Interesting yet shady finds in a video game store...

I went into a gaming store a few towns over from me the other day and encountered a few interesting things. The store itself is a stand alone deal started by one guy, not part of a chain or anything. Here and there I pop in and browse around, not because he has great prices or anything, but because he carries just about anything you can think of, Atari 2600 games, Neo Geo Pocket games, imports, you name it.

So I'm looking around and the guy running the place asks me if I have an Xbox, to which I reply no. He's all like, "Dude, I have to show you something. It's like your very own arcade". He proceeds to show me Darkstalkers on his Xbox. And the the original arcade Killer Instinct. And Metal Slug 3. And Samurai Showdown 2. And Castlevania 4. And Capcom's Alien Vs. Predator. You get where this is going, right?

Turns out that, for the paltry sum of $500, they can send out your Xbox to a gentleman that loads up the HD with just about every emulator known to man. When you boot up the Xbox it goes to a list of the emulators, which the guy running the shop let me scroll through to see what games were available. I forget what emulators were included (I know there was MAME-X), but there were TONS. Basically, there must have been a few thousand games total- just about every American AND Japanese (and in some cases, the European versions were in there too)-released Capcom and Neo Geo game known to man, the arcade versions of Killer Instinct 1 (including the infamous attract screen that advertised it as being "ONLY on the Nintendo Ultra 64!") and 2, SNES (how hardcore is this? In the list was even the original Japanese version of Clock Tower with the English patch), Genesis, Virtual Boy(!) emulators...all perfect. No slowdown, no glitching, nothing, every game shown to me ran without the slightest flaw. Not just that, but the overall program that ran everything allowed full button config for the Xbox controllers (including a button for adding credits), a 'save anywhere' feature, the ability to take and save screenshots, hell, even a soft reset. I have to admit, it was fucking professional. Not very legal sounding, but professional. Still, an arcade-perfect version of Alien Vs. Predator running on a console...

$500, though? Kind of a rip, even considering how well done it is. Funny thing is the fact that this could be done was a complete suprise to me...I knew that the Xbox's HD opened up the avenue to piracy, but I didn't think it could be taken to this extent. The shop's owner told me that all the ROMS are out of production, so it's all cool (yeah, right), but he also said it's not a service that they go out of their way to advertise... ;)

Something that was even more shady, however, were the bootleg "120in1" GBA carts he was selling for over a hundred bucks a pop. They had cheesy Photoshopped covers that pictured a collage of different legit GBA game covers...one had pics from various EA games like Return of the King and Harry Potter. The back of each box had a list of all the games on the cart, in Japanese or Korean or something. Tsk tsk.

Is the guy from Hong Kong?

That is some impressive piracy, but 500 is a bit much, even if you have all those games, you have to realize you won't even play half of them.

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Originally Posted by Seven Force

Is the guy from Hong Kong?

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The guy that runs the store? No.

Or are you talking about the guy he sends the system to? If so, I didn't ask.

My X-box is like that...I didn't pay $500 though...

There used to be a real shading store in my area a few years ago. I saw somebody ask for a copy of Guitar Freaks, and the guy behind the copy brought out a "copy" of Guitar Freaks. Think they were charging $10 or something. I heard may stories about them selling boots over the counter. Thankfully they are out of business now.

At Northgate Mall in Seattle, there was a kiosk the other day selling these controllers with built in games (think the i-Que? by Nintendo). Anyway, these were obvious bootlegs. Supposedly there were 76000 (76000!) games in them. We didn't take time to scroll through the list. Old NES games and such. The screenshots on the back were real photos. And all that for only 70 bucks.

Nevermind the fact that Nintendo US HQ is a few miles away.

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

The back of each box had a list of all the games on the cart, in Japanese or Korian or something. Tsk tsk.

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Freudian slip? :p

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

Funny thing is the fact that this could be done was a complete suprise to me...I knew that the Xbox's HD opened up the avenue to piracy, but I didn't think it could be taken to this extent.

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here let me find your rock so you can go back under it........seriously tho there are some really cool custom dashboards and other apps ive seen being run on the xbox. really makes me wish i still had a job.

www.xbox-scene.com

If you think having those emulators on the Xbox is messed up, I'm browsing TNL and the rest of the web on my Xbox. Afterwards, I'm gonna download some red vs blue videos on it then watch them on my xbox in XBMC(media center for xbox). I've always said a nonmodded Xbox is a worthless Xbox.

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Originally Posted by Melf

Freudian slip? :p

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See? That fucker caused even more damage here than we thought. ;)

Amazing how he got all the emulators to run 'all perfect. No slowdown, no glitching, nothing, every game shown to me ran without the slightest flaw'.
Compared with PC, the Xbox emulation scene seems sloppy to me...

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Originally Posted by Dragonmaster Dyne

here let me find your rock so you can go back under it........seriously tho there are some really cool custom dashboards and other apps ive seen being run on the xbox. really makes me wish i still had a job.

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I don't own an Xbox so I never really paid attention to what you can really do with it. But now that I have, the fact that all this modding is going on makes perfect sense.

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Originally Posted by dakidski

Amazing how he got all the emulators to run 'all perfect. No slowdown, no glitching, nothing, every game shown to me ran without the slightest flaw'.
Compared with PC, the Xbox emulation scene seems sloppy to me...

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I'm telling you, we were playing Killer Instinct for a while and it ran perfectly, Ultra Combos, FMV match-up and win screens and all. Same with Alien Vs. Predator, which I have wanted on a home console for a long as I can remember. Every game he showed me seemed flawlessly emulated, sound and all. Whoever set this thing up knew what the hell he was doing.

$500? Are you getting a new hard drive with that? Because, if not, that's $100 for the mod and work, and $400 for him copying some emulators and games to the Xbox.

Oh it's a rip-off, alright. I didn't take him up on his offer but if I was suddenly interested for some reason, I'd try to talk him down, there's no way in hell I'd pay even close to that.

Just do it yourself. All it would cost you is an Xbox, a new HD, and a lot of time.

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

I'm telling you, we were playing Killer Instinct for a while and it ran perfectly, Ultra Combos, FMV match-up and win screens and all.

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I sure it's not much different than that dedicated KI emu for pc compared to mame. It appears perfect to me, but you talk the hardcore mame guys, and it is running far from perfect.

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Originally Posted by Dr Travisto

My X-box is like that...I didn't pay $500 though...

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same here

I don't really understand the obsession with putting Mame on the XBOX. Sure you can play on TV, but it looks worse. Besides, its much more fun to play around with Mame and Kaillera together on PC and play with friends online. 500 bucks is criminal though. I dunno how hard it is to find roms anymore, but I definitely would make the time instead of shelling out that kind of money. Killer Instinct is far from perfect as well.

I think it is worth 200 tops! It probably didn't even have a dashboard running or anything. The guy I dealt with charged me 5 bucks an emu+games. I pretty much paid mostly for the hard drive.

jeez.. just get an xbox and do it yourself.. every tutorial you could possibly need is at www.xbox-scene.com

wait.. they want $500 and they don't even supply a new xbox?

hah!

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Originally Posted by johnk_

jeez.. just get an xbox and do it yourself.. every tutorial you could possibly need is at www.xbox-scene.com

wait.. they want $500 and they don't even supply a new xbox?

hah!

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Like I said, it's a rip. I wouldn't do it for anything even close to that price.

And that's right, you have to supply your own Xbox...

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

And that's right, you have to supply your own Xbox...

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HAH!

They're probably just trying to scam the uninformed.

In my experience, KI1 runs just fine, but KI2 runs like shit on an Xbox. I was just playing that last night actually.

Yup, I got all that and more for like a grand total of $180. $100 for the chip/switch to be installed and 80 for a hard drive.

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

I went into a gaming store a few towns over from me the other day and encountered a few interesting things. The store itself is a stand alone deal started by one guy, not part of a chain or anything. Here and there I pop in and browse around, not because he has great prices or anything, but because he carries just about anything you can think of, Atari 2600 games, Neo Geo Pocket games, imports, you name it.

So I'm looking around and the guy running the place asks me if I have an Xbox, to which I reply no. He's all like, "Dude, I have to show you something. It's like your very own arcade". He proceeds to show me Darkstalkers on his Xbox. And the the original arcade Killer Instinct. And Metal Slug 3. And Samurai Showdown 2. And Castlevania 4. And Capcom's Alien Vs. Predator. You get where this is going, right?

Turns out that, for the paltry sum of $500, they can send out your Xbox to a gentleman that loads up the HD with just about every emulator known to man. When you boot up the Xbox it goes to a list of the emulators, which the guy running the shop let me scroll through to see what games were available. I forget what emulators were included (I know there was MAME-X), but there were TONS. Basically, there must have been a few thousand games total- just about every American AND Japanese (and in some cases, the European versions were in there too)-released Capcom and Neo Geo game known to man, the arcade versions of Killer Instinct 1 (including the infamous attract screen that advertised it as being "ONLY on the Nintendo Ultra 64!") and 2, SNES (how hardcore is this? In the list was even the original Japanese version of Clock Tower with the English patch), Genesis, Virtual Boy(!) emulators...all perfect. No slowdown, no glitching, nothing, every game shown to me ran without the slightest flaw. Not just that, but the overall program that ran everything allowed full button config for the Xbox controllers (including a button for adding credits), a 'save anywhere' feature, the ability to take and save screenshots, hell, even a soft reset. I have to admit, it was fucking professional. Not very legal sounding, but professional. Still, an arcade-perfect version of Alien Vs. Predator running on a console...

$500, though? Kind of a rip, even considering how well done it is. Funny thing is the fact that this could be done was a complete suprise to me...I knew that the Xbox's HD opened up the avenue to piracy, but I didn't think it could be taken to this extent. The shop's owner told me that all the ROMS are out of production, so it's all cool (yeah, right), but he also said it's not a service that they go out of their way to advertise... ;)

Something that was even more shady, however, were the bootleg "120in1" GBA carts he was selling for over a hundred bucks a pop. They had cheesy Photoshopped covers that pictured a collage of different legit GBA game covers...one had pics from various EA games like Return of the King and Harry Potter. The back of each box had a list of all the games on the cart, in Japanese or Korean or something. Tsk tsk.

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ok, here's the deal. for that to be done the person that does the mod has to put in a bigger HDD(all those roms/emu wont fit on the stock XBOX HDD), so not only does he have to format the HDD to be compatible with the xbox, he has to instal the system browser(probably evox),the mod chip to activate it, and then all the roms(which has to be done via a ftp transfer). this takes quite a long time(especially the ftp transfer part), and is quite common a price for the professionaly done mod install(he's basically charging you labor, and for the chip+install, and for the HDD+install).

Actually your paying him for male prostitution, as hes fucking you up the ass.....

once again, jmet proves that completely useless posts totally "enhance" threads like this.

i understand as im sure everyone else here does as well the basis behind the price, but its still a helluva lot added with the price of buying an xbox on top of that. thats why people should not be lazy and do it themselves. thats what i did.

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Originally Posted by MrWhitefolks

ok, here's the deal. for that to be done the person that does the mod has to put in a bigger HDD(all those roms/emu wont fit on the stock XBOX HDD), so not only does he have to format the HDD to be compatible with the xbox, he has to instal the system browser(probably evox),the mod chip to activate it, and then all the roms(which has to be done via a ftp transfer). this takes quite a long time(especially the ftp transfer part), and is quite common a price for the professionaly done mod install(he's basically charging you labor, and for the chip+install, and for the HDD+install).

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Shit...didn't realize so much work went into it. Most of the replies to this thread made it seem like it was a joke. As for the time involved, the guy at the store said it would take a week.

really the only thing that takes the time is the ftp part. the mod itself isnt time consuming assuming youve done it before. but couldnt you just put the roms on a disc and take them that way to the hdd instead of ftp?

Anyone ever run into one of those bootleg 120 in 1 GBA carts I mentioned in the original post?

its probaly just one of those flashroms you can find at all the hong-kong stores that he loads with games.

My friend has a 92 games in 1 cart that he found in his attic. (it's for the original GameBoy)

The games were very, very shitty. My personal favorite was Super Mario Bros 6, where you could throw mushrooms to damage enemies and pressed up to jump.

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Originally Posted by MrWhitefolks

ok, here's the deal. for that to be done the person that does the mod has to put in a bigger HDD(all those roms/emu wont fit on the stock XBOX HDD), so not only does he have to format the HDD to be compatible with the xbox, he has to instal the system browser(probably evox),the mod chip to activate it, and then all the roms(which has to be done via a ftp transfer). this takes quite a long time(especially the ftp transfer part), and is quite common a price for the professionaly done mod install(he's basically charging you labor, and for the chip+install, and for the HDD+install).

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If you pay more than 200 dollars you are getting fucked over unless it includes an actual system.

yep, took this guy a week to do ours(tho if you paid him upfront he'd stay up all night and get it to you at most in 2 days). the newer chips allow you to turn them off via a switch that can either be put INTO your controller or on the front of the xbox itself, which lets you play on xbox live with your modded system.

secondly, there are even ways to put reset buttons on your controllers, it all depends on who you go thru. on mine i can rip dvds to the hdd, watch any media file that isnt qt(i usually just reformat those to avi), watch dvds w/out the remote, play thousands of roms(ive got over 3k just in mame), and with the added point that i have joystick converters for the system, playing arcade games is pure joy(who gives a shit if it loses resolution? i'm playing games w/my friends LIVE in the same room. fuck kaillera and it's ass-ping).

this, and it helps me get work done for videos since i dont have to try and record an avi of an emu in progress(which dramatically kills the framerate). :)

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Originally Posted by animegirl20

If you pay more than 200 dollars you are getting fucked over unless it includes an actual system.

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if the system is included this is a respectable price. if not, dont go over 200-250(depending on HDD size).


Dolomite:
at the local mall up here there is a gypsy selling a "classic gaming setup" that comes with a controller, light gun, and one cart full of "thousands of games". i saw that shit and ran off his customers after they noticed me yellin at him about the fact that there was 89 different "versions" of contra(and almost every other version of the first 30 games) for nes.

moral of the story?
Don't trust a gypsy. Ever.

It doesn't take THAT long. I can transfer 200 megs in like a minute using Smart FTP and my evox. Of course if you don't feel confident enough in burning a cd-rw of evox, and running an FTP between your computer and your hard drive then you deserve to pay $500. The only thing I'd pay for is the installation of the chip and switch. Of course I also already had all of my "Classic" games, so if you didn't have them I guess it'd be easier for you to have them install it. The hard drive installation was as simple as opening the case, unplugging the old HDD, and plugging in the new HDD, running evox for a new HDD and then bam.

Also, Tojo, check PM's.

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Originally Posted by MrWhitefolks

secondly, there are even ways to put reset buttons on your controllers

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Reset back to the menu for this mod was done by holding the triggers and start at the same time.

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watch dvds w/out the remote

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His mod did that too.

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if the system is included this is a respectable price. if not, dont go over 200-250(depending on HDD size).

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So, $500 without the Xbox is a total assfucking, then.

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89 different "versions" of contra

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LOL That bastard.

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Originally Posted by MrWhitefolks

Dolomite:
at the local mall up here there is a gypsy selling a "classic gaming setup" that comes with a controller, light gun, and one cart full of "thousands of games". i saw that shit and ran off his customers after they noticed me yellin at him about the fact that there was 89 different "versions" of contra(and almost every other version of the first 30 games) for nes.

moral of the story?
Don't trust a gypsy. Ever.

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I've seen these at every mall I've been to since Christmas... Never a Gypsy though. I played it for a little bit with my girlfriend, and we had fun because we love those games, but it was definitely a rip off for $50. Oh yeah, and they had "Tekken" on there, which was some shitty stick fighter fighting game I didn't recognize, and they had "WWE" which was actually M.U.S.C.L.E.

So it's not $500 for the Xbox and the work, it's $500 for the work on the Xbox that you already own?

Yeah, definitely a rip-off. But cool concpet.

My friend had this done to his xbox but he didn't pay 500 bucks. He went out and bought another xbox for 150 bucks, a 80 gig hard drive for 80 bucks and paid one of my friends in Chicago to mod it for 100 bucks. Then we loaded it up with tons of shit Best thing i've every seen

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Originally Posted by TobalRox

I've seen these at every mall I've been to since Christmas... Never a Gypsy though. I played it for a little bit with my girlfriend, and we had fun because we love those games, but it was definitely a rip off for $50. Oh yeah, and they had "Tekken" on there, which was some shitty stick fighter fighting game I didn't recognize, and they had "WWE" which was actually M.U.S.C.L.E.

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They have this at the flea market I go to, also.

King of Fighters is actually some karate game I can't remember, and Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Fatal Fury are all the SAME DAMN GAME.