So,after my fat PS2 died from a shorted PS1 fuse (which was too small for my ALMIGHTY 40W soldering iron)I was again on the hunt of modding a system. This time I decided to change the platform,generally because the PS2 is limited in what it can emulate (for example it can't do N64)and because I find it kinda fragile. So,I went with the Xbox. Now,I had 3 empty cases,2 DVD drives (Hitachi-LG and Samsung),one controller and a dead 1.0 motherboard and a chopped video cable (which I fixed). "Why did you choose a dead motherboard?" you'll ask. Well,it's a space filler until 18th August,when I'll replace it with a 1.3-1.5 motherboard/HDD combo (no idea what month and day it is but I know it's made in 2003 if that helps). So far the case has been done,painted it blue except front panel and DVD drive. Other mods that I will do to the new mobo/hdd combo: -Softmod (see the question below about it please) -1 USB port (I don't need more than one since I won't use Linux) -maybe white leds if I can find some old devices with white leds -EEPROM backup for a Seagate ST310211A HDD (keeping it on stock levels) No TSOP since I already said my soldering iron is 40W so I can't do that. (last motherboard I tried the mod on died because of the soldering iron) Now,on to the question: I'll be softmodding using the hotswap method. Do I need the EEPROM of the Xbox if I use this method,or not? Fact about this project:It first was to be called "Raven's BlueBox"(based on my new avatar) but that title got scrapped. Instead,the softmod dashboard will use a custom theme with that name. For the moment,a picture of the Xbox sitting idle.(motherboard inside is dead)
Sorry, I can't help with the technical side, but I wanted to post tosay that you shouldn't expect much from N64 emulation on the XBox. I have a modded XBox (mod chip and 500GB drive), which I use for emulators (plus XBox games), and it's fantastic for 8 and 16 bit emulators, be it a console or computer that you're emulating, especially since many of the emulators have a very friendly and very powerful user interface with lots of features. But for 32 bit and later machines, the speed of the XBox limits things, plus machines like the N64 aren't too well understood anyway, plus the N64 emulators that were ported to the XBox tended to be older versions, as newer versions (on the PC) sometimes weren't open sourced. The upshot of it is that emulation of the N64, Playstation, and Atari Jaguar on the XBox is very hit and miss. I did play all the way through Silent Hill (PSX) on the XBox's PSX emulator (can't remember it's name, sorry), and the few other PSX games I tried worked fine, but I've heard that many games have problems, or run too slow or glitched, the same with the Jaguar emulator, which I've not tried so I can't confirm. But Surreal 64, the N64 emulator (actually, it's three N64 emulators in one, three cores that share the same front-end, the emulators being Ultra 64, Project 64, and 1964), though a very impressive piece of work, does have lots of glitches in a lot of games, plus some games it won't run at all. For example, Perfect Dark is realistically unplayable, especially since when you fire your weapon, the game can pause, or continue but not update the screen, for a few moments. Indiana Jones won't start at all, nor with Rogue Squadron, and even though some people claim that Goldeneye is playable, I've never found it so. Mind you, I've never found up to date PC based emulators to be perfect either, but the XBox ones are noticeably worse. Then again, I've not updated Surreal 64 in a couple of years, maybe more, so perhaps these problems have all been fixed, but I really doubt it, especially since the XBox has neither the speed nor the memory* to emulate the N64 correctly, according to everything I've read. And the XBox really is a first class emulation machine, as long as you're talking 8 and 16 bits, such as the SNES/Megadrive (Genesis)/Atari ST/ZX Spectrum/C64/Amstard CPC/arcade (MAME)/etc. It's also an extremely good media player, if you use XBMC, which plays just about every movie and audio file format you can name, plus DVDs. But XBMC is too slow to play hi-definition movie files, which is why I rarely use the XBox for media playing any more. I use an old laptop hooked up to the TV, and of course I could use that for emulators too, but I like the XBox's ease of use for emulation (near instant boot up, everything is controlled via the joypad, etc). I have heard that the Wii is a better emulation machine than the XBox, being faster and having more memory (a TV remote control nowadays probably has more than the XBox's 64MB), but I've not tried it so I don't know. * The XBox has 64MB of RAM, shared between the CPU/OS, and the graphics card, and the three largest N64 cartridges are 64MB, so you can't have all of Conker's Bad Fur Day, or Resident Evil 2, or Pokemon Stadium 2, in the XBox's RAM at once.
Well,for the PS1 side I'm only playing the Oddworld series which are 2D,so no problem on that I guess. For N64,the ONLY game I will play is Road Rash 64,which is only 32MB. Wii has only 24MB RAM more than the Xbox by the way. Here's a list of what games/platforms it will emulate: -Oddworld series (Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus) - Playstation (PS1) -Earthbound,Super Mario World - SNES -Road Rash 64 - N64 -Sonic and Knuckles 3 - Megadrive -Windows ME - PC See how I chose ME over 98,because it can be trimmed down like 98Lite (Internet Explorer will be removed and replaced with Opera) and it's a bit newer. Also,from my experience,Windows ME works best with Pentium3 and lower. (I had a Pentium 3 computer running Windows ME and it was rock stable,no joke)
Sorry, I don't know about Road Rash 64, and can't test it as I'm away from home (never get a job where you have to move about the country, for short perods of time, it's ****ing annoying), but there's a compatibility list for Surreal 64 at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ah_jPOeSbcXwdGNrSzdqVktiTFE4TEJjMmFpNjAyS0E&hl=en#gid=0 which shows Road Rash 64 as "Plays damn near perfect". The list is from 2009, so compatibility might have improved since then, and in the unlikely even that it's regressed, you can always use the older versions of Surreal 64 - you can install any version to a different directory on the XBox's hard drive if you like. And according to: http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?/topic/26897-surreal-64-compatibility-list/ "Road Rash 64...works fine [...] using 1964 But there are a lot more brilliant N64 games, especially in the racing, first person shooter, third person shooter, and 3D platform genres, that you might like. Abe's Odyssey works according to: http://www.theisozone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=29622 and you should maybe download the emulator from that page, and other versions, as sadly PSX/N64 emulation of a certain game can sometimes vary in quality according to what game you're playing, and the emulator settings you choose. Wow! I've just checked, and you're right. It's amazing that a machine released in 2006, to compete with the XBox 360 and PS3 (both having 512MB of RAM) should only have 88MB of RAM. Do you mean you want to run Windows on the XBox? I've never tried it, but I understand it's painfully slow, since you have to use the XBox port of Bosch, since the XBox doesn't natively have some hardware that Windows checks for when it boots up, so the only way to run Windows is to emulate it, and the XBox version of DOSBox doesn't emulate the needed hardware (or didn't back then, maybe it does now). Linux runs natively on the XBox, since it's open source and could be modified to suit the XBox's very-near-but-not-quite-PC hardware, but not Windows. It's possible that Windows can be modded to run natively on the XBox, I suppose, but I've never heard of it, and since XBox-scene's (brilliantly detailed) forums no longer exist, which is a HUGE loss to the XBox world, I don't know where to find information on this. BTW, some good sites for the XBox are: http://www.emuxtras.net/forum/ http://www.eurasia.nu/ http://www.xbins.org/n64contest.php http://theisozone.com/ http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?38-Xbox-(Original-console) A not great list of XBox emulators (I don't know how up to date it is) is at: http://www.xbox-scene.com/software/software.php?page=emulators There was a much better list on XBox-scene's forums (it told you which emulator for each machine was the best), but sadly that's long gone.
This sounds like a lot of effort for what's going to be a disappointing (for you) end result. The list of games you want to emulate is somewhat strange, not to mention very short, aside from Earthbound you can obtain the original systems and games quite cheaply, and that's pretty much always the best way to experience any game. N64 emulation isn't perfect on a powerful PC, so a modified Pentium III doesn't stand a chance. If you want to enjoy the fruits of this project regularly for years to come, follow the advice given above: Load it with 8 and 16 bit emulators and games, throw MamedOX on there too for some classic arcade action, if you're comfortable with doing a HDD swap, put a 320 or 500 in there and fill it with XBOX games. I did this back in 2007 and still use my modded box weekly. I use a PSP for playing PS1 games, and an N64 with an Everdrive is the only satisfactory solution for N64 happiness IMHO.
Good to hear that RR64 works. Also,most kind of games I like are racing and 3d platforms. Yeah. Also,the Wii has problems emulating RR64 (tried it and it looks bad)and Abe's Oddysee (on this one Abe leaves a trail behind him). Painfully slow? I've stopped finding that a problem since my last Pentium 133 build I did in a cardboard box. I don't think it would be so much lots of effort,since it's just a matter of unlocking the TSOP (practiced the small soldering points on a dead 1.6 board). Also,where I live I never (and I really mean never) found any SNES or Megadrive. Also,I chose just those games since the rest of games will be just racing Xbox games. Where I live,a 320 or 500 GB HDD is worth as much as a second hand PS3.No joke at all. Also,I also want to reuse one of my stock HDDs,a 10GB ST310211A,because I absolutely love the sounds it does,almost like the old HDDs from 486DX2-66 computers. Now,since I decided to do the TSOP,what BIOS should I use? EvoX-M8,Xecuter2 or Xecuter3?
