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"Hackers improving the XBox?"

I was rooting around the internet today, looking randomly for stuff about my new XBox console. Much of the information I stumbled upon during my travels was related to the possibilities of hacking the XBox.

Hackers appear to have set themselves a goal of improving the XBox, and releasing its full potential. One of the most striking articles was centred around MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). MAME is already available on the PC, and allows you to play virtually all arcade machine games which we knew and loved. Programmers are in the process of porting MAME to the XBox, thus allowing us to play arcade machine games on our XBox's. Imagine the utopial scenario....playing Paperboy on your XBox console! Kind of makes you think why people who set their hearts on this decided to shell out £300 on the next-gen console when they could pick up a C64 on eBay for a tenner! However, I agree this would be a truly aesthetic concept if it can be pulled off.

I also read that work is in progress on SNES and Mega Drive emulation on the XBox. Is this a vision? Could we soon be playing *ANY* game on our XBox? This is a very neat and convenient concept for us all. I for one have a load of old console games lying around the house which never get played, because it would involve setting up an old machine in front of the TV. ROM images are legally available for those who own the games on sites scattered all over the web. This it would be easy to obtain the games, and very, very convenient to play them on the XBox. If it is possible to port such software to the XBox, this would revolutionise videogaming, but at a huge detriment to Microsoft.

However, the old problem crops up again - how the hell would we transfer this software to the XBox? Well, hackers have been very optimistic about allowing us to access our XBox hard disks through our PC, using a network connection. PC network connections are already being used to allow us to play online games through a broadband connection using services such as GameSpy Arcade and XBoxGW, so why not the other way around? Also XBox hackers have been able to directly access the XBox HDD using a very simple technique involving HDD power cables! If this is a real possibility who knows what we could potentially do with our XBox consoles?

Back to the online gaming, yes it is true that Microsoft will not be releasing the online service until later this year, and yes it will cost. This is perhaps the beauty of existing online play, it's free and it's now. This is probably the hackers greatest success, and probably very high on Microsoft's sueing list! However to play online, as already mentioned, requires a PC network connection. It also requires a broadband connection, so the whole setup doesn't come cheap.

Believe it or not, Hackers have even found a couple of ways of SPEEDING UP the XBox! As if it's not fast enough already! Overclocking the XBox CPU and water-cooling it has been tried and tested in the states to improve overall XBox performance. Also, a quick switch of the IDE cable linking the DVD drive, Hard disk, and XBox can speed up load times. The XBox comes with an ATA-33 cable as standard, but by switching this for an ATA-100 cable, it has been shown to improve disk access times by up to 50%!!! However, do not take any of this information to heart, as it would involve taking the lid off your XBox, and voiding your warranty, yes very bad move.

Developers are already working on (again!) a port of Linux for XBox. If this is robust and allows us to play our XBox games, could this be the future of XBox? I have used Linux on and off for a few years now, but have always returned to Windows. Why? Software support. Linux's ability to run Windows based software has always been very limited. I fear that XBox linux will have these exact problems also, and may be reserved only for the inept hacker.

The most controversial aspect of the entire XBox hacking headlines is the illegal software market. Hackers are working on ripping the XBox game DVD into a small enough image to fit onto a CDRW. Now if this is becoming a reality, how long until we see ripped Halo ISOs on Morpheus?!!??! Also would it really be that hard to download a copied game from the net using an XBox port of linux, and then execute it? I think this is all to real a danger for Microsoft if it wants to continue profiting from the XBox. After all, we don't want the XBox to be the next Dreamcast do we? Of course not! Saying that, however, Microsoft worked very hard on making the XBox immune to these possibilities. I think it suffices to say hackers will always work around these, as should be self evident!

The XBox is a very similar system to the PC, thus it is hardly surprising it is high on the priority list for hackers and crackers. Will this improve the XBox like they state? Or will it open the XBox up to bugs and viruses from across the world. Do hackers really have the potential to exploit the XBox to it's fullest? What will be the future of Microsoft's newly forming gaming empire if they can? We will all have to wait and see.

this is breaking news, but from what i hear xbox has already been cracked, and modchips (ACK) will be available in the next couple of weeks from dodgy websites and according to my sources will feature all region dvd and all region games.

cant believe xbox has had its protection broken so easily hope this doesn't open the doors for the pirates!

Creating software (emulation in this case) isn't hacking - it's developing, and it goes on all the time - hence the games on the shelves!!

But, making it go faster, or giving it more RAM, is hacking it to make it do something it wasn't intended. Herein lies the problem. Who cares if they give it a faster DVD, or faster, bigger HD, or more RAM, or whatever?

1) Having a faster DVD is a big no-no. One of the simplest and most effective ways of protecting a game it to check for load times. Copies tend to be different, so a quick check will show that it is loading faster, and hence could be a copy.

2) A faster or bigger HD is pointless, and the firmware will likley only be able to detect 8Gb anyway. Some XBox's have got 10Gb drives in, but only 8Gb of that is "visible" to the system.

3) More RAM is a complete waste of time. Software developers know that each XBox has got 64Mb - no more, no less. So, they develop with 64Mb in mind

What is it with people and "improving" the XBox? People don't go on about this with the PS2, or Gamecube? Are people stupid or something? Do they think that because it is made of "PC type" components, that they can treat it like a PC?

Trust me, just let the games evolve, not your hardware!!

I think we've actually gone off topic to what was first posted. Copying games isnt really hacking. Ok so you do have to hack to get past the region lock out e.t.c.

The PS1 was easy to crack as CDs became very cheap to copy and the chip was easy to install. Even eariler models could be disc swapped.

N64 was hard as the cartridge system, meant people had to buy an external piece of kit to play CD versions of the games.

DC would have been very hard to crack if Sega had left out the ability to play CD-Rs. The DC uses the 1Gb discs so non of them would have been able to be copied onto a 700mb CD. But as Sega made the DC play CD based games for use in early development games and the preview copies for magazines e.t.c. The DC could therefore play copied games on a 700mb CD as it was designed to.

PS2 has been pretty hard from what I have seen. There are chips e.t.c. to play copied games, but due to them being on DVD its still very expensive to copy games.

Xbox will be a hard system to crack. Xbox uses 9Gb DVD's and only uses the bottom layer to read data. This is very hard to copy as I think all on market DVD writers can only write 4.7Gb on the top layer. The Xbox will not play copied games on a 4.7Gb DVD.

Also normally the region lockout on a console is hardware based. So the chip normally disables this. But the Xbox uses region lockout on the games not in the actually Xbox. The UK Xbox, US Xbox and JP Xbox are all the same region. The only difference is the display and the power supply. But we cant play US games because they check for a US system. But if a game actually came out in America with out the region lockout software enabled, then a UK Xbox could play it.

I dont think the hacking of the Xbox will be bad. So people have found out how to play over the internet with the Xbox. Microsoft know this, there not bothered as it means people are buying the console.

People who take there Xbox apart and overclock there system are doing it to benefit themselves. So if they get a few more mhz out of the processor it wont matter. Its wouldnt even be used.

All this modifying the XBox, overclocking e.t.c. Doesnt harm the Xbox sales of games. It wont effect us, it effects the people doing it. Microsoft probably arent too bothered if somebody makes there Xbox a little bit faster, or make it so that they can transfer Xbox files to the PC, or MP3 files from PC to Xbox.

The biggest worry to a console owner, maker and games company are pirated games. But at the moment I doubt if there is one person who actually has a Xbox that lets them play copied games.

My only response is I hope the XBox is fairly secure from Hackers. However, loopholes have been discovered, and some of these already are pleasing XBox customers. An example is the ability to fool the XBox into believing it is on a LAN, thus allowing us all to play Halo online already!

My first point remains however. If the XBox is hacked to death it can only end up like the dreamcast. I hope Microsoft find XBox profitable and continue to provide us with top games. However, much as I would love free games, it can only come at a cost to us all.

Franny wrote:
> Very true, but is any system totally secure from hackers?

Probably not, but it is very secure. GC is probably the securest as its 8cm 1.5Gb discs will be hard to copy. The Dreamcast a 1Gb discs but due to Segas inclusion of supporting normal CD-Rs for games, that were for magazine use and demo purposes the DC was easy to hack.

Very true, but is any system totally secure from hackers? I'm very sure that in due time, someone, somewhere will devise a method of copying XBox games. I accept Microsoft have worked long and hard on making their system and games secure, but the same can be said about their earlier efforts.

Microsoft have never been at the forefront of encryption. You know as well as me that you can pick up virtually any piece of MS software from the net and run it on your PC. The only security used here is a serial code which can also be found on the net! Even Bill Gates' bank account is not totally secure, remember a certain 'Prince of E-Commerce' hacking in and ordering William a case of viagra? Only time will tell us how secure the XBox us...

From what I have heard Xbox will be very hard to crack. The games are on a dual layer DVD which is on the 9Gb DVDs. The Xbox only reads the 2nd layer, so its very hard to record to it, as blank DVDs are single layed and 4.7GB.

So at the moment copying Xbox games are out of the question. Also the Xbox doesnt actually include any region lock out. The Xbox is actually region free for games. But Microsoft has made clear that every Xbox game has to contain a region lock out software. So the Xbox could be alot harder to chip for imports. As its actually the software that is encoded not the hardware.

Thanks for some feedback ppl. I looked into the Raw is War XBox copy on KaZaA. However, in true KaZaA fashion, it does not appear to be real. Again, in KaZaA fashion, it seems like someone has renamed The Sims - Hot Date to WWF Raw is War for XBox!

I will download it and check it out, but I doubt the XBox disk encryption has been cracked yet. 108MB doesn't really bother me because I have a cable modem.

I will also look into the PS2 hacking, thanks for the tip-off!

trust me that Raw is War .exe will not work, it will just turn out to be a virus or just not work, do you have a computer fast enough to run it anyway???

Nice topic there. I stand by my premise that no games console is exempt from copying. The PS1 was easily copied, but they put special protection on a few selected games, nothing that a quick hack won't sort out. The N64 had the Z64, a device which was used to copy cartridges. However, it stored the games in the memory of the Z64, not onto a blank cartridge or anything like that. The Dreamcast, they had a pretty decent system with GD-Roms, but it was still hackable, as ISO files were placed on the internet, easy to access. Sure, they were about 300-odd MB, and that put a lot of people off DC piracy, but most people who DID download them had cable modems I suppose. Anyway, back to topic, PS2 has also been cracked now, with ISO files available.

Now onto the X Box. I've had a look on Kazaa, and found WWF Raw Is War for the X Box available to download as an exe file! Out of curiosity, I'd love to download it and see if it actually works, but I don't wanna download a virus, and it's 108MB anyway, quite a tall order for my stupid 56k modem.

Must...upgrade...to....cable...