XBox newbie - chipping

[FreddyKrueger]

Being a bit of a retro nut I am not really up on the chipping scene - to be bluntly honest it goes straight over my head and in the past if I wanted a JAP game I bought the console and a stepdown.

However my *wife* is buying me an XBox for Xmas and I keep reading about this being chipped by Xecutor or somethin like that. Question is why and what does it do and what is all the software that people say they have installed etc? Is it worth having?

Anything retro just ask me but anything like this you can see the tumbleweed going through my head

[nips]

You sound exactly like me a few months ago.

Just go to premodded.co.uk and get her XB from there. That's what I did. I got all the software pre-loaded on there along with all your retro stuff. It is a brilliant service for those of us too scared, or with out the necessary funds, or tools to mod it ourselves.

If not, then goto xbox-scene.com

They are really good apparently.

I can't be very helpful, becuase I've only got my console from premodded, but you'll never have to change a thing except for the bios, which you can learn about when necessary!

[Dache]

The Xecuter is the chip that can be installed in the Xbox.

On a basic level, it'll let you play imports and unsigned code -- as in pirates and homemade games or applications. Put pop them in in the disc drive and they'll play.

Howeveeerrr, it also lets you modify the console itself. You can, for example, take out the 8 Gig hard drive and slap in an 120 Gig one. You can't do this without chipping the Xbox first.

Take it one step further -- have the Xecuter replace the normal Xbox BIOS and install another one. So instead of the Xbox going to its regular start-up screen when you turn it on, you get a whole new one that you're actually able to modify.

So, what now? Well, the first option in the new menu is usually "play from DVD drive" -- as in, play the game or whatever is in there. So what now? Applications!

There's ****ing tons out there. Example. You generally won't need to install these yourself though -- the person who installs your chip should do it for you if you ask. Then you also have emulators, and region free DVD players, and programs that'll install your games on the hard drive so you don't need the disc anymore... stuff like that.

There you go then. Armed with this knowledge, you can surely take over the world.