Watch Ben Heck Hack a 360 and a Sega CDX

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Watch Ben Heck Hack a 360 and a Sega CDX

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday July 12, 2011 @07:31PM from the teach-me-your-voodoo dept.

We've previously discussed a few projects by game system hacker Ben Heck, including his PS3 laptop and Xbox 360 laptop. Now, GameSetWatch points out two videos produced by Ben showing and explaining new projects. First, he designs and builds a disc-changer for an Xbox 360, and then he turns an old Sega CDX system into a portable console.

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Next up.... by Lissajous · 2011-07-12 19:48 · Score: 1

He'll mod a console to auto-First Post to slashdot!
good thing it's not a ps3 by Flush1 · 2011-07-12 19:57 · Score: 3, Insightful

Good thing he did not make a disc changer for PS3, they would probably take him to court.
1. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by dohzer · 2011-07-12 20:02 · Score: 1
  
  Didn't they learn their lesson from the last time they took someone to court?
2. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by Nursie · 2011-07-12 20:10 · Score: 1
  
  The lesson that if you take a hacker to court then they roll over and sign a settlement saying they'll never touch another piece of Sony equipment for as long as they live?
  Not that I can blame geohot for doing that, but he did rather hype the 'we will fight them on the beaches' stuff first.
  And Sony are still going after various others right now. Of course suing for a hardware mod like this should get them laughed out of court, but there's a huge difference between 'should' and 'will'.
3. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by Flush1 · 2011-07-12 20:13 · Score: 1
  
  I doubt they will. And this goes for most corporations these days. 20 years ago it was not as much a problem, when handfulls of people had technical skills to modify hardware/software. Nowadays hardware hacking is more popular due to the hardware being in more homes and all it takes is a youtube video and the hack is popularized as opposed to being confined to a limited population of hackers. In result your big time corporations feel they need to protect their IP because of this viral effect. Pardon any grammar or spelling, its 3amsoddered and im on my droid :(
4. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-12 20:16 · Score: 0
  
  I don't blame him for doing that.
  I blame him for not refunding the donated funds people contributed for his impending legal fight that he ended dodging.
5. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by Nursie · 2011-07-12 20:41 · Score: 1
  
  He did what he said he would on that front - $10k (equal to all received donations) went to the EFF. Not something I have a problem with, though clearly not the preferred outcome for everyone else.
6. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by Belial6 · 2011-07-12 20:55 · Score: 2
  
  That would be pretty funny since he used a Sony disk changer for the mod. Not that that makes a legal difference, but it would be pretty funny listening to a Sony lawyer try to explain to a judge why hooking a Sony disk changer up to a Sony game console is a problem.
7. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by Flush1 · 2011-07-12 21:01 · Score: 1
  
  That would be pretty funny since he used a Sony disk changer for the mod. Not that that makes a legal difference, but it would be pretty funny listening to a Sony lawyer try to explain to a judge why hooking a Sony disk changer up to a Sony game console is a problem.
  It may be sleep deprivation, but i snort laughed when i read that!
8. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by hairyfeet · 2011-07-12 22:35 · Score: 1
  
  But your honor, he's hooking our stuff to our stuff but not the right stuff mind you, but the wrong stuff. if you read the EULA it clearly says it is our stuff, not his stuff, and there is a list of stuff that can be hooked to other stuff. Since this stuff isn't on the approved stuff list his is clearly puffinstuff if he thinks he can get away with this!
  Something like that maybe? As for TFA man that guy can twist things around and how he gets some of that...well stuff to fit together in such small spaces is frankly amazing. It really is a shame that all the trademark copyright bullshit keeps him from hiring some Chinese company to cook up some of his designs on a larger scale, because some of the console laptops he has cooked up would be seriously awesome to have.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
9. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by Mad+Leper · 2011-07-13 01:03 · Score: 1
  
  Hmm, would this supposed "disc changer hack" allow Mr. Heck to pirate games ? Or hack Sonys PSN network?
  Don't see that happening, so I would bet SONY wouldn't give a damn about it.
10. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by tlhIngan · 2011-07-13 03:37 · Score: 1
  
  Hmm, would this supposed "disc changer hack" allow Mr. Heck to pirate games ? Or hack Sonys PSN network?
  PSN network I can understand, piracy, not so much. Simply because every console is subject to piracy. Some, like the PSX and PS2, thrived on it. Others, like the PSP, died because of it (though given its competitor suffers from even MORE piracy, I think its merely a contributing factor).
  The Wii has tons of piracy. The Xbox360 ditto. PS3 piracy only really started as of 2011 when the keys were discovered.
  Hell, Android suffers a huge amount of piracy (thanks to no DRM at all), and there's no lessening of interest in it. iOS piracy is somewhat lower (if we look at jailbroken numbers, 10% or so assuming everyone who jailbroke did it to pirate).
  The fact that the PS3 lived so long without people trying to break it for piracy is an anomaly - mostly because Sony made it more "open". It was only when they shut it that people started examining it more closely.
  PSN being hacked boils down to plain stupidity on network design.
11. Re:good thing it's not a ps3 by Belial6 · 2011-07-13 04:26 · Score: 1
  
  It isn't trademarks or copyright that keeps him from mass producing most of his creations. It is that he doesn't design things to be mass produced. Look at most of his stuff. It is heavy on the CNC, and Heavy on having lots of parts. He makes money by producing art. Not for producing technology. The price of his services reflect that. He is like the painter that sells one off custom portraits at very high prices instead as opposed to the one that makes poster designed to sell thousands at a small price. There are plenty of companies that sell replacement cases for consoles, so that is obviously not the problem.
  
  He has a niche business, and he does it amazingly well.
Bugger by Danieljury3 · 2011-07-12 20:11 · Score: 2

I think its slashdotted.
1. Re:Bugger by quantumphaze · 2011-07-12 20:25 · Score: 1
  
  And there has only been 8 comments in this article so far
  
  --
  Unicode in Slashdot
2. Re:Bugger by EdZ · 2011-07-12 21:22 · Score: 1
  
  While I can't be 100% sure due to the slashdotting, this is probably just two clips taken from from two different episodes (11 for the CDX, and 21, the most recent, for the 360 disc changer) of The Ben Heck Show.
Relevant by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-12 20:14 · Score: 0

None of them beats the modding potential of an iPad.
1. Re:Relevant by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-12 21:26 · Score: 0
  
  Daniel Tosh is six or seven types of douchebag, but that was still hilarious.
2. Re:Relevant by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-13 00:48 · Score: 0
  
  This is the proper way to mod all Apple products AND Apple users!
  How versatile!
For a moment there... by yourtallness · 2011-07-12 21:32 · Score: 0

... I thought it said "Watch Ben Affleck Hack a 360 and a Sega CDX" :-P
Why won't Ben Heck hack the CIA by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-12 22:12 · Score: 1

Oh wait, he is the CIA.
Ben Heck should do something useful for once. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-12 22:41 · Score: 1

Will we ever see an American chip/wafer fabrication line where he replicates prior processor designs into an American company again? In other words, when does America finally get the balls to copy another country's procedures and product like a Chinese company copies others? That would be neet to hear in foreign countries that they are looking to the black market in America to rely on a certain product that was otherwise banned in their own country. Such is the sad state of affairs in America.
Link is Slashdotted by will.perdikakis · 2011-07-12 23:08 · Score: 1

... any mirrors/cache? My googleFu fails me.

--
-Will P.
wow a portable CDX by Osgeld · 2011-07-13 01:12 · Score: 1

what is he going to do? plug it in to a portable screen?
Old News by thetinytoon · 2011-07-13 01:31 · Score: 1

There's a hellotamore on the revision3-page - unfortunatly without the illustrator-source-files.
Still using optical media? by Ksevio · 2011-07-13 03:37 · Score: 2

I solved the "get up and switch disks" problem on my Wii by installing them all on a flash drive. While it's kind of cool having a CD changer, it's a lot more practical to just get rid of the whole need to read disks completely.
Why did he ruin a CDX? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-13 06:00 · Score: 0

I really wish he would have just used a small device with an emulator to create the portable Sega CD+Genesis system instead of ruining a perfectly good CDX :( What a loss!
As much fun as I have watching Ben Heck.... by JohnRoss1968 · 2011-07-13 16:30 · Score: 1

Why bother. Its not like he shows you how to do what he does.
Sure sometimes they put the plans up, but they always seem to be corrupted file, or deleted files.
His show would be much better if they showed you step by step how to do the things he does.