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Games Entertainment

MAME Ported to (Chipped) Xbox 221

Posted by timothy from the please-confirm-over dept.
metallik writes: "A version of MAME for the Xbox game console has just been released. This release will only run on Xbox consoles equipped with a mod chip. MAME is the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, one of the more successful open source projects out there. It emulates over 3800 arcade machines, from Space Invaders to Mortal Kombat III, many of them perfectly. This is probably only the first of many such PC software projects to be ported to modded Xboxes. At $199 (plus modchip), the Xbox will soon be an extremely attractive set-top box (if not for the reasons Microsoft wanted it to be...)" A while ago, we posted about getting MAME to run on a developer-kit Xbox, but since mod chips are now available, this sounds like a more practical approach. Update: 06/23 18:40 GMT by T : Note: Thanks to Santeri Saarimaa for a note that the project is now hosted here instead.
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MAME Ported to (Chipped) Xbox More

MAME Ported to (Chipped) Xbox

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  • ...and how much does a mod chip cost currently?
  • My mame box has been running linux hooked up to a TV on an old PII. The problem is, there is no good interface for people viewing it on a TV. This leads me to believe that mame for the x-box might be a practical solution. My only question is, is it compatable with the i-pac (USB keyboard interface thing)?
  • Tell me more about the mod chip! I haven't heard about it. Where is there more information? What functionality does it allow? Does it just bypass the usual boot sequence, or can you also boot to a command line? There must be a some sort of console built into the box for development purposes. Perhaps now's a good time actually pick up one of these XBox's.

  • TiVO? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What about TiVO software on a chipped Xbox? Anybody know if there are projects to create such a beast, because I'm sure it would multiply Xbox sales several-fold.
    • Does the Xbox even have the hardware necessary to do the Tivo thing? Assuming that Microsoft already has a TV tuner and a means of encoding/decoding the television stream, you'd still need to worry about the 10 gig harddrive -- that sucks by PVR standards.

      And then there's still getting programming data (which I suppose you could scrape from an online television guide site), writing all the software, and having to worry about having your Xbox on (and not playing games) when you want to record a show.

      • Re:TiVO? (Score:2, Informative)

        by detect ( 227148 )
        ok.. the Tivo is only a 50Mhz PPC processor system running linux with a 4800rpm drive (30 gig) so the xbox hardware is more than capable of performing the task (tivo quality). There also seems to be an audio/video input at the back of the xbox (although I've read that it might not accept video input) and if you look on the motherboard there seems to be a chip (similar to the t1 4600) which seems capable of video capture. There are also rumours of a tool called xbmovie in the Dev kit which allows for video capture. The modchips allow for running of customised code so it is possible someone could write the software needed if all the above is true.

  • Arcade operators (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I wonder how long it will be before an unscrupulous arcade operator puts a JAMMA connector on a chipped X-BOX and runs it in his arcade :-(.

    That sort of thing is what will destroy the arcade games industry :-(

    • Re:Arcade operators (Score:4, Insightful)

      by galaga79 ( 307346 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @10:00AM (#3752378) Homepage
      It would be rather ironic too, considering consoles are killing the arcade games industry as far as I understand. Years ago arcade machines had better games and hardware than consoles, now it is the other way round so there is less reason to play arcade games.

      • Re:Arcade operators (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Sabalon ( 1684 )
        I dunno...I think it's the fact that almost all arcade games seem to be clones that are killing it. Like the 2600 days, in the 80s, games had limited graphics, so you had to have decent "plots" and gameplay.

        Now, it's all who can remember 50 joystick/button combos to dismember the opponent. So what...big deal...seen it once, seen it all. How about some originality.
        • If the coin op industry had more than 3 distinct games on the market, maybe they'd see more players. Walk into any arcade and you see a bunch of racing games, a bunch of fighting games and a bunch of shooting games. All geared so that no matter how good you get at them, you still get killed and have to put more money in after 2 minutes. And most arcades charge at least 50 cents these days.

          Oh sure, there are a couple of unique titles on the market but many arcades don't carry them and it's nothing like the options you had starting in the early '80's and ending in the early '90's.

          I'll stick with my PS2, where at least I have some diversity.

    • Re:Arcade operators (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Fred IV ( 587429 )
      That sort of thing is what will destroy the arcade games industry :-(

      Sorry, you can't kill something that's already dead. If anything, such a move would help your local arcade by making it easy for them to put some of the classics in front of people again.

      ...MAME is nice but this is not enough of an incentive for me to throw more money at Microsoft. Death to the X-Box!.
      • Ultracade from Hyperware has been out for a few years already, and emulates (LEGALLY), games from Williams, Midway, Atari, Jaleco, Stern, Capcom, Taito, and some others:

        http://www.ultracade.com/

        It's a bit pricey, though.
      • if you get the xbox and dont purchase any games you are costing microsoft money. if you can serve some of your own needs at the same time (dvd player, playing mame games, playing burned xbox games, etc.) then i would think people with distain for microsoft would be all for it.

    • Re:Arcade operators (Score:2, Insightful)

      by aljskfd ( 587537 )
      One thing that could save the arcade industry is if DDR really catches on in the arcade. Sure, if you do walk into the arcade, most of the games now are crap that isn't really any better than the stuff on the home systems. But there is no way to get a true DDR experience at home (becuase all the home pads are alright at best.) If anything, that is the only thing that keeps me going back to the arcades...just so much fun to play with friends.

    • Re:Arcade operators (Score:4, Informative)

      by innocent_white_lamb ( 151825 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @03:03PM (#3753296)
      I wonder how long it will be before an unscrupulous arcade operator puts a JAMMA connector on a chipped X-BOX and runs it in his arcade

      How would this differ from an unscrupulous arcade operator putting a computer into a cabinet and running regular MAME on it?

      I've never seen one personally but I have seen many reports of the word "MAME" showing up on supposedly-genuine arcade machines in various bars and so on.

      Many people use MAME in a stand-up arcade box for their own personal amusement (check here [arcadecontrols.com] and here [mameworld.net] for information on how to build them and many examples of completed and in-progress projects. It's when folks put them into their businesses to collect quarters that things become a bit dodgy, in my opinion, but that has been going on long before the xbox was even thought of.
  • I don't own an XBox so I can't check the EULA... but it seems to me like chipping your XBox, or running uncertified games, would be outlawed in the EULA. If so, that would mean Microsoft could sue XBox owners who chip their boxes.

    Anyone with an XBox care to paste part of the eula or anything?
    • No, but if you run uncertified games, well then your warranty is no longer valid and if your XBox breaks, MS will offer you no support at all.

    • EULA != Law (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In the country where I live, law is stronger than EULA. This means that EULA isn't valid when it contradicts the law (it can't take away your rights provided by the law).

      I'm not aware of any law which outlaws running "uncertifed games on Xbox", therefore EULA isn't valid here and you can do anything with hardware you own.
      • You are missing a step:

        Is there a legal guarantee that you can do whatever you want please hardware you purchase? Or another legal recourse of equivalent purpose and weight?

        If not, then there may be no reason why the EULA wouldn't have grounds for civil cases. Perhaps not criminal cases, but then again, perhaps - if your laws guarantee EULA's legal authority like the proposed American SSSCA (or it's brethren).
        • The Danish copyright law only prohibits certain types of reverse engineering of software, and it explicitly allows you to reverse engineer code to obtain interoperability, except when the information needed for interoperability has been easily and quickly/readily available to the licensee.

          And the law also states that this right cannot be "abdicated" by license.

          In which case, I would say this to Microsoft:
          Sue me!

          Not that I own an X-Box
    • Well, (assuming it does violate the EULA) this would be a lot like suing individuals who have MP3s they got from a friend. It would be perfectly within the IP owner's legal rights to sue and a public relations disaster if they did. (Yes, I realize that copyright and EULA enforcement are two different beasts, but in this case would look very similar to an outside observer.)

      Any company that tries to sue a kid for taking a soldering iron to their Xbox is going to look like a big mean ogre to the public. Instead, expect that Microsoft will agressively prosecute the modchip distributors/manufacturers. No one has any sympathy for businesses, so they are safe to target (and more efficient too).

    • so?

      i'm pretty sure that not paying homage to bill gates before and after meals violates the MS EULA, so whats your worry?
    • The more important question is: does it violate the MAME license? It appears so. No sources makes mamedev very sad. Of course, I had to learn this from the forums [mame.net] on mame.net seeing as the d/l link was subjected to the /. effect almost immediately.

  • www.mame.dk (Score:1, Informative)

    by Tha_Zanthrax ( 521419 )
    This isn't very usefull since http://www.mame.dk/ [www.mame.dk] doensn't offers downloads anymore.
    • I've got a few on my machine [demon.co.uk] on my ADSL line. Take what you like ;-)

    • Re:www.mame.dk (Score:5, Informative)

      by handsomepete ( 561396 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @10:18AM (#3752431) Journal
      Oh, for crying out loud. Every time an emulation topic comes up someone bemoans the loss of mame.dk. It's not and never was the end all of places dedicated to the acquisition of games. Here:
      Miss Mame Roms Resources [1010011010.org]

      Go there. Even if you can't manipulate the pages to find the same things that mame.dk had (which you should be able to), you can at least find the mame burners [tombstones.org.uk] website which is completely valid.

      Google is a useful tool. It will help if you just ask.

      Besides, there's always newsgroups.
      • you can at least find the mame burners [tombstones.org.uk] website which is completely valid.

        Make that WAS completely valid.

        Tombstones has suspended the cd burning program within the past couple of days due to certain problems. It was brought to a head by someone attemption to sell the URL for the tombstones site, believe it or not. "I don't sell you the actual CD's but I do sell you the information on where you can get the CD's from absolutely free. So send $30 by PayPal for the information."

        Therefore, the burning program has been suspended, either teomporarily or permanently; that decision is still under discussion.

        However, MAME roms are still posted regularly in alt.binaries.emulators.misc and alt.binaries.emulators.mame so there's really no insurmountable barrier to obtaining the roms either way.
  • the XBox had a decent controller. Sure I could say emulate Street Fighter 2 on it. But without a stick and 6 buttons, it's worthless. There is a smaller controller available, but it's not that much better.

    • Re:If only (Score:4, Informative)

      by WildBeast ( 189336 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @10:09AM (#3752408) Journal
      You mean something like this [ebgames.com]?
    • Smaller? Hello... You need a bigger controller [thinkgeek.com], of course! :D It does seem that the promised console adapters for this lovely-looking piece of joystickery still aren't available, but if they through some fluke of nature actually appear, this looks like a solid enough stick. I know I want one. And a suitable TV-ized box to MAME on. Oh, and a living room to put it all in. And, perhaps, a job with enough of a salary to pay for it, too. Darn.
    • This [thinkgeek.com] looks interesting. Doesn't look like an XBox adapter exists yet though...
    • I've always believed that the Sony Playstation/Playstaion 2 had the most comfortable and versatile controller available (though that's just my opinion). When the standard gamepad controller doesn't work (I cannot use it in fighting games), I have durable arcade-layout style joystick from ASCII (Unfortunately I'm not sure that the model is available anymore). That's why I got PSX->PC and PSX/PS2->GameCube controller adapters, and if I had an XBox I would certainly get a PSX/PS2->XBox controller adapter [levelsix.com].
  • Since the download is /.ed, there is something claiming to be this alt.binaries.cd.image.xbox [image.xbox]

  • Get a Dreamcast (Score:4, Informative)

    by JK Flip Flop ( 209163 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @10:20AM (#3752437)
    You can run MAME on a dreamcast without a chip plus the DC is only 50 bucks and not ugly.

    • Re:Get a Dreamcast (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Fulg0re- ( 119573 )
      Sure we can run MAME on the Dreamcast, but considering the difference in hardware, the Xbox is much better suited to being able to run MAME. In fact, with MAME-X, you can load ROM's which are much larger (29MB vs. 5MB). So in consequence, you can play a lot more games with it as compared to the Dreamcast version. Also, considering that the Xbox hardware is much more powerful, games will likely be running at more optimal speeds.

    • Re:Get a Dreamcast (Score:2, Informative)

      by fldvm ( 466714 )
      Dreamcast $50 ... Broadband Adaptor for a Sega Dreamcast $80-100 ... I think I will get a xbox
    • The DC has a 200Mhz processor and 16mb ram, no hdd
      XBox has a 733MHz PIII, 64MB RAM, and an 8 - 10GB HDD
      So your DC can only really handle the older/slower/smaller games while the XBox can churn out NeoGeo and Capcom CPS1/CPS2 hardware.

      I love Dreamcast but I would hate to see someone rush out and buy one as a MAME box and then be stuck playing, say, Xevious and Gauntlet only ;-)
  • I don't know why the DC Emulation scene seemingly gets no respect or credit in the "geek" community, considering the amazingly amount of work that's been put into various types of emulation. Granted, it's considered a "dead" system, but the technology is still there and still relatively current. At present, a $50 Dreamcast can successfully emulate MAME [kaillera.com], NES [nemesis.kaz.ac] (the best console emulation i've ever seen), Master System [kenseiden.com], Gameboy [nemesis.kaz.ac], amongst others. DreamSNES [mc.pp.se] is working on SNES games, and is making some serious headway (they're running at about 88% speed, now), and there are still other emulation projects on the horizon, plus a batch of decent-and-getting-better homebrew games.

    I think that person would be ill-advised to acquire and Xbox for $200, spend however much on a modchip, in the process voiding their warrenty, in order that they play MAME, when a console that can be picked up for $50 and under can do the same thing. i recommend anyone visit DC Emulation [dcemulation.com] if they are interested.
    • Are there any issues with getting a Dreamcast to play burned CD-Rs? I went to the site you suggested and this article [dcemulation.com] leads me to believe some Dreamcasts may not play CD-Rs. Is there a non-black-magic way to tell if the Dreamcast I'm gonna drop $50 on will work?
    • This is a shameless self-plug, but oh well...
      If you're new to the whole DC Emulation scene and just want to try out a couple of emulators, check out DCFactory [cjb.net], trully the easiest way to burn yourself emulator+roms CDs for the DreamCast.

      Also, DCFacory's sucessor, DMU CD Creator [dyndns.org], although still in beta, provides a way to combine multiple emulators (and demos, and homebrew games, of which there are many) onto 1 CD, for those who are low on blanks.
    • NESterDC [emulation64.com] is great and all (obvious understatement :) but I think the all the fuss about emulation on the Xbox has to do with that it's got quite a bit more power to handle the more demanding games emulated in MAME. With a little bit of tweeking, the newer Midway games, CPS2, and Stun Runner to name a few might run at a good (full?) speed, whereas on the Dreamcast that might not be possible (maybe, but requiring a lot more work).

    • Re:Dreamcast Gets No Love, As Always. (Score:5, Funny)

      by epukinsk ( 120536 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @12:35PM (#3752793) Homepage Journal
      I think that person would be ill-advised to acquire and Xbox for $200, spend however much on a modchip, in the process voiding their warrenty, in order that they play MAME, when a console that can be picked up for $50 and under can do the same thing.

      XBox console: $200
      Modchip: $100
      MAME download: $0

      Forcing Microsoft eat a $150 loss for every XBox you buy: priceless

      -Erik
    • "Amen." Most definately - I am an active member of the DCDev scene - it is truly an amazing console. And if emulation isn't your "thing", and you have something morally against ROMs, those aren't the only things on DreamCast. There's my Snake3D [sf.net] port, which is currently pretty ugly, but works, there's c99 [c99.org]'s 3D Pong clone, and Dan [allusion.net]'s Feet of Fury. Plus, there's Linux and NetBSD, not ot mention the homebrew KallistiOS. And all for free... Also available at DCEmu [dcemulation.com].

      --joshua
  • It's very interesting how hard companies try to hold on to thier respective IP. When there are true hackers seeking knowledge and ways to expand technology's usage like this. I think that Microsoft should have take a different route with the indie/residential developer. If they had opened up and released a development environment like Sony with PS2 Linux, then they would be embracing this rather than feeling threatened.

    To be honest, this and similar applications might be another reason for me to actually buy and X-Box and they need the sales and the press of people actually doing anything with the thing.

    • they try to keep it a closed system cause they're losing money on each console sale

      so if they make their console easy to run free software that anybody can write, basicaly in the end all they are doing is making a really inexpensive PC, and if they cant even force you to run their own software (and ONLY their software) they wont make a cent.. and to microsoft, even the suggestion of doing something that may bite into their profits is a sacrilige and a punishable offence.. what are all those black vans doing parked outside your house all of a sudden?
    • You know when I read your comment the old noggin started buzzing.

      I think Microsoft did intend the thing to be heavily hackable for the general public.

      M$ probably realized the majority of the gaming community and *nix people would look on the X_box EULA and the actual XBOX itself as a severe challenge. LEts all hack the box to how M$ fucked up this time and make it do all sorts of crap M$ never designed it do.

      Ye olde reverse psychology. Now you got an article every couple a three days on the xbox and most of the comments are positive. Well, we ain't admitting that M$ did something decent for a change(which they kinda did considering it is their first console).

      So i think we played into Bill's hands. He is getting all the air time here. I am actually thinking about buying one and so are you.

      And what better "indie/residential developer, hacker, challenge" is there than the X-box and it's dislaimer.

      Puto
      • So i think we played into Bill's hands. He is getting all the air time here. I am actually thinking about buying one and so are you.

        yeah but if you dont buy any games for it then you will be hurting them. this is based on the assumption that they are loosing money on the console and expecting to make it back on the games.

        if i purchased one it would be to play dvd's and the mame stuff since i have no interest in newer console games. while i might be in the minority with respect to console games, those who like the newer games might not be purchasing them either*. if you read about the mod chip you would see that it allows you to play copies of games.

        so now i can buy this console+modchip for $270 and do everything with it someone without the mod chip can do and alot more. not to mention that with the mod chip i can play bootlegged cd's*.

        is this a real threat? heck i dont know. what can microsoft do? i think online services to encourage people to purchase the software might work. similar to what id did with quake 3 arena.

        im sure you can see how this _could_ work out bad for microsoft.

        *A Xbox Mod Chip would not only make it possible to play Backups and Imports, but would also open a complete new era in videogame console development. [psreporter.com]
    • embraced and extended the amatuer maybe?
    • "It's very interesting how hard companies try to hold on to thier respective IP."

      Slashdotting the info on mod-chips and emulators will certainly expedite us finding out how extreme they'll get.

  • not until it doesn't require a mod (Score:3, Insightful)

    by blueworm ( 425290 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @10:39AM (#3752484) Homepage
    The X-Box will not be popular as an inexpensive PC until it doesn't require a modification. Even then I'm unsure. It would depend on whether you could install the normal version of Windows on it like any other PC.
  • xbox-scene [xbox-scene.com] is a great website for xbox hacking and mod chip information. It even has a comparison of all the xbox mod chips available.


    kmart [bluelight.com] has the Xbox : $180 (item# 981320) can't beat that price. (10% off)

  • Why MS would fight MAME (Score:4, Insightful)

    by theMightyE ( 579317 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @11:02AM (#3752551)
    I can't remember exactly where I read this, but I read that the XBox business model was set up such that MS actually loses money every time they sell a unit. They plan to make the cash back via a license fee attached to all games sold by major developers. For example, if they sell for $50 under cost initally, then get $10 for every title you buy they are in the black as of the 6th game you purchase.

    Now think of what happens if someone MAMEs the XBox, mods it to be a cheap PC, or otherwise does something that causes the user to treat it as something other than a dedicated system for 'legal' gaming. In this case MS is just paying part of your equipment costs and not getting the return they expected. Modding the XBox to be a Linux machine just adds insult to injury in their eyes.

    I think this answers some of the questions brought up in posts where people wonder why MS is fighting this kind of use. I'd expect MS to continue to fight this one tooth and nail, and with their history you know they will.

    P.S. I did a (very cursory) google search to try to find the article outlining how the XBox business model works - if anyone knows where to find it and could post it in a reply it'd be cool.

    • Two words: Netpliance iOpener (Score:4, Insightful)

      by alienmole ( 15522 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @11:29AM (#3752625)
      ...
      the XBox business model was set up such that MS actually loses money every time they sell a unit. They plan to make the cash back via a license fee attached to all games sold by major developers

      That model has been tried before [netpliance.com].

      Actually, other game consoles have used this business model to varying degrees. However, the difference today is that the consoles are much more powerful computing platforms, and therefore much more attractive for hacking. Hence the iOpener comparison.

      The problem Microsoft is going to have in fighting this, is that it will now be fighting its customers directly, rather than competitors. The downsides of squashing (or acquiring) a competitor only become apparent when the U.S. Justice Department sues you. The downsides of fighting with your own customers are much more serious and direct; and the legal footing is much weaker.

      Suing individual XBox owners in court isn't likely to happen, or have much effect if it does (unless the courts happen to rule against MS). Certainly, Adobe-style DMCA tactics against companies selling mod chips and the like may be possible, within the U.S. at least, but that's unlikely to act as much of a barrier against hacking.

      The bottom line is that companies need to start taking the realities of this sort of thing into account. They can't just sit in their conference rooms surrounded by lawyers and wail and gnash their teeth. Their notion of intellectual property ownership and control is simply at odds with reality, and if they don't recognize that, reality will do it for them, in the form of profits and their stock price.

    • Well duh... You make it sound like Microsoft is the only one doing it that way. The console games industry has always used this business model ever since NES.
    • ...note that MS loses even *more* money when you *dont* by a unit!

      I just wish I could afford to not buy 1,000 Xboxes...

      Baz

  • Kinda sad, in a way (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Junks Jerzey ( 54586 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @11:15AM (#3752588)
    I'm always sad to see that the excitement among hobbyist developers always seems to involve porting emulators for old arcade games. Yeah, I love those old games too, but I'd much rather see some kind of real grassroots game development movement emerge. The stuff posted to linuxgames.com is depressing for the most part. Here we have a powerful, free operating system and development tools, something thousands of times more powerful than what early game designers had in 1980, and yet all we can do is write emulators for those games.
    • If I had mod points, I'd put them down right here. Even long running projects like FreeCiv are extremely disappointing compared to the slick status of KDE and Gnome. If I wanted to play 10 year old games I'd just get an SNES+games off of ebay.
      stipe42

    • Re:Kinda sad, in a way (Score:2, Interesting)

      by andi75 ( 84413 )
      There's a reason for this. Writing games is abismally hard. You need a whole team of people (programmer, game designer, texture artist, modeller, sound artist, musician) *from the beginning*. Otherwise your game won't catch any interest.

      Also, don't expect your users to provide any support from the programming side. You'll have to be very lucky to get any usable patches.

      I know a bit about what I'm talking, I've written a fairly successful game (though it's rather limited in gameplay). I was lucky in a way that the art I use in the game was either easy to replace by users (textures) or was already lying around (people had already built 3d models of tron vehicles) so that was only a matter of integration. However, obtaining decent sound effects has proven to be much much harder, and I'm still not happy with the currect state of affairs.

      Nonetheless, writing games can be very rewarding (I get a lot of fan mail), so don't let that stop you.

      - Andreas

    • Well, I think the reasons for that are two-fold. One, there are no good artists willing to work on a freeware project so the game they will create is guaranteed to fail among the common audience, and two, creating games is like a common ground in programming. It's not as simple as creating a basic MP3 player to test out your coding skills and it's not as hard as creating a homebrewed OS that programmers want to try to challenge.
    • This isn't just a hobbyist-only phenomenon. Coming up with a new and/or original game concept is *hard* and actually developing something people would consider professional nowadays requires a large staff of artists that open source software efforts simply don't have. In the olden days, a single person could do the design, art, audio and programming and the result could still be state-of-the-art; but those days are long gone.

      And besides, so many *new* games are "safe" re-hashes of old concepts (in the hopes that the title won't flop and cost the developer millions) that playing emulated classics is sometimes preferable to shelling out for much of the latest stuff.

  • I'm ambivalent about buying an XBox. I have a life, a wife and a very private walled-in garden. What do I need a computer to play games for?

    But as long as each sale (now don't go and buy their games too,) loses money for M$, its got to be a good thing, right?

  • And in other news: (Score:4, Funny)

    by wiresquire ( 457486 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @11:25AM (#3752616) Journal
    A press release from Microsoft stated that game developers were flocking to XBox. Xbox now has 3802 games.

  • It's cool, but not my first pick for a mame box. (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The xbox's 733Mhz Celeron isn't powerful enough o drive a lot of the games MAME can emulate and more cpu intensive games are always on the way.

    "As a data point, an AMD Athlon 1900 XP is able to do all current Mame32 games [.58] at greater than 100% fps at a resolution of 1600x1200x32 using RGB effects [the most stressful Mame32 settings]." -http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/help/mame32 _support.htm

  • MAME-X site moved.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Gridle ( 17502 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @11:57AM (#3752673)
    It's located at xbox.mame.net [mame.net] now. We can handle the slashdot effect. Bring it on.

    There will be a new version and source code release shortly.
  • I'm mostly just curious here, but what does the mod-chip enable that the X-Box disables? If you have a DVD-R burner and the file, what does the X-Box detect (or NOT detect) on your burned disc that commercial discs don't contain?

    If someone had the XDK, what's stopping them from putting it all together and putting it out? Any links to articles discussing the issue would also be most appreciated!

  • Xtender vs. Messiah vs. Enigmah (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jcsehak ( 559709 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @02:36PM (#3753198) Homepage
    Which mod chip to get? Anyone have any experience intalling them? Anyone care to do (or point to) a comparison?

    • Re:Xtender vs. Messiah vs. Enigmah (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Heres a link to Xbox mods comparison http://www.xbox-scene.com/modchips.php

      Think ill wait for the openbox modchip as its flashable with a pc and printer lead/port, and has a switch to revert back to the origonal xbox bios.

      And it should be legal to sell as it comes with no microsoft code ie:bios/modded bios.

    • Microsoft will claim that modding an Xbox is a DMCA violation.
    • They'll spend a fortune on lawyers and publicity and on an "education" campaign to convince purchasers that they are stealing from the mouths of hungry developers.
    • The net effect will be that a lot of lawyers and PR people will be able to make a deposit on a BMW, and that clued up gamers who want to mod their Xbox and play with it will go ahead and do it anyway.
    • Someone (let's say me) will point out that Microsoft could license some of the abandonware titles that MAME supports and sell (yes, sell) a MAME collection, thereby keeping money out of the hands of lawyers and keeping gamers happy.
    • Microsoft (if they deign to acknowlege this suggestion) will snort derisively and ask why anyone would want to run MAME on the Xbox. When they have it pointed out that they are spending millions on pursuing DMCA suits to have it stopped, they will shift uncomfortably in their seats and ask for the name and home address of the questioner, their family and their little dog too.

    You know, one day we'll wake up in a world where suppliers have remembered that you make money by supplying the demand that's out there, not by trying to control it. It didn't work for the Soviet Union, and it sure isn't going to work in the USA.

  • not killing them - on the contrary (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tom ( 822 ) on Sunday June 23, 2002 @04:29PM (#3753546) Homepage Journal
    Even if it's true that M$ loses $150 on every xbox sold, they won't care much. They've calculated losses of a few billion over the first four or so years of xbox business, so they're definitely in it for the long run.

    Now, what helps you most in the long run? Market share. What will hacking the xbox so that mame runs on it do? Hm, how about raise it's market share because a couple thousand /.'ers run out and buy one?

    M$ lost money on windos piracy, too. They didn't give a damn until they had the monopoly, then they started cracking down on people with the BSA squad.

    They won't attack the mod chips or the mame porters. Not just now and not for a while. Once there's an xbox in every house, then the gloves will come off.
    • I keep wondering if this is a tax thing. I know from a few buisness cases that there are situations in which companies lose money on certain projects for tax breaks/and writeoffs.
    • Now, what helps you most in the long run? Market share.

      You mean that MS finally read those business books from 1997? If market share is what really helps you in the long run, explain to me what happened to companies like egghead [egghead.com], and bigstar [bigstar.com], and DrKoop [wired.com], and (Insert your favorite failed .com here)...

      The platform that sells software wins. Period.

      (Console software sales statisitcs for Q1 2002 [npdfunworld.com])
      • explain to me what happened to companies like egghead, and bigstar, and DrKoop, and (Insert your favorite failed .com here)

        I didn't say that market share alone is a magic lamp. However, if anyone than M$ has realized just how much money a monopoly position is worth. They have a history of giving stuff away (free or selling it very cheaply) until their market share dominates. Why would they change an effective business strategy?

  • Homebrew modchips (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DrJAKing ( 94556 ) on Monday June 24, 2002 @05:54AM (#3756038)
    www.modshack.co.uk have details of how to make your own modchip, even using a mobo or network adaptor to do the programming.

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