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[HunterX]

Original Review for the Lik-Sang.com Forums, by Hunter X
Mega X-Key US$ 34.95 - Ships worldwide and FAST

I have received the retail version of the Mega X Key after my last review of the Action Replay for the Xbox from Lik-Sang. The following is my review of this product which I praised so much compared to the commercial Action Replay.

Indeed the Mega X-Key is now also a commercial product, but it actually has a very interesting story. Team X4, known by Xbox sceners for the Xbox Saves Manager, released the Mega X-Key software V1 a few month ago for free to the Internet. Just a short while after, a person called habibi_xbox found out how to get Linux to work on unmodded Xbox consoles and people realized the Mega X-Key can be perfectly used for this.

Mega X-Key VS Action Replay

The Mega X-Key can also be compared with the Action Replay for the Xbox, as the AR for the Xbox is unlike all other Action Replay products from Datel NOT a cheat code device, but rather just a simple Memory Card with PC interface and the needed software to transfer data. And when I write simple Memory Card, I mean simple. Compared to the Mega X-Key, the AR has only 8Mbytes of Memory, while the Mega X-Key comes with 4x that amount of Memory: 32Mbytes.

First Impression: very professional

When I received my Mega X-Key from Lik Sang to do a review, I was quite impressed. The product looks just like a expensive branded product, and like it has been designed for this purpose only. The truth is rather that Team X4 and Lik Sang have used all their resources (software development and manufacturing facilities) to combine earlier available products to a new kit: The Mega X-Key retail package. n case you ever sell your Xbox, or it gets broken and cannot be fixed any more (what we don’t hope), you can still use the Mega X-Key as standard PC USB drive, while you would need to re-format it as the Xbox FATX system cannot be used to store windows files under normal circumstances (reformatting it again using the Xbox enables you to use it again with the Xbox at any given time).

BTW: I also finally received my Xbox component cable from Lik-Sang, thanks a lot ;-)


Unpacking the unit

(IMG:http://www.console-news.org/hunterx/mxk-complete-set.jpg)

The Mega X-Key package contains the following:

- Mega X-Key (32M Flash USB drive)
- Software CD
- Manual on CD
- USB to Xbox Cable
- USB Extension Cable
- Saves for the Xbox (on the X-Key and on the CD as well)


Installing the software

Installing the software is very easy, as the CD comes with something called Auto-Start, and is basically asking you how to proceed when you insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive.

The following few screenshots show what you have to expect. Pictures tell more than words, and it's somehow difficult to describe a standard windows installation process.

(IMG:http://www.console-news.org/hunterx/mxk-screen1.png)

(IMG:http://www.console-news.org/hunterx/mxk-screen2.png)

(IMG:http://www.console-news.org/hunterx/mxk-screen3.png)

Connecting the Mega X-Key

After the software has been installed, you are ready to use your Mega X-Key hardware. After starting the software, a user interface in the following design should show up:

(IMG:http://media.lik-sang.com/content/mega-x-key-screen.jpg)

Lik Sang has also included their very own skin into the extras zip file on the CD-ROM, which will convert your user interface to something like this:

(IMG:http://media.lik-sang.com/content/mega-x-key-screen2.jpg)

Also AllXboxSkins.com has been involved in developing the Mega X-Key retail package:

(IMG:http://media.lik-sang.com/content/mega-x-key-screen3.jpg)

Furthermore there is a complete Drive Image packed into the extras.zip, in case you ever wanted to reset your Mega X-Key to factory default, you just need to load the image.

You should now be pretty much ready to do whatever you want with the Mega X-Key. One of the first steps should be to grab a game which has a saved game on the Mega X-Key, so that you can try how it works. You could then head over to megaxkey.com or xbox-saves.com, to grab more recent game saves and also publish your latest games over there. Team X4 is also holding a competition every month.

I would like to congratulate XBoxed, the winner for last month's April's Giveaway for his Soul Calibur 2 NTSC-JAP save. The prize for this new month is a USB Keyboard to the best Save Game (hacked or not) submitted to the site. Good Luck!

[HunterX]

If just somebody would bother to read my reviews, lol