need to install an upgraded HDD. So I might do that today.

[Ziggy]

I decided to mess around with different installer discs and other things. I'm just trying to decide which BIOS and dashboard I want before I go ahead and put a new HDD in there.

With the mod chip installed, you cannot flash the TSOP in the Xbox. So what I might end up doing is restoring the HDD to factory, then remove the mod chip, which would be a stock console at that point, then use an exploit to flash the BIOS. Then I can swap the HDD out and do a clean install with whatever dash I decide on.

Cerbios has support for UDMA6, which may help after I install the SSD with an 80-conductor cable. But I'm not a fan of how long it takes to load. Also, whenever it switches from splash screens it causes a sync hiccup and I find that to be annoying. When I load the EvoX M8+ BIOS, it loads faster and has no hiccups. When I load EvoX, I like that it's faster and by default has the stock Xbox animation (I think they call this flubber LOL). There's a few other things that I don't like, but can be fixed with a config tool prior to flashing. Although it will always lack UDMA6. Also, Cerbios is still under development. It's the only Xbox BIOS that still is, AFAIK. So it's probably worth just sticking with it. And if I want the original "flubber" Xbox splash screen, apparently I can restore that with a simple tweak to an ini file.

Cerbios has the abillity to load CCI game image files, which is a Cerbios Compressed ISO. This is really neat since games will take up less room on the HDD, but I'm not sure if I want to go this route or not. The .XISO.ISO images are already trimmed, although not compressed. I've already been collecting XISO format games. If I want to go with CCI, there's an app on the PC that will convert (compress) them. But to be honest, I'm not looking to fit the entire Xbox library on a HDD. I'm just going to throw on the games that I actually want to play. And if I ever run out of room, I can just remove some games in order to add more. Most of the XISO games that I've downloaded so far are 1 or 2 GB, with some being 3 or 4 GB. I have a 500 GB SSD that I plan to use inside the Xbox. Even if every game is 4 GB, that's 125 games I can fit on it. I would be very, very surprised if there's ever a time that I felt like I needed any where close to 100 games on the HDD. But yeah, since the average game is less than 4 GB, I can probably fit closer to 200 games on the HDD. And then even if there comes a time that I have 200 games on the HDD, I'm sure by then a 1 TB SSD will be as cheap as the 500 GB one is now. Which is why I picked the 500 gig SSD, because of the price.

As for dashboards, I think I may end up sticking with UnleashX. It loads really fast, is intuitive enough, and works well. Although I will be experimenting more with XBMC4Gamers.





It's pure eye candy, but xbmc4gamers has a really nice UI for playing games off the HDD. It seems to be very customizable too. IIRC, if you connect your Xbox to the internet you can download the covers for games. So setting that up is a real cinch, if that's what you want to do. Also for XISO format games, which is what I have right now, xbmc4gamers makes that really easy too. If I load XISO games into my games folder on the HDD, there's a script that I can run in xbmc4gamers that will auto generate the needed launcher file. So even if I decide on UnleashX as my default dash, I may also install xbmc4gamers anyway just for that script.

The one thing so far that I don't like about xbmc4gamers is that you can set up multiple profiles. I'd rather just forgo having profiles. I haven't looked into this yet, or seen anywhere in the dash where you can turn off profiles or at least auto login to a default profile or something. And speaking of that, from my brief tests it seems like xbmc4gamers takes longer to load than UnleashX. So there's that.

It's been really beneficial having the two Xboxes for messing around with this stuff. I have the 1.1 set up with the soft mod as my gaming Xbox right now, and then I have the 1.0 Xbox that I can mess around with all these mods and stuff. So I have no fear of fucking something up, or losing my game saves. Worst case with the 1.0, I can just load up a setup disc and reformat the HDD back to stock. Which is actually what I had to do last night LOL.

[Jagosaurus]

Happy to hear you got Tony Hawk 2 running off HDD rip.

Wow ... come a long way on the hardware mod. Yeah, I've always thought of a "soft-mod" as a software (vs HW) based exploit that allows you to run unsigned / unauthorized code. For example, technically Free McBoot over in PS2 scene is a softmod.

Some of the dash interfaces have come a long way! Looks like that is one of Rocky5's builds? Here's his direct YT channel. Somehow a bit underground although his builds and tools are very popular -> https://youtube.com/@jcrocky5?si=O375JCNv4LhFVaO2

Keep posting project findings & progress

[Ziggy]

Keep posting project findings & progress

Glad you're getting a kick out of it.

I don't know if anyone else is, but writing these post will help me to retain this info.




I've made some more progress...



I ended up pulling the mod chip out of the 1.0. Now since without the mod chip this was a totally stock console, I needed some way to flash the BIOS. I have the softmodded 1.1, I figured I could use it to set up an exploit to run on the 1.0. I was trying to run the Endgame exploit from an SD card using a controller port USB dongle. The SD card was working to transfer save games, but it was not working for Endgame . I was seriously considering just desoldering the TSOP and flashing it externally. But I got an official Xbox memory card, and I ended up using the softmodded 1.1 to put the Endgame files on it. So long story short, I used the exploit to flash the latest Cerbios to my 1.0.

Now with a hacked BIOS flashed to the TSOP, there was absolutely no reason to keep the stock HDD In there any longer. I installed a Crucial 480GB SSD, using a StarTech SATA adapter and a custom 80-conductor PATA cable. I've actually used these StarTech adapters before in the past, as well as other StarTech stuff, so I would have gotten this one anyway. But this is pretty much the go-to SATA adapter for Xboxes, so that's good. The PATA ribbon cable that Microsoft used in the Xbox is non standard, in terms of the length and orientation of the connectors. But I found someone on eBay that makes custom 80-conductor replacement cables that are identical in size and orientation to the stock cables. So that's what I'm using.

I initially used the OGXbox Installer 2021 disc after installing the SSD. I was able to use that disc to format and set up the new drive, which was pretty much an automated process. This disc sets up a new HDD really well. It installs a ton of dashes and apps and has it's own configuration that's pretty nifty.

After I got the 1.0 console fully running on the new drive, I went ahead and reflahsed the BIOS with UDMA-6 mode activated. I've been running it on this BIOS for a while now and it seems completely stable.

While I like OGXbox Installer, it puts a lot of stuff on the HDD. Some of which I probably wont ever need. The thing is, when you look up how to set up a new HDD, a lot of sources say to just use a disc like this one. But it eventually dawned on me that I could sorta manually set up the drive. So what I did was use the OGXbox installer disc to do a factory reset, which essentially wipes the drive and puts the factory dashboard files back on it. The only reason I did this instead of starting with a totally empty drive is because I'm not sure if any of those factory dash files are needed for anything. After a factory reset, the console would now only boot to the stock dashboard which isn't helpful in any way. But then I again used the OGXbox Installer disc to be able to FTP to the HDD. I uploaded the UnleashX dash to the HDD. Cerbios has an ini file that you put in the root of the C drive, and one of the things you can do with it is specify the location of the dashboard you want to launch. So I just made sure to point it to where I put UnleashX, and it worked!

After that, I uploaded XBMC4Gamers to the HDD, and updated the Cerbios ini file to load that instead. I'm still kinda torn between UnleashX and XBMC4Gamers, but I think I might have to go with XBMC. It's just cleaner and set up better for booting games from the HDD. You can totally do this in UnleashX as well, but just not as good. XBMC4Gamers also has the eye candy for box art and whatnot. I'm thinking I might set up the 1.0 with XBMC4Gamers, and then maybe keep UnleashX on my 1.1 (which is what is currently on there).


(Embedded YouTube videos would be nice for this)

One thing that I've wasted a lot of time with is figuring out how to restore the original green "flubber" boot animation (picture above). With Cerbios, if the boot animation is active, it's all blue and different looking. You're suppose to be able to set it to practically whatever you want. There's something in the ini file that points to the boot animation in another folder, which I have uploaded to the HDD, but no matter what I do it is unaffected and remains blue. The blue animation is kinda neat, but I really want to restore it to the stock green one. It's just that the classic Xbox green branding feel right, ya know? I'll mess around with it some more at some point, because I really want that original intro, but I'm kinda annoyed with it for now.


https://www.beharbros.com/product-page/xedusa-plus

I ended up getting the above adapter. The reason I went with this one is because it outputs HDMI as well as component. HDMI will be a lot easier for me to use the digital audio output with, but I was concerned that if I ended up wanting to use the RetroTINK 5X I would need component cables. The Xedusa does both, so I thought that would be my best bet. I first tested it out with my 1.1 Xbox and the picture looks FANTASTIC! I turned out the digital audio output options and loaded up Medal of Honor Frontline. Just play testing it for a few minutes, the upgrade to surround sound was really nice. The problem though is that the Xedusa will not output audio over HDMI when I used it on my 1.0 Xbox. To be fair, there is a disclaimer that says that audio "might" not work with the 1.0. But it totally doesn't work! So that kinda sucks. The picture quality is amazing. It does have optical and coaxial digital audio output, that I could plug into my AVR, but then I would have to switch audio settings on my AVR constantly since this is a shared input and that's exactly what I wanted to avoid. So I went ahead and pre-ordered the ElectronXout, which is suppose to ship by the end of this month. The ElectronXout doesn't have any audio issues, but it is HDMI only which is why I went with the Xedusa. So I figured, whatever, I have two Xboxes and now I have two AV adapters. The Xedusa works 100% with my 1.1 and can also do component video if I ever need it. The ElectronXout I'm hoping looks just as good as the Xedusa, and from what I'm reading the audio output has no issues.

Oh, right, and I've actually been playing Xbox games too! LOL. I'll have to talk about games at some point, and not just the modding and tinkering.

I mentioned I picked up an official Xbox memory card. I actually wanted it to transfer game saves. I'm thinking after I get both consoles set up the way I want them, I will have one hooked up to my HDTV and the other I might put in the basement and use with my CRT. If I want to share game save between them, I could use FTP for that. But using a memory card would actually be a lot faster and easier.



I scored two more S controllers for pretty cheap, $13 shipped! The catch is that they're not in perfect condition. In fact, they look a little ratty. But I figured overall the are in decent condition and I could fix them up fairly easily. They're not really scratched up much, the worst thing about them is the joysticks. The rubber is very worn on all of them, and completely missing from one stick. They're missing one break away cable. And one of the controller has a torn strain relief. But for the price, I was willing to take the gamble. I was able to test them out today. There's a very nice controller test app for the Xbox. The first controller works perfectly fine. The one with the torn strain relief will need a new cable, but I was able to pinch the cable in a way to get it work long enough to test the functions and it works great. A replacement cable will be cheap. And I actually already have a few of those stretch on thumb grips I could use, or I may purchase replacement caps if I find something better looking (suggestions welcomed).

[Jagosaurus]

Love the original Flubber animation too. I believe the stock animation is 480i vs 480p though, right? I seem to remember it not playing nice with scalers and some HD sets.

If you let the original dash sit there long enough, "the system" will start talking to you in a robot voice. Fun fact.

Heard good things on the Beharbros adapters. Good to hear. Knew about them originally for Dreamcast VGA to HDMI solutions.

Heads up for your HDTV setup, some games listed as widescreen are really more of a 15:9 resolution and you'll still have small vertical black bars. Drives me a little nuts lol. Can even see this today on XSX/S backwards compat. Unreal Tournament 2 has this running on newer hardware also. Additionally, some widescreen is true Anamorphic while others will crop top & bottom of 4:3 image to achieve 16:9 (reducing FOV). Then you have games like Halo 2 where it's widescreen but the 2D bitmaps are stretched (radar, HUD, etc). This a weird gen stuck between HD & SD, 4:3 & 16:9.

Rubber stick grips on controller sticks will "fix" (hide) how those sticks get all chipped. Hard to find them without this chipping honestly. I liked to put lime green ones on my S controllers cheap, XB themed solution. Something similar to -> https://a.co/d/cpm0FN3


Great job on the HW modding. I'm sorry for the rabbit hole here but all that's left is...

Sega Chihiro Games on Xbox - 128MB RAM upgraded Xbox
https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:Chihi ... 20a%20Xbox.

[Ziggy]

Love the original Flubber animation too. I believe the stock animation is 480i vs 480p though, right? I seem to remember it not playing nice with scalers and some HD sets.

Is it 480i? The RetroTINK 5X (which is what I'm using these days) does a good job switching between resolutions. On my softmodded 1.1, the transition between the boot animation and the dashboard is fine. But on my 1.0 with the flashed BIOS, there's always a hiccup between the boot animation and dash. It's annoying, and I"m not sure what causes it.

With Cerbios, you can configure it to load different boot animations. The animations themselves are .xbe, IIRC. There are a few that came with the Cerbios package that I downloaded, with one of them looking like a really modern Xbox intro which might be nicely paired with the modern looking XBMC4Gamers. But yeah, I think I need to stick with that classic green flubber.

In addition to customizing a .xbe boot animation, Cerbios has the ability to use an XMV video file for a boot animation. So I think I'm going to try this next. I have no idea how this works yet, just that it can use an XMV video file. So maybe I can find the original intro in a 480p or maybe even 720p XMV?

If you let the original dash sit there long enough, "the system" will start talking to you in a robot voice. Fun fact.

Haha, yeah. Before I started modding and was just playing games on my stock Xbox, I experienced this. When I first heard it I was like, "What the fuck was that?!"

Heard good things on the Beharbros adapters. Good to hear. Knew about them originally for Dreamcast VGA to HDMI solutions.

Yeah, the video quality is perfect. I mentioned that I started with composite video cables which just looked like a blurry mess on the HDTV (although they look fine on a CRT). I knew I wanted to get an HDMI solution, but I wanted something for the meantime so I picked up cheap component cables. The component cables looked a lot better than composite, but there was a lot of noise in the picture would could be really annoying at times. With the Xedusa, there's no noise and the image is super sharp. I love it!

Heads up for your HDTV setup,

Ugh, yeah, I know. That's really annoying! Especially games that stretch HUD images. I'd rather play in 4:3 than deal with stuff like that.

Rubber stick grips on controller sticks will "fix" (hide) how those sticks get all chipped. Hard to find them without this chipping honestly. I liked to put lime green ones on my S controllers cheap, XB themed solution. Something similar to -> https://a.co/d/cpm0FN3

Yup, I have a pack very similar to that one (probably the same, just from a different seller). I got them recently because my PS2 controllers finally got sticky thumb grips. When I Googled how to fix the sticky crap, the answers weren't encouraging. So I resolved to just put caps on them LOL. Since they come in a pack, I have a few left over. And yeah, I definitely thought I would use the green ones for the Xbox controllers!

reat job on the HW modding. I'm sorry for the rabbit hole here but all that's left is...

Sega Chihiro Games on Xbox - 128MB RAM upgraded Xbox
https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:Chihi ... 20a%20Xbox.

I did come across this a bunch of times, but I'm not sure if I'm interested or not. Did you do the RAM upgrade?

So just from a quick scan of some mod guides, it seems like on a pre-1.6 console you can just populate those RAM footprints and you're good to go (no lifting pins or wiring chip selects or anything like that). Is that right? Because if so, then adding those RAM chips would be really easy. The trick is getting the RAM, in my opinion. I haven't read a whole lot about this yet, but about where to source the chips from people say "from another Xbox or from China." That leaves me to believe that these weren't off-the-shelf parts. I don't want to source them from another Xbox. And about ordering them from China, apparently they are one of the many chips that China fakes. So I'd have to deal with worrying if they're fake or not. And I just don't know if that hassle is worth it.

Playing some of the Sega arcade games might be neat, but it's not something I'm jumping out of my seat over. The light gun games in particular could be fun. And I think it's really awesome that some emulators can take advantage of the RAM upgrade, but that would have been more useful 15 years ago. The oXbox is still an emulation beast, but in 2024 I'm just not going to use an Xbox as an emulator box. I'd rather keep the wear and tear off of it, and use it only for oXbox games. And I'd also rather set up a MiSTer. It looks like the last benefit of the RAM upgrade is being able to patch some games for better performance. But I don't know of any examples (yet) that are making me want to do it.

[Ziggy]

I was able to get it to play an XVM video file as the boot animation, but I'll still have to mess with it. For starters, while it works and looks OK, I can see compression artifacts. It's just not nearly as crisp as the real animation looks. But I realized that I'm using outdated files, so I will have to play with it some more. Also, I see that Rocky5 made a XVM converter tool. So I suppose I could give it a go if I had to. Not sure if those compression artifacts are due to the container or limitations, or if it could be improved.