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[kungfudriveby]

[jamal]

QUOTE (shanafan @ Oct 28 2002, 04:55 PM)

X-ecutor2 will be a good modchip, but what you fail to realize is that the Matrix is a non-solder chip which attracts a lot of people.

                                    I think everyone knows that bro. Infact I know the X-Cuter Team knows it. They are also releasing a X2 Pogo based mod JUST like the Matrix for people who cant solder incase you didnt notice.

The other thing they also know is that if people already own the Matrix mod and they can just load a 256k copy of the X2 bios into it they are prolly not going to want to buy the X2 modchip. Why spend more money?

As far as cutting the bios, i see one of the other guys also said it wouldnt be a problem cuz you can cut a bios to fit into a 256k flash. Well I think you missing the point here. The reason we can cut a 1 meg bios to fit into a 256k flash is due to the fact that the main bios is only 256k to begin with. A 1 meg bios is just 4 256k copies of the bios.

Now if you made the main bios bigger then 256k say like o umm 320k before you packed it to be a 1 meg bios then cutting it wouldnt work. Why? Cuz the main bios is more 256k

I think what the X2 Team is saying here is that the main bios is going to be bigger then 256k it wont work on the Matrix even with cutting cuz you would cut off part of the needed bios file.

Seems like a good martketing move. I mean I see saying ya well there are other mods and Matrix is just one mod out of many. True is it, but the Matrix is the BIGGEST to compete again based simply on the fact that the Matrix is a non-solder mod.

Now the X2 team wants you to buy there mod so they can get rich too.. I would do the samething if I was making the X2.

[Pir8]

QUOTE (bwn82k @ Oct 28 2002, 04:07 PM)

QUOTE (Nailed @ Oct 28 2002, 11:58 AM) That was a pretty underhanded move by Team Executer!  Also, switching to xboxdash.xbe if evoxdash.xbe is not found seems worthless to me; how would such a feature be helpful?  It would be funny to think eventually the BIOS will be suffering from feature & code bloat. Well, theoretically it would prevent any errors from coming up if there is a dashboard problem. Seems logical to me. Even though, after initial installation of the Evox dashboard, errors might be few and far between...it's still nice to have as a failsafe. Most never have problems installing a dashboard but we all know there's a handful out there that manage to do it.

I still dont get how useful is to have the bios check first for Evoxdash.xbe and if not found use xboxdash.xbe.
Many ppl are saying that it will prevent the error screen from showing if something gets messed but anyway you'll still need to fix the problem and install evoxdash.xbe again.

[jamal]

QUOTE (xboxhokie @ Oct 28 2002, 06:00 PM)

So when is the expect release date of the new X-2?

                                    Someone from the X2 Team said in a couple weeks or something.

And yes they will have a solder, and non solder version. There was a 3rd version too but I forgot what it was.

[steinola]

QUOTE (Nailed @ Oct 28 2002, 08:58 AM)

Also, switching to xboxdash.xbe if evoxdash.xbe is not found seems worthless to me; how would such a feature be helpful?

                                   
I'm sure many know much better than I... but from what I've heard, it comes in very useful with XBox Live and, I suppose, any other mod-killer code MS might implement down the road.

Basically, as I understand it, XBox Live games alter the xboxdash.xbe (I assume to add menu items and whatever other functionality). If you're running a MatriX or Xecutor 1, you've renamed evoxdash.xbe to xboxdash.xbe so that you boot to the EvolutionX. But now you run an XBox Live game... and it rewrites xboxdash (which isn't really xboxdash, but evoxdash)... get the picture? Not only will the XBox Live game probably not play... but chances are the game ran a checksum and has now told the XBox Live server that your box is modded, the FBI surrounds your house, helicopters overhead, and you're hauled off to Singsing.  

If the Xecuter 2 looks for evoxdash.xbe first, you don't have to rename anything. The XBox Live game can alter xboxdash.xbe (now always the original) all it wants, and it won't effect your Evo dashboard.

I suppose MS may employ other means of revising xboxdash.xbe to kill mods as well, in the future. This may come into play then, too. But, heck, in that case, all M$ would have to do would be to check for evoxdash.xbe as well and delete it if it exists... so who's to say this puts you any further ahead in the long run.

[Drakull]

What people seems not to see is what the x-ecuter team is telling people when saying that the bios will be bigger than 256K and post the features on the webpage. Most people has forget about the answer on why their bios will be bigger than 256K. The fact is that the bios will probably be 512K.
Why?? well... if you remember the debug bios was 512K (that's the only one Matrix cannot use at this moment), and they're probably basing their actual design on that bios instead of using the retail bios.
I think is fair if they decide not to care or support Matrix. It's not their product, and the smart move on Matrix could be upgrading to "matrix 2" with a 1 MB  chip or something similar, but as long as x-ecuter team concerns, it's a product they didn't make, so why working for making their work fitting on it?? it's like if you're a car dealer and another car dealer's customer is expecting you to give him free support to their car instead of asking the dealer they bought the car at for that support.

Regards,
Drakull

[hod]

Just load a ybox bios or similar onto your matrix and keep msxboxdash stock and you have the same.

[jamal]

You know.. I do have to wonder what this kernel.ini on the HDD will before.. Almost makes me wonder if part of the bios will run off the HDD.

Maybe Matrix users will infact be able to use it. Small loader bios on the mod chip with in turn loads the main bios/kernel off the HDD possably?

Guess only time will tell.

[obiwan]

sooner or later evox will come up with a 256k bios
for v2

so whats the fuss about?

[bluespot]

Controller reset anyone?  Are you listenening Team X-ecuter???

Make the damn thing 8Mbits, I don't care, just include the ability to reset the console with a button combo on the controllers!!!  Pretty Please?

Maybe that could be one use for the .ini file, you could specifiy which button combination would reset the xbox, so no one would whine about not liking the default setting.  Also, adding a feature like this would require more code to be added to the kernel, very possibly pushing it over 256k.

Hell, I've got a homebrew, but if they can make this happen I'll buy an X-ecuter 2 just for the sake of supporting their efforts.

[Ace25]

MS can impliment modchip detection any time they please. People need to stop worrying when this will happen. It will happen when they decide. When it does, like when Sony implimented mod detection, there will be patches for the games, or a new bios that will mask its ID, you know, something will come out.. I have been in these types of "scenes" since the early 80's, yes, 80's, and NOTHING has changed. It is still a cat and mouse game. Remember on C64 when they made the floppies you could not copy, then the copyboard (forgot the name, hardware) came out so you could copy the floppies. It's been going on before that, and will continue to go on until the world is not run by profit, which will probably be never.

[Drakull]

QUOTE (Ace25 @ Oct 28 2002, 09:33 PM)

MS can impliment modchip detection any time they please. People need to stop worrying when this will happen. It will happen when they decide. When it does, like when Sony implimented mod detection, there will be patches for the games, or a new bios that will mask its ID, you know, something will come out.. I have been in these types of "scenes" since the early 80's, yes, 80's, and NOTHING has changed. It is still a cat and mouse game. Remember on C64 when they made the floppies you could not copy, then the copyboard (forgot the name, hardware) came out so you could copy the floppies. It's been going on before that, and will continue to go on until the world is not run by profit, which will probably be never.

                                     

Yup, they can do it whenever they want to... and the only difference will be that it will take a few more hours having the releases than now for users, as those features will be as usual software based protection schemes... as it happens  also in PC games. The good thing on having M$ implementing protection schemes onto the games could be having less confusion with the releases. At this moment, every game has at least three or four different releases as everybody is able of making his own release and all people is paying no attention on what games have already been released and what games have not... so at the end is a chaos where you can find the same game released 5 times in a week by different groups.
The bad point will be the bac-up of games... but that will be also as in PC... a cracked .xbe and all will be fine again
(In Xbox we're almos in the old Spectrum way.... it was copying from a cassette to a cassette... now from a DVD to a DVD... ). Do you remember when loading a game was 5 minutes??? and now we're always complaining if the game takes more than 20 seconds on loading...
Regards
Drakull

[telo{+}]

[mr.x]

QUOTE (bwn82k @ Oct 28 2002, 03:35 PM)

"Note: due to this development, depending on what features we are able to add this week the kernel may be a lot larger than 256k" -Xecuter2 That will officially take the Matrix mod chip out of the pipeline. Are they doing this purposely? No, they have found new features to add. Will they make ANY effort to try and keep it within 256k? No, they don't care. You didn't buy THEIR chip. It's too bad for you.   I think matrix made a grave mistake putting a 256k limit on their chip. Cause now people take advantage of it to get a competitive edge

                                    "putted a limit"
The chip SST49LF020 cant take more than that, if they was able to make it take bigger BIOSes, they would have done that! Btw I think it is bad to talk shit about the x-ecuter team, hack the xbox by your self.
And btw#2 I think there will be a 256kb BIOS too, maybe not in the first round, but maybe in the next. When they release the 1mb BIOS (if it will have that size) probably some other hackerguy will fix it to 256kb some way, maybe with not all the futures or something.

[forcelite]

So what will this new feature do that putting the matrix in mode 3 and booting from the original bios with a locked harddrive wont do? I do plan to buy xbox live and I think that the people who dont will have a tough time hacking it. Its as easy as making every game have a cd key and keeping track of which ones have sold, making a key generator usless, Blizzards online games have been doing this since starcraft, and no one has been able to play online without a valid cd key there.