SpiderGX Modchip Review
Xbox-Scene :: Sunday, January 08, 2006
Here’s the Xbox-Scene review for the NoSolder SpiderGX Xbox Modchip. It took a while, but once again you’ll get the most informative, detailed and honnest review you’ll find on the net with professional high-resolution pictures and even 2 videos for fun ;) Njoy (yeah, it’s long… you can jump here to next news item if you’re not interested)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (PC)
Strategy Informer :: Sunday, January 08, 2006
You will need your puzzle solving skills for just about every leg of the adventure. Not only will you need to figure out ways to cross chasms and frozen rivers, open gates and shatter barriers but you’ll also need to use your brain during combat to best utilize the various skills of each individual character when confronted by the different enemies.
Commodore…Back With A Vengeance! @ ThinkComputers.org
Think Computers :: Sunday, January 08, 2006
Quote: “Some of you may not know the name Commodore, but for me it brings back many memories. I really got my start in all this computer stuff with the Commodore Vic-20; I can say that it changed the way I looked at computers and how I felt about them. Sure I used and owned other computers, but when I got the Vic-20, that’s when my love for computers became an obsession. Today we had the chance to take a look at the ‘new’ Commodore company. Bob and Alex, being much younger than I, really couldn’t appreciate or understand my excitement and enthusiasm at going to the meeting with the Commodore reps for our private little showing of their newest products. I’m sure some of you out there that are reading this can possibly understand how I felt about this meeting.”
Bunnie about Xbox 360 Kiosk Demo Disc
Xbox-Scene :: Sunday, January 08, 2006
I’ve also been observing the progress on the Xbox360 hacking, and I’m impressed. The hacking scene is more or less an organized anarchy that is frightfully productive. Now that I’ve had a little brush with being a manager in my day job, I can see that clarity of purpose obviates the need for management; people just self-organize and things happen. I could ponder on this for many parargaphs, but I’ll spare you my treatise on human social behavior.
At any rate, some very interesting things are afoot. Much of it stems from the discovery of an all-media bootable kiosk demo disk. Many hackers will instantly recognize the value of this, but it’s still interesting to reflect on the significance of this find.
Microsoft announces HD-DVD addon for Xbox 360
Microsoft :: Sunday, January 08, 2006
LAS VEGAS — Jan. 4, 2006 — Highlighting key consumer products such as Xbox 360™ and offering the first broad demonstration of the consumer features of Windows Vista™, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates showed how the company is delivering on its vision for a digital lifestyle where devices, services and applications work together seamlessly. In his 10th annual keynote address at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Gates demonstrated how Microsoft® Windows Vista, Xbox 360, new mobile devices and the emerging wave of software-based services will deliver more connected and richly personalized experiences for consumers.
In his keynote, Gates said that the consumer electronics industry is poised to deliver a quantum leap forward in rich, interactive, high-definition experiences. “Technology has revolutionized how we listen to music, watch TV, play games, communicate, and manage and share personal information,” he said. “In the years ahead, further exciting innovations will unify the software, hardware and services in people’s lives, offering them even richer, more engaging and deeply connected experiences.”
TheSpecialist’s Xbox DVD-Drive ‘Unlocker’ Code
Xbox-Scene :: Sunday, January 08, 2006
TheSpecialist emailed us about a tool he released that unlocks an (original) Xbox DVD-ROM drive, attached to a PC, so you can access an original DVDXBOX disc from PC (using tools like Clone CD (yes it’ll report many bad sectors, that’s normal) without having to FTP to your modded Xbox. Of course you must use the Xbox DVD-drive (it won’t work with a normal PC DVD drive). Easiest to test this is probably to connect the IDE-cable of your Xbox DVD-drive to your PC and keep the cable for power/eject connected to the Xbox (if you want to install it fix in your PC you’ll have to convert the cable, here’s a pinout). Also note that Windows must be able to detect your Xbox drive. Some Xbox drives (like the Philips) seem to be not detectable by Windows. Once the drive is connected and detected you can use this tool to unlock the drive to read original DVDXBOX discs.
Nintendo’s Ups and Downs
Twitch Guru :: Sunday, January 08, 2006
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) began storming North American households with graphics capabilities 20 years ago that were well beyond the capabilities of other consoles of that era. The games were fun to play and Nintendo was essentially printing money with its new console. So much so, that it dominated the market with a 90% share. Of course, when you’re the 800-pound gorilla on the block, you also open yourself to attack and self-important arrogance. Now it’s time to look back and see what humbled this one-time juggernaut into a mewling underdog.
Financial Times comments on Moore’s law; Xbox 360
Xbox-Scene :: Sunday, January 08, 2006
A buddy at work sent over a very interesting Financial Times editorial (requires registration) called “The future is here – and it works.” A very optimistic peice, the author talks about the simultaneous exponential growth of processing power – Moore’s Law, the rapid drop in price, and specifically, what this could mean for our daily lives.
In an anecdote which could prove much more scintillating than the author intends, they say “Had it been around as recently as 1998, the latest Xbox games console, available for $399, would have ranked as the world’s fastest supercomputer.” That is to say, better than anything NASA, Microsoft or IBM labs had back then.
I did some research into this, and right now, the world’s fastest supercomputer appears to be the IBM Blue Gene/L, clocking speeds of 280 teraflops. Xbox 360 packs approximately 1.15 teraflops. (one trillion floating point operations per second). Now sure, my Xbox 360 while xbox isn’t built to be a supercomputer, what we have in the Xbox 360 is a hyper-powerful machine, and it’s exponential changes in computing that makes it possible.
Xbox 360 Dumper v0.13
Xbox-Scene :: Sunday, January 08, 2006
The Xbox Dumper that can now also access big-endian FATX partitions on the Xbox 360 HDD (by oz_paulb) has been ported to Windows (by pedrospad). From readme/nfo: [QUOTE] This program allows files on an xbox(360) hard disk to be dumped out.
**UPDATE**: oz_paulb modified code to deal with Xbox360 images. **UPDATE**: pedrospad ported to windows. 01/05/2006 See “XBOX360” define in the Makefile. Still a work in progress.
Two basic commands are supported: xboxdumper list [partition number] [xbox image filename] This will dump the directory tree of the specified partition.
xboxdumper dump [xbox filename] [output filename] [partition number] [image filename] This will dump the file [xbox filename] into the file [output filename] from the specified partition number. The full directory path to the file using / or \ should be supplied.
Xbox 360 has Bumpy Quarter
OCModshop :: Sunday, January 08, 2006
“Xbox 360, what’s the holdup?” asked Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund ahead of a meeting with Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT – news – people ) at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
“It is clear that something disrupted the supply of Xbox 360 shipments in the quarter, and there does not appear to be any end of year catch-up in shipments,” the analyst said in a report issued Monday.
