Why do you hack your consoles (except piracy)?

[The Catboy]

Because I can

 

[AncientBoi]

Arrrrrrh Matey, I don't 'ave time ta Hak a consol

 

[EpikJimmer]

Personally, I really, REALLY like the proccess of modding something.
Modding my wii mini and 3DS for the first time was really memorable to me and I would do it again.

Yeah, I'm gonna play all these cool games and shit but going through all the hoops to get this thing done is something else.

 

[rcpd]

Personally, I really, REALLY like the proccess of modding something.
Modding my wii mini and 3DS for the first time was really memorable to me and I would do it again.

Yeah, I'm gonna play all these cool games and shit but going through all the hoops to get this thing done is something else.

This is how it is for me too. I don’t hack because I can or emulation or even for save management, which are all good reasons to hack anything. I do it simply because the process of doing it is enjoyable and therapeutic. Hacking it involves any soft mods or hard mods required, configuring homebrew software, making game backups, configuring emulators with respective backups, and then promptly never touching it again so I can redo it all over again 3-4 years later.

So far this method has worked great for my Wii, my Wii U, my 3DS, a NES Classic, a PS1 Classic, a Vita, and because it’s unnecessary on an unpatched Switch, I now own 3 Switch consoles of various models.

 

[xpoverzion]

I hack entirely for piracy. It's that simple... Everybody else here saying that they hack for other reasons is lying.

 

[DarthMotzkus]

Homebrews, emulators, native games ports from other platforms, customization of UI, themes, songs etc.
But only when the company finished the support of it, them i am comfortable to do so.

 

[Indy13]

I like the idea of not just thinking of "console" as a closed thing anymore but electronic circuit, motherboard, processor and capacity, it opens up a lot of possibilities and I love it

 

[a_username_that_isnt_cool]

To SEE the process. It's one of the reasons that I used MelonDS for my emulator. It allows DSi mode, and is still vulnerable to Flipnote Lenny, StyleHAX, Memory Pit, and even Unlaunch! The best part of homebrewing a console is if it puts a color on your screen. It's basically like the color's saying "You did it! You successfully homebrewed your console!"

 

[benone]

I'll use the example of my used PSP with a custom firmware. I used it a lot since I bought it in 2015. It was a portable console I could bring along with me when I was not home. It was convenient to use a console with wider boundaries, like playing GBA, GB, SNES, Nes emulator, PSP Isos and more recently, Playstation 1 isos via the video/audio output on an older television.

Why limit players when you can make a large community appreciate more potential of an electronic device?

I am also a person who is trying its best to not buy any brand new electronics. All those rare minerals and the dependency to them to create brand new stuff, it's crazy.

Often, I asked people around if they have old laptops, computers and I always managed to find an 'old' one and in the end, you just format it and reinstall a Linux OS and it works like a charm for many years!

I think I appreciate the modding of my used PSP because it also prevents me from buying brand new consoles.

 

[linuxares]

Cheats. Sometimes I don't have time for the grind.

 

[Egoistamamono]

In my legacy console, ofc for playing some homebrew and emulator. Also, we can doing something cool stuff's that the vanilla firmware can't.

 

[ragnarok_approaches123]

Originally I used to look into hacking consoles for homebrew apps and games, maybe the occasional romhack. The PSP, PS3, Wii, and DS all had excellent homebrew apps and games that would far extend the stock use of those consoles, piracy just ended up being a nice extra in the end.

What homebrew apps and games are you thinking of here?

 

[Jasmin95]

I like to modify things just for fun.

Tutuapp​

 

[krzys4x]

no modded no buyed simply as that cant wait 4 ps5 cfw slim

 

[Bigheadz]

I've hacked pretty much all my consoles including Wii, Wii U, PS3, PS4, XB, XB360, and Switch. And then I... barely did anything with them after that and mostly game on my PC lol. Outside of the few exclusives on each console, not really much reason to play them. Older gens (and switch) is better to emulate. I think the fun of the hacking process, the challenge, the knowledge required, the anxiety of bricking your console, and the rush when succeeding is my main reason for doing it.

 

[Lather]

In big case, this is my switch, nentendo shouldnt ban DIY from switch owner just because they want to block all the pirate.
On me, I just wanna use cheat for playing easily in game.

 

[Jayro]

Mostly for the convenience of having all my games in one place (or loading the games from external NAND media like a memory card instead of an optical disc, see the OG Xbox, Wii, PSP, Gamecube, PS2, etc...) but also because it's nice to be able to play my emulation library on whatever console I pick up, and also have some cool homebrew apps the system was never originally designed for. Like playing 720p MP4 files of anime from my Wii to a CRT television, or using my Switch as a portable FLAC/MKV playback device on the go. I love the freedoms CFW provides, as well as the QoL improvements over the stock firmware/OS experience.

The stock Switch Horizon OS is the most barebones I've ever seen on a modern home console. It's quite pathetic, truly. Only 2 "themes"? (It's actually more like a light or dark mode, as there's no real theme of anything.) No Netflix? No Streetpass predecessor? No built-in games like the 3DS had? No cameras on the device? The Switch is several steps backwards from the 2/3/DS/i/Lite family and it's really sad to see such a stripped-back system, from both a hardware and a software perspective.

 

[bakefate]

Hacked my PSP to have cheats and savestates.
Makes many games so much fun and enjoyable

 

[DTApple]

Customization is always a bonus!

 

[GenNaz]

On portables, being able to turn on higher CPU/GPU clock speeds is amazing. New 3DS' speeds might have been severally underutilized in an official sense but unofficially they've helped me get locked framerates on literal dozens of 3DS titles that otherwise have performance issues. On regular consoles it's the ability to load fan patches/translations and having an easier way to backup save games.