Original Xbox Questions - Softmodding, etc.

[The Captain]

Today I bought an original Xbox dirt cheap and it's in like-new condition. Honestly couldn't ask for better at the $20 price point. I checked the system settings and it hasn't been updated since 2004.

Anyway, I've never owned one and have a couple questions:

What are the benefits to a softmod - could I simply install games to the HDD?

Is upgrading the existing 20GB HDD a viable option? I have a 500GB laying around somewhere.

Am I better off just leaving it as-is and buying games? I don't need it as an emulation station because I already have my desktop, Nvidia Shield, etc. I don't know what the current state of Xbox emulation is like on the PC.

Top 10 games? (Excluding Halo, I have the MCC on Xbox One)

Thanks!

 

[Draza]

I had a Xbox when i was young and played plenty of good games on it. Top games i would recommend having that i had play are Simpson hit and run and Crash Bandicoot:The Wrath of Cortex

 

[drunk "Jedi master"]

softmod hdd game installs yes you can

replacing the hdd yes but requires a TSOP flash or mod chip (required for hardware version 1.6) TSOP option shown bellow

depends what you are comfy with my response is to soft mod and if you have the skill at least removing the clock cap with a pair of wire cutters before it leaks and cleaning up if it has leaked before to keep it from killing your xbox later you got to it and TSOP flashing is really easy if you know how to do basic soldering on hardware revisions 1.0-1.5

there are only a few I can think of JSRF Stubs The Zombie the 2 halo games if you didn't have them that is all that comes to mind but I never really played it much.

Edit you also asked about emulators for the og xbox there is CXBX-Reloaded and Xqemu both have some success in emulation but accuracy or speed is most of the time a issue.

 

[DragoonSierra]

Dreamcast 2.0

 

[Boxy Brown]

1. Ninja Gaiden Black
2. Nothing

I can't think of any other games that aren't on another system at this point

 

[UY 690]

Xbox was one of the best consoles Microsoft ever made before they became crap.

 

[Draza]

Xbox was one of the best consoles Microsoft ever made before they became crap.

What about the 360? (I never had a 360, i played with the fat PS3).

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Xbox emulation on PC as of now is a massive joke. Doesn't help that it's basically a repurposed Dell computer in console form. Only until recently that the Internet has gotten an Xbox emulator. Two of them exist, but they are basically in beta because of how poorly documented the system is. At least we got this image out of shitty Xbox emulation.

But yes, slap in a new HDD and download all the Xbox games that you want onto it.

 

[Boxy Brown]

I played Morrowind on Xbox. Me and my friend actually, no joke, were able to scramble up eggs during the initial load time when opening a save file. That we both still loved the game says a lot about Morrowind imo.

 

[The Great Citracett]

Was a huge Xbox and 360 fan up until the Xbone reveal, when Microsoft pulled what was basically a great sales pitch for the PS4 and I jumped ship.

I've still got my OG Xbox and 360 and play them quite a bit. I never really got into Halo when it came out, so I played a bunch of random other stuff.

Some of my favorites:

Morrowind

Psychonauts

Jade Empire

Shenmue II

JSRF (worth it to find the standalone version because it also plays on 360)

Fable: The Lost Chapters (the original is a broken half-finished mess. Or just get Fable Anniversary on 360, it's awesome)

Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams (for Xbox it has better graphics plus adds an additional scenario to play through that the PS2 version doesn't have)

Conker: Live and Reloaded (Remake of Conker's Bad Fur Day. Unfortunately it's censored all to hell despite the M rating)

I also liked the Blinx games but haven't played those in years so I'm not sure how those held up.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I've never owned an Xbox in my life, and it was only recently I regretted that decision somewhat. A while back I stumbled onto Raycevick's Halo retrospectives and I felt disappointed that I never played Halo. I've been considering getting one just to try Halo 1 and 2, but it hit me that I'd be buying a console for just two games, and maybe Ninja Gaiden Black (I've got Sigma, but I'm interested in seeing what's different). Plus if I wanted to play Halo 3 and Reach I'd also have to get a 360.

I'm sure I can get them for dirt cheap nowadays, but even so it does sting now that it's dawned on me what I've been missing all these years.

 

[CIA Nigger]

You can remove the clock cap by just bending it off, it's easy to do. It'll have started leaking by now though, so I'd do it with any Xbox you get. Also make a backup of the EEPROM if you don't TSOP the Xbox because when the HDD dies you need to relock it.

Xbox emulation on PC as of now is a massive joke. Doesn't help that it's basically a repurposed Dell computer in console form. Only until recently that the Internet has gotten an Xbox emulator. Two of them exist, but they are basically in beta because of how poorly documented the system is. At least we got this image out of shitty Xbox emulation.

But yes, slap in a new HDD and download all the Xbox games that you want onto it.

Xbox emulation has actually gone quite a long way as of late:

 

[Zaragoza]

 

[Sigma]

Was a huge Xbox and 360 fan up until the Xbone reveal, when Microsoft pulled what was basically a great sales pitch for the PS4 and I jumped ship.

I've still got my OG Xbox and 360 and play them quite a bit. I never really got into Halo when it came out, so I played a bunch of random other stuff.

Some of my favorites:

Morrowind

Psychonauts

Jade Empire

Shenmue II

JSRF (worth it to find the standalone version because it also plays on 360)

Fable: The Lost Chapters (the original is a broken half-finished mess. Or just get Fable Anniversary on 360, it's awesome)

Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams (for Xbox it has better graphics plus adds an additional scenario to play through that the PS2 version doesn't have)

Conker: Live and Reloaded (Remake of Conker's Bad Fur Day. Unfortunately it's censored all to hell despite the M rating)

I also liked the Blinx games but haven't played those in years so I'm not sure how those held up.

Silent Hill 2 got the new stuff in the greatest hits release version on PS2 actually. It's also on PC.

 

[Ebonic Tutor]

Metal Wolf Chaos

You're the President and the VP is trying to pull a coup so you get a top secret mech that was in development and fight him. It's pretty ridiculous and awesome.

Phantom Dust

Multiplayer (has a SP mode though) arena fighter collectible card game. You pretty much make a "deck" of spells that spawn from a corner on the map where you can pick them up and carry like 4 at a time. You an assign each one to a face button and change them out during the fight at random pretty much. If you use some you lose them and such afterwards though so you have to keep going back to get ore spells and hopefully kill the opponent before they run out. (I think, it's been years since I played it)

Both of them are by FROM of Dark Souls fame and have a remasters coming out though

 

[UnKillFill]

I have so many for the original xbox... I was an early fan, even as most people at the time (including my rl best friend) were die hard PS2 fans..

How fucking stupid the passage of time is... That same rl best friend has since become an xbox fan... He owns an XBONE now... While I have upgraded to the pc master race (not even owning a "current generation" console)

 

[The Captain]

So from my understanding my firmware was never updated to the one that locks out the HDD, etc. - which is a good thing, apparently.

 

[Commander Keen]

There's a lot of great games for the OG Xbox and I heartily recommend Gunvalkyrie. It'll take a while to get the hang of it, but it's very rewarding once you do. Other than that, there's plenty of games.

I'm looking at buying an Xbox that's already modded and loaded with games, though. I'm lazy and if it takes more than me just babysitting a console while I install software I don't wanna mess with it. I've put off upgrading to the new generation of CPUs because I don't want to fool with the motherboard and all that.

 

[Billy_Sama]

Metal Wolf Chaos

You're the President and the VP is trying to pull a coup so you get a top secret mech that was in development and fight him. It's pretty ridiculous and awesome.

I bought that game from a forum years ago and its the diamond of my collection. Fans made translated version and the game is getting an English rerelease.

The easiest way to mod a Xbox is getting a USB dongle with a copy of the first Splinter Cell game that has a exploit to load the file from the USB like a memory card. They cost under $10 online and you can get a copy of Splinter Cell for a few dollars. You might want to get a bigger harddrive if you want to load with Roms and ISOs.

Also collecting for Xbox is cheap with only a few games that go past for $100.

Games that I recommend that are not listed that I enjoy are Crimson Skies, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Soul Calibur 2 if you like Spawn, Genma Onimusha, Forza 1, Oddworld Strangers Wraith, the Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2, Timespliters 1 and 2, Wolfenstein, Psy-Ops, and Outrun: Coast 2 Coast (expensive) to find a copy.

 

[Sigma]

I bought that game from a forum years ago and its the diamond of my collection. Fans made translated version and the game is getting an English rerelease.

The easiest way to mod a Xbox is getting a USB dongle with a copy of the first Splinter Cell game that has a exploit to load the file from the USB like a memory card. They cost under $10 online and you can get a copy of Splinter Cell for a few dollars. You might want to get a bigger harddrive if you want to load with Roms and ISOs.

Also collecting for Xbox is cheap with only a few games that go past for $100.

Games that I recommend that are not listed that I enjoy are Crimson Skies, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Soul Calibur 2 if you like Spawn, Genma Onimusha, Forza 1, Oddworld Strangers Wraith, the Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2, Timespliters 1 and 2, Wolfenstein, Psy-Ops, and Outrun: Coast 2 Coast (expensive) to find a copy.

Timesplitters 1 is only for PS2. 2 and Future Perfect were on Xbox.