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[Cornholio]

This is what I've been trying to say.

I would like to make it QUITE clear now that I do indeed have a lot of respect for the X-ecuter team, they are very good hackers, and the X2 chips look very, VERY nice indeed.

But all this "lets bash the competition" is getting silly. Really, what is the point ? They will still sell more than enough X2s to make it all worthwhile - and good luck to them, as I said, it is a nice product.

Personally I don't care what chip/bios is in my box. All i care about is that it works. That's all anyone should care about.

And yes, BenJeremy, I agree that nobody really needed a dual BIOS.

BUT I can see nothing in it that I didn't already know, from just reading what Numbnut posted a while ago.

More to the point - if the EvoX team had done something that nobody wanted MS to know about - what's the quickest way of making sure that MS find out about it?

POST A STATEMENT TELLING THE WORLD THAT THE NEW EVOX BIOS REVEALS THIS INFO.

Pretty silly thing to do, if you ask me.

[Roy2001]

Either MS is stupid that they don't know to download a Xcuter BIOS for v1.1 or Xcuter teams is stupid that they think MS would never find out the hole until Evox team release a dual BIOS.

Which way do you think?

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Roy2001 @ Dec 11 2002, 09:38 PM)

Either MS is stupid that they don't know to download a Xcuter BIOS for v1.1 or Xcuter teams is stupid that they think MS would never find out the hole until Evox team release a dual BIOS. Which way do you think?

                                    The X2 1.1 BIOS didn't use that exploit.

D.6 is the FIRST PUBLICLY RELEASED BIOS to use that exploit.

[BenJeremy]

Yes, ultimately, when somebody figures out the private keys to sign the M$ code, the battle will be entirely over.

Well, that and somebody building a "true" Xbox-formatted DVD.

But who's working on that? The Evo-X guys? Team Xecutor? Complex? ProjectX? The Linux crew?

The battle has been escalating. Sadly, we users are caught in the middle of mediocrity. The X2 Pro should already be shipping now, or something with the same capabilities, at the very least. Team Xecutor isn't really innovating with the X2, as much as they are upgrading and adding known doodads. Apparently, it's a 3-D mod (is that what Nazis-s is referrring to, the modular mounting method?), the Pro is  programmable while in the Xbox through the LPT interface (ala PC-Bioxx) and it's got 'proper' breakouts for multiBIOS options, along with the memory for it (PC-Bioxx, with a LOT of difficult soldering can do the breakouts, and has the 1MB chip)

So in the end, the X2:Pro is a little nicer than the PC-Bioxx, but not really by much.

What has the Xodus/Matrix team done lately? Cheapmod with Pogopins, OK. Anything new, guys? How about more memory? No?I'd love to see them up the ante, but they haven't after their opening bid.

PC-Bioxx? Geez, Lik-Sang pretty much screwed that deal for everybody outside of Europe, didn't they? I knew it was trouble when that happened. They seem to be making some progress. Hopefully, they'll release a new design (probably similar to X2:Pro) and it will get marketed worldwide.

So what else can we expect form mods? Until Xbox v1.2 comes along, there isn't much room to upgrade the hardware, if the new generation has all the decent options (flashable from Xbox, from connector, 1x1024, 2x512, 1x512/2x256 and 4x256 options, flash protection).

The new innovations will come in the form of BIOS updates. Some think it will be possible to squash it all into 256k, but I'm very doubtful. What are the next things to add? How about these:

1. Gameshark functionality. Freeze memory, dump to HD, Reload and run, runtime patching, event triggering...
2. XBL Stealth mode. The ability to intercept XBL packets, and patching signatures sent out to prevent XBL from telling M$ servers that it's being run on a modified Xbox.
3. Full Debug BIOS emulation
4. Expanded device support (Network shares, Mouse and trackball support to emulate control pads, steering wheel and PC controllers)

So clearly, there's a LOT of work to be done, but mostly in the BIOS. Team X claims to be able to enhance the BIOS. So far, everybody else has been merely PATCHING the original Xbox BIOS. I really doubt these things will fit into a 256k BIOS, but, hey, let's see the Evo-X and Complex guys try. Frankly, there's no reason to expect Team Xecutor to try, since they are designing for a bigger target.

I'd like to see Team X share their methods with all, for the good of the scene. I'd like to see both Evo-X and neXgen release the source code of their projects to the public. These are the things that will REALLY benefit, but somehow I doubt they will ever happen. Please shock me, guys.

[ZildjianKX]

QUOTE (BenJeremy @ Dec 11 2002, 01:20 PM)

QUOTE Evox is in it for the scene and X-ecutor is in it for the money. Au contraire. Evo-X seems to be firmly in bed with the Xodus/Matrox team now. It was evident with the 2.6 release a short while ago. The Evo-X team is definitely in it for the money. The D.6 BIOS release was probably released to soothe the newbies installing Matrixes and give them a single non-confusing choice to flash into the 256k product. They knew they were exposing a 'trick of the trade' when they did it, and ignored the 'scene' by doing it, thumbing their noses at others who worked very hard, and trusted those working in the scene to protect its' own.

                                    I agree with ya totally on how the Xecuter 2 Pro is a slightly better openxbox... but I think Team Xecuter comes down so hard on EvoX since everything that EvoX can put in the dash is one less reason for a Matrix user to upgrade to an Xecuter 2 chip since they won't need the Xecuter BIOS for them.  Now you can do IGR from the dash, why does a matrix user need a X2 Pro to hold those 512 k BIOS?  They don't.  Evo X is not in bed with the Matrix team, Xecuter team is trying to make $$$ on their new modchip that really isn't that innovative.


And people, don't expect EvoX to release their code unless you expect the Xecuter team to as well.  And including a feature that someone else has doesn't mean you copied it, jeeeeeze.

[scoobster]

QUOTE (BenJeremy @ Dec 12 2002, 03:44 AM)

1. Gameshark functionality. Freeze memory, dump to HD, Reload and run, runtime patching, event triggering... 2. XBL Stealth mode. The ability to intercept XBL packets, and patching signatures sent out to prevent XBL from telling M$ servers that it's being run on a modified Xbox.

Hell Yeah!  thats what I'm talkin bout!





Evox = Essential Dash, Excellent Bios
Xecutor = Excellent Bios, Excellent Modchip
Xodus/Matrix = Excellent Modchip
PCbioxx = Excellent Modchip

It's all Scooby Snacks

[allbundy]

To the people who claim the release of the backdoor trick op Evo-x doesn't matter, because M$ would have found out by them selves.

Then why didn't M$ closed the hole when they produced the V1.1?..........the same trick was used to crack the V1.0!!! And they researched for months how the security of the V1.0 was broken and then released the V1.1 to counter that!

A shame for everyone..........the best hackers never reveal their secrets. Like M$ would ever release the secret code used in their operating systems. Like IExploder couldn't be sepparated from Windows.............hahahaha, untill the court order it was impossible. Now it is so easily implemented in Windows XP SP1.

Like in cards never play your aces when you don't need too! And Evo-x didn't need to disclose the backdoor cause there was a perfectly working alternative!!

[OPTIMUS-CRIME]

ever hear the expression, the more you stir up shit the more it stinks.

[Cheerio]