Soft modding an Original Xbox

[Duddyroar]

I've just purchased a second hand Xbox and want to softmod it for some 480p and emulation goodness.

I've looked around online and it seems that this process can be done using just a copy of Splinter Cell and a memory card with the correct files on it. Is it really this simple? And once you've installed and executed the softmod, how do you get ROMs on the machine? Is it purely a case of popping a disc in the tray with the ROMs on it? Which is the best modded dash out there right now?

Finally, does softmodding your machine have any impact on which games you can play afterwards?

[bash]

Not sure rom discussions allowed but best thing would be get a crossover cable (not normal cat5) and FTP any downloaded stuff straight from PC/laptop direct to the Xbox hdd. Its easy enough to do once you know the ip addresses and faster than cd/dvd transfer as far as Im aware. You'd probably want a larger hdd (standard xbox is 8 or 10gb) if you went down this route. Unless of course you're happy to burn stuff to cd/DVD instead each time? Problem is that way you have to find out what drive (philips, Tomson, I think Samsung is best, you can google it and check by looking at the drive tray) you have to check what format media will run. I find it a bit of a pain when you're restricted to CDr or DVD+/-R/RW so I just FTP via laptop.

Everyone seems to prefer Xbox media centre but I've got mine setup for just a few emulators, not movies or music. Therefore I like Unleashx's simple dash.

You shouldnt have any problems with playing original games afterwards, in fact it should be multi region. You would just need to switch between PAL and NTSC to avoid frame skips for certain games. easy enough to do with the video switcher which just requires a reset. you can only get 480i/p, 720p and 1080i via NTSC mode and componant cable though.

[charlesr]

You have to copy the splinter cell saves to the machine and run them from there.
It's pretty simple.

I couldn't be bothered with a bigger HDD, so just bunged some roms on DVD.

[Duddyroar]

Any kind souls able to lend me the gear to do this?

[bash]

I've got a USB-to-Xbox cable you can connect a compatible mem card with. Dont have any games with the relavent exploits on though, sorry.

London based so feel free to collect and drop back if you want ?

[EvilBoris]

There was splinter cell and 007 agent under fire that both worked

[charlesr]

If you send me an official memory card, I can get the saves on to it for you (for splinter cell).