Nintendo Wii's VC

[17daysolderthannes]

I totally agree, I just like the idea of being a crotchety old deaf guy that all the kiddies are afraid of because I always tell stories that go no where and think my generation was the last great one.

I play Atari 7800 which was before my time, but both my uncle and neighbor at the time had one and whenever I'd see my uncle it was all there was to do. So I have some fond memories of playing Beamrider, Mario Bros. and Joust at his house. Needless to say, I had to own one as I missed playing those games on that thing.

The best part of being a kid was I had friends who had both Genesis and SNES and it was fun switching off. I miss the days of only two consoles anybody gave a crap about, the competition made the games damn damn good.

I don't know why, but I always felt 90-95 were the best years of video games. In the early 90's you had Sega and Nintendo in a full on war for the best licenses and exclusive games which created all kinds of crazy stuff like Robocop vs. The Terminator and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Then, about 93 or so, we had a huge influx of more competing console formats than ever before or since: NES (died in 93, but whatever), SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, Playstation, Saturn, Jaguar, Neo Geo, 3DO, TurboGrafx-16 and Turbo Duo, CD-i, LaserActive, and probably another one or two I'm forgetting. While many of these died off with little left behind, it was the last time I remember seeing video games really change. I remember it being a very exciting time seeing all the new technology and what each system had to offer and just wondering what direction video games were going to go: FMV (pre-rendered backdrops or interactive movies), polygons, hi-res 2D, etc. I was 10 at the time and had a subscription to GamePro (which ROCKED back then, don't know how it is now) so I didn't really have anything else to do but gaze at all the new games and systems hoping to one day be able to play them at a store display or even get one for christmas. Ever since the PSX/N64 era, all that has really changed is the polygon count and texture clarity, that's about it, but back then some revolutionary shit was happening. Anyone who remembers Spectre damn well appreciates how far 3D has come.

Oh, and the 7800 technically competed with the NES, so it really wasn't before your time

[Tanegashima]

Oh, and the 7800 technically competed with the NES, so it really wasn't before your time

It's true that atari stopped supporting the 7800 in like 1991 (the newest game I have for it came out in 91...) but its hardware was meant to compete with the Colecovision, that and nobody really had a 7800.... But it's true, I played it quite often and Atari claimed it was the system to beat the NES.

Strangely enough I pretty much never knew anybody who had an NES. My uncle had his 7800 until he found it recently and gave it to me, my neighbor around the time had a 7800 (poor kid didn't get an NES or Genesis, he got the bargain bin 7800...oh well.)

Everybody pretty much just had SNES and Genesis. Good times.


It still amazes me how long SNK supported the Neo Geo AES though 1992-2003 (2003 at least in Japan, 2002 for the USA). I always wondered where those people got their games...and as recently as a year ago SNK was still making games based on the AES hardware. Pretty cool. Metal Slug 7 is the first metal slug not designed on the AES hardware. That's why it doesn't look so purty.

[TheEdge]

Wii and all of its options are nothing more than a $200.00 gimmick. You know something cheap you buy in chinatown and when you bring it home you never use it again.

[AD2101]

I didn't do mine myself, I had a guy locally do it. All he did was boot up MechAssault with a memory card in one of the controllers. It pretty much did the rest itself. He told me everything that was on the memory card although it made no sense. So you don't need an action replay, but apparently it'll still work.

Something important he told me though: You Xbox version has to be less than 1.6v (Mfg. Date: Less Than 2005) or else a conventional soft mod (at least the one he was doing) won't work. Apparently Microsoft wised up a little and put some code up to make it harder to mod. So when your looking for an Xbox to do this with, ask to see the serial first.

[FoxHound]

I really have no idea about PS3, I would think it is too new to be cracked, but then again I could be completely wrong there. Either way, with online play and firmware updates I wouldn't risk bricking my PS3 or being banned from online play (will Sony do that like Microsoft does? I don't know.) when an XBOX can be purchased complete for $60 tops. I know for a fact soft modding will ban you from XBOX LIVE on the regular XBOX so I wouldn't want to do something like that on a newer, more valuable system. Also, plenty of people have already soft modded XBOXes and can help you out with stuff if anything happens. Best of all, if you totally screw up your XBOX, you can probably buy a loose system for like $20-$30 and try again.

Well I know Sony totally supports Linux for PS3..I mean they tried selling Linux for PS2 for some insane amount of money, because you got a HDD and keyboard and their Linux software. I will research it either way

[Melf]

so you have one? I haven't actually done it yet because I'm waiting for an Action Replay to be delivered. Can you copy programs over via memory card or burned CD/DVD or do you have to plug into your computer via ethernet? The only thing so far I don't really understand is how you transfer and install files to the custom OS

I copy all ROMs, emulators, and applications via FTP. Just plug the Xbox into your network, access the ISP address in the network settings menu, and plug the info into your FTP program (user and password are both "xbox") and voila! You can pass everything over in a cinch.

[17daysolderthannes]

I didn't do mine myself, I had a guy locally do it. All he did was boot up MechAssault with a memory card in one of the controllers. It pretty much did the rest itself. He told me everything that was on the memory card although it made no sense. So you don't need an action replay, but apparently it'll still work.

Something important he told me though: You Xbox version has to be less than 1.6v (Mfg. Date: Less Than 2005) or else a conventional soft mod (at least the one he was doing) won't work. Apparently Microsoft wised up a little and put some code up to make it harder to mod. So when your looking for an Xbox to do this with, ask to see the serial first.

you need the action replay to put it on the memory card in the first place. What its doing is exploiting the Linux code in MechAssault to install the soft mod. I haven't heard of the manufacturing date thing before, but wasn't 2005 when the regular XBOX more or less died anyway? Does it say the number in plain english or is it embedded in something?

edit: according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_softmods what you probably have is an earlier version of the soft mod (which is actually a flawed version that can cause your XBOX to get screwed up it seems...) and the later ones actually require having the latest dashboard if possible.

[FoxHound]

SWEET!, I just installed LINUX on my ps3, and typing this message with it. NOW time to find some emulators. Whats this MAME i hear of??????

[Rassilon]

It still amazes me how long SNK supported the Neo Geo AES though 1992-2003 (2003 at least in Japan, 2002 for the USA). I always wondered where those people got their games...and as recently as a year ago SNK was still making games based on the AES hardware. Pretty cool. Metal Slug 7 is the first metal slug not designed on the AES hardware. That's why it doesn't look so purty.

The last game for Neo-geo was samurai spirits zero special, MVS arcade version in early 2004, and the AES home system in late 04.

And metal slug 5 was the last neo-geo metal slug. MS6 was developed for the atomiswave arcade hardware.


As for the wii and virtual console, i use it for NES games, since its a huge pain to get rgb (and thus component or at least s-video) video output from the original hardware.
The Wii VC NES emulation is spot-on, and the controls are right.
Everything else, i stick with the real hardware.

emulation on the xbox is crap. not at all worth the trouble. In fact, emulation on anything is crap. just doesnt look or play right. Its one thing to play emulated arcade games that you cant get any other way, but for console games its just a waste of time.

[NeoVamp]

emulation on the xbox is crap. not at all worth the trouble.

I have to disagree, when setup right the emulation on the xbox can be the same as on the Wii.

[InternalPrimate]

The only real emulation I've ever gotten into has been NesterDC... which I happen to love. Not owning a PC I think limits me on the XBox Soft-Mod, which actually sounds pretty awesome. Meh... Too bad. I guess that's why I own and have all these damn consoles connected at all times.

[Rassilon]

I have to disagree, when setup right the emulation on the xbox can be the same as on the Wii.

which is to say, other than NES, not at all worthwhile.

Though the wii's NES emulation is noticeably better than the xbox, and the control is considerably better.

[NeoVamp]

which is to say, other than NES, not at all worthwhile.

Though the wii's NES emulation is noticeably better than the xbox, and the control is considerably better.

Its a shame that your experience with emulation on the xbox was a negative one,

However I fully recommend a modded xbox to everybody.

I find it to have excellent Genesis/SMS/GameGear/Snes/Nes/Gameboy/Gameboy Color/PCE/MSDOS/MAME emulation.
(and tons more that i haven't even mentioned like msx/c64/amiga)

sure N64/PS1 emulation isn't perfect and Mame could have used a little more memory/cpu (but only for the newer stuff)

but other then that it has homebrew games (mariowar,doom,quake,wolf3D)
and it allows you to store your music and movies on it (got the entire red dwarf series on mine as xvids)

also it has a port of ScummVM so you can play all those sweet Lucasarts games on it.

You can store xbox games right on the HD,
you can stream music,
you can install linux on it,
you can view pictures on it,
etc etc

Hardly crap.

[17daysolderthannes]

As for the wii and virtual console, i use it for NES games, since its a huge pain to get rgb (and thus component or at least s-video) video output from the original hardware.
The Wii VC NES emulation is spot-on, and the controls are right.
Everything else, i stick with the real hardware.

emulation on the xbox is crap. not at all worth the trouble. In fact, emulation on anything is crap. just doesnt look or play right. Its one thing to play emulated arcade games that you cant get any other way, but for console games its just a waste of time.

I got news for you, the Wii is emulation just like the XBOX, just because you have to pay for it and its on a Nintendo system doesn't make it "real hardware." I played a few games on my friend's modded XBOX (he bought it from a guy that already had the soft mod and a few games on it) and SNES was perfect, N64 was pretty much perfect on Goldeneye and Mario Kart (very few, very minor glitches, the emulator he had let you choose between 1964, Project 64, and UltraHLE, some barely worked, others were perfect), Sega CD was damn good (with a real Sega CD game in the drive no less) only glitching for 1 second during loading sequences in Sewer Shark (froze for 1 second, which isn't normal, but not obtrusive).

I have to disagree, when setup right the emulation on the xbox can be the same as on the Wii.

actually, its way better. Wii may have it beat for some N64 games as I'm sure the XBOX N64 emulators can't play everything, but at the same time they are unofficial emulators so you can have things like save states and other options that the Wii emulators don't have (which is fucking stupid if you ask me).

The only real emulation I've ever gotten into has been NesterDC... which I happen to love. Not owning a PC I think limits me on the XBox Soft-Mod, which actually sounds pretty awesome. Meh... Too bad. I guess that's why I own and have all these damn consoles connected at all times.

NesterDC is beautiful, perhaps one of the best emulators around if just for the perfect interface (though it does suck with most unlicensed games). All you need is a one time shot with the XBOX soft mod, ask around to see if you can find someone to do it and then just torrent a complete set of NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. ROMs and FTP it all to the XBOX. Once its done, you are set for life, and it is definitely worth it.

which is to say, other than NES, not at all worthwhile.

Though the wii's NES emulation is noticeably better than the xbox, and the control is considerably better.

I wasn't able to play the NES emulator because there were no ROMs for it and I didn't have the time to mess around with FTP to try to put some on there, but based on the SNES emulator for XBOX I would be very surprised to find ANYTHING better about the Wii's emulation. Granted the XBOX controllers totally suck my dick, they are good enough to get you thru, and the D-pad on the "S" controller is actually quite like the Genesis D-pad.

Its a shame that your experience with emulation on the xbox was a negative one,

However I fully recommend a modded xbox to everybody.

I find it to have excellent Genesis/SMS/GameGear/Snes/Nes/Gameboy/Gameboy Color/PCE/MSDOS/MAME emulation.
(and tons more that i haven't even mentioned like msx/c64/amiga)

sure N64/PS1 emulation isn't perfect and Mame could have used a little more memory/cpu (but only for the newer stuff)

but other then that it has homebrew games (mariowar,doom,quake,wolf3D)
and it allows you to store your music and movies on it (got the entire red dwarf series on mine as xvids)

also it has a port of ScummVM so you can play all those sweet Lucasarts games on it.

You can store xbox games right on the HD,
you can stream music,
you can install linux on it,
you can view pictures on it,
etc etc

Hardly crap.

Don't forget GBA! It really is an awesome platform, sucks that a stock XBOX is one of the lamest systems ever, but with a soft mod instantly becomes one of the best buys ever. You could pay $300 for a modded XBOX and it would still be worth it for what you get.

By the way, when you upload DVDs to it, how big of a file is it? is it heavily compressed? I only have the stock drive and doubt I'll upgrade any time soon, so I can't imagine I'll be doing alot of that if they are 700MB behemoths.

[NeoVamp]

By the way, when you upload DVDs to it, how big of a file is it? is it heavily compressed? I only have the stock drive and doubt I'll upgrade any time soon, so I can't imagine I'll be doing alot of that if they are 700MB behemoths.

700MB behemoths? more like 4gig behemoths!

Most games are like.. 2 to 4 gigs.

Personally i just chucked a 500gb hd in both my xboxes.
but then again i have always preferred a hardmod (chip) which imo makes
swapping hd's much less of a hassle then it would be with a softmod.

And i didn't mention GBA because the emulation can be kinda slow sometimes,
its still a good emulator but not one i wanted to mention in a post dedicated
to how excellent the emulation can be on an xbox.