Looking for more info on creating an Alpha XDK

thats the spirit . we should work together like this and get a guide together.












o i misread. i see thought we had a new spirit here for a second.



carry on my bad. expected to much

 

Someone needs to dump all the bioses... Mobo, gfx, etc

Shame I don't have one as I'd be up for dumping everything in it.

 

that just too bad.

those with em seem unwilling to help. so when it comes down to when the systems start falling apart they will because those same people didn't care to help.

that just too bad.

 

The motherboard and graphics firmwares are all out there,

I've always said I would sell mine if someone really wanted it, but its big, and annoying to ship, so no one ever wants it. Otherwise, I am perfectly content to let it sit on a shelf collecting dust.

 

as i said


:thumbsup:


ok shipping cost then?

 

Shipping is likely on par with what Assembler quoted to ship a PS2 tool. I would need to buy the materials as well, to try and ship it well. Alternatively, pick up in NY is an option. It wouldn't be cheap to get the thing from me, but Ive been willing to sell it.

 

ok then pm me the price to oklahoma

 

It would likely be around 1,600$ shipped, including releasing Simpsons and Dark Summit to everyone.

Otherwise, help raise the money for the community dump going on, and the game still get released.

 

shipping costs isnt 1600.

you said you would rather have this collect dust doing nothing then to help the comunity so dont now claim some comunity good when your trying to get that much

 

You dont read all that well, do you?

I've always said I would sell mine if someone really wanted it, but its big, and annoying to ship, so no one ever wants it.

I offer up what I can for free. I posted information about the kit. I posted the booting process. Ive posted screenshots. Ive taken images of the inside of the system. I've even offered to dump games at what I deem to be a fair price for all involved. Im sorry that I don't give stuff out for free, when I have $30,000 worth of debt that needs to begin to be paid for. I don't see people coming around dumping alpha XDK games. In fact, I've never seen it offered before. Hell, when was the last time you saw someone selling a working Alpha XDK that actually boots? Let alone has games that work? That's right, that never happens. And youre damn straight I would rather let it collect dust and look good on a shelf than give it away for free.

Again, if you want to help the community by buying something and giving it away for free, you are a better person than I, and I commend you for that, but Im not in the position to do that. When I was in the position to give stuff away, I did, helping to release multiple games over the course of a few years. If you don't appreciate that, so be it, but I did it because I actually am a decent person, who does help people out. And yet, while people love free stuff and free releases, I don't see anyone offering to pay my bills, or to buy me food this month, or anything else.

Life isn't free, get over it.

 

this isn't about some other topic. we are talking this project to basically replicate the system and thus parts can be used to repair other such systems in the future.

i do value what you have done on some off topic stuff in the past. but that is neither here nor there in this topic and i celbrate what you have done on those projects. its just its not this topic.

how much you owe or dont owe isnt also not part of any discussion. times are hard everyone knows that.

so can we get back to topic?

reason why i asked for shipping price as you said basically that you didnt care about the system aka collecting dust. could have been a misunderstanding or a mis-stating of what you cared about.

when inquired then the shipping cost became 1600 which is of course not what the shipping cost would be.

dumping the bios (which hasnt been done) isnt giving away the system away for free. also none of the stuff we would like to obtain wont damage your system. so its not that we are asking you to break your system.

life is what one makes of it.

sorry borman i think i angered you

 

Bumping old thread...as I've started working on this again, and have purchased a ton of hardware.

Can anyone identify which NIC alpha 1 and/or 2 used? It seems like an Intel® PRO/100 M but there's also a S version, not sure the difference.

http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/adapters/pro100s/pro100s-overview.htm
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/adapters/pro100m/pro100m-overview.htm

Or maybe its' neither? Any input is appreciated =)

 

Without digging out my kit, the software simply says Intel 10/100 Mb Ethernet Card.

 

It's been a long time since I had one of those in front of me, but if IIRC even with the right consumer hardware, you're not getting anywhere without a BIOS dump. Alphas used stock hardware with a customized MB BIOS. When MS awarded the "Alpha" kits as prizes, the MBs were flashed with retail BIOSes and Windows installed.

 

Is anyone aware if there are any symbols released with the XDKs that date before 3944? I've not been able to find any. I understand no one wants to hand out any of those alpha xdks, but what about symbols?

:sorrow:

 

There's symbols for 4361, but I'm not sure there's any earlier ones.

 

I dont think an earlier set leaked, but the 3521 alpha set seems to include symbols.

Edit: August 2001 (3911) beta version has symbols too.

Edit2 : June 2001 (3633) does as well.

 

Thanks, I was just curious, for debugging purposes =)

There seems to be a lot of scattered information with the BIOS on the alpha kits, I'm unable to find any concrete answers as to if the BIOS is just a normal, public available pc BIOS for the VC820 or if it was custom. I had been assuming that it's a normal pc BIOS that ends up loading the xbox kernel into memory from the hard disk, or recovery disc or some other source.

My findings are that there is no specific BIOS version, but multiple. I'm seeing people claim their Alpha 1's to use vc82010a.86A.0028.P10, but apparently also Alpha II's? I've also been watching some of the startup videos on youtube and finding them to be all different.

I'm trying to gather as much information as I can while I await for my VC820 boards to arrive, if anyone has any input.

Thanks



EDIT1: I see that the user "Tyler" from a post in 2010 claims his Alpha II to be running VC82010A.86A.0041.P18 (which is the only version I can find to download) and was never able to get it to work, at least I don't think he did based on this thread: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?26064-Alpha-II-Help

EDIT2: Ok, found every release from Intel down to P11 ... the archive does not include P10 http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...rds&ProductProduct=Intel®+Desktop+Board+VC820

EDIT3: Friend found P10 here, seems legit. http://drivers.mydrivers.com/download/18-7296-Intel-VC820-BIOS-VC82010A.86A.0028.P10/ I believe this is the version that Bormans kit was running? I'm only basing this info I find on other threads ...

 

Does anyone have the boot order for this? DVD->HDD? What about jumper setups for master/slave?

 

I've got to the point where it tries to load XBDM.dll but fails, unsure why at this point...at least that's what the kernel debugging output is telling me.

Edit: It's failing to INIT the NIC. Time to find some NICs ...