Homebrew, Console/Handheld Modding, and its Subcategories

[Darkhavenz0r]

Not sure if this would be the appropriate forum; Three Frags Left would probably also be appropriate, keeping in mind "homebrew" and "console modding" are categories of larger, more broad scope than just gaming.

Anyway.

Who here's got a cool toy that they've hacked apart? Someone with a HackMii'd Wii? Anybody have a jailbroken PS3 or a JTAG'd Xbox 360? Write or use any cool programs for 'em lately? Talk about it here.



I use an Independence exploited PS2 with a 120GB internal HDD with all sorts of shit on it ranging from backups (as in, I copied my legitimately-purchased PS2 discs to my drive for backup purposes) to a good chunk of my music library to the first five seasons of Ed, Edd n' Eddy resting on that thing. Oh, HDLoader, how I love you so...


I also have recently Letterbombed my Wii (I left my old one at home, which was bannerBombed w/ System Menu 4.0 before I went to Basic) and I play Quake and Doom on it, try out some maps I've built from time to time. Man, Wii homebrew is swell... I've missed it. I've even written a few tiny programs for it, like displaying bitmaps and playing songs. Proud of myself for that!


Also thinking of purchasing a modded Xbox 360 a friend owns for around $200, the Falcon chipset with a 120GB drive on it full of weird, outlandish homebrew stuff. Now you know what would be AMAZING? ioDoom3 on Xbox LIVE. Oh, man...

I also have a modified PSP, though I don't recall what the hack is called exactly, it runs off of OFW 6.39 as far as I can recall. That shit is alot of fun. I recently wrote my own Timidity config and loaded my memory stick full of custom patches to use with Doom, and it's incredible. Takes like 20 seconds to load a map because of all the file I/O for the patchfiles, though... :/

 

[shteev]

Too bad I don't have a console to do such things to.

I'd love to put Homebrew on A Wii U, those things are supposed to be powerful.

 

[xcliber]

Not sure if this is ok with forum rules or not, but what the hell.

I haven't done anything recently, but just about every console I've owned since my GBA has had some sort of hard/softmod done to it.
GBA - flashcart
PhatDS - Flashme patched to play ds homebrew from the GBA flashcart I already had at the time. I was so proud of it at the time.
DSLite - flashcart
PSP 1000 - got it for free with a cracked screen. Replaced the screen myself and installed M33 custom firmware on it via a Pandora Battery and Magic Memory Stick.
Wii - BannerBomb to get homebrew channel at early firmware. Installed Waninkoko's custom firmware and can play Wii games from an external HDD. Loading times are incredibly fast compared to discs.
Phat PS2 - Fliptop lid and disc swap method enabled me to install FreeMCboot on a memory card. Now I can run any homebrew from USB and install games to the internal HDD with the PS2 network adapter. Which is good since my drive laser is about shot.
Xbox360 - Had LT custom firmware installed on the DVD drive for a week or two before the system gave me an E74 error. Prior to that, I had already repaired an RRoD.

 

[Angelsoft]

Back in the old days I had a chipped PS1. Ordered the chip and had my dad do all the sautering. Still works great!

My Wii is soft-modded and I love it. Plays movies, music, homebrews, everything. It was a bit of a pain in the ass and took a lot of time but in the end it was worth it!

I also have an AceKard for my DS/DSi and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to play homebrew games. It's just a card you pop in like a regular DS game so no modding or anything needs to be done.

 

[xcliber]

For the sake of keeping this thread open, we probably shouldn't talk about the games we downloaded and played illegally. Modifying the consoles and whatnot is still perfectly legal and moral in my opinion.

Also forgot to mention my rooted Droid X running Gingerbread.

 

[Darkhavenz0r]

I gotta side with xcliber. Some dumbass in the last thread registered just to white-knight against piracy (which he proved to not fully understand, repeatedly) even though nobody was talking about it, and I don't want to give whatever moderator is watching at the time a reason to complain.

As far as the rules are concerned, it is against the forum rules to discuss illegal activities. Modifying a console that you legally own is in no way illegal; piracy is illegal. I was also informed via PM that if I wanted to make a new thread about this, it would be allowed on the grounds that we not drift into "How To" territory, if you get what I mean.

Speaking of "mods", I also recently discovered that there is a surprising number of people who use host-side hacks on the Wii version of Modern Warfare 3, and in smaller numbers there are actually aimbotters. It makes me wonder if that implies a modified game backup or some other means of getting a man-in-the-middle between input and game.

 

[Runefox]

As far as I'm aware, homebrew is fine, piracy is not. What you do with your console is nobody's business until you start stealing shit.

That being said, I never did have to mod my Dreamcast. :V I did homebrew my PSP (still running 5.00m33, so no piracy for me; I do carry my games around on a memory stick though, which is a plus since UMD's aren't exactly durable. Or portable. Or fast. Or battery-efficient. Or anything good), though it's been replaced by my Galaxy Nexus for the most part. My Wii gets more use now than it ever did since I homebrewed it (and barring chipping it or doing dangerous soft-mods, you can't pirate with that, either), and it's used as a light media player, retro game console, etc. I've never touched my PS3 nor 360, nor do I intend to. I also did jailbreak/root both my iPhone and my Galaxy S2 when I had it, but I haven't done so with my Nexus; Not planning to, either.

 

[xcliber]

Oh, i almost forgot about the early model Dreamcast I had. That was cool until the laser died.

 

[lupinealchemist]

I have a modded wii; who knew SSBB had such qualities?

 

[Zydala]

I got a pretty cheap acekard a while ago so I could play with the Colors! app that they made. it's not supported anymore for the DS but I still have the last version they made on it and I like using it as a tiny sketchpad. Works kind of like a small open canvas. and if you have a DS Lite there's even pressure sensitivity! it's a pretty great homebrew app :]

 

[Anepo]

Personally I have only got a PSP which is hacked.
They went from having to use a special pandora battery to now just downloading the latest PSP update 6.60 and downloading 3 files on the internet which boot up as easily and simply as a normal video game.
then you press the X 3-4 times during install and no other button and tada you can now play NES emulators & such on your PSP.