3 ms·

My parents didn't want me taking apart the Xbox so I had to convince them I knew what I was doing. Finally got a modchip in 2002. After putting it in, the Xbox

My parents didn't want me taking apart the Xbox so I had to convince them I knew what I was doing. Finally got a modchip in 2002. After putting it in, the Xbox didn't boot up. I didn't know why because I was an idiot 13 year old who didn't know what they were doing and getting concrete instructions on what to do was harder back then. My parents weren't happy.

MayeulC 6y ago
My father helped me put the modchip in ca. 2005, but I had convinced them of buying one as a way of getting a cheap PC. As I didn't really want to permanently affix it, we hammered it in instead of soldering it (I still had quite a bit to learn back then). It worked, though it might have required slapping the console before starting it up in latter years, I ended up softmodding it and removing the chip before selling it, IIRC. I never got around to install Linux on it, though I learned some bits along the way, and ended up turning it into quite a versatile media center: DVD player, game console, HDD with movies on it, network access, etc. I built another one with only a softmod, and a larger HDD in 2008, and only retired it around 2011 as it couldn't play 1080p videos. I feel like I never found a proper replacement. HTPCs are generally bigger and more expensive than the original xbox, but I should have a good look at the Android TV market soon-ish (I suspect I'm going to try a Xiaomi device), with a USB DVD player and Kodi as a launcher, plus content served by jellyfin. Or I'll bite the bullet and buy a NUC. I had high hopes for the Firestick, but not being able to change the launcher is a dealbreaker. Stay away from that toxic waste of a backdoor for advertisement and lock-in (the remote and CEC integration is nice, though, I wish pine64 offered something similar).

3 ms·

My parents didn't want me taking apart the Xbox so I had to convince them I knew what I was doing. Finally got a modchip in 2002. After putting it in, the Xbox

by Dirlewanger 6y ago

MayeulC 6y ago
My father helped me put the modchip in ca. 2005, but I had convinced them of buying one as a way of getting a cheap PC. As I didn't really want to permanently affix it, we hammered it in instead of soldering it (I still had quite a bit to learn back then). It worked, though it might have required slapping the console before starting it up in latter years, I ended up softmodding it and removing the chip before selling it, IIRC. I never got around to install Linux on it, though I learned some bits along the way, and ended up turning it into quite a versatile media center: DVD player, game console, HDD with movies on it, network access, etc. I built another one with only a softmod, and a larger HDD in 2008, and only retired it around 2011 as it couldn't play 1080p videos. I feel like I never found a proper replacement. HTPCs are generally bigger and more expensive than the original xbox, but I should have a good look at the Android TV market soon-ish (I suspect I'm going to try a Xiaomi device), with a USB DVD player and Kodi as a launcher, plus content served by jellyfin. Or I'll bite the bullet and buy a NUC. I had high hopes for the Firestick, but not being able to change the launcher is a dealbreaker. Stay away from that toxic waste of a backdoor for advertisement and lock-in (the remote and CEC integration is nice, though, I wish pine64 offered something similar).