Setting up an Xbox for emulation?

[Eckostyle]

I recently came across a working original Xbox for free, and I remember back in the mid-2000's people were going nuts about modding it. Since going to my parents house to dig out my old consoles is out of the question, I'd like to turn this Xbox into a emulation set-box.

I don't want to play anything fancy, just stuff like SNES, Neo*Geo, arcade, and TG16/PCE games, nothing past or including PSX/N64. Not interested in making a media center, I have a PS3 and a PC for that. I just want something to play classics on.

I Googled it up, but mostly what I found are guides that are several years old(which leaves me wondering if the methods have been rendered obsolete since then), or looking like a 13-year-old wrote them up.

In short:

-What current methods are available to mod the system to use emulators? I don't know how to install mod chips or anything(No, I don't find soldering easy, please don't recommend I try it), so I'm looking towards softmodding or ideally buying a kit, kind of like the mod battery kits for the PSP. (if they're available).
-Are the emulators easy to install/configure?

Thanks.

[gtmtnbiker]

I Googled it up, but mostly what I found are guides that are several years old(which leaves me wondering if the methods have been rendered obsolete since then), or looking like a 13-year-old wrote them up.

Keep in mind that the xbox was retired 4+ years ago so yes, information will be old but it's all still relevant. Personally, I installed a mod chip by reading guides/posts on xbox-scene.com and then I installed the xbmc dashboard and then just put my emulators in place.

So start by looking for a soft mod guide and reading several of them and then just do it.

[alexis524]

google soft modding and auto installer deluxe 4.53 and you should be all set. You may want to think about upgrading your hard drive too unless you want to stream your content from your PC via SMB share.

[jaundice]

To Set Up An Xbox For Emulation Via A Softmod:

Required Materials:
-Xbox Action Replay with the Memory Card USB Adapter
-Splinter Cell (Doesn't matter if it's Platinum Hits version or not)
-Xbox Memory Card
-PC
-Another PC/Laptop (connected to your network wirelessly)
-FTP Program (Filezilla, CuteFTP, CoreFTP, FlashFXP (My Favorite))
-Xbox

First, you're going to want to prepare your Action Replay for usage. Plug it into your PC and install any required drivers - you'll need it to transfer a filesave to your memory card later, but first we need the files.

NTSC: Ndure's Installer
PAL: Ndure's Installer (PAL)

-Use your Action Replay + PC to transfer the Splinter Cell Save Profile AND the "Linux Installer" to the memory card.
-Put the Memory Card in your controller and Transfer them both to your Xbox. Make sure if you have ANY previous Splinter Cell saves/profiles, you delete them. The Linux Profile can be the ONLY Profile for Splinter Cell on the Xbox (other saves don't matter, you can keep them if you wish)
-Put in your copy of Splinter Cell and start the game. Load the Linux profile by CHECKPOINT, not LEVEL - you should then see the Linux Installer.
-Backup your factory settings with the Backup option, install the Softmod and Dashboard (UnleashX is my personal favorite.)

-Now that the softmod is installed, you need a way to get the Emulators for your Xbox, so now you'll need an IRC client. mIRC is the most common, but you could even use a web based IRC client like Mibbit.

-Connect to EFNet in IRC, then type "/j #xbins" without quotes. Then once you're in the channel, type "/msg xbins !list" - it will give you a username (usually the one you use for IRC) and a password ("emulation") to connect to their FTP server. Using your FTP client, connect to the address and port that they give you using the username and password supplied to you and go to the folder called "XBOX," then browse for the emulators - they are sorted by system. Download the ones you want and put them in a separate folder on your desktop called EMU or whatever you wish.

Setting Up Your Xbox For FTPing:
-If you use Verizon or Comcast using a simple Modem-Router setup, simply turn on your Xbox, and on your new Dashboard, find the Network Settings. Change the settings to DHCP (Automatic), then restart your Xbox.

-Your Xbox should now get its own local IP address (192.168.1.4 for example)

-Using your FTP program of choice, connect to the IP that your Xbox gives you with a computer that is connected wirelessly - DO NOT use the host computer, use a Laptop or something of that nature, using the host computer causes an IP conflict and you won't be able to connect with your FTP client. The Username and Password for your Xbox should be xbox/xbox by default.

-Once connected, you should see a list of partitions, C, E, X, Y, Z. Open up your E: drive and transfer the zip files of the Emulators you downloaded from Xbins.

-Once they're transfered, using your Xbox controller, extract each emulator to a folder in E:\Games\ and name it accordingly, for example, if you extract "fceultraX.zip," extract it to E:\Games\NES\ for ease of use.

-Once your emulators are extracted to proper folders, delete the accompanying zip files, and now you'll go back to your PC and FTP the ROMS to their specific folders, for example , transfer the games you wish for NES to E:\Games\NES\Roms\, and again for all of the other EMUS E:\Games\Genesis\Roms, etc.

-Now that your Emulators are installed and have games to play, using the File Browser, navigate to each Emulator folder and launch "default.xbe" and the emulator will load up. Run each emulator once, so that your Xbox will place them under "Games" on your dashboard, and after each emu is run once, you'll have each one readily available under "Games" on the main dashboard.

-Now go play some games! Play around with the menus of each emulator and read the Readme's - they'll tell you how to operate the emulator and give you its capabilities.

Hope this helps!

[Anapan]

I managed to do it without an Action Replay using an Xbox-to-usb adapter and a thumbdrive (still using the Action Replay software). Made it a bit cheaper and wasn't very hard.
The Xbox AID disk is great! So much easier than when I did it the Modchip way the first time. It also helps when you've installed a bigger harddrive.

[jaundice]

^That's a great recommendation, as the actual Action Replay can be around 40-50 bucks, so that's a good moneysaver! Also, I wrote a more concise Guide to softmodding an Xbox here, I'll have to put your suggestion in there!

[alexis524]

for those into the xbox emulation scene, if you haven't installed CoinOps 4, you should do so.right.now. It's like a centralized emulator that runs most of the systems
that are emulated up to date on the xbox. Check it out here:

http://coinopsproject.freeforums.org/co ... -t572.html

[MrFrumble]

I've softmoded my xBox but haven't loaded anything on it yet or upgraded the hard drive. I just discovered CoinOps4 and was debating using this over the piecemeal approach. We will see.

[pvt_awol]

^

I'm a cheap bastard and couldn't be hassled with getting an Action Replay or USB memory card, etc.


I opened my box up, opened up an old PC with IDE interface, and I "leached" onto the xbox's hard drive. Using my PC, I soft modded it. It wasn't super difficult (it also wan't super easy) but it was completely free, and it works like a charm.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I use the PC method too. Works great! Don't bother updating the hard disk if you only want to emulate 8-bit and 16-bit games. 10GB is plenty for that.