Gaming Need 360 Flashing Help

[gokuguy]

I'm new to 360 flashing. Just repaired a 360 console of my brother's that was flashed, so I now have a flashed 360 DVD drive. He gave me the games he had, so I have made sure it works.

Here is where I need help. You see, I don't know a lot about 360 flashing. I know how to patch and burn backups for it, etc, but there is a bit I need to be informed on.

I do not know what firmware is on it. I believe it is iXTREME 1.6, using JungleFlasher, but I can't be for certain. I have read that I will need the new LT+ firmware to play the newer games. Here are my questions.

1) Does the newest firmware support the newest wave games? If not the newest, does it work with wave 8 and wave 9 games?

2) When stealth patched with this firmware, are they as safe to use online as the older games are? The newest game I have tried on it so far is probably only Left 4 Dead 2.

3) Is there anything really important that I haven't mentioned that I need to know? I know about ban waves and what not.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: If it makes any difference, I have the latest dashboard firmware as well.

 

[FAST6191]

1) For the record we saw wave 10 games the other day.
Wave checking was axed with the move to LT (or indeed 1.6NS) so waves are now not a problem. It was never a problem of the 360 just overzealous protections in the hacked firmware.

2) LT+ is as safe as ever with properly patched newer games if that is what you are asking (AP2.5 is actually quite a nasty protection and does more than make online difficult).

3) We have not seen a ban wave in quite some time.

I suspect the above is probably not going to be much use though so more waffle from me

The general idea is hacked DVD firmwares exploit an oversight in the 360 security model with DVD drives checking games and DVD drives having relatively writeable firmware that is not able to be checked (there are checks but they are in firmware and as we control the firmware......).

The hacked firmwares for the drives then get to try and emulate official discs, obviously your little burner can not act as a disc press so it kicks things to other areas your burner can play with and emulates checks (this is the original stealth sector patching). As isos are not always sourced properly some sanity checks were added here in older firmwares, part of this was wave checking and this had some problems (now gone though- you are advised to check your discs with ABGX360 instead).
MS however do not like this hacked firmware business for obvious reasons so they develop new checks. Their newest check is known as AP2.5 which in turn required an addition to the stealth sectors model but only the newest hacked firmware lines have been updated to support this new protection.
You should also note only benq, liteon and some hitachi drives can do these new checks so there is no need for newer firmwares for some older drives (samsung and some other hitachi drives are immune) and they can stick with LT.

"Newer games" is a bit broad as well- originally three games supported it (Fable 3- noted for being a game working on older firmwares that had the checks as something of a hidden surprise, Need for Speed hot pursuit and Assassin's creed brotherhood) but as of the latest update three more games were added (COD- modern warfare 2, COD Black ops and Halo reach). Every other game, including any released since, at present are not troubled by AP2.5 and as such can be played without needing to patch the game to use SSv3 (the newer version of stealth sectors with AP2.5 emulation abilities).
MS shocked a few people by adding it for those three older games in the last update (some of us were expecting to see title updates but dash level updates raised an eyebrow or two) and they might do it again- the obvious line of logic is those last three games are big online games and the ones before it were big releases in general.

The main problem you will face in the move to LT is splitvid (it deals with the DVD video partitions MS adds to discs). Reasons for it being made mandatory are hazy but it is now mandatory (indeed as every other check vanished this was made mandatory). The method has been around for ages and many groups use it but with it being simple to add (ABGX360 can do it quickly and easily) and not much use before LT not all isos and thus not all your legacy burned discs will have it.

Finally you can do it now but when you update to LT or LT+ make sure to stash a copy of your DVD key somewhere as you will not be able to dump it from an LT drive without serious hassle like you can with old ixtreme firmwares.

 

[gokuguy]

Ok, so this is what I gathered from that. Correct me if i'm wrong.

1) I will have to update to the LT firmware. I have an original Samsung DVD drive, and since they are immune to the new checks, I won't need LT+ firmware, just LT.

2) There is now a new security system put on new games called AP2.5, but this is not a problem for LT+ firmwares. I can still backup these types of games without problems. I have a Samsung DVD drive, so mine is immune to these checks.

3) When updating to LT, I need to first make sure to dump and backup my DVD Key incase of any problems later.

4) Stealth patching has not changed. I still need to stealth patch each ISO before burning.

5) For all games, I will need to add a "splitvid" section, through ABGX360, if it does not have one already.



If I am wrong, please correct me. I don't wanna kill my drive.

Also, following this, I now have 2 questions.

1) For the games with AP2.5, do I still have to SSv3 patch them? I have a Samsung drive.

2) How often does an update usually come around for the firmware? I don't have a computer that uses SATA cables in my possesion, but I might be able to get someone to help me out. If I can't, will a SATA to USB kit work? I already have an Xecuter Blaster CK3 on it for easy updating.

 

[FAST6191]

1) Yeah if you want to be safe on live you need to be on LT. If you wanted to play AP2.5 games you need to be on LT+ but as you have a samsung drive* you only need LT.

*I assume this is the original drive (or indeed the 360's original drive was a samsung) not a replacement from somewhere else. You can no longer spoof drives with LT.

2) ap2.5 is a new security put on *some* new games but it is still very uncommon. It differs from previous methods which were mainly about banning people from live and instead prevents you from playing the game.
Your drive is immune so you can play on regardless.
You can back up (as in turn discs to isos) but you can not rip SSv3 (security sectors with AP2.5 data) as the method has not been released- nothing stopping you patching that in after the fact with an internet sourced download (a couple of megs at most).

3) It is not as much problems but LT was an attempt to bring the hacked firmwares back in line with what started out on the drive. Older hacked firmwares would give up the keys if you so much as asked but as part of the shift to LT that ability was lost and it will make you do a hardware mod to get them back if you have lost them.

4) Stealth patching..... not really. Most scene isos will come in a form you can just burn. Still worth a check as sometimes things do slip past group quality control in the race to pre things (we had a few nukes for anydvd corruption* in recent months). p2p groups are a whole different thing though- many are good but some are anything that half works ships.

*remember the video section I was on about earlier well if you rip with Anydvd installed/working it messes this up and any iso that has this will get nuked.


5) If you plan on using them with LT then yes you will. It is a scene requirement for the isos to be compatible with the latest hacked firmware so isos since LT was released should already have it and many before it will as well.
It is a simple option in ABGX360 anyway and you can tell it to always add it if it does not detect it.


Part two as it were.

1) If you plan to only use them on a samsung drive carry on but if you want to share with friends then it is good form to patch to SSv3.

2) Hard to say. Feature wise very rarely, bug fixes possibly more often. Usually though you can go a year between releases.
USB to sata- afraid not
However 360 compatible PCI cards are about $10 USD and can be found in many places. Compatible PCMCIA cards are a little more than that although they are quite rare.

In recent months and software/info is just starting to be released there have been new devices that are standalone and allow you to flash 360 drives. They cost about the price of a new top flight game if not a little bit more.

 

[gokuguy]

OK, thanks. This clears a lot up for me. I'll see if I can get up with my brother to get this thing updated.

I think my Blaster will be enough for now. I'm planning on getting a new PC using SATA anyway, so that should work out just fine.

There is only 1 other thing that I am wondering about.

Because of the splitvid sector that must be on the games for LT firmware, will I need to re-rip and re-burn any games that I already have that don't have it? They consist of games like Batman Arkham Asylum, the Left 4 Dead games, etc.

 

[FAST6191]

Yeah the splitvid section is mandatory (I believe the games will not even boot) so yes re ripping or grabbing the iso to play with.


"I'm planning on getting a new PC using SATA anyway,"

Remember that for many drives only certain chipsets will work- via 6421 and Nvidia Nforce 3 series and beyond (not sure about current). Granted they are probably the big two after Intel but those chipsets normally looked for are somewhat rare these days.

 

[gokuguy]

Yeah the splitvid section is mandatory (I believe the games will not even boot) so yes re ripping or grabbing the iso to play with.


"I'm planning on getting a new PC using SATA anyway,"

Remember that for many drives only certain chipsets will work- via 6421 and Nvidia Nforce 3 series and beyond (not sure about current). Granted they are probably the big two after Intel but those chipsets normally looked for are somewhat rare these days.

Ok thanks. I'll remember that. I'll be building it custom, so I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks dude. That helps a lot.