So like it says in the title, what is the easiest and cheapest way to mod an Xbox 360?
My Xbox 360 is a white phat model.
Thanks!
My Xbox 360 is a white phat model.
Thanks!
Hacking What is the cheapest and easiest way of modding a Xbox 360?
- Thread starter Optik_Fusion
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There are two main classes of mod
1) DVD modding
2) JTAG/SMC/RGH family of mods.
DVD modding allows you to play copied DVD games, plus the PIRS and update fiddling stuff that any xbox (modded or otherwise) can do which is not a big list of extras* but some nice stuff.
No real scope for modded games, anything game is region locked will still be region locked (while North American models are probably the best one to have there are plenty of Japanese and European exclusives worth knowing about, even more so if you want non English games), no hard drive running (though obviously you can install to the hard drive and stuff use a copied game as a key), no custom size hard drives (need specific now harder to come by models or official models), no USB loading, no homebrew, no DLC or XBLA stuff you did not obtain legitimately...
There are also options for DVD drive emulation but they are very costly if you can find one at all (they came somewhat late in the day when others were content with simple DVD mods or the stuff below and thus did not sell the most/were not made for the longest) so we will skip that here.
2) All the list above on things you can't do now you can do here, though you will not inherently be able to play copied games (though you can dump the keys easily enough, and I don't know what became of the DVD flashing from the device itself but that might be an option too). Only real downside is you can't really play online -- if you want to spend extra you can do a dual NAND mod and keep one clean for online uses (personally I would get an extra xbox -- I got a nice slim for £10 the other week so eh), and if you want to pay an awful lot then there might still be means to get lots of keys, some stealth server services and probably several subscriptions to xbox live. If the game you want to play is a local LAN cable game then you can also do that with another one if you have a modded 360 to disable the ping limits.
Depending upon the kernel and hardware version will vary the costs.
If by some miracle your original xbox is on a very old kernel then you can do JTAG which if you can solder and have a PC with the requisite ports can be done for a handful of common electrical components you can probably get anywhere. RGH tends to be a bit more expensive to pull off but still not bad. Equally some of the older DVD drive revisions can have their keys dumped quite easily, and you could possibly do it with a PC and no extra hardware (when it says connect your 360 case to your PC case do that) or maybe a cheap SATA card.
On the flip side some of the newer kernels and hardware revisions will be more involved.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/guide-how-to-hack-your-360.334203/ will allow you to narrow down what you have and what your options are.
*PIRS is a sub type of the STFS file container on the 360 (LIVE, which is the XBLA, DLC and all that jazz and needs proper authentication, and CON, which is save files and user profiles mostly being the other aspects). Some game of the year type setups included this format for their works which people in turn ripped and can be installed by anybody that can either access the hard drive (any vaguely modern PC should be able to do this but you will have to take it apart, which needs some tools you might not have, or find and adapter), or these days play with a USB the 360 formatted. Not all GOTY or similar content was released like this, plenty just gave you a download code, but there is still some.
Afraid I don't have a good list of what was eventually made/discovered here and as it is still paid content then it can't be linked here. The first handful of Borderlands DLC has this (sadly the later, and arguably better, stuff did not), some fallout 3 stuff, Alan Wake might have had something, Halo 3 ODST might have had something (though it might also have not been PIRS), I think there was some Fable stuff but others note it as not easy to install), possibly some of the Elder Scrolls stuff and there is a bunch more still.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190316210659/http://www.abgx.net/xbox360_dlc_releases_date.txt lists all the DLC we know of (though some of the undumped stuff is still being discovered and dumped, even if it is mostly songs for music games nobody cared much for).
1) DVD modding
2) JTAG/SMC/RGH family of mods.
DVD modding allows you to play copied DVD games, plus the PIRS and update fiddling stuff that any xbox (modded or otherwise) can do which is not a big list of extras* but some nice stuff.
No real scope for modded games, anything game is region locked will still be region locked (while North American models are probably the best one to have there are plenty of Japanese and European exclusives worth knowing about, even more so if you want non English games), no hard drive running (though obviously you can install to the hard drive and stuff use a copied game as a key), no custom size hard drives (need specific now harder to come by models or official models), no USB loading, no homebrew, no DLC or XBLA stuff you did not obtain legitimately...
There are also options for DVD drive emulation but they are very costly if you can find one at all (they came somewhat late in the day when others were content with simple DVD mods or the stuff below and thus did not sell the most/were not made for the longest) so we will skip that here.
2) All the list above on things you can't do now you can do here, though you will not inherently be able to play copied games (though you can dump the keys easily enough, and I don't know what became of the DVD flashing from the device itself but that might be an option too). Only real downside is you can't really play online -- if you want to spend extra you can do a dual NAND mod and keep one clean for online uses (personally I would get an extra xbox -- I got a nice slim for £10 the other week so eh), and if you want to pay an awful lot then there might still be means to get lots of keys, some stealth server services and probably several subscriptions to xbox live. If the game you want to play is a local LAN cable game then you can also do that with another one if you have a modded 360 to disable the ping limits.
Depending upon the kernel and hardware version will vary the costs.
If by some miracle your original xbox is on a very old kernel then you can do JTAG which if you can solder and have a PC with the requisite ports can be done for a handful of common electrical components you can probably get anywhere. RGH tends to be a bit more expensive to pull off but still not bad. Equally some of the older DVD drive revisions can have their keys dumped quite easily, and you could possibly do it with a PC and no extra hardware (when it says connect your 360 case to your PC case do that) or maybe a cheap SATA card.
On the flip side some of the newer kernels and hardware revisions will be more involved.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/guide-how-to-hack-your-360.334203/ will allow you to narrow down what you have and what your options are.
*PIRS is a sub type of the STFS file container on the 360 (LIVE, which is the XBLA, DLC and all that jazz and needs proper authentication, and CON, which is save files and user profiles mostly being the other aspects). Some game of the year type setups included this format for their works which people in turn ripped and can be installed by anybody that can either access the hard drive (any vaguely modern PC should be able to do this but you will have to take it apart, which needs some tools you might not have, or find and adapter), or these days play with a USB the 360 formatted. Not all GOTY or similar content was released like this, plenty just gave you a download code, but there is still some.
Afraid I don't have a good list of what was eventually made/discovered here and as it is still paid content then it can't be linked here. The first handful of Borderlands DLC has this (sadly the later, and arguably better, stuff did not), some fallout 3 stuff, Alan Wake might have had something, Halo 3 ODST might have had something (though it might also have not been PIRS), I think there was some Fable stuff but others note it as not easy to install), possibly some of the Elder Scrolls stuff and there is a bunch more still.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190316210659/http://www.abgx.net/xbox360_dlc_releases_date.txt lists all the DLC we know of (though some of the undumped stuff is still being discovered and dumped, even if it is mostly songs for music games nobody cared much for).
You can use any USB up to 2TB as a main storage device, for game installs or whatever on a retail - I recommend installing your burned games if possible just to keep your 10+ year old laser running.
Last edited by lisreal2401,
Flash the DVD drive.
It's the cheapest solution.
Make sure to patch your backups with ABGX and install them to the HDD like lisreal said.
It's the cheapest solution.
Make sure to patch your backups with ABGX and install them to the HDD like lisreal said.
Sorry, ignore this quote.
--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------
Thank you guys so much, It's really amazing of how much people still care about this great console. I have one more question, I have another Xbox 360 that has a grey and white faceplate that was made in 2005 so it doesn't have an HDMI, can I mod it?
Last edited by Optik_Fusion,
It's a Xenon.
DVD flash is your best option.
I doubt JTAG works as it was patched in >7371, RGH for Xenons... I honestly say nah.
DVD flash is your best option.
I doubt JTAG works as it was patched in >7371, RGH for Xenons... I honestly say nah.
Not with a drive mod, except for those retail collection disks that have several XBLA games on them.
But with a JTAG/RGH mod you run them directly off a HDD.
Re: XBLA then what the others said. However if you can find them (most ones you will see for download will probably be those aimed at the JTAG/RGH family of consoles) then you can install and play the demo* versions, and I believe you can even burn them to a disc without any kind of DVD mod. I guess you could download them from an online xbox, stuff them on USB and rip them/copy them across that way but... effort and all that.
*technically each XBLA demo is the whole game and the change to have them be the whole game is only a few bytes actually (naturally changing said bytes will break the signing). There once was a game that had its end of game demo wall able to be bypassed but I don't know if it is blacklisted, and was really hard to find when I went looking some years ago so I can't imagine today will be better.
*technically each XBLA demo is the whole game and the change to have them be the whole game is only a few bytes actually (naturally changing said bytes will break the signing). There once was a game that had its end of game demo wall able to be bypassed but I don't know if it is blacklisted, and was really hard to find when I went looking some years ago so I can't imagine today will be better.
For flashing the drive or RGHing it?
Flashing the drive... if you're lucky you can get away with using the 360 as a powersource and your motherboard SATA port as the connection.
Otherwise you'll have to get a Via SATA card or a X360 USB Pro (v1 is without a connectivity kit and v2 has a build in connectivity kit)
RGH, Xenons aren't worth it tbh, I'd stick to DVD flashing.
Flashing the drive... if you're lucky you can get away with using the 360 as a powersource and your motherboard SATA port as the connection.
Otherwise you'll have to get a Via SATA card or a X360 USB Pro (v1 is without a connectivity kit and v2 has a build in connectivity kit)
RGH, Xenons aren't worth it tbh, I'd stick to DVD flashing.
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