By Zonk on subtlety-is-the-word-of-the-day

James Alfaro wrote to mention a News.com article about a pair of game store owners charged with Xbox modding. From the article: "Jason Jones and Jonathan Bryant, two Los Angeles residents who own the ACME Game Store on Melrose Ave., allegedly sold Xbox game systems that had been modified by Pei Cai, of Pico Rivera, Calif. Cai allegedly equipped the Xbox consoles with modification chips and large hard drives to allow the user to copy rented or borrowed games onto the device for future playback. Buyers would pay from $225 to more than $500 for the changes."

Link

According to News.com, Nissan is working on a prototype vehicle which will have a built in Xbox.

Photo: Play Xbox while you drive? | CNET News.com

You would get a Atari 3600 of course.

This mustbe the ultimate360 hack - it doesn't even look like a 360 but a 2600.

Really not a bad idea considering how hot the consoles are this year - could be a great anti-theft device. After all who wants to take a 2600?

The Atari-Xbox 3600: A Retro Mod for Your Next-Gen Gaming System

Well that didn't take very long.

You can now get a reference guide to go along with that 360 you might have gotten for Christmas.

One of my favorite websites in the world, lulu.com has a storefront that sells "Xbox 360: A Complete Guide"

So, if you got an Xbox, why not check out the book - you could get it in time for Christmas.

Well, they must have heard me. It was only a few days ago that I asked what was taking so long. Guess my prompting helped.

Anyways a technology group called Pi has decoded the 360's filesystem and as we all know this is the first step to truly opening up the console to all kinds of wierd and wonderful things.

According to the group: "Once you get past the protections and down to the raw bits on the disc, its just the standard xboxdvdfs, however the offset and layer breakpoint are different."

I'll trust they are right on this :) I can't wait until someone goes through the next steps of actually modding the filesystem.

I guess what this means is when they start slicing the 360s price after Christmas I may have to get myself one for my birthday.
We'll be sure to bring you more details of the ongoing 360 hacks as they come available.

FYi, if you want to learn more about Xbox or other console hacking, Amazon has a great selection of books available on the subject.

You can read more about the hacked 360 filesystem on the Register.

Rather than doing a whack more quickposts (yeah I'm lazy :) ) I thought I'd just roll them all into one more post. So here it is.

What do you think of a truly life sized video game? Imagine being in the game? Well that's what happens at a UK university. Called Pac-Lan players use RF enabled cell phones and play in real time.

So did you get someone a 360, or know someone who did and aren't sure what accessory to get them? Well if you have $36,000 you can get them this solid gold faceplate from Ebay.

Finally, if you're like me and just don't want to turf your Dreamcast, here's a good hack for you allowing you to add a VGA port.

It seems to take a little longer every time the PSP firmware is updated but someone has again found and exploited a PSP weakness. See below:

PSP Sony PlayStation Portable - News Updated 24/7: Hello World for GTA v0.1

By: Ken Gardiner

Nintendo's agenda with the next generation in the console wars is to open their markets to non-gamers. This untapped demographic includes women of all ages and men over the age of 35. The Nintendo DS is a prime example of their strategy. Games like Nintendogs and the yet to be released Electroplankton utilize gameplay simplicity at a level that works seamlessly with the unconventional DS control scheme. These games are not intimidating, Nintendogs has you playing with puppies using a simple simulation style interface, and Electroplankton lets you create techno music by swirling amoeba-like creatures using the stylus. This simplicity can be enjoyed by people of all ages. It would appear that Nintendo took notice to the fact that women like to play touchscreen games and simple yet addicting online flash games via sites like Pogo.com. For the most part there are not an overwhelming number of women who play Unreal or Halo. When gaming does not involve intricate button combinations, shoulder buttons, etc., you can reach a wider audience. (MORE VIA LINK)

Sure the 360 will allow you to stream MP3's but forget about trying to store ripped music on the hard drive. At least until someone hacks it. :) (BTW - the console has been out for a few days now, what are you hackers waiting for :) )

eHomeUpgrade | Xbox 360 Hard Drive DRM Issues

When it's in an Xbox 360. That's because of the 20 gigs apparently only 13 is usable. Apparently the other 7 is used to emulate Nvidia's GPU (the graphics chip powering the first Xbox) and the x86 CPU found in the original Xbox. The current version uses an ATI GPU and PowerPC CPU.

In other words, they need 1/3 of your hard drive to allow for backwards compatibility so that old Xbox games will play on the new console. Way to go M$!!!

.: DataFuse.net - Xbox 360, only 13GB Available Diskspace

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster feedster:d2590fa4d9e7e36335d4459b42a7e54a

You know the saying - if it's too good to be true, it probably is. It's also important to read the fine print.

I came across this story on the Register and I thought it was worth the mention.

You have to read the fine print - in this Ebay Auction, people are bidding on what they think is an Xbox 360. As we all know, owning a 360 at this time of year is like winning the lottery. So when someone is selling what appears to be a 360 on Ebay for the same price as you would have gotten it at a store I'd be wary.

Turns out you should also read the entire ad. The second to last line of this huge block of text reads: "This auction is not for a Xbox 360 game system, but instead a picture of one."

eBayer pays �470 for photo of Xbox 360 | The Register

You know the saying - if it's too good to be true, it probably is. It's also important to read the fine print.

I came across this story on the Register and I thought it was worth the mention.

You have to read the fine print - in this Ebay Auction, people are bidding on what they think is an Xbox 360. As we all know, owning a 360 at this time of year is like winning the lottery. So when someone is selling what appears to be a 360 on Ebay for the same price as you would have gotten it at a store I'd be wary.

Turns out you should also read the entire ad. The second to last line of this huge block of text reads: "This auction is not for a Xbox 360 game system, but instead a picture of one."

eBayer pays �470 for photo of Xbox 360 | The Register

Apparently you can overclock the FX chip in your SNES. Hackaday shows you how.

SNES Super FX overclocking - hack a day - www.hackaday.com _

And a whole lot more:

Next Generation - Nintendo: 200,000 Unique Wi-Fi Users

Cool...That's all I gotta say

The Force Feedback Racing Simulator - Overview

But not till Thanksgiving according to sources. I guess since they saw the success of 360 around that time of the year they'd try it?

Revolution for Thanksgiving '06? - Gizmodo

So, your good at Mario Kart? How good are you? Why don't you enter this tourny and find out?

GBAtemp Forum -> OGMKDS Tournament: rules, registrations...prize!

Wow, I'm surprised it took this long.

Apparently M$ is being sued because of the faulty power supply that came with some consoles. Not only that, but this is a class action suit!

Wonder what this guy thinks? Probably that M$ will settle for some huge amount. I don't think he realizes that they have more $$ than he ever will, so could afford the long drawn out legal battle.

Xbox Lawsuit, a Tad Premature? - Gizmodo

Not sure if these are "official" M$ releases but they look cool!

Korean Xbox 360s Look Better Than Yours - Gizmodo

I came across this today. I may have to dig out my old NES and tinker a bit. This guy has done a bunch of mods for his NES including adding stereo sound, a remote reset button, reprogramming a game cartride and more. Check it out:

NES stuff

Apparently in an attempt to target more people, Sony has been strategically placing grafitti ads.

It also appears that those ads are pissing off some grafitti artists who then go and "retouch" the ads :)

Sony's PSP Graffiti Is Pissing People Off - Gizmodo

Apparently the founder of Atari has "issues" with Sony's console. From game graphics to controllers, he touches it all...

DIEC: Atari's Founder Slams Sony, Praises Nintendo - Kotaku

If you ever wanted to learn more behind the scenes about the gaming industry I'd recommend the book Smartbomb.

I was fortunate enough to recieve an advanced copy of the book and while I'm still reading through it I must say that what I've read so far has opened my eyes.

You will get to learn who the big players were and are and perhaps get an idea as to where they see things going.

Therefore based on the meager amount that I've read so far I can say - if you're a true gamer you gotta check this book out! check the link below for more info on the book.

Next Generation - Read Smartbomb Here