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I seem to keep myself one step behind when it comes to game consoles. Until last week, the newest system I owned was a Playstation 2. Given Sony’s recent actions, it’s unlikely I will ever buy a PS3 (or anything else from them). They’re too big a company for me to avoid entirely, probably, but I’m going to do my best.
Anyway, I just got myself an Xbox, pre-modded with an Xecuter 3 modchip. I can’t really recommend the company I got it from, as there was a long delay, unprofessional and worrisome (ie, I thought there was a chance I’d never get it) emails, and the DVD kit they sent was a third party region 2 kit. Useful. When I finally did get the Xbox, though, it worked as it was supposed to.
I will probably eventually get a few games for it, but the primary reason for the purchase was to use as a media center, with XBMC. After dealing with flashing the ROM on the modchip (after realizing that I needed to hook up composite cables first to get this done), and installing the software, I’m very happy with the end result. I had it scan my mp3 directories over a samba share, and can now play all my music through my stereo system with a very nice interface, including visualizations and album cover art. It can also play just about any movie file out there. The next step is to rip my DVDs to server storage and use the Xbox to play those over the network as well. That would probably require another hard drive purchase or two, though. My DVDs may well end up in a box in my garage like my CDs are now. I can also now copy shows off of my Tivo, and play them back through the Xbox (I’m behind the times with a hacked series 1 Tivo, too, so it doesn’t have that feature built in). It also has a nice photo browser and slideshow feature.
In addition to XBMC, I also installed an NES emulator. I can now play any old NES game on my 74″ projected screen through my new toy. It looks good. There are also emulators for N64, SNES, Genesis, and other systems, which I have yet to try. There’s also lots of other nice software I can play with. I think it’s gonna be fun. Given the cost of the alternative that I was considering, and how much more the Xbox does, I’m very happy I decided to go this route. I know the Xbox 360 will do some of the media center stuff itself, but I like being able to customize it and play with it as much as I can with the modded Xbox. I suppose I could have waited for 360 modchips.
Now I just need to get the right DVD kit so I can start using the remote control for everything.
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I have a XBOX only to play DivX movies. It is so much better than any regular DivX player.
Make sure you get Metroid and Kid Icarus.
And when you get bored with it remember your little brother 🙂
I chiped mine myself with X-BIT it toke about 5 hours and a 12 pack of bud but i solderd it in and no problems the hardest one was the Od wire witch is next to the LPC port. but works great. The x-bit pogo was a bitch thats why i soldered it in. i also installed a 120gb hard drive.
Whats on my xbox:
HDD GAMES: 15 games total
Emulators: Adam Computer,Atari 2600,Commodore64,Sega Genise,Nintendo System,Super Nintendo,Nintendo 64,Turbo GRX 16,Gameboy AdvanceSP,Dos v6.0,Play Station ONE,MAME32, Windows XP BETA, geezz i cant rember anymore. All the emalators i have evry game ever sold for them except the nintendo 64 only have like 20 games. and dos only have like 60 games for that. i have more emulaters but i cant remebr them. i have the dvd player both media playes songs and vcd,avi,etc… Lets put it this way and software
that came out for the XBOX i have it and emulaters and the roms to go with it like i said not many for nintendo 64 or dos. Put i can say there is well over 3500 games on there and all are great. what console out there can do all that. NONE YET XBOX 360 has great potantal..lol…I also have a 1 gig chip for my gameboy advane with lots of roms and i have nintendo system on there with all roms ever made…so cool…..Working on my gamecube now…
heya, welcome to the club!!
Check out http://xbmc.blogspot.com for some good info and new about it.
do not use the dvd in the xbox to watch movies it will burn the eye out trust me i know. I use my ps2 only to watch moveis now. It was a good console until i got my xbox and did the chip job. i think i may have a crack for the GAMECUBE but iam still working on it.
By the way, no one finds it odd that Alan considers Microsoft to be the lesser of two evils?
Welcome to the dark side, Alan. 🙂
I’m actually seriously impressed with the clarity of graphics on the XBox for its native games, but somehow even the NES emulator looks good in 1080i, blockiness and all.
But I can’t justify $30 for a wireless remote, although that might be because my DVD player plays a lot of the same stuff the XBox does (DVDs, VCD, SVCD, DivX, etc…)
It’s stupid to make a media center from console. We see result of situation like this at PC. And now we can’t use PC for normal gaming.
where can you get all the roms and emulators for your Xbox? I can’t find a place? I just modded mine have had to download each rom seperatly, it’ll take years before i get it all done, can some1 please send the link?
I have modded mine with a nice case mod as well. I too have been looking for emulaters etc… any help is apreciated
For what it’s worth, I busted you at the last WPBT event. Thanks for the hat!
Hm, i dont think, it’s a good idea to make a media center from the console. As for me, its better to use an old good PC for suck purposes 🙂
well i waited to get the zbox 360 and iam glad i did cause it is crashing like hot cakes. But i still love me xbox system. Like i said before do not use it to watch dvd movies. The medi center is cool but i use mine for gameing. To get roms man you should have started years ago. LOL. Check out some IRC sites. you gotta work to get them. Now i take me gameboy sp evry where with me and play 200 and some NES games on it. And the emu on it pocketnes 9.98 is great. O well Merry Christmas everyone! And HAPPY NEW YEAR 2006
(@)(@)
BlackBeard269
i pimped out my xbox top to bottom
step by step.will be added to my web page soon!!!!
lilpimp.onesite.com/blog
hey i might not have my own site but someday LoL!!
I have my xboxed chiped but have no clue on how to hook it up to my laptop. Im also not sure what software to download or from what site.?????????