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Microsoft foils Xbox hackers with new Config
randomizer9 writes was among several readers who noted that Microsoft has changed the configs on the XBox and really messed up the hackers who have been trying to coax the box into being divx players, linux boxes, microwave ovens, white noise generators and so on. Kinda doubt the conspiracy angle, but it certainly is annoying.
I think I can find one reason.
Most set top boxes today are sold near or even, at times, below cost. Face it: you can buy an XBox for the price of a cheap DVD player.
How they can get off with this is by charging a license fee to developers based on the number of units (games) those developer sell. This is common in this industry.
Now, if MS (or any other set top box manufacturer) lets anyone hack their machine so they run software for which they DO NOT receive royalties, then it makes THEM lose considerable amount of money and impairs them to sell the boxes at these low prices when a significant number of end users buy XBoxes just to run it as a cheap terminal or computer.
If memory serves, Sony made iterative changes to the PS1 over the course of its run, which negated mod chips that worked in earlier 'generations'. I believe the same is true with the PS2, but someone can confirm or deny that for me. Anyway, hey it's within their rights as the developers of the hardware to discourage what they perceive is hacking. It's also within our rights as consumers to be able to work around anything they do. :)
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
NTSC-Gamecubes (USA, Japan) have "both BIOSes" on them - and you switch between them with a jumper. PAL-Gamecubes (Australia, Europe) have only the PAL-Bios, and there's no way to switch to another. Thus there's a big incentive to create an import mod - but so far no one has managed to. It's also not possible to run "backups" on the cube, no one has managed to solve that either.
Please mod parent down for being uninformed.
(The grandparent is however correct, the cube is VERY VERY tough to hack. Don't expect a modchip, expect a very expensive extra unit holding games on harddrive or DVD).
it's in my head