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Modded Consoles

DANGERMAN

By DANGERMAN,
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DANGERMAN

DANGERMAN

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Obviously I'm not promoting software piracy, live your own life on that, but don't take this thread as a green light to post anything specific and certainly no links to roms

 

However, after a conversation elsewhere, has anyone else had, or currently have, modded consoles (soft or hard-modded).

 

I never did turn my old Xbox in to a retro machine, nor my Vita, but I know both are considered good for it

 

Generally speaking when I've modded a console it's been so it will run import games. I remember having to take my Saturn to Stoke ( :uhoh: ) to get it import modded. It also meant it could run games in 60hz rather than the PAL 50hz, it's why it was better than just using the cheaper import cart you could get. I loved it though, I bought X-Men vs Street Fighter there and then, and started to look to Japanese imports as default rather than pick up PAL copies (bar rpgs).

 

It also meant I was used to importing when the Dreamcast rolled around. The Dreamcast didn't need a lot of modding. I did have an import chip put in, and my current Dreamcast has an import chip in. Hard to say it was soft modded as such, because it was just a matter of the right boot disc, but I did use that Dreamcast to play emulators and avi /VCD movies 

 

More recently, after Nintendo blocked the Freeloader, I put the homebrew channel on my Wii. I've never really looked at what else I could do with it, certainly there wasn't anything I felt I needed to pirate on it, maybe there's really interesting things to do with the Homebrew channel. All I used it for was to run imports, not that I had loads for the Wii, but I did have a couple. I don't have a Gamecube any more, so it lets me boot those imports too.

 

After that I have a 3DS that lets me go to a website and boot imports. I'm tempted to see if there's a better solution than that. If so, as my likelihood of going to the 3DS eshop gets closer to 0, maybe I'll do the same on my current 3DS. Not that I have a lot of import games for the 3DS, but if it's easy to play them maybe I'll get a couple

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one-armed dwarf

one-armed dwarf

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Yes, I had a FreeMcbooted PS2 a few years ago. It's pretty easy to set up, involves cutting up an old credit card (or any plastic card) and inserting a USB with some weird stuff on it while doing janky things with the CD drive.

 

Lets you basically rip your PS2 DVDs straight to an old IDE style hard drive, which can be got super cheap in several hundred gig capacities. It's very nice and way better than emulating them on PC imo, especially if you get a component cable and get 480p output. I would still recommend it if you have one, anyone can do it easily. Think you need a fat model tho with the expansion bay

 

I did the Wii thing also but never really found much on it to interest me. 

 

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Rikzilla

Rikzilla

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I had my PS1 modded so I could play imports.

 

Recently modded my Wii so it could run retro emulators.

 

I'm toying with the idea of modding my PSP to run emulators too.

 

I don't feel bad messing about with the Wii and PSP as they're both dead consoles.

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Jimboxy

Jimboxy

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I modded my PSP, mainly so my girlfriend at the time could take screenshots of Crisis Core for her website she ran. I tried to soft mod.my Vita but couldn't get the PC software to detect my Vita so I think the data port might be damaged, might give it another shot though. 

 

I've built a few Raspberry Pi's running RetroPie that act as a emulator through the telly and work really well.

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Hendo

Hendo

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I had a modded PS1 to play pirates, a modded Dreamcast that I didn’t use for anything nefarious or home brew.

An original Xbox that had been modded but was in my house exactly 24 hours before my house got broken into and it got snatched.

 

I can’t remember if the Wii was modded. I have vague memories of it being done but I didn’t use it for anything.

 

I think that’s about it. I had the most use out of the PS1. Totally wrong to do, but in my rather flimsy defence, I was living in a bedsit spending pennies on food.

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mfnick

mfnick

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Sega Saturn - this console needs to be modded if you have the PAL one. Had the 50/60hz switch installed and made region free. The speed difference on PAL games was hugely noticeable. I remember it breaking the magazine time tables as you could easily knock many seconds off your lap time by turning it to 60hz. As well as the benefit of losing those ridiculous borders. 
Also a lot of Jap games which require the 4MB cartridge just wouldn’t work without the 60hz switch so even if it was region free and you had the cart, games like Marvel vs Capcom were still unplayable. It transforms the console from being pretty poor with some amazing exclusives to a genuinely brilliant all round console. 

I’ve seen people are adapting them to fit a SD card in the disc slot now with HDMI support. I’m really interested in that stuff but im not technically minded enough to do it myself and the mod chips are incredibly hard to get hold of and the existing ones are £500+ which I just can’t justify even though it’s one of my all time consoles. Maybe one day though. A copy of Panzer Saga is that alone these day’s so may end up crumbling and getting one some day.

 

I had a modded Xbox that had loads of built in videos and games. But eventually that went kaput. Loved it while it worked though.

 

I did the disc drive trick on the PS2 to make it region free. That was dodgy, had to physically remove the plastic disc tray cover and put a slide tool into the disc drive to make it open while on. Worked though. Had hardly any import games for that so wasn’t used much. 


Ive currently got a Wii which is modded for mame and the usual consoles but hardly use it. Just seems a bit hit and miss on what works well - or more importantly - controls well as I haven’t got a decent controller which connects to it. Really should invest in one to make it useable instead of gathering dust. 
 

 

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regemond

regemond

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I've not got much experience with modding...

 

PSP I tried - got everything downloaded to use it as a retro emulator, put it all on the card, annnnnnd it didn't work for me. Not a clue what went wrong there as I followed it to the letter.

 

SNES Mini I put a load of ROMs on it. Most of which were genuinely games I still own, too. Like DKC 2/3, and Buster Busts Loose.

 

I'm not sure if this counts but recently I bought one of those R4 carts for my GBA. I THINK it soft mods the console to get it to work. Or at least the console helps the data file on the card to unpack. But that works like a dream. A couple of thousand games right there, ready to go at any time.

 

Homebrew is really cool, and has some awesome functionality, but personally I don't like the idea of modding for ROMs on newer consoles. I don't like the idea of someone running a Wii U/Switch emulator on their PC and playing BOTW. That's a game that profits can still be made from. Something like DBZ: Legacy of Goku 3 - Buu's Fury is something that's probably never gonna be re-released so will be lost to the GBA's history. I have no problem with using ROMs for that.

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one-armed dwarf

one-armed dwarf

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^ How about emulating BOTW if you have the console & game?

(Reason is I was gonna try it at some point.... that PC emulated version looks amazing)

 

I've also modded PSP, there was one point where it was like a flood breaking on PSP where all you had to do was put a picture of an egg or something in your pictures folder and everything was available. Lots of emulators

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regemond

regemond

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14 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

^ How about emulating BOTW if you have the console & game?

 

That's a fair question. TBH it's not something I'd do myself, unless I was just trying to see IF I could get it to work. I downloaded the Mario 64.exe file which runs from a desktop without an emulator, just to see if it worked. Haven't used it since. (I also have the actual N64 cart, so this would fall under the same as your example really)

 

When I say I don't 'agree' with this stuff, I mean I don't agree for myself. It's just not something I would do. If you've got the game and console and just want to play around with it to see what you can make it do (like turning the dragons into Thomas the Tank Engine) then you do you. But I take that approach to a lot of things in life.

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Craymen Edge

Craymen Edge

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I softmodded my original Xbox. I installed XBMC and added a larger HDD, and ripped most of my game discs to it.

I can't remember exactly how it was done now. The softmod used a copy of Splinter Cell and modified save game IIRC, but I think I had to telnet into the xbox from my PC to clone the HDD?

 

I did install the homebrew channel on the Wii, but I don't think I did very much with it. It was well past the life of the console by then.

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Nabby9

Nabby9

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I modded Vita a few weeks ago mainly to play older stuff or the odd PSP game & being able to use a normal Micro SD Card as storage is a god send.

 

I used to have a modded PSP & with a Pandora Battery that made that easy to do, but the system was so easy to crack.

 

I do also have a hard modded Xbox 360 Slim which is the only reason I have kept it, it was handy to have at the time.

 

My Raspberry Pi is great though, has made it so easy to emulate old games & play them on my tv at home.

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  • 3 weeks later...
DANGERMAN

DANGERMAN

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I've been toying with one of these for either the Dreamcast or Saturn as I have spare machines of both. I think with the Dreamcast you also have to replace the fan for a better one because not having to move the disc drive means the PSU has spare power, and so more heat as waste, and it fried everything if you don't

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