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PSP Undiluted Platinum Firmware Solution Announced
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, PSP, Rumors,
Looks like a PSP mod solution has been announced, and should be shipping soon. This would not be a simple plug-and-play hack, but will instead be more of a firmware management system. This would allow PSP users to run various firmware revisions on their system, facilitating homebrew applications while maintaining the ability to run the latest firmware to support retail games. More information on availability and installation should come in the next few weeks.
Read More 
| Maxconsole.net
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Insane Japanese DS Case Mods
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo DS,
Insert Credit reports on a contest that Japanese case manufacturer Keysfactory sponsored just a little while back, where staff members were asked to submit their wildest case mods for the Nintendo DS. These “mods” aren’t actually transforming the DS shell, but instead are armor-like kits that snap around the DS, so the user’s console isn’t permanently modified, which is important, given some of the crazy designs they came up with. Many are clearly Gundam-inspired, and others capture that weird mecha-Japan aesthetic. The winning design was actually made available for purchase.
Read More | InsertCredit.com
HardOCP is currently featuring a round-up of some of the various Xbox 360 face plates on the market today. They look at face plates from Microsoft, as well as those from third-party accessory vendor Pelican, and also a couple of XCM face plates and a skin from online vendor Decalgirl.com. Microsoft’s face plates, naturally, set the standard. No one knows the console size like MS, and their replacement face plates fit well, but the XCM faceplate won overall honors for its fit and polish. The Decalgirl skins also got praise, but HardOCP recommended the full system skins over the faceplate skins, just because the looks match up better. Unfortunately, the Pelican face plates got low marks for quality of build. HardOCP seemed surprised that Pelican would release such a poor product, but apparently, they’ve never tried using their Dreamcast light gun. At any rate, those gamers who are ashamed of their core system, or just want a change would do well to look at Decalgirl for their Xbox 360 skinning needs, and the XCM face plates also appear to be a great deal.
Read More | HardOCP
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Team Xecuter Connectivity Kits Shipping Soon
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
Team Xecuter has announced that their DVD and hard drive connectivity kits should start shipping in the upcoming week. The hard drive connectivity kit should operate similarly to the previously announced adapters from companies like 360 Sata and Datel, but the DVD adapter is a little more interesting, since it would give people interested in connecting their Xbox 360 DVD drives to their computers without having to leave the drives connected to a powered up Xbox 360. Team Xecuter also hints that a USB connectivity solution is near, and that work is continuing on dual firmware solutions for those “experimenters” who might want to run alternate firmware versions on their DVD drive.
Read More | Teamxecuter.com
Xbox 360 Hack: Microsoft’s Non-Responsive Response
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
Gamerscore Blog, from Microsoft Global Games Marketing, has the official response to the latest hack news. Basically they restate their previous statement: the core security of the system has not been hacked, they are going to find an appropriate response, and they state that there are benefits to buying original Microsoft intellectual property, so don’t pay for those pirate copies of Xbox 360 games, since you don’t know where they have been. The text of the response follows:
The core security system has not been broken. However, on some Xbox 360 consoles the authentication protocol between the optical disc drive and the console may be attacked via a complex software and hardware modification which could allow people to play illegally copied and modified games. We continue to invest in the security of the platform and will respond appropriately as unauthorized activity is identified.
When a person purchases a genuine Microsoft Xbox360 console and genuine Xbox 360 games, they receive the real product which is complete and suited for the use intended. They know its source and can expect the console and games to function properly and provide a satisfying gaming experience. Genuine and unmodified Microsoft Xbox products provide gamers with the reliability, security, support and dynamic gaming experience that they expect, and genuine and unmodified Microsoft Xbox 360 products are eligible for technical support. If there are any questions regarding the use and enjoyment of the Xbox 360 console, the Xbox Live service, or Xbox 360 games, gamers can be assured that Microsoft will stand by its product and provide the necessary support. Modified consoles will not be eligible for technical support and the user’s warranty will be voided.
Lastly, the protection of intellectual property rights is a high priority for Microsoft and our partners, one that significantly and positively impacts economic growth, technological innovation, and most importantly, the confidence of customers who count on the integrity and quality of their products.
So, gamers can probably expect that Microsoft will attempt some kind of software or hardware solution to work around this, and when they figure out how to detect the modified firmware of the DVD drive, people will get banned from Xbox Live.
Read More | Gamerscore Blog
Xbox 360 Toshiba Firmware Reportedly Hacked
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
A post in the Xboxhacker.net forums reports that a hacked firmware for Xbox 360’s with the Toshiba drive TS-H943 has been released. According to the release notes, the following are supported:
- Boots all Xtreme Xbox 360 backups
- Boots all Xtreme Xbox 1 backups
- Boots all Xbox 360 originals
- Boots all Xbox 1 originals on Xbox 360
- Xtreme0800 extraction firmware enables drive to function natively under Windows without any hardware conversion/adaptors
- Use on Xbox Live at own risk
The release was credited to Commodore4Eva, and there have been a few reports of success from a few users booting backups of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfare. While this hack was known to be possible before, this is the first public release of a hacked firmware for the Xbox 360, and it will be interesting to see how Microsoft responds to this hack. The firmware hack is definitely not a thing for a rookie user to attempt, but as more information hits the Internet and more users attempt the hack, the methods for rewriting the firmware will certainly become more streamlined. Reports also indicate that hacks for the other DVD drives used in the Xbox 360 will be coming soon.
Read More | Xboxhacker.net
Oldblivion Allows Old Graphics Cards To Run Elder Scrolls IV
Posted by John Goulden Categories: Mods/Hacks, PC, Role Playing Games,
So you’re itching to find out what’s so hot about Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion but you’re stuck with a computer running an older, unsupported graphics card? Fear not, for Oldblivion not only does a nice play on words, but allows you to run Oblivion on pre-DirectX9 graphics cards. A description from Oldblivion’s website: “Oldblivion attaches to Oblivion and applies certain patches to it. Some of these patches are for making sure that Oblivion doesn’t crash when run on hardware which lacks certain new functionality. It also changes the shaders used by Oblivion from pixel shader 2.0 and vertex shader 2.0 into pixel shader 1.1 and vertex shader 1.1.”
There are still a number of bugs present, but temporary fixes are abundant as are new releases of the software. The current list of supported cards is as follows:
• Geforce 3 series
• Geforce 4 series
• Geforce FX 5200 series
• Geforce PCX 5300
• Geforce FX 5500
• Geforce FX 5700 series
• Radeon 9550
• Radeon 9200 series
• Radeon 9000 series
• Radeon 8500 series
So if you’re jonesin’ for an Oblivion fix, head on over and grab a copy of Oldblivion and let ‘er rip.
Read More | Oldblivion
Nyko Announces GameFace 360
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Accessories, Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
For those gamers not satisfied with the level of customization available with Pelican’s faceplate designer, Nyko has announced the GameFace 360, a clear polycarbonate faceplate that snaps together to hold whatever skin you want. The kit comes with six pre-printed templates, and 15 blanks, so that users can print their own designs. The design software is available for both PC and Mac users. If you were disappointed that the Pelican faceplate designer didn’t allow you to put that awesome sketch of a liger on your Xbox 360, this would seem to be the solution for you.
We recently shot of video of the product in action as Nyko demonstrated the GameFace.
Read More | Press Release via Businesswire.com
Fantasy360 Xbox 360 Wireless Controller Mod
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Accessories, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
Xtreme Enterprise has announced the Fantasy360 replacement shells for the Xbox 360 controller. Initial colors include:
- Plata Mid (Solid Chrome)
- Bleu East (Semi-Transparent)
- Clear West (Semi-Transparent)
- Crimson South (Semi-Transparent)
- Smoke (Semi-Transparent)
Expect to see these at your favorite import and console mod stores this Summer. A set of installation pictures have been posted to Flickr: these make the installation look extremely involved, with lots of fun small pieces to deal with.
Read More | Xtreme Enterprise via Xbox Central
MLB 2K6 Freezing Workarounds
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, Sports, Xbox 360,
2KSports posted an update on their official forums, describing a couple of workarounds for the MLB 2K6 freezing issues users are reporting:
In the meantime, our dedicated 2K Sports QA team has tested and confirmed two work-around methods for those consumers who are experiencing the “freeze” issue:
1) Remove or disable the HDD
or,
2) Load three different Xbox 360 games to the main title screen of each game then load Major League Baseball 2K6 on Xbox 360. All three Xbox 360 games must be completely different before loading Major League Baseball 2K6.
Those people with the Xbox 360 hard drive and no memory card to save their games probably won’t find the first solution to be a very good one, and the second is cumbersome to say the least. The 2KSports team is still working on developing an official patch for the game, indicating that there is probably not a media-based issue with the game, but something code-based changed between the review copies and retail versions went out. No mention was made about fixing some of the control issues reported in many of the published reviews for the game.
Read More | 2ksports.com Official Forums.
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