Modifying consoles

[Nerdface]

By now you've probably noticed that I'm a fan of console modifications.. From the faithful modchip, to modifications such as adding HDMI to retro consoles. It is often frowned upon (and is incredibly sketchy on a legal front), yet there's no denying that modifications can bring a new lease of life to consoles that would otherwise sit collecting dust.

Have you ever tried installing a modification yourself? Do you own any modified consoles? Any favourites?

I've installed softmods myself as I consider myself to be quite capable on a software front, and more often than not they work as intended. I don't tend to get involved with many hardware modifications since I lack the knowledge and soldering skills to pull them off. I'd love to learn, but wouldn't know where to start honestly.

My collection:

• PlayStation - PS-IO (run games from an SD card)
   
  
• PS2 Slim - Free McBoot / FreeDVDBoot (handy utilities and run games)
   
  
• PSP - Custom firmware - can't remember name/version (custom themes, handy utilities, emulators, and run games)
   
  
• Wii - PortablizeMii (handy utilities, emulators, and run games)
  

I won't tinker with modern consoles as they tend to result in bans from their online services.

 

[TopSilver]

RE: Modifying consoles

I was a big soft modder of the original xbox back in those days when modding was in it's prime. I did it to cheat my rank in Halo 2 as did many other people when I was 12 years old. I stopped in my teenage years but my setup was Unleash X and I used an old school program called Dothalo. You couldn't mod the original maps without modchips so I modded the DLC which worked well. 360 auto aim, auto battle rifle, super jump. Had it all. The good ole Halo 2 disc and butter knife trick. As 50 was a Halo ring highest rank we'd get up to around 35-36 then run boosting partiesi where 5 would rotate and 3 would lose of a 4v4 match system. Every 4 games you had to lose 1 but you got 4 games in a row to automatically win. I ended up getting banned but made it to a comet rank 49.

Anyways every teenager will have his day. I stopped modding when the 360 came out but had other tricks such as something I like to call team standby. We would setup internet connection sharing and hook our laptops up to our 360. Then use an ip sniffer like cain and abel and use zone alarm. Then we'd put the ip address of the players on our team in the trusted zone of zone alarm and have a program to move the security from high/medium/low back and forth so that the other team would lag and your team wouldn't. Some feisty old tricks but log since past. Banning is serious these days and if it happens enough they actually ban your entire console. I enjoy playing games fairly and legit and those old tricks are a thing of the past. Though they were some good times. Watching the other team get mad was the best part about it. It's actually legal so long as your connection is the only one causing the lag. What makes it illegal is to hack someone elses connection which is why you'd be the one hosting the match.

I wanted to add that it's practically impossible these days though because of dedicated servers and the fact that your never hosting yourself. Are you on Se7ensins? Was the most popular modding site and still is next to TheTechGame which I don't get on. Still a Se7ensins member with close to 4K posts and a join date of February 2007. I still get on occasionally though I don't mod.

 

[Smokey]

RE: Modifying consoles

I have a few modded consoles myself.....

PSP2000 - Custom firmware (not sure which version)

PS Vita (3.68 H-Encore)

PSone (Modchip, can't remember which one.)

PS2 fat ( FreeMcBoot)

PS3 - 4.80 Feroxx

 

[Nerdface]

RE: Modifying consoles

1@Smokey[/uSER] presumably neither the Vita nor the PS3 connect to PSN, or are there ways around it? :unsure:

I've been tempted - especially when digital only games are delisted - but just don't feel it's worth my account!

 

[Smokey]

RE: Modifying consoles

1@Smokey[/uSER] presumably neither the Vita nor the PS3 connect to PSN, or are there ways around it? :unsure:
I've been tempted - especially when digital only games are delisted - but just don't feel it's worth my account!

There *ARE* ways around it but none of them are 100$ fool-proof solutions and could still get you banned. So i don't have them connected to PSN.

 

[Nagato]

RE: Modifying consoles

I've always wanted a modded console for modding older Call of Duty games and I came close to buying one but I didn't want to risk getting my other consoles banned if something happened.