Slashdot Mirror
360 Hackers Claim Full Read/Write Ability
Technology Sweden writes "According to the site Xbox-Scene, a program is available to transfer saved-games and more from the memory card or hard drive. This opens up a whole new world for the 360. Soon we might be able to run our own home brewed games and show our favourite Xvid movies."
What a lot of people are interested in will probably be the porting of older consoles through known emulators to the Xbox 360. I don't want an Xbox 360 but we'll see how well this development takes off. I long for an emulator that plays my old SNES games as it is kind of cumbersome to have many many systems to hook up. A fully functioning Link to the Past on Xbox 360 would make me buy it.
For those of you looking for free game ISOs to dump from the internet to your Xbox 360, this is not something that will allow this yet as from the article: So there's no free games yet. On top of that, you can't shell out the boot sequence from a disc to use it for launching your own homemade application. Hopefully we'll see that in a few more months. I myself am not really interested in "free" games, just want to be able to use my Xbox as a real toy instead of the confines of those who can afford the insane developer's license fee.
Anyone else notice that this article reads like an advertisement for 360gamesaves? There's three links to it.
My work here is dung.
This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of DRM, it will soon see the end of the rebellion.
I wonder how this news is seen in Microsoft's eyes?
1. A security flaw that needs to be analyzed and fixed in a possible firmware update.
2. A sign that players want a sort of "utilities" disc that allows them access to hardware in the machine. Much like the Linux kit that was made available for the PS2.
3. A possible idea to expand upon and a valuable tool for their developers to learn from.
4. Rest of the world? That doesn't exist inside Microsoft so this utility program actually was never written. We know what our customers want and that's that.
My work here is dung.
Soon we might be able to run our own home brewed games and show our favourite Xvid movies.
:-)
Which is to say that piracy of 360 downloadable games will soon flourish.
Are there really any examples of "homebrew" games for modern systems? Being as complex as they are to program, I don't really see why anyone would bother homebrewing a game on the 360 when they can produce the exact same software for the PC. (Much quicker and easier, too.)
I could see the possibility of turning the 360 into a PVR, but doesn't it seem like purchasing or building a dedicated PVR for less $$$ would make more sense? Do you really want to spend $400 just to hack it into a machine that you could have had for $150-$200?
I'm all for the school of thought that says, "It's my hardware, I want to do with it what I want." But sometimes it's okay to say, "this is cool, even thought I don't really have a real use for it yet."
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
People need to RTFA before submitting... The article specifically says this does NOT get around any kind of security measures present in the 360, and that this doesn't bring them any closer to running homebrew content or bypassing the 360's copy protection and DRM measures.
Do a search for mod chips. I use the X3. This allows me to put all my XBox games in a box and not have to wait for them to load. I select them from a menu and run them. To make storage for games, you will need to add a new hard drive. I wouldn't go back. Changing games? Just hold both triggers and select (I think) and you reboot back into the menu system and start another game.
Microsoft's Xbox team (if they ever had the attitude) learned the hard way about #4, and #2 & #3 are in fact reinforcing reasons for attitude #1 to be the most likely.
If you haven't noticed, Microsoft is marching firmly in lock step with the recording and movie industries over the idea that customers should not be allowed to use what they purchase in ways that do not make Microsoft more money. Letting developers learn how to put stuff on the machine without going through MS's SDK could lead to homebrew games. Allowing people to write home-brew games means letting there be games that are sold (or worse given away) without paying Microsoft the license fee that makes up for selling Xbox 360s at a loss. Allowing utility access to the hardware might lead to putting Linux on a 360, thus making MS subsidize non-Windows computers that will play licensed games (and make up the loss), or allow the playing of pirated games.
If this is based on a security problem that can be patched in software, MS will treat it as a critical fix and release a patch for it ASAP.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
You can already play your favorite movies that are on your XP Media Center PC on the 360.
So now, with a Linux server, how do I emulate the necessary parts of an XP Media Center PC to get Xbox 360 streaming to work?