Xbox Hacks

197 Articles

XBox 360 DVD Region Hack

July 20, 2007 by 7 Comments


[XanTium] sent this in a few days ago, but I thought you guys would dig it. Here are the details straight from his email:

Hackers on the XBH forums managed to change DVD key and Game Region Code in the Xbox 360 ‘Key Vault’ (that stores on flashchip: console certificate(s), per-box private keys, DVD key, however NOT any code-related encryption keys).
However you should know the ‘Key Vault’ is encrypted with the per-xbox360 ‘CPU key’, so that means this hack is only possible on Hypervisor exploitable Xbox360s (kernel 4532 and 4548) for now. You will of course also have to read/flash the Xbox360 flashchip (by desoldering it and read/flash it with programmer or for example use the versatile Infectus dev chip)

You can read up on some more details here or get a login and check out the actual forum thread. The end result: play EU games on your US 360. (It doesn’t sound like the DVD movie region has been successfully changed, but modded DVD players are easy to make.)

Xbox 360 Joystick Retrofit

July 6, 2007 by 5 Comments


Arcade joystick retrofits aren’t usually that interesting. This one sent in by [Jock] caught my eye for one reason – using those cheap RadioShack reed switch relays to adapt the joystick output to the 360 controllers Dpad. Personally, I think I would have thrown some opto-isolators at it – but the one’s that RS (sometimes) has are pretty crappy.

Sunday Night Game Hacks

June 24, 2007 by 6 Comments

We got news of a pair of interesting gaming hacks today. [XanTium] let us know the latest on XBox 360 kernel hacking. It’s a little catch-22, but if you have the cpu id on your 360, you can downgrade your kernel even if it’s been updated. (But, you need to have the old kernel already if you want to retrieve it.)

The boys over at engadget just put this up a little while ago. Thanks to [Noobz] and [Archaemic], it’s now possible to run homebrew on any firmware version of your PSP – but you’ll need a copy of the game Lumines.

How-to: Make Your Own XBox 360 Laptop (Part 3)

May 22, 2007 by 15 Comments


[Ben] finally got part 3 of his XBox 360 laptop how-to finished up. This is the final piece of the series. He spends it covering wiring up the ports, buttons, keyboard and final assembly. There are plenty of shops that handle special order laser cutting – so don’t begin to think that this sort of project is out of your class. If you’ve ever built a model car and can handle a soldering iron, you can definitely build one of these on your own.

I was just checking for this final piece this morning – but props to [Tony] for noticing it first.

How-To: Make Your Own Xbox 360 Laptop (part 1)

April 18, 2007 by 4 Comments


Sure, maybe you’re sick of hearing about [Ben]’s work, but he’s finally giving up the goods on building that Xbox 360 laptop. It’s not your average slap it in a case and splinch on a screen project, so you’ll just have to deal with a few more posts as he pumps out this series.

To console you people who can’t stand the major pc board redecorating that’s [Ben]’s trademark, [kiwisaft] sent along this unique use for the ol’ laser toner transfer trick.

The ball point pin dot matrix printer reminded [Tesladownunder] was reminded of this funky servo based plotteroriginally built for the dearly departed vic20.

Ben Heck’s Xbox 360 Laptop Mk II

April 17, 2007 by 17 Comments


I’ve known this was coming for a while. [Ben]’s been working hard on this for a while. He’s built his second Xbox 360 laptop. But this time he’s putting up a three part How-To series on building it for engadget. Here’s a nice gallery of hi-res project pics. As usual, I’ll let you know when they’re posted. Aside from the new color scheme, this one features six fans instead of water cooling – so it should be easier for the how-to reader to construct their own.