Archive for the ‘XBOX 360’ Category

We received pictures from an “X-Scene friend” of the 4GB internal memory in the new Xbox 360 ‘S’ 4GB model. Unlike the old ‘Arcade’ units the memory is no longer located directly on the motherboard, but instead Microsoft uses a small addon-on PCB with a 4GB flash memory unit [3.2GB usable]. This probably makes production easier as all motherboards are now exactly the same … for the 4GB model they add the internal memory pcb-addon, for the 250GB unit they add the internal HDD.
I also added a picture of the Xbox360 ‘S’ 250GB and Xbox360 ‘S’ 4GB next to each other so you can see the glossy vs matte finish of both units. This hasn’t been covered much, but the 4GB model has a matte finish (vs glossy) and black borders (vs silver for the 250GB model). Which look do you prefer?
As always, hit the pictures of high-res

Here’s a video posted on Youtube by SiddGoneWild that shows the old HDDs from the Original Xbox 360 will work just fine on the new Xbox 360 S. You’ll have to strip the HDD from the original HDD-case and slid it into the 360 S HDD-port. Not ideal, as the Xbox 360 S proprietary port is much larger than the 2.5″ SATA HDD, but it will fit in (SATA data/power ports match the standard) without needing any 3rd party hardware addons or so. I’d just suggest to add some rubber tabs on the sides or so to prevent the HDD from moving too much.
I assume laptop/PC HDDs modded with HDDHackr(info) will work just fine in the Xbox 360 S as well (and save you a small fortune). If anyone tried this already, let us know in the forum thread below

From venturebeat.com:
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The company’s engineers created a chip that combined the machine’s microprocessor and its graphics chip on a single piece of silicon. In the past, different versions of the console have all used two separate chips for those tasks.
The code name for the project was Vejle, named after a city in Denmark. (It’s not Valhalla, as some thought).

The new chip takes the exact same 3.2-gigahertz, three-core microprocessor and 500-megahertz graphics chip design and puts them on the same chip. In order to create this, Microsoft and IBM engineers had to work together to build the necessary connectivity within the chip to route electrical signals in and out of the chip. You can’t just glue the two designs together. Rather, IBM had to get rid of its main communications channel between the chips, dubbed the front-side bus, and build a substitute for it.

The main chip is packaged with a separate 10-megabyte embedded memory chip. So the two chips are packaged in a single module. The combined chip uses 60 percent less power than the original 2005 pair of chips, and it uses 50 percent less space. Robert Drehmel, senior technical engineer at IBM, said that one of the big challenges was to marry two chips that were built by different companies, designed by different engineering teams, and created with different chip design tools. IBM had to learn more about the unfamiliar ATI design, design specific tools to adapt it, and then recreate an overall design that did the same thing as the prior designs.
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Full Story: venturebeat.com

From gamesindustry.biz:
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Microsoft UK boss Neil Thompson has confirmed the 4Gb Xbox 360 will be the “primary SKU” for Kinect at launch, with no plans in place to sell the motion-control device together with a 250Gb system at a discount.
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Full Story: gamesindustry.biz

Team Xecuter have been working closely with Team Jungle & C4E for several weeks now on the new Xbox 360 250GB Model (some call it 360 S or 360 Slim). We are pleased to officially announce that the team has successfully patched the DVD Rom to be able to play backups.

This is the first successful step and there is much work still to be done for the general public’s consumption.

Never Say Never 

Update: Just to answer a few comments:

Comment: It’s fake
Answer: We are Xecuter, C4E and Team Jungle. Duh.

Comment: …Get rich quick scheme
Answer: You mean like all the other free firmwares released ? Xecuter finance everything in the group so you don’t have to.

Comment: Does anyone knows a cheap decapping service in europe?
Answer: If only they still used the MT1319L, eh? 

We love it when something like this gets released, all the idiots come out of the woodwork craving for a bit of the spotlight. The console scene never changes does it…….

Discuss the news on our forums: http://team-xecuter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55965

Xbox 360 firmware hacker C4eva has posted up something very interesting on IRC recently. Here is what he said in full:

<c4eva> 9504TEST – Hello world Slim! [ Commence utter chaos in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... GO ]

Obviously this is in relation to the Xbox 360 ‘Slim’, not ‘PS3′, although the extent of his latest hack will be interesting to see. Just a firmware hack or something a little more

Sounds interesting whatever it is

It seems like a no-brainer, but at this point Microsoft has yet to confirm a separate 250GB HDD for its new Xbox 360 consoles — and really, if you’re picking up the 4GB model next month, that might come in handy.

Read the rest of this entry »

From gamerzines.com:
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The 250GB hard drive supplied with the new 250GB Xbox 360 S will be available to buy separately, GamerZines can reveal.

The reveal came via a box shot released by Microsoft this afternoon of the upcoming 4GB Xbox 360, which states in the accessories section that the new style hard drive is ‘sold separately’.
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Full Story: gamerzines.com

From the MS press release:
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The biggest game of 2010, “Halo: Reach,” is getting the ultimate hardware treatment. The Xbox 360 Limited Edition “Halo: Reach” Bundle launches day and date with the game on September 14 and provides both an incredible value and a stunning way to celebrate the iconic franchise. The commemorative bundle will be available with matching custom “Halo: Reach” Limited Edition Wireless Controllers. Additionally, Microsoft and Bungie revealed an onslaught of other “Halo: Reach” news today at Comic-Con International, including a first look at Forge World, Versus Firefight mode and more.

* “Halo: Reach” Limited Edition Wireless Controller and Wireless Headset Available Worldwide in Late August
In addition to the exclusive new console bundle, Microsoft and Bungie unveiled the “Halo: Reach” Limited Edition Wireless Controller and the “Halo: Reach” Limited Edition Wireless Headset, both of which feature a distinctive silver color and exclusive “Halo” artwork by Bungie. Available in late August for $59.99 (U.S.), the “Halo: Reach” Limited Edition Wireless Controller includes an Xbox LIVE token for an animated Covenant Banshee Avatar item. The “Halo: Reach” Limited Edition Wireless Headset will also be available in late August for an estimated retail price of $49.99 (U.S.). Both accessories are being produced in limited quantities and are available for pre-order today.
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Full PR: gamerscoreblog.com

From pcworld.com:
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* GO: At what point did you turn on the old model and decide it was time to rethink the design?
* AP: It’s a tough question to answer. There was always the concept from the beginning that if you’re going to be in market for 10 plus years, at some point you’re going to want to refresh the design. That’s just part of the game industry cadence, to do redesigns during the life cycle as components gets smaller and power consumption goes down. So I think from the very beginning there was an idea, and I’ll call it a very vague idea, that we were going to do something.
I think this particular project…I throw out two years, give or take, just because when you’re doing a redesign like this, it’s not something you decide months in advance. We wanted to get the quality there and make sure we got it right, so we were probably planning this for about two years, give or take.

* GO: The aesthetic parities with the original Xbox are striking. The X-shape, the beveled vent on the side–it almost looks like a lither, sleeker original-style Xbox.
* AP: That’s exactly what we were trying to do. Really the design goals were to retain the iconic Xbox shape. We talked a lot about that inhale, the center power button ring of light as the dominant image on the front of the console, the inhale shape. We wanted this to look like an Xbox 360. We wanted to unmistakably maintain that iconic shape.
But we were, as I always kind of remind people, at this point in the lifecycle of the original Xbox, launching the Xbox 360. So you sort of take cues from what more modern designs are. Where is automotive design heading, what’s going on with television and entertainment centers. We wanted a sleeker, more modern and refined looking console that was still iconically an Xbox.
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Full Story: pcworld.com (2 pages)