Err....I'm no expert, but what I'm reading on the linked twitter post and what I'm seeing speculated in the article are quite a jump away from each other.
The Xbox 360 wouldn't let you plug any ol' hard drive into it, even if you opened the HDD shell and put a different drive into it - it has to have a signed security sector. We can rip those security sectors from official drives and copy them onto 3rd party hard drives to make cheaper (than official) 360 drives easily enough, but only in sizes that match the officially available drives. I did this myself years ago, turning my 20gb HDD into a cheap 120GB model by putting a cheapo 120gb laptop HDD into the shell and doing some copying/formatting with an adapter.
What I am gathering from this post is that someone has managed to get an SSD to report to the Xbox 360 with one of those security sectors, so it can be used like it's an official drive. Which is pretty cool as this previously only worked for Hard Drives.
However, aside from being able to use an SSD instead of an HDD, I don't believe this bypasses any security on the 360 that wasn't already bypassed. It doesn't get anyone any closer to being able to run homebrew on an unmodified 360 because even back in the day you could stick plug your 360 Hard Drive into your PC (with an adapter as mentioned) and read/write the contents to it all you wanted.
All this is, which is not to understate or undervalue the work as it's still very cool, is a way of using SSDs on an Xbox 360 instead of a HDD.
@sdelfin I'd never even heard of Metal Warriors before, but the game looks baller! Definitely not confusing it, it was 100% Cybernator that I played as a kid.
@Damo I definitely remember the anime pictures being in the game, I played it a lot and their absence later has always been something that has bothered me. I remember staring at the back of the box as well as I was sure it contained hidden secrets (Or maybe they just spelled Napalm wrong!).
The game I bought was used, as we couldn't afford new games so it's entirely possible I had a rogue review copy (I don't remember there being anything special about the cartridge that would suggest such a thing).
So I made an account just to post this comment because I'm very confused about something.
I had a SNES as a kid and owned a copy of Cybernator, it was a great little game and I was a huge fan of it. It's only relatively recently did I learn that it was known as Assault Suit Valken in Japan and only recently that I've learned about the censorship of the western versions.
But here's the weird thing, one of the censorships is the removal of the anime profile pictures in-mission - but the version I had as a kid, which was definitely Cybernator and definitely in English, also definitely had the anime profile pictures.
I distinctly remember this because years later as I got into emulation I tried out the game and was disappointed that the pictures were missing - I thought it was an emulator bug (fairly common in the early 2000's) and didn't think much of it but now years later people are discussing this game and it seems like I may have inadvertently had some special copy.
I couldn't tell you if the other censored elements had been changed, I would have been fairly young at the time. I definitely don't remember ever seeing the president or "that" scene but I'd love to know if there was a known English release of the game with the anime pictures because I swear I had it.
Comments 61
Re: "Revolutionary" Xbox 360 Mod "Will Change the Entire Scene"
Err....I'm no expert, but what I'm reading on the linked twitter post and what I'm seeing speculated in the article are quite a jump away from each other.
The Xbox 360 wouldn't let you plug any ol' hard drive into it,
even if you opened the HDD shell and put a different drive into it - it has to have a signed security sector. We can rip those security sectors from official drives and copy them onto 3rd party hard drives to make cheaper (than official) 360 drives easily enough, but only in sizes that match the officially available drives. I did this myself years ago, turning my 20gb HDD into a cheap 120GB model by putting a cheapo 120gb laptop HDD into the shell and doing some copying/formatting with an adapter.
What I am gathering from this post is that someone has managed to get an SSD to report to the Xbox 360 with one of those security sectors, so it can be used like it's an official drive. Which is pretty cool as this previously only worked for Hard Drives.
However, aside from being able to use an SSD instead of an HDD, I don't believe this bypasses any security on the 360 that wasn't already bypassed. It doesn't get anyone any closer to being able to run homebrew on an unmodified 360 because even back in the day you could stick plug your 360 Hard Drive into your PC (with an adapter as mentioned) and read/write the contents to it all you wanted.
All this is, which is not to understate or undervalue the work as it's still very cool, is a way of using SSDs on an Xbox 360 instead of a HDD.
Re: Review: MiSTer FPGA - Still The Best Option For Hardcore Retro Gamers In 2024?
I don't think Retro Bench exists anymore, fyi
Re: "It's The Worst" - Perfect Dark Expert Delivers Withering Verdict Of Nintendo Switch Port
Classic Nintendo, giving fans terrible ports while suing those trying to give fans good ports.
Re: The Original Resident Evil Could Be Coming To PC
Interesting development, I'd be keen to play the original again. I wonder if it will be just the original or Directors Cut or some other version?
Hopefully it's not a badly emulated PSX port like the MGS collection was.
Re: $99 MiSTer FPGA Clone Finally Has A Name, And It Hasn't Gone Down Well With Everyone
There is precedent for this:
Turing Pi
Orange Pi
Banana Pi
Pine64 (Which isn't ARM, either)
Re: Meet The Man Behind The $99 MiSTer Clone That's Changing FPGA Gaming Forever
I'm super excited for these developments. I'm looking to get into FPGA gaming but was always put off by the cost. This seems ideal.
Re: Secret Messages In X68000 Phalanx Chart A Descent Into Crunch-Induced Madness
Am I being dumb, but is there a link to the actual translation instead of just the excerpts?
Re: Gallery: Retro-Bit's Assault Suits Valken Looks (And Sounds) Great
@sdelfin I'd never even heard of Metal Warriors before, but the game looks baller! Definitely not confusing it, it was 100% Cybernator that I played as a kid.
Re: Gallery: Retro-Bit's Assault Suits Valken Looks (And Sounds) Great
That's what I am wondering! Sadly it has been a couple of decades since I last saw the cart, I'm not sure where it would have ended up.
Re: Gallery: Retro-Bit's Assault Suits Valken Looks (And Sounds) Great
@Damo I definitely remember the anime pictures being in the game, I played it a lot and their absence later has always been something that has bothered me. I remember staring at the back of the box as well as I was sure it contained hidden secrets (Or maybe they just spelled Napalm wrong!).
The game I bought was used, as we couldn't afford new games so it's entirely possible I had a rogue review copy (I don't remember there being anything special about the cartridge that would suggest such a thing).
Re: Gallery: Retro-Bit's Assault Suits Valken Looks (And Sounds) Great
So I made an account just to post this comment because I'm very confused about something.
I had a SNES as a kid and owned a copy of Cybernator, it was a great little game and I was a huge fan of it. It's only relatively recently did I learn that it was known as Assault Suit Valken in Japan and only recently that I've learned about the censorship of the western versions.
But here's the weird thing, one of the censorships is the removal of the anime profile pictures in-mission - but the version I had as a kid, which was definitely Cybernator and definitely in English, also definitely had the anime profile pictures.
I distinctly remember this because years later as I got into emulation I tried out the game and was disappointed that the pictures were missing - I thought it was an emulator bug (fairly common in the early 2000's) and didn't think much of it but now years later people are discussing this game and it seems like I may have inadvertently had some special copy.
I couldn't tell you if the other censored elements had been changed, I would have been fairly young at the time. I definitely don't remember ever seeing the president or "that" scene but I'd love to know if there was a known English release of the game with the anime pictures because I swear I had it.