You may have an Xbox, but you probably don't know what all it can do. Locked away inside is the power of a PC. We'll show you how to let it out.
Tip 1: Create custom soundtracks
Tip 2: Xbox modifications
Tip 3: Exercise your parental controls
Tip 1: Create custom soundtracks
It's amazing how great music can enhance any game, particularly action games. As the movie industry has known for about a century, music can make a bad video experience seem a lot better. Xbox is the only video game device that lets you add your own custom soundtracks to your favourite games. Here's how:
- Insert an audio CD into the Xbox optical drive.
- Access the Music menu from the Xbox dashboard display.
- Select Music > Audio CD > Copy, then choose the Copy menu.
- Select the tracks you want, using Play or Pause commands to audition songs.
- Choose Copy, and Xbox will store the songs on the hard disk. Then insert your game disc and load the songs using the game's setup menu.
Not all Xbox games support the custom soundtrack features, but many of the most popular ones do.
This secret is potentially dangerous and is provided for informational purposes only. In other words, don't do this at home. Some eager gaming hackers out there wanted to get more out of the Xbox, so they developed mod chips. Here are a few of the things they promise to let one do on one's Xbox:
- Play copied and imported games that an unmodified Xbox won't allow.
- Upload games into the system and save them locally on your hard drive.
- Replace your Xbox hard drive with a bigger one.
- Turn your Xbox into a PC and even write your own programs for it.
- Turn your Xbox into a versatile media player, with support for DVDs, VCDs, MP3s, and more.
- Emulate other game consoles, such as Game Boy Advance, Game Boy, NES, SNES, Atari, Genesis, and so on.
Mod chips cost up to AU$120. Installing one of these chips would void your warranty while the legality of fitting a chip under Australian law is murky.
Tip 3: Exercise your parental controls
Violence, sexuality, and all-around bad behaviour abound in many Xbox games. That can be fun for adults but scary for children. Here's how to activate built-in parental control features.
- Turn on the Xbox console without a disc in the disc tray.
- From the dashboard display, choose Settings > Parental Controls.
- Select Pass Code and press buttons on the controller in any sequence. Remember what buttons you pressed and the order in which you pressed them.
- Select Games and choose the maximum rating level you want to allow.
Xbox will also allow you to set maximum rating levels for DVD movies.
Submitted by:Steve Kovsky
Obsessive gadget freak Steve Kovsky has almost no impulse control when it comes to electronics. Steve now lives at an undisclosed address so laden with tech toys, it puts the Bat Cave to shame. He's a 20-year veteran tech reporter, a contributing editor for ZDNet AnchorDesk, and a regular technology commentator on KFWB radio in Los Angeles and Fox TV in San Diego. He has also written High-Tech Toys for Your TV and Absolute Beginner's Guide to Windows XP Media Center.
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Peter Tilbrook
02/10/2004 02:11 PM
Indeed "mod-chipping" is now illegal under Australian law. Only a game pirate would want to do this at any rate.
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anon
03/10/2004 09:20 AM
So modchips do not have to be about piracy, I modded my Xbox because I wanted to play with Linux, and not destroy my main PC. For the $200 I paid for the xbox I get a great machine to learn with. I know others who have done the same. People shouldnt swallow the Microsoft media crap so easily. All the games I play, I own legally.
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gazz
10/10/2004 08:38 AM
Only a lame sega master system player would only think of xbox mods as being used for piracy, like most xbox owners you want to get the most out of your system. I originally bought my xbox with the idea of using it as part of my entertainment system, but it just lacked the features I wanted/needed, after using the mod chips I was able to use other programs for home movies and storeage Don't put us all in the same basket cheers
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Mike Williamson
04/02/2005 03:51 PM
The statement that modding your xbox is illegal is retarded. It would be like prosecuting someone for putting a better stereo in their car. This would never stand up in court. Simply put, it's your xbox, you can modify it however you want. Playing pirated games is a completely seperate issue.
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kazmibo
13/04/2005 04:50 PM
on my xbox it dosen't have parental control in the settings.why?
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Rebecca
03/06/2005 09:33 AM
Hi my xbox does not have parental control.... Is this commen? and can it be changed?
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sharkfan12
23/07/2005 09:08 PM
Indeed, we pay for the all the hardware that makes up the XBOX. if we are not getting the full potential of the system, we have every right to place a mod chip in, to unlock ALL the power that of the sysytem WE paid for!
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real_hacker
25/01/2006 03:26 PM
this steve guy who wrote this stuff seems like a total noob at the xbox... if thats all he can figure out then he should go cry at his little radio shack. geez... 120 bucks? any1 could get one for $40 if they tried to lok for one! he could of mensioned the audio cd exe's that xbox could use... if he turned on the internet he could find 100 other things to hack xbox...
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symtec23
18/04/2006 03:13 PM
Ive had my xbox hacked for over 2 years now and it was done not for illegal games but for music storage.I had no pc,and the xbox offered an excellent method to back up music I'd already paid for.If the original harddrive wasn't so dam small,I wouldn't had needed a bigger harddrive. PS I run avalaunch with no mod chip.You dont need a mod chip to access its potential for legal,and illegal purposes
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miles manas
08/08/2006 05:45 AM
where can you get the mod chip
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mmm
11/11/2006 06:21 PM
Despite how right all of you are, about it being stupid to make it illegal, MS simply doesn't give a $*!#. So if they presure laws down to make it illegal to work on something you legally own, then it's gonna happen.
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uh
17/11/2006 03:38 AM
if i bought an xbox it is mine. it is no longer microsoft's. i can do with it what i want. control content, etc. it is copying games which might be illegal. unless i own the game and do not give or sell or trade a copy to anyone else.
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chris
11/01/2007 10:12 AM
i mod my xbox with the high top modchip it is like a bomb it works twice as fast and dose wonders online and the hacking onfg off the wall.
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pedgsh
07/02/2007 01:14 PM
hey i wana mod my xbox!!!!!!!!!!!! how do i go bout this??? please help
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sean
01/03/2007 04:11 PM
I have moded my xbox any i like it even better i got a xbox 360 and with in 2 months it crashed i got a new one and that one crashed as well why can ms sell **** systems and get away with it i have read about lots of other people with the same problem i think i will stick to my xbox 1 its the best thing ( gaming ) system to come out of ms fXXk MS
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sean
01/03/2007 04:15 PM
for a xbox pal to work with ntsc you have to get a program like enigma switch it will let you play game or dvd in colour instead of black and white
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Lolowe12
18/03/2007 06:55 PM
i have moded before but it wasnt my mods it was a person i knew on xbox live hiw did that happen it was very fun
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Rain
07/04/2007 09:40 PM
There are two ways to mod an xbox softmod and hardmod-(use of a mod chip) I have a soft modded xbox with an upgraded hdd to 500GB its nice I've backed up all the games I own on the drive itself. That way when I go off to a freinds house all i need is my xbox and a few controllers no need for like a hundred cases when you can just scroll through a list
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hard_core_gamer
01/05/2007 01:13 AM
You know people when you all say that illeagalizing mod chips and hacking your own bought and paid for XBoxs is "Retarded" as you say well yah it maybe but for those of you out there that do use your XBox for pirating games then you are the reason that they are outlawing it so dont say that it is stupid for them to outlaw it because it is your fault maybe not yours as one person but yours as a whole but for those of you that use the mod chip for more music or to unlock the full potential of your gaming system then that is fine but just remember if you wanna blame a person for them outlawing it then blame that friend or family member that says hey man can i borrow that game i can rip it to my xbox thats who you should be blaming no microsoft or the leagle system because it is one big chain your friend rips a game then microsoft is out the money that could have been made from that friend that ripped your game to his XBox and the leagle system does what microsoft wants them to because it is realy theft so you are a thief or if your freind does it with your game then your are an accomplis so you are breaking the law so maybe you all should take your head of your XBox long enough to notice what is really going on and as far as the man that wrote out the stuff on the top of this page he is one of those that are doing it for leagle reasons and as far as the guy that said that he sounds like a noob you must be the noob because if you were pirating games would you be putting it on a international page where just anyone could see so you are the "NOOB" thank you and enjoy your friend Hard_core_Gamer
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hard_core_gamer
01/05/2007 01:18 AM
You know people when you all say that illeagalizing mod chips and hacking your own bought and paid for XBoxs is "Retarded" as you say well yah it maybe but for those of you out there that do use your XBox for pirating games then you are the reason that they are outlawing it so dont say that it is stupid for them to outlaw it because it is your fault maybe not yours as one person but yours as a whole but for those of you that use the mod chip for more music or to unlock the full potential of your gaming system then that is fine but just remember if you wanna blame a person for them outlawing it then blame that friend or family member that says hey man can i borrow that game i can rip it to my xbox thats who you should be blaming no microsoft or the leagle system because it is one big chain your friend rips a game then microsoft is out the money that could have been made from that friend that ripped your game to his XBox and the leagle system does what microsoft wants them to because it is realy theft so you are a thief or if your freind does it with your game then your are an accomplis so you are breaking the law so maybe you all should take your head of your XBox long enough to notice what is really going on and as far as the man that wrote out the stuff on the top of this page he is one of those that are doing it for leagle reasons and as far as the guy that said that he sounds like a noob you must be the noob because if you were pirating games would you be putting it on a international page where just anyone could see so you are the "NOOB" thank you and enjoy your friend Hard_core_Gamer
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faceplant
18/07/2007 11:08 AM
I originally purchased my XBOX because it is a PC inside, and i was going to mod it. but i never wanted void warranty. my machine is still running well although some friends have all had theirs die. now the XBOX 360 is out, MS don't seem to care about xbox users anyway, games are getting harder to find. xbox live was just chewing my money as i never used it. i think it's old enought to do what i want with it now with out legal issues. but i can always buy a second hand one real cheap. with luck that might have been modded for me.
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Superbrain in a 12-year old body
23/07/2007 05:02 AM
You know, Technically, all software really is is a series of 1s and 0s, which in turn, is a number, and guess what? It is illegal to copyright numbers( at least in the us), meaning that the game producers are breaking the law, not the game pirates. We humans live in a backwards world, don't we?
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Dragon Paris
07/08/2007 07:55 AM
i think it's pathetic! all this illegal stuff about xboxs, when i get mine chipped, i'm gonna copy games friggen 20 a day
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xbox 360 modd king
25/08/2007 12:50 PM
well my xbox 360 is modded to a windows vista with 1 terra bite of hdd memory and all yous do is say hey i think its retarded to modd a xbox well fuk u if i get banned off live ill just hack it again like i did last time
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xobx rocks
28/09/2007 05:08 PM
I have an xbox with 500g HD and its awsome iv got like a million games and guess what they never get wrecked anyways live is **** peace out
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bobs ur aunty
30/09/2007 08:45 PM
In regards to hard_core_gamer comment on 01/05/2007 01:18 AM Thats all well and good, and i understand what your saying, however, it is similar to the outlawing of guns in australia, all that illegalizing it did was mean that the good people that wouldnt use them for bad things couldnt have them, and the criminals did, because they have no respect for the law anyway. Mr law abider got screwed over. we all gave up our guns/modded systems and only the people that were screwing it up for us anyway had them.
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DylTharoker
02/10/2007 08:35 PM
is there a way of making my external hardrive save games. lol i bought my xbox yesterday and i got external hardrive didnt realize that i couldnt save games on it???
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Guest2007
17/12/2007 12:47 AM
Guns!?! How can you possibly compare owning a gun to modding an xbox? I reckon too many 1st person shoot em' ups for you. Thank god Australia's gun laws keep guns innaccessible and protect us from freaks like you mowing us down in shopping centres.
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Guest Dood
27/12/2007 11:11 PM
Yeah.. I had this modded x-box right? and liek.. I just killed everybody in my school with it. So don't do it, it's real dangerous.
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shaft
30/12/2007 06:23 PM
F@&K bill gates, F%@K steve allen, and F@%K microsoft as a corporation. 'nuff said
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xboxxboxxbox
29/01/2008 12:17 AM
why is it so hard to use punctuation?
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Iwant T O MODDDDDDDDDD
29/01/2008 01:35 PM
Umm... im tired of getting my **** kicked on Xbox live and I.. dont want to spend my money on something to use on the Xbox any advice pls message back-
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Skull0Inc
19/04/2008 01:10 PM
*POWER* TO THE PEOPLE!
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jus e fin google it!!!1!
06/07/2008 01:28 PM
modchips=lame/crap i just soft modded my xbox without even opening it up for free. It could do anything an xbox modded with a chip can do and its almost impossible to destroy the xbox this way! JFGI!!!!
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lucky04
01/10/2008 02:17 AM
ok i think here is something most people can relate to......WHO CARES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! u all cry about the stupidest crap, guess what? NOBODY CARES, look....hackers....keep hacking, i would think ur doing this because its something u like to do, who gives a damn if its illegal or not? do u honestly think the FBI will come crashing thro ur window when u put illegal content? no, so why r u posting these comments, do u think because u put a comment on here sayin that the government needs to legalize modchips and what-not. NO!!!! so hack because u love to hack and u love to learn new things. now for u other people who r complaining about the hackers doin illegal things.....WHO CARES?!!! does this affect u in any way? NO, so get off ur cloud, stop thinkin ur so much better than all us hackers and go do something better with ur life. ur not gonna win the nobel peace prize because u posted a comment saying that u think its wrong to hack. NOBODY'S PERFECT!!!!! so back off and stop complaining about ridiculous things, there's more important things in the world that r going on, maybe instead of bit#$ing about hackin being illegal, turn on the news, u see all sorts of illegal things. instead of crying about it, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!!!!! if not, then shut up and sit down, go learn something new.
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