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Artlover

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Posts posted by Artlover

  1. Posted

    YES, you can mod an xbox, and still be able to go on xbox live with it in an unmodded state, depending on what you do and how much forethought was put into it. :|

     

    The problem is assuming that the only check Xbox Live does is an MD5 checksum on the loaded bios. There are numerous reports on all the xbox hacking forums of modded xbox's being banned even with the chip off. Having a bigger HDD installed partitioned out of spec of an original xbox drive (IE: dumping the extra space into E: instead of creating an F: partition), having the files of alternate dashboards on the C: partition, UDATA & TDATA entries created by some of those dashboards (like EvoX). Lots of things to see that shouldn't be there that are easy to find and arn't hidden by turning off your mod. :ponder:

     

    Granted, turning off a mod is 99.9% effective for most people, but it's not 100% across the board. And that matters if you just happen to be in that 0.01%.

     

    Then, you got to be careful of some of the new games out there. Some games automaticly log you into xbox live WITHOUT prompting or asking. So you just burned that copy of Need for Speed Underground and wanted to try it out but forgot to disconnect your net cable. Opps, you're banned now.

     

    Thats the problem with trying to deal with Xbox Live and a modded xbox. You forget to be vigilant just once, make one mistake.. and you're screwed. And in some, albeit relatively isolated situations, simply turning the mod off may not be enough. It's for this reason I own more then one xbox (one of which being factory stock just for Xbox Live). It just makes life so much easier in the end.

     

    Also, depending on how you mod it, turning it off may not be an option. TSOP flashing is very popular, but depending on what revision of xbox you have, you may not have the option of doing a multi-bios flash. Early Xbox's came with a 1meg flash chip (v1.0 and v1.1). With v1.2 they started phasing out the 1meg chips and switched to 512k, then shortly after that started using 256k chips. You need a 512K or 1meg flash bios chip to allow for a multi bios tsop config. Obviosuly, using an external chip on a newer xbox is the only way to go if you want Xbox Live.

     

    BTW: For the record, there are people who have accidently left their mod's on, and were not banned from Xbox Live. Also instances of legitimate unmodded xbox's being banned. So that just goes to show if nothing else that Xbox Live verification process is a flawed joke. But it's Microsoft, so that wasn't unexpected. :D

  3. Posted

    :ponder:  

     

    you could always open the thing up and reverse the terminal leads if it bugs you that much?

     

    That's assuming the stick and all the buttons are seperate items connected to the circuit board via wires. Then YES, that could be done.

     

    I have seen quite a few cheap sticks where the entire button assembly is intergrated into the circuit board. Which require a lot of fine trace cutting & jumpering on the board. Not fun, not easy.

     

    Then depending on the physical design, the layout of the buttons may not work well in a rotated configuration. Luckly, the stick shown in the link of this thread has a generic button layout and could work either way. Many sticks however (all ergonomic sticks for example) don't lend themselfs to right-handed modification, unless you want to remold the case too.

     

    Not to mention thats not the point. It simply makes absolutly no sence to me that in a country where the majority of the population is right-handed, you can't find a right-handed joystick. WTF!

  6. Posted

    Super Mario Sunshine

    Luigi's Mansion

    Zelda: The Wind Waker

    Defender (I'm a little worried about this one)

     

    Luigi's Mansion: Nice. Challenging, but not excessively hard. Good graphics & sound. Wonderfull visual effects.

     

    Defender: I didn't like it. It's not exactly defender in the typical side-scroller sence. It might be fun. But I couldn't get myself to play it for more then 30 seconds.

     

    Super Mario Sunshine: I didn't like it much. First, it's boring, slow, tedious. The whole story line is stupid. The graphics are very washed out and have lousy contrast that just makes the game look crappy. Basicly, the entire time you play, you keep thinking there is something wrong with your TV. The camera movement and control is poorly done too. This is a game that could have been and should have been much better then it actually is. The only reason to get this game is for the sake of having it if you are trying to collect all the mario games. With all that said, the graphics themselfs (while washed out) are very pretty and well done.

     

    Zelda: The Wind Waker: Mixed opinion. On a whole, it's fairly easy. With a few simple, but fustrating mini challenges here and there. It's slow. Even when you use the warp points, moving around is slow. Graaphicly. It's nice and it sucks. Very colorful. The cell shaded look is nice and well done. They achived the look they were going for perfectly (playable cartoon). However, I persoanly don't like the look. I would have prefered a more mature Link, with realistic textures. With that said, I still started to enjoy the visual appeal of the game after a few hours. This game I think falls into a special place where quite frankly, what ANYONE has to say about the game is useless information. The only way you are going to know if you are going to like it is to play the thing yourself for atleast an hour.

  7. Posted

    1. Is there any way to get Halo cheap?  All the stores seem to have it at $49.95 now.

     

    I've seen it for as cheap as $14.95 in my local used game store.

     

    (Then there is also usenet. ;) )

     

    2. Wireless controllers.  Why are they so #%^ damned freaking expensive?

     

    All wireless devices for everything are expensive. PC mice & keyboards. Any wireless controller. Even budget RF isn't exactly cheap. You're looking at 20 bucks for the rf ic's alone.

     

    Wireless sucks for gaming anyways. Short run times & delay in control responce. Xbox hard-wired sticks are plenty generous with the cable length, and if thats still not long enough, get an extension cable (4 bucks @ compusa)

     

    3. Heat issues.  Wood or carpet?  Ventilated or not?  Stackable in an entertainment center?

     

    Mine's sat on a carpeted floor for over a year. No problems. But some Xbox's can be prone to heat issues. Some production runs are more sensative then others. One of the 3 I have tends to want to run about 10 degrees hotter then the other two for some reason. The main issue was the fact that the xbox doesn't drive the cooling fan at a full 12volts. They have it reduced (ie: slower) to reduce noise.

     

    The newest alternative bios images have hacks for upping the speed of the fan. Myself, I just hard-wired the fan to the 12v side of the power supply so it always runs full speed. I don't care about noise, I want the stupid thing kept cool, thank you. :)

     

    4. DVD playback kit.  Seems useless since I have a PS2 and a Toshiba 5-disc.  Yes/no?

     

    If you have something else that works, don't bother. The Xbox dvd is nice & works well if you don't have another dvd player. Tho there are several home-brewed dvd players that work better with no kit needed (so long as you don't mind using the joystick to control all the functions.)

     

    5. X-Box Live.  I get two months free, but I still have to buy a kit to hook it up?

     

    I don't think you need the kit persay. All you really need is the xbox live dahboard update disc that comes with the kit, or probably with any xbox live combo thingy. I'm not 100% sure about this thou. I actually own the xbox live kit w/headset thingy. If you are interested in xbox live, then forget any "educational" interest you may have in modifing your xbox. The xbox live servers can and will detect if your xbox is anything other then 100% factory stock & original.

  8. Posted

     

     

    Ok...

     

    Ya know, a majority of people in the USA are RIGHT handed. Used to be joySTICKS were built with that in mind. Stick on the right and buttons on the left. The way a right handed person needs the f--king thing.

     

    Then the joypad craze hit. Fine, whatever. Even for a right handed person, a joyPAD is easy as hell to use with your left hand.

     

    A joyPAD and a joySTICK are not the same thing and do not play the same way.

     

    LEFT HANDED JOYSTICKS SUCK FOR RIGHT HANDED PEOPLE!!!

     

    Back in the old days of the arcade, most games were set up for right handed people. Just a hand full like Donkey Kong were stupid left handed crap. And atleast in the arcade you could just lay your arm across over the stick, and get yourself into a pseudo right-handed configuration. Can't so that with one of these console controllers.

     

    This has annoyed the crap outta me for years now.

     

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

     

     

    Stupid f--king godd--ned left handed crap! I want my stick on the right side of the buttons you f---'ing moronic accessory makers! Jesus H F---ing Christ! Try knowing your market.

     

  9. Posted

    Yes, I have played several games for more then 5 hours at a time.

     

    Legend of Zelda: Orcania of Time (N64) - Around 18 hours.

    Luigi's Mansion (CG) - Around 18 hours.

    Resident Evil (CG) - Around 20 hours.

    Halo (Xbox) - Around 28 hours.

    Project Gotham Racing (Xbox) - Around 10hrs.

    Evolution 2 (DC) - Around 20 hours.

    D2 (DC) - Around 16 hours.

    Sonic CD (SCD) - Around 16 hours.

    Neuromancer (C-64) - Around 24hours.

     

    Those are non-stop playing, no-sleep times. Only 1 minute breaks here & there to pee or throw a tv dinner in the microwave.

     

    But if you want to talk about a situation like, yeah sleeping, but simply not doing anything else but playing. Litterly wake up, reach down & grab the controller and start playing for an hour before even getting outta bed, and then only to use the bathroom & get some food, and play till you fall alseep. Then do it over. Then I've spend about 4 days playing Halo & Resident Evil. About 3 days playing Zelda: OOT, Evolution 2 and Luigi's mansion. And about 2 days for Neuromancer & D2.

     

    Then there is still a whole crap load of other games that I've easily spend 5+ hours on.

     

    It's nice having a lot of time. :)

  10. Posted

    I've seen a few 1702's on e-bay over the years, but they really seem to have zilch for value...  were they quite common?  I'm guessing so.

     

    Back in the mid 80's when the C-64 was king of home computers, yeah, 1702 monitors were quite common.

     

    That is not the case now adays thou. They are increasingly hard to find, and typicaly expencive. I've looked in pawn shops & stuff for years. Only once (earlier this year as a matter of fact) that I found a pawn shop that had two of them. They refused to sell them to me because they used them for testing equipment. I offered $50 a piece for them too!

     

    The 1702 is without a doubt one of the best color composite monitors ever made, period. 20 years later, you can still find un-serviced 1702 monitors that still work good as new. A lot of people used to buy them just for their vcr's & laserdisc players. They just don't make monitors like that any more.

     

    If you come across any for cheap, definatly get 'em. They are worth it.

  11. Posted

    The VCR button if I remember is a comb filter. You don't really notice much different either way when displaying tv images. If you have a low-res computer (like atari or cbm) connected, you can see a slight difference on the edge of text (slightly fuzzy & blended, or sharp & crisp but noticible pixles.)

     

    As for discussion of commodore monitors in general. We need to state specificly which monitor model's we are refering to here.

     

    IE: The 1902 and the 1902A are two totaly different monitors. Maybe the same specs for the same target audience, but beyond that, they only share the core model number. BTW: the 1902 is a good monitor, the 1902A is not (horrible picture, expecialy when switching between 40/80 col modes as it didn't compensate for difference brightness/contrast levels between 40/80 sources, so you have to fiddle with the video settings every freaking time you switched.)

     

    1084 is the same. You got like 5 of them. 1084, 1084S, 1084D, 1084DS, 1084P. All simmilar, but you'll be hard pressed to swap parts between any of them.

     

    Then you got CBM's odd habbit of small runs of odd-ball models, like 1083, 1901, etc.. Which are close to their more common counterparts, but again, slightly different.

     

    And finally, my collection of CBM monitors: 1080, 1084, 1084S, 1084DS, 1902A, and 2002. (I liked my 1084S the best till the flyback died on me. I didn't like the 1084DS because it didn't have all the same controlls on front panel.)

  12. Posted

    whats your addiction with laser discs?

     

    Know this isn't directed towards me, but being a laserdisc junkie myself....

     

    Personaly, I think the video quality of LD is much better then even DVD. If for no other reason because it's still pseudo analog and not some goofy digital Mpeg compression.

     

    Not to mention they are just really kool and nostalgic. :)

  15. Posted

    BTW "tho" is the bastardized "though" you were looking for.

     

    You're right. :)

     

    Regardless, I think we should take abberivations and bad writting to a new level. Expand on the current netiquete of AFAIC=as far as I'm concerned, and just write entire messages that way.

     

    Would look something like this:

     

    R,itwstaabwtanl. EotcnoAFAIC=AFAIC, ajwemtw.

     

    wlslt:

     

    Look at all that space that would be saved, the bandwidth usage reduced, etc.. :)

     

    Local BBS's used to be fun. We had this old ex-navy guy who liked to write by spelling "everything" exactly as it sounded, not as it was spelt. So much so as to use "eye" for "I". Reading his messages generated hours of entertainment. Hell of a lot of aggervation too. ;)

  17. Posted

    . Thou any old eide DVD drive will work (some will even retain original disc compatabilty). Same with the HD, any old eide HD will work, thou you will need one that supports ATA Security

     

     

    Your message severely confused me. I kept wondering, "Why is this guy saying 'thou' instead of you? Is he a Shakespeare major?"

     

    And then I realized, you were saying THOUGH (note the correct spelling).

     

    I leave thou to thine conversation. ;-)

     

    Did "thou" suddenly become no longer accepted as shortened slang for though?

     

    Darn. Bet that will really upset my old boss who was an english major and used it like that herself on an almost daily basis. :) THOUGH she used to get really bent when I would type alot instead of a lot.

  19. Posted

    I think they really should put more effort into shrinking it really.

     

    Here's a pic of the inside:

    HD and Drive: http://www.hardocp.com/images/articles/59_1_9_l.jpg

    Boards: http://www.hardocp.com/images/articles/59_1_13_l.jpg

     

    Now, really. Is it so hard to use smaller parts here? Especially the HD. In an age where you can get really tiny high-capacity HD's. And flatter CD/DVD drives for laptops can be used as well... though it's probably a cost factor. Smaller parts cost more. And thus drive the cost of the console up.

     

    Exactly. The Xbox, to a degree is mostly off-the-shelf standard pc-sized parts. The only really odd thing is the DVD drive. Only because key signals like door sense and stuff were thrown on a seperate wiring harness (and a dimple in the side to fit around a screw post in the case). Thou any old eide DVD drive will work (some will even retain original disc compatabilty). Same with the HD, any old eide HD will work, thou you will need one that supports ATA Security if you plan to boot to the original microsoft xboxdash.

     

    Any who, this being the case, the Xbox is about as compact as it can get. They could probably still could have shaved an inch or two off if they "really" compacted it all together, but then you would have a severe over heating problem. Sorry to say, as much as I love my xbox's, overheating is not something they need any help with. :|

     

    Would also likely be more flimsey, since much of the "wasted" space is currently being used by air-flow/cross-members, which give it a really solid feel.

     

    But there is a challenge.... Who wants to try and design the worlds first handheld xbox portable? Maybe convert a laptop..... :ponder:

  21. Posted

    Ok.

     

    #1: I don't own a PS2 for 5 reasons already stated in the "why dont you own a PS2" thread.

     

    #2: As far as I am concerned, everything before the N64/Saturn/PS1 is classic, and everything after & including n64/saturn/ps1 is modern.

     

    My console list goes like this:

    Atari 2600 (4)

    Atari 5200 (2, 1 2-port & 1 4-port)

    Atari 7800

    Atari Jaguar

    Coleco Telstar Alpha

    Coleco Telstar Ranger

    Colecovision

    Mattel Intellivision

    Microsoft XBox (3, 1 stock, 2 modded w/flashed TSOP (one w/toshiba dvd drive))

    Nintendo Gamboy (untested)

    Nintendo GameCube

    Nintendo N64

    Nintendo NES

    Nintendo SNES

    Sega Dreamcast (2)

    Sega Genesis (2 - Model 1 and Model 2)

    Sega CD attachment (Model 2)

    Sega Saturn (Model 2 w/mod chip)

    Sony Playstation (Original style)

  25. Posted

    I do not own a PS2.

     

    #1: Still too expencive. (Not to mention that they took forever before reducing it to it's current but still over-priced price of $199).

     

    #2: Lack of original games. (Like most concoles, most of it's library are re-hashes of existing labels and/or pc ports. And most of those are on the GC & Xbox too). I guess this is more a personal preference thing. It's simmilar to Mario vs Sonic. The console of choice is the one that has the exclusive title that you want to play.

     

    #3: The backwards compatablity is over-rated, and quite frankly, looks worse then a real PS1.

     

    #4: The PS2 is only doing as good as it is because it's riding on the PS1 success, not because it's a good console. With that said, the PS1 was also an over-rated, inferiour to it's competetors yet over-priced console. Only reason it made it so big is because Sega & Nintendo dropped the ball, not because they are any great console designer.

     

    #5: I don't care for Sony much, period. Mostly because of their unrealistic pricing that effects every single thing they make from blank media to stereos to computers.

     

    If I can find a used PS2 in a pawn shop or something for 50-75 bucks, maybe I'll get one. Otherwise, no.

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