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<!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Xbox 360 Common Asked Questions<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<b>Q1) Do I need to install a chip to play backups on my 360?</b>
A1) No, you can soft mod the firmware of your 360 drive to allow it to read backups.
<b>Q2) How do I flash my 360?</b>
A2) Seriously there are already detailed guides all over the internet. The short answer is you will need a sata card with a VIA chipset. There are other compatible sata chipsets so if you have onboard sata your more than welcome to try but let me tell you from my experience that I tried 3 different motherboards and 4 PCI cards with non VIA chipsets with no success. In the end I got a VIA chipset sata card off Newegg for $13 (USD). You’re also going to need to have the tools to open your 360. You can buy tools off the internet or you can do as I did and make them using the top of a DVD spindle. Also you’ll need a torque screw driver (the one that is a star). I am not sure if there is different models but sometimes I need a #8 and sometimes I need a #10. Next you will need the iXtreme firmware files. These files are illegal so don’t ask me for them, don’t ask for a link, and don’t PM me either as I don’t have them. And finally you’ll need a jump drive. With so many howto tutorials out there I don't feel I need to write my own but if your looking for info on how to open or flash your 360 I recommend googling “<i>Xbox 360 textbook</i>”.
<b>Q3) Can you at least tell me what software to use to flash my 360? It all sounds so confusing!</b>
A3) Google “IPrep”. It is, in my opinion, the most user friendly app to walk you through making a jump drive.
<b>Q4) Is it hard to mod a 360? How much modding skill do you recommend someone have to attempt this?</b>
A4) It is pretty easy…so easy a retarded raccoon could probably do it.
<!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><i>As I said there are plenty of guides out there on how to flash your 360 but we often get questions from people who just bought a flashed Xbox 360 or are considering it. So here are some more frequently asked questions…
</i><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<b>Q5) Will I get banned from Xbox Live’s services for playing backups?</b>
A5) This is a grey area as Microsoft does occasionally do banning waves. However to my knowledge they usually ban people for either A) playing leaked copies early, B) playing an unstealthed copy on live, and finally C) just playing a bad copy of a game. You need to understand the risks that at any time you could get banned even if you don’t fall into the above categories. With all that being said I will have to warn you to mod at your own risk! Personally, in my opinion, to give me the best odds of not getting banned I just make my own backups.
<b>Q6) Okay how do I make my own backups?</b>
A6) Step 1 would involve you acquiring a Samsung DVD rom drive capable of reading a 360 disc. In order for that to happen you need a certain model drive that can be flashed with the Kreon firmware. Now myself not being able to find the right drive in retail stores headed over to the ever popular site eBay and searched for “Kreon” and found a whole slew of options of drives with the Kreon firmware already flashed for me. With that being said I’d recommend you follow my lead as these drives generally go for around $35-$50 (USD) which is really not much and can save you time searching for the right model to flash yourself. At this point if you don’t have a dual layer DVD burner I’d recommend installing one of those as well because you’ll need one in a little bit. Now with your computer equipped to read Xbox 360 games you’re ready for step 2, using the right software to make your backups. Now you do have a few options but I am going to teach you with what I use as that will be easiest for me. I use a program called Schtrom360extract to do my rips and a program called IMGBurn to burn my backups.
First I am going to go into detail on how to make the rip. Lets start by inserting your 360 disc into your Samsung drive and then running Schtrom360extract which will bring you to the following screen:
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/27823/360tutorial1.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Use section (A) to select your Samsung drive, use section (B) to select your destination, and in section © you get to choose how to rip your games. Stealth extreme 3.0 is all that is required for a good burn but many people believe using the Stealth extreme 3.0 splitvid option will help keep you more undetectable against future ban waves. With that being said ALL of my backups are made using the splitvid option. Before you start ripping lets head over to the options screen buy clicking the "Misc" tab. Bringing that up will give you a screen that looks like this:
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/27823/360tutorial2.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
The only thing I did was change my DVD rom type to the drive I installed. I recommend leaving everything else alone and just click the “X” button to go back. Now you’re ready to make your backup so go ahead and click extract. About 12 minutes later your rip will be done and you will have a .ISO file and a .DVD file. Now what you need to understand is that your 360 games have layer breaks at certain areas and so what Schtrom360extract did is note the breaks in the .DVD file. This means if you try and use your favorite program to burn the .ISO your going have yourself a coaster. That brings us up to step 3. Insert your DL media into your DVD burner and boot up IMGBurn. Click on the icon that says “write image file to disc” and you will now see this screen:
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/27823/360tutorial3.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Under section (D) you’re going to want navigate your way to where you stored the backup and select the .dvd file. The destination will be to your DL DVD burner and I’d recommend using a 2.4 burn. Sure some people have success with faster burns but since I’m the one writing this I can tell you I have backed up over 40 of games with no issues use 2.4 so that is what I am comfortable with. With all that being said you’re now ready to go ahead and now click the icon next to section (E). On a 2.4x burn it takes just about 45 minutes but once it is done you’ll just completed your very own back up.
<b>Q7) Does DL media matter or can I use the cheapest shit I can find?</b>
A7) From day 1 I have always used Verbatim’s DataLifePlus dual layers and they have worked great with 0 coasters. Many others recommend Verbatims as well so to save yourself some headaches I just recommend you do the same. A side note, recently Verbatim moved its factory from Singapore to India and with that move came lower quality discs so I recommend searching for a supplier who still has the Singapores in stock. I want to emphasize that your more than welcome to try other brands, I am just informing you with what I use and has brought me 100% success.
<b>Q8) Is there any hard drive exploits like the one for the PS2 called HDLoader?</b>
A8) Nope, recently Microsoft offered us the ability to copy our games to the drive to offer all the benefits we craved such as quieter game play, faster load times, and of course less strain on our DVD rom drives. Of course you still need to have the original in to verify you still own the game but then the game just runs off your hard drive. But as of right now there is no exploit to allow you to change your games without getting off your ass.
<b>Q9) I download a game off the internet and am not sure if it has been stealthed. Is there any way I can check?</b>
A9) Sure, remember that program we used to make our backups called Schtrom360extract? Well boot that program up and go to tools and then to stealth check. You can either check an already burnt DVD or you can check the ISO. Just direct the program to where the game in question is and click stealth check. If it passes then your good to go!
<b>Q10) Can I backup XBLA games or install XBLA backups?</b>
A10) Nope. At this time there is no way to backup your XBLA games. A side note that many people are not aware of is once a year you can transfer your legally owned XBLA games to a new system using their transfer system found <a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/licensemigration/" target="_blank">here.</a>
<!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->I need to go eat but if you can think of any more frequently asked questions new 360 owners ask feel free to post them and I will add them to this post<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
----------------------------
<b>While I was too busy playing a bunch of kick ass games <i>(and being a father) </i>FAST6191 was kind enough to pick up my slack and provide answers for more frequently asked questions...</b>
----------------------------
<b>Q11)</b> Granted it is not asked as often but it should be there.
Does it matter what region the xbox 360 games are from?
Answer.
Microsoft gave developers/publishers the option to region lock their games, some do and some do not. There is no real way to predict other than most games released solely to the German market are.
There is no way around a region lock but aside from Japanese, Korean and non-English Eu releases the time between releases (as in NTSC English and PAL English) is not that great at all.
Unlike the wii we can not mod games or the xbox itself to play different region games at this time (and that does not look set to change any time soon).
Here is a site with information on the releases and their region compatibility:
<a href="http://www.abgx.net/filename/?ch=6" target="_blank">http://www.abgx.net/filename/?ch=6</a>
Percentage wise games work more often than they do not across regions so it is definitely worth looking.
<b>Q12)</b> If I am banned can I unban my xbox.
Answer:
You can but it is a difficult task and will only work on older xboxes that can run homebrew. You will need an infectus chip and a donor xbox (one that is not banned).
Here is a youtube tutorial:
<a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v-nh-EGQrdA&fmt=6" target="_blank">http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v-nh-EGQrdA&fmt=6</a>
<b>Q13)</b> Copied games from the original xbox games on the 360, can it be done?
You can play copies of original xbox games, some scene/similar releases exist but for the most part people have to make them.
I will need to find a better link than this but it is a start (the link is smilla969's guide which is the de facto guide to such things).
<a href="http://360patches.com/index.php?topic=842.0" target="_blank">http://360patches.com/index.php?topic=842.0</a>
Earlier firmwares allowed "normal" discs but these days all games need to be dual layer regardless of their original size (and they could quite happily fit on a CDR at points and usually hovered around the 2 gig mark). They really need to start out as 1:1 copies (no menus, hacks, mods) and naturally no homebrew exists.
And then you have to hope it works with what the 360 passes off as emulation:
US:
<a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm" target="_blank">http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardco...tygameslist.htm</a>
UK:
<a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm" target="_blank">http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/backwardco...tygameslist.htm</a>
(that list does not get near to it: many games have issues despite being good to go).
A site that often has some better info.
<a href="http://www.xboxbc.com/" target="_blank">http://www.xboxbc.com/</a>
Frankly I would buy an original xbox and mod that, less complex, less risky and the original xbox is awesome when modded (near PC grade media playback via XBMC and very good emulators for just about every system up to the PS1 and N64 among other things).
While I am here:
<b>Q14)</b> How often do (hacked) firmware updates come?
This is usually a double barrelled question when people realise you can add a sata port to the xbox to facilitate "easier" flashing as part of casemod.
No real answer other than more than two times a year for a major update would be rare.
<b>Q15)</b> What is wave 3?
It is the name given to a new variation of 360 games that include the recent NXE update in the video partition. As of May 2009 all new games feature it (and a good chunk of earlier games from March and April 2009 also feature it).
The newer hacked firmwares include checks on these video partitions and inclusion of this update made for a new "valid size", this change caused iextreme (the main hack used by near enough everyone) to reject discs.
1.51 and 1.6 updates fix this (1.6 is not available for Hitachi drives at this time (25th May 2009)). If playing games is your only concern there are no real differences from 1.51 to 1.6.
There is also an older method involving the 1.4 firmware (a downgrade at the time) and hacking the isos by hand, such things are not advised and any discs hacked with this method will need to be discarded for 1.51 and beyond).
<b>Q16)</b>Software tools of choice?
I will leave flashing guides to others (fan of dosflash here) but this is a software question:
xbins is the tool of choice for automated sorting of the IRC and FTP issues.
<a href="http://360mods.net/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=29" target="_blank">http://360mods.net/index.php?name=Download...tails&id=29</a>
ABGX360: Some people affiliated with/behind ABGX (you may know the site from the release scene: <a href="http://www.abgx.net/filename/?ch=6" target="_blank">http://www.abgx.net/filename/?ch=6</a> ) now do a tool which has since replaced the older tools like DVD mulleter (used for iso checking):
<a href="http://abgx360.net/" target="_blank">http://abgx360.net/</a>
<b>Q17)</b> Copies on Xbox live, possible and will I get banned from live if I do.
Yes it is possible to backup games although as mentioned above you can only play backup games (1:1 copies) and you can not hack them like you can the wii ones (retextures and whatnot).
Online is fine for most people although microsoft occasionally bans people if it detects you are playing copies. The bans usually all come at once (hence the term banning wave).
Nobody really knows how it works but we suspect either
bad burns of games do it (along with bad dumps; some of the "early"* (as in before release dates) releases are sometimes bad and with no frame of reference/way to compare until release date....)
playing games online before release dates
some have cast doubt on some of the modding methods (the xbox can tell if you power it without a drive connected as you might have to, realistically there is no reason to have it out other than to mod it).
The "what causes bans" area is little more than rampant speculation most of the time though so I would not read much into it. [wild theorising]were I to be MS I would have a group of "probables" and only ban a select few of them at random, also I would use a combination of factors to try and determine who is up to no good[/wild theorising]
For what it is worth though it is the 360 that is banned, not the account and you can simply move your drive/account to another 360.
Unbanning was taken care of back in question 12) (it is quite hard and needs some specialist equipment and hardware and only works on earlier 360s).
Regarding the specific region question: I would say not, all xbox 360 games are at present 1:1 copies (give or take the hacking to get them working) and any "region free" that exists was built in/allowed by the developers/their publishers.
*early games. They come in two main forms:
"reviewer copies": it is speculated that there are several grades of reviewer and some of the less privileged have a stock 360 and get sent review copies for that. These occasionally find themselves online and can be played on flashed 360s.
Part of the problem is many of these releases are from p2p groups and while some are good at dumping games some are not (the same could be said for some of the scene groups but not as often).
"pre sale copies": either from a game shop or from a pressing plant, these are retail copies and should be good. Occasionally shops break release dates and MS has stated in the past nothing should happen to these people (look back at GTA4 for this one).
<b>Q19)</b> Homebrew on the 360; what is there and how can I do it?
A bug was found in earlier kernels which meant homebrew could be run, however it was fixed and these earlier kernels do not support newer 360s (broadly speaking if your 360 supports HDMI then you can not do homebrew). Also older 360s that had a warranty replacement/fix will also be unable to run homebrew.
It will also cost you the ability to run newer games and because of all this there is very little available.
At this time you are encouraged to watch the google talks presentation on the xbox 360 security:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxjpmc8ZIxM&fmt=18" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxjpmc8ZIxM&fmt=18</a>
<b>Q20)</b> Is there anything like the gamecube-IDE adapter or the flatmii for the 360?
There has been a proof of concept demo but there is nothing commercial or even "homebrew" available on the subject.
<a href="http://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?&topic=8335.0" target="_blank">http://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?&topic=8335.0</a>
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/13jXbhXZI48&fmt=18&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/13jXbhXZI48&fmt=18&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
Basically if your drive breaks you will need a proper replacement, if you do not want to send it to microsoft the same model is easiest although you can "spoof" another drive model and use that instead. Unlike the wii you can not just slot it in as the drive is locked to a 360 (hence the having to dump the firmware to mod it). For same model drive replacement you use the same methods as you do for flashing to play copies are used to replace (although obviously with the firmware from the xbox with the broken drive), spoofing is a bit more in depth (although nothing major and no extra hardware should be needed): <a href="http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox360-tools/360FirmwareToolbox.php" target="_blank">http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox360-tools/36...wareToolbox.php</a>
<b>Q1) Do I need to install a chip to play backups on my 360?</b>
A1) No, you can soft mod the firmware of your 360 drive to allow it to read backups.
<b>Q2) How do I flash my 360?</b>
A2) Seriously there are already detailed guides all over the internet. The short answer is you will need a sata card with a VIA chipset. There are other compatible sata chipsets so if you have onboard sata your more than welcome to try but let me tell you from my experience that I tried 3 different motherboards and 4 PCI cards with non VIA chipsets with no success. In the end I got a VIA chipset sata card off Newegg for $13 (USD). You’re also going to need to have the tools to open your 360. You can buy tools off the internet or you can do as I did and make them using the top of a DVD spindle. Also you’ll need a torque screw driver (the one that is a star). I am not sure if there is different models but sometimes I need a #8 and sometimes I need a #10. Next you will need the iXtreme firmware files. These files are illegal so don’t ask me for them, don’t ask for a link, and don’t PM me either as I don’t have them. And finally you’ll need a jump drive. With so many howto tutorials out there I don't feel I need to write my own but if your looking for info on how to open or flash your 360 I recommend googling “<i>Xbox 360 textbook</i>”.
<b>Q3) Can you at least tell me what software to use to flash my 360? It all sounds so confusing!</b>
A3) Google “IPrep”. It is, in my opinion, the most user friendly app to walk you through making a jump drive.
<b>Q4) Is it hard to mod a 360? How much modding skill do you recommend someone have to attempt this?</b>
A4) It is pretty easy…so easy a retarded raccoon could probably do it.
<!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><i>As I said there are plenty of guides out there on how to flash your 360 but we often get questions from people who just bought a flashed Xbox 360 or are considering it. So here are some more frequently asked questions…
</i><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<b>Q5) Will I get banned from Xbox Live’s services for playing backups?</b>
A5) This is a grey area as Microsoft does occasionally do banning waves. However to my knowledge they usually ban people for either A) playing leaked copies early, B) playing an unstealthed copy on live, and finally C) just playing a bad copy of a game. You need to understand the risks that at any time you could get banned even if you don’t fall into the above categories. With all that being said I will have to warn you to mod at your own risk! Personally, in my opinion, to give me the best odds of not getting banned I just make my own backups.
<b>Q6) Okay how do I make my own backups?</b>
A6) Step 1 would involve you acquiring a Samsung DVD rom drive capable of reading a 360 disc. In order for that to happen you need a certain model drive that can be flashed with the Kreon firmware. Now myself not being able to find the right drive in retail stores headed over to the ever popular site eBay and searched for “Kreon” and found a whole slew of options of drives with the Kreon firmware already flashed for me. With that being said I’d recommend you follow my lead as these drives generally go for around $35-$50 (USD) which is really not much and can save you time searching for the right model to flash yourself. At this point if you don’t have a dual layer DVD burner I’d recommend installing one of those as well because you’ll need one in a little bit. Now with your computer equipped to read Xbox 360 games you’re ready for step 2, using the right software to make your backups. Now you do have a few options but I am going to teach you with what I use as that will be easiest for me. I use a program called Schtrom360extract to do my rips and a program called IMGBurn to burn my backups.
First I am going to go into detail on how to make the rip. Lets start by inserting your 360 disc into your Samsung drive and then running Schtrom360extract which will bring you to the following screen:
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/27823/360tutorial1.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Use section (A) to select your Samsung drive, use section (B) to select your destination, and in section © you get to choose how to rip your games. Stealth extreme 3.0 is all that is required for a good burn but many people believe using the Stealth extreme 3.0 splitvid option will help keep you more undetectable against future ban waves. With that being said ALL of my backups are made using the splitvid option. Before you start ripping lets head over to the options screen buy clicking the "Misc" tab. Bringing that up will give you a screen that looks like this:
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/27823/360tutorial2.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
The only thing I did was change my DVD rom type to the drive I installed. I recommend leaving everything else alone and just click the “X” button to go back. Now you’re ready to make your backup so go ahead and click extract. About 12 minutes later your rip will be done and you will have a .ISO file and a .DVD file. Now what you need to understand is that your 360 games have layer breaks at certain areas and so what Schtrom360extract did is note the breaks in the .DVD file. This means if you try and use your favorite program to burn the .ISO your going have yourself a coaster. That brings us up to step 3. Insert your DL media into your DVD burner and boot up IMGBurn. Click on the icon that says “write image file to disc” and you will now see this screen:
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/27823/360tutorial3.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Under section (D) you’re going to want navigate your way to where you stored the backup and select the .dvd file. The destination will be to your DL DVD burner and I’d recommend using a 2.4 burn. Sure some people have success with faster burns but since I’m the one writing this I can tell you I have backed up over 40 of games with no issues use 2.4 so that is what I am comfortable with. With all that being said you’re now ready to go ahead and now click the icon next to section (E). On a 2.4x burn it takes just about 45 minutes but once it is done you’ll just completed your very own back up.
<b>Q7) Does DL media matter or can I use the cheapest shit I can find?</b>
A7) From day 1 I have always used Verbatim’s DataLifePlus dual layers and they have worked great with 0 coasters. Many others recommend Verbatims as well so to save yourself some headaches I just recommend you do the same. A side note, recently Verbatim moved its factory from Singapore to India and with that move came lower quality discs so I recommend searching for a supplier who still has the Singapores in stock. I want to emphasize that your more than welcome to try other brands, I am just informing you with what I use and has brought me 100% success.
<b>Q8) Is there any hard drive exploits like the one for the PS2 called HDLoader?</b>
A8) Nope, recently Microsoft offered us the ability to copy our games to the drive to offer all the benefits we craved such as quieter game play, faster load times, and of course less strain on our DVD rom drives. Of course you still need to have the original in to verify you still own the game but then the game just runs off your hard drive. But as of right now there is no exploit to allow you to change your games without getting off your ass.
<b>Q9) I download a game off the internet and am not sure if it has been stealthed. Is there any way I can check?</b>
A9) Sure, remember that program we used to make our backups called Schtrom360extract? Well boot that program up and go to tools and then to stealth check. You can either check an already burnt DVD or you can check the ISO. Just direct the program to where the game in question is and click stealth check. If it passes then your good to go!
<b>Q10) Can I backup XBLA games or install XBLA backups?</b>
A10) Nope. At this time there is no way to backup your XBLA games. A side note that many people are not aware of is once a year you can transfer your legally owned XBLA games to a new system using their transfer system found <a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/licensemigration/" target="_blank">here.</a>
<!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->I need to go eat but if you can think of any more frequently asked questions new 360 owners ask feel free to post them and I will add them to this post<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
----------------------------
<b>While I was too busy playing a bunch of kick ass games <i>(and being a father) </i>FAST6191 was kind enough to pick up my slack and provide answers for more frequently asked questions...</b>
----------------------------
<b>Q11)</b> Granted it is not asked as often but it should be there.
Does it matter what region the xbox 360 games are from?
Answer.
Microsoft gave developers/publishers the option to region lock their games, some do and some do not. There is no real way to predict other than most games released solely to the German market are.
There is no way around a region lock but aside from Japanese, Korean and non-English Eu releases the time between releases (as in NTSC English and PAL English) is not that great at all.
Unlike the wii we can not mod games or the xbox itself to play different region games at this time (and that does not look set to change any time soon).
Here is a site with information on the releases and their region compatibility:
<a href="http://www.abgx.net/filename/?ch=6" target="_blank">http://www.abgx.net/filename/?ch=6</a>
Percentage wise games work more often than they do not across regions so it is definitely worth looking.
<b>Q12)</b> If I am banned can I unban my xbox.
Answer:
You can but it is a difficult task and will only work on older xboxes that can run homebrew. You will need an infectus chip and a donor xbox (one that is not banned).
Here is a youtube tutorial:
<a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v-nh-EGQrdA&fmt=6" target="_blank">http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v-nh-EGQrdA&fmt=6</a>
<b>Q13)</b> Copied games from the original xbox games on the 360, can it be done?
You can play copies of original xbox games, some scene/similar releases exist but for the most part people have to make them.
I will need to find a better link than this but it is a start (the link is smilla969's guide which is the de facto guide to such things).
<a href="http://360patches.com/index.php?topic=842.0" target="_blank">http://360patches.com/index.php?topic=842.0</a>
Earlier firmwares allowed "normal" discs but these days all games need to be dual layer regardless of their original size (and they could quite happily fit on a CDR at points and usually hovered around the 2 gig mark). They really need to start out as 1:1 copies (no menus, hacks, mods) and naturally no homebrew exists.
And then you have to hope it works with what the 360 passes off as emulation:
US:
<a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm" target="_blank">http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardco...tygameslist.htm</a>
UK:
<a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm" target="_blank">http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/backwardco...tygameslist.htm</a>
(that list does not get near to it: many games have issues despite being good to go).
A site that often has some better info.
<a href="http://www.xboxbc.com/" target="_blank">http://www.xboxbc.com/</a>
Frankly I would buy an original xbox and mod that, less complex, less risky and the original xbox is awesome when modded (near PC grade media playback via XBMC and very good emulators for just about every system up to the PS1 and N64 among other things).
While I am here:
<b>Q14)</b> How often do (hacked) firmware updates come?
This is usually a double barrelled question when people realise you can add a sata port to the xbox to facilitate "easier" flashing as part of casemod.
No real answer other than more than two times a year for a major update would be rare.
<b>Q15)</b> What is wave 3?
It is the name given to a new variation of 360 games that include the recent NXE update in the video partition. As of May 2009 all new games feature it (and a good chunk of earlier games from March and April 2009 also feature it).
The newer hacked firmwares include checks on these video partitions and inclusion of this update made for a new "valid size", this change caused iextreme (the main hack used by near enough everyone) to reject discs.
1.51 and 1.6 updates fix this (1.6 is not available for Hitachi drives at this time (25th May 2009)). If playing games is your only concern there are no real differences from 1.51 to 1.6.
There is also an older method involving the 1.4 firmware (a downgrade at the time) and hacking the isos by hand, such things are not advised and any discs hacked with this method will need to be discarded for 1.51 and beyond).
<b>Q16)</b>Software tools of choice?
I will leave flashing guides to others (fan of dosflash here) but this is a software question:
xbins is the tool of choice for automated sorting of the IRC and FTP issues.
<a href="http://360mods.net/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=29" target="_blank">http://360mods.net/index.php?name=Download...tails&id=29</a>
ABGX360: Some people affiliated with/behind ABGX (you may know the site from the release scene: <a href="http://www.abgx.net/filename/?ch=6" target="_blank">http://www.abgx.net/filename/?ch=6</a> ) now do a tool which has since replaced the older tools like DVD mulleter (used for iso checking):
<a href="http://abgx360.net/" target="_blank">http://abgx360.net/</a>
<b>Q17)</b> Copies on Xbox live, possible and will I get banned from live if I do.
Yes it is possible to backup games although as mentioned above you can only play backup games (1:1 copies) and you can not hack them like you can the wii ones (retextures and whatnot).
Online is fine for most people although microsoft occasionally bans people if it detects you are playing copies. The bans usually all come at once (hence the term banning wave).
Nobody really knows how it works but we suspect either
bad burns of games do it (along with bad dumps; some of the "early"* (as in before release dates) releases are sometimes bad and with no frame of reference/way to compare until release date....)
playing games online before release dates
some have cast doubt on some of the modding methods (the xbox can tell if you power it without a drive connected as you might have to, realistically there is no reason to have it out other than to mod it).
The "what causes bans" area is little more than rampant speculation most of the time though so I would not read much into it. [wild theorising]were I to be MS I would have a group of "probables" and only ban a select few of them at random, also I would use a combination of factors to try and determine who is up to no good[/wild theorising]
For what it is worth though it is the 360 that is banned, not the account and you can simply move your drive/account to another 360.
Unbanning was taken care of back in question 12) (it is quite hard and needs some specialist equipment and hardware and only works on earlier 360s).
Regarding the specific region question: I would say not, all xbox 360 games are at present 1:1 copies (give or take the hacking to get them working) and any "region free" that exists was built in/allowed by the developers/their publishers.
*early games. They come in two main forms:
"reviewer copies": it is speculated that there are several grades of reviewer and some of the less privileged have a stock 360 and get sent review copies for that. These occasionally find themselves online and can be played on flashed 360s.
Part of the problem is many of these releases are from p2p groups and while some are good at dumping games some are not (the same could be said for some of the scene groups but not as often).
"pre sale copies": either from a game shop or from a pressing plant, these are retail copies and should be good. Occasionally shops break release dates and MS has stated in the past nothing should happen to these people (look back at GTA4 for this one).
<b>Q19)</b> Homebrew on the 360; what is there and how can I do it?
A bug was found in earlier kernels which meant homebrew could be run, however it was fixed and these earlier kernels do not support newer 360s (broadly speaking if your 360 supports HDMI then you can not do homebrew). Also older 360s that had a warranty replacement/fix will also be unable to run homebrew.
It will also cost you the ability to run newer games and because of all this there is very little available.
At this time you are encouraged to watch the google talks presentation on the xbox 360 security:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxjpmc8ZIxM&fmt=18" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxjpmc8ZIxM&fmt=18</a>
<b>Q20)</b> Is there anything like the gamecube-IDE adapter or the flatmii for the 360?
There has been a proof of concept demo but there is nothing commercial or even "homebrew" available on the subject.
<a href="http://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?&topic=8335.0" target="_blank">http://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?&topic=8335.0</a>
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Basically if your drive breaks you will need a proper replacement, if you do not want to send it to microsoft the same model is easiest although you can "spoof" another drive model and use that instead. Unlike the wii you can not just slot it in as the drive is locked to a 360 (hence the having to dump the firmware to mod it). For same model drive replacement you use the same methods as you do for flashing to play copies are used to replace (although obviously with the firmware from the xbox with the broken drive), spoofing is a bit more in depth (although nothing major and no extra hardware should be needed): <a href="http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox360-tools/360FirmwareToolbox.php" target="_blank">http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox360-tools/36...wareToolbox.php</a>
