"$160 is a lot for a closed source mod chip." Between the history behind this project, the creator, unprofessional business practices, broken promises and more... I'll wait.
I installed my Stellar last week, it's working great already but I'm very much looking forward to fully unlocking the power of my much loved OG XBox as things develop!
It seems like for those of us who bought a mod chip 20 years ago and got it working long ago, it's not quite as exciting. And the OLED display is quite silly. But I do appreciate the level of fit and finish that I see, especially with that HDMI mod.
@@igordasunddas3377 mine is in storage, but I think I modded mine with an really old chip running unibios w xbmc. I think the chip would is a cool stand alone solution for a fresh mod og xbox. This would be an upgrade considering the old chip I had in there🤷🏾♂️
One function I'd love to see is ram with backup to a microSD to replace the swap/cache partitions to allow for the use of an SSD without the potential for wear out.
@@RandomNJ I said ram backed by a microSD card for a reason. Add enough caps to dump the contents of the ram to the microSD when it's powering down. Then the microSD will only have one write on power loss. Same principle as an acard ans 9010
@@RandomNJ enlighten me then. I've monitored disk activity on a running system using a TSR tool. Have you seen any games that didn't constantly write to and read from the disk to make up for the low amount of ram? Did you know that quite a few games does this in partitions that are supposed to be used for persistent data?
@Random NJ I don't think the micro SD will die quickly. They make Security ones for dashcams and such that are written to constantly and exposed to much higher temps than are in an Xbox. I wouldn't use an off the shelf one, but a security one would likely work fine. And if the micro SD is just swap space it doesn't really need to be that large either.
Please make the video. I was a big part of the xbox modding community back in the day. Currently the lack of concise information is slowly leaving the xbox modding to advanced users. Making these videos plays a major role in preserving the Xbox modding scene
Imo it seems like they are overselling the product. This isnt an OS, its just a settings app, and there were a lot of bold/exagerrated claims/promises being made that i found weird, like how he 'reverse engineered the entire xbox os'.
Even if theres more to the OS, the vast majority of the code is still unmodified microsoft code, so i kinda hate when people market these custom distributions as unique OSes, because they are still the exact same OS, just with different apps. This is really common with android ROMs and modded OSes, but you never see it with linux distributions which is how it should be.
They have also made their HDMI adapter proprietary to Stellar in a move likely to force people to choose their chip. You can no longer buy the stand alone non Stellar version.
Not only that, its essentially a raspberry pi running its own operating system, connecting to the Xbox like every other modchip. Its nothing special. Take a look at how many wires there are going to the ram chips, and all the other components involved on the Xbox motherboard. How practical do you really think the extra handful of Mbs of ram this thing provides really is when its coming through something as limited as the debug port.
Luckily for us, this thing has already been exploited and you can bypass it to use the HDMI. That’s what they get for trying to corner the market with lies.
As someone who came into the scene at the same time the Xbox was getting modchips and softmods, I tend to take my software knowledge of it for granted. Hearing you say that the software side was a bit cumbersome and sometimes confusing but not the actual hardware modding made me chuckle because Im the exact opposite. I have no problem with bios,dashboards, hard drive upgrades, etc but the thought of soldering is just something I dont have any skills in. Tried to do a Wii modchip back in the day and ended up paying a friend. Love all the videos! Anything original Xbox on this channel is an instant watch. Also, for those who see this and get this chip. Give insignia a try! Its a fantastic service that will only get better with more members! Amazing to see the setup utility included.
@@mrmagoo.3678there are services that will take your console and mod it for you! It is expensive but if you love these games and maybe dont have the skill to mod them its a good option.
The soldering skill needed to mod the OG xbox is still the major wall to entry. What they really need to mass produce is those easy solder ribbons of theirs. The HDMI mod soldering is especially daunting not that the d0 point is easy either. (personally I lifted the pad when I did it an had to solder a bodge wire, which make that easy kit impossible)
Nice video 👍 I got my Stellar and installed it into my main Xbox, a debug kit shell with a 1.4ghz CPU board. For me, the CPU being supported it really nice. It negates having to patch each game individually. It's an impressive piece of hardware, and I'm excited to see what new features are added over time. One thing that really makes this modchip stand apart from others is that it recompiles the Xbox bios at boot, and has a dual-core ARM processor on board. This means it can patch routines in the Xbox's bios without needing to re-flash, and it has extra memory and processing power, which opens up new possibilities. My main gripe is just that some features aren't there yet (that were put on the features page as if they were present) but I trust they'll be added over time. Definitely a project to keep an eye on.
Mine is already modded from way back in the day (been so long since I fired it up I can't even remember what I put in aside from the fact that it was a "solderless" kit). I'd love to change it out for a new, better mod chip along with HDMI output, upgrading the cooling and putting an SSD in.
I remember how much of a pain in the butt formatting a bigger HDD was, i think it involved disconnecting the DVD drive and running both HDDs to clone. Soft modding was fairly simple but required specific things
@@JoshLineberry Eatonworks put so much into fatxplorer, definitely the fastest route for setting up drives and moving large amounts of data to the xbox.
It took a while didn't it? Splinter Cell and all that. I'm stuck in the stone age with my mods. I'm still doing disc swaps etc lol. Just can't get the new soft mods to work (Xbox, Saturn). Going back a decade later trying to re-softmod the Xbox gave me no joy as there must have been some confusion with the old firmware and tying to install over it.. This looks pretty interesting to me then, as a savage with no soldering skills (and happy on my crts), I'm going to see what my specs are and give this a go.. Hopefully 😆
I was shocked this wasn't $200 or more, considering the list of features, the design, and the polished GUI. what a wonderful addition to the modding scene. always really happy to hear about new tech for retro consoles, especially if they make it easier to do.
Nice to see some new blood in the old xbox, but I have the Xecuter front LED panel and would really want to retain that. Otherwise looks awesome, particularly with the HDMI upgrade!
Seems like a massive oversight to not include built in wireless networking. Giving the xbox WiFi and Bluetooth seems like a no-brainier. It's quite overpriced too, and it will be even more expensive if there are separate modules for wireless.
I got mine, i can’t wait to install it. But would really like to see a front panel display. I had to remove my display due to it not being compatible with the Stellar, so at the moment i just have a cutout in my front panel. Another thing i would like to see is the ability to reflash the original bios chip using the modchip. Very few modchips were capable of this, and the ones that were have long been discontinued making them really difficult to find.
There goes another $105! 😂 I did the same setup after watching your 20th anniversary build, and I’m looking forward to project stellar delivery! I also ended up installing a mod for using an Xbox 360 controller on the original Xbox using a 360 USB dongle for PC, but I’m looking forward to newer Xbox controller support as well!
You have no idea how glad I am that I waited on modding my Xbox and went for my GameCube after recent updates to its scene. This is not only amazing but timed amazingly too! Love it and your content.
Definitely would like to see an HDD setup! It's probably the most daunting part of the mod process at this point, so a clear tutorial would be amazing to have!
I hope that one day a mod chip that requires no soldering or modification to the board becomes a reality. Like something you can just plug in to an existing port or something. Id love to mod my og 1.0 xbox but i dont trust my soldering ability
Same here.. everything system I have modded has always been soft modded bc I hate taking a chance on ruining a board. I did a Xbox 360 controller mod one time but it was just 3 wires and I still made it look straight fugly on my controller board.. It worked but you could tell my soldering skills were straight garbage hahaha.
If you can find one these days, they used to make solderless adapters. Just screw it on, slide the pin into d0, and plug your chip into it. I still have mine with a Xenium Ice on it.
My Xbox has an original Zenium Ice chip in it. Bought it in 2002-2003 and used the solder free installation adapter. Super easy to hook up. Still works perfectly too.
well, the original xbox is that technology piece that is designed to avoid obsolescence, a 1.4ghz 128mb xbox can play youtube and all games on 720p, and a lot of stuff can be ported to work on original xbox... and nowadays still not exists a proper mini OS with more PC features for the OG xbox, its a 22 years old hardware that can do more things than a raspberry, and we atually dont have a proper HalfLife1 port that allow us to install MODS.... imagine that! the original xbox running HL1 mods with xlink kay. This newer chip makes that easier. A plug and play chip with all ready to mod the xbox is now a thing, anyway, xbox deserve a real OS mixing all the features of all dashboards, with youtube, download center, etc, not 4 different ones.
Wow! That is one hell of a clean mod. I have modded a 1.6 myself and there were lots of wires(used an aladdin). Glad to see the OG Xbox getting some love in '23.
I briefly got into soft modding Xboxes years ago, did a few for friends as gifts, etc. My experience was the same. I always had to cobble info together and use different sources because I'd inevitably find that the guide I was using had incorrect/outdated info. I had begun cobbling everything I had found together to hopefully make a definitive soft mod guide, but I lost steam and never got around to actually making the guide.
it would be really helpful if you did this but using a stock Xbox it’s assuming a lot that we’re already coming with a modded Xbox. Thanks as always for the great content.
Mod chips have had those "future" options greyed out for a decade or more, and no one made them work yet. Other than the easier setup and nice menus, this mod chip is little more than an iterative change to decades of mods for the console. Would love to see someone make all that other stuff work, but the probability that this will be "the one" is quite low.
Wow -- what an EXCELLENT vid!!! The photography is OUTSTANDING! As a YTer myself, I know EXACTLY how much work it would be for you to capture all that excellent video! Great sound, too! Nice to see someone who KNOWS HOW TO USE A MICROPHONE! So many YTers have their friggin' mic in front of their face and I HATE that, so good for you!
That moment where I look at a stack of XBox components in storage and think: Modding these is suddenly exciting again. I heard you on the Xecuter LCD mod. I did this to my main Xbox way back and never regretted it. The information is quite helpful.
I have a ton of love for modding the OG Xbox. I have 7 of them in various states of mods. Always remove that catastrophic clock capacitor unless you have a version 1.6. It will leak if it already hasn't and most likely kill the motherboard.
When you do the comparisons, the 720 and 480 should be swapped. People are accustomed to having before and after shots be left and right respectively. Its just weird seeing the after shot being on the left side of the screen.
I still have the original X-Ecuter chip running in my OG Xbox, man I was probably 17 at the time and had the crappiest soldering iron and didn't even use any flux. That thing was built like a tank!
The last update for the cpu upgrade is awesome! I wonder is it works okay for the @OC Cpu as well. It would be nice if they added the 720p patches somehow as a stellar feature
CPU Modded Xbox you say?....... ooooh oooh oooh, I do, I do, I have one. This is huge because it means I do not need to patch those games to ensure compatibility.
Great video! Definitely gonna pick one of these up. Glad to hear, too, that they sell an upgrade kit, as I still have a legacy XboxHD+. One tip, if I may: you had a lot of close-up shots of components from the kit being held in your hand, which were visibly shakey. (Everyone’s hands shake; nothing weird about that!) If you want to make that less apparent, you can film at double the frame rate and then play it back in the video at the video’s normal frame rate, making it a slow motion shot. It’ll smooth out the shakes and make the footage look smooth as glass. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t mean to say the video looked bad! I’ve always been impressed by the quality of your videos. Just thought I’d pass along the tip. :) Thanks again for another banger of a video!
12 year old me would absolutely be salivating over this mod chip. I didn't have much money growing up so buying a chip wasn't an option. Softmod was always the method to my madness. Breathing new life into a console I loved so much and introduced me to video games!
Now THIS is a gamechanger. The 500 Gamecube options, the 2-5 PS1 and Dreamcast ODE mods… all boring and convoluted (yet awesome when you decide to install one)- but the OG Xbox is the one system we just didn’t have any accessible-for-the-masses modding options for until now. This is so cool.
IDK if anyone here used the hotswap but it was sick! No chips or game exploits were necessary. When booting the OG XBox you would wait for a click (drive unlock) and swap the IDE cable to PC with the drive was still powered by Xbox. It would still work today if you could find the iso and a PC with a IDE.
I like some of the mods shown in this channel, my issue is with sellers of these mods since they are always sold out. Just checked this seller’s mod store and they were already sold out of the hdmi mod, this is annoying.
You’re right, this really is a fresh restart to Xbox modding. I’ve also struggled to make heads or tails from various old forum posts or outdated websites. Would love to see a complete go-to-whoa setup video for the software.
I am so glad I have put off modding most of my consoles. This year has been huge for the movement of mods and I can honestly say the game has really been changed
Been following this project for a long time; I can't wait to see where this will be in a year Edit; 11 months later and this chip still doesn't do anything a xenium or any other significantly cheaper option does. Save your money.
Man I some have some very fond memories of soft modding way back in the pre 360 days. That's all I needed 😊 been so long its hard to believe it's still goin hard
I got mine in the mail just last week. I like you have an older revision of the HD+HDMI mod for my 1.6 Xbox. Glad the upgrade is such a breeze from another modchip.
@@TexasHollowEarth for the Chihiro mod? Interesting because the Chihiro arcade boards have 512mb and 1GB of extra RAM to front load the entire game data in for quick reading.
Man, this is AWESOME! The flexibility of the hardware and OS looks really impressive. I can't believe we're using old RPi SoCs in *modchips* now (if RP2040 means what I think), the scene has come so far. And this mod maker clearly listened to everyone when it came to adding functionality, like fix for the 1.4GHz CPU swap mod. That helps out such a small part of the overall modding community, but it's there for the few who need it. You don't get that kind of granularity with a mass-market item. Always glad to see you dropped a video!
RP2040 is a brand new MCU (Cortex-M0+ x2@125MHz) and architecturally nothing like the decade-old BCM2835 SoCs. Often MCUs and FPGAs are suitable for modding, unlike standalone Cortex-A systems.
i really hope we continue to see more rp2040 modchips, especially ones making use of the pio cores. excellent little chip. my old xenium chip burned out leaving my og xbox working but unusable. maybe i should install this.
Still not convinced that any of this is necessary for most end users nor that the extra features used as selling points are coming to current owners or improve past external upscalers enough to warrant both the work or the cost. Seen no major waves recently in this side of the scene. However, if people are happy with what they have so far, then I guess its not money lost. I will hold out until I feel further progress has been made though, as many a time in the past, once the money has been earned the rest of the work gets dropped into the open-source bin for others to continue and not developed by the lead devs. Only way to see how that goes is to wait. Have now grabbed an Andonstar AD409 Pro with a neat little endoscope which will come in handy for other stuff whilst I see how the cards stack.
Ironically I keep watching your channel for the OG XBox videos and yet your channel is number 360 in my subs list. I just wish I could read my game discs so I wouldn't have to either repair my XBox or buy another one.
13:01 Ooohh!!! Haven’t seen the Xbox Logitech controller in the longest time!!!! I liked the Duke the most but it was my first wireless so it was still pretty exciting
"Xbox modding is a cumbersome process." ..... Erm... a TSOP flash only takes soldering 2 bits together, most systems you don't even need a wire. The only model Xbox that even needs a mod chip is the v1.6... That said, this does have some compelling features.
Always the same thing with Makemhz products. They are not finished. XboxHD was a mess at the beginning. I prefer a lot citrus3000psi products. Awsome video as usual!!
a couple years ago I had asked why people hadn't used the pi to make xbox mod chips yet. Now they've been used for the GameCube and the OG xbox. I figured it had to only be a matter of time.
I softmodded mine by doing a hot swap of the hd while playing a song from the Xbox. Now it’s 256gb and plays everything almost as long as it’s younger than the box.
i strongly appreciate the whole category of "make future mods easier" mods, especially when they go this hard into the ease of use
"$160 is a lot for a closed source mod chip." Between the history behind this project, the creator, unprofessional business practices, broken promises and more... I'll wait.
Why
I installed my Stellar last week, it's working great already but I'm very much looking forward to fully unlocking the power of my much loved OG XBox as things develop!
Same here! Can’t wait to see more features rolled out
I bought the original XBOX with a mod chip in 2002 or so. What's the deal with this chip? I could play the games from HDD etc.
@@vermiform yes, the Xecutor chips I believe. So I'm wondering what I could do with this chip, that I couldn't with the other...
It seems like for those of us who bought a mod chip 20 years ago and got it working long ago, it's not quite as exciting. And the OLED display is quite silly. But I do appreciate the level of fit and finish that I see, especially with that HDMI mod.
@@igordasunddas3377 mine is in storage, but I think I modded mine with an really old chip running unibios w xbmc. I think the chip would is a cool stand alone solution for a fresh mod og xbox. This would be an upgrade considering the old chip I had in there🤷🏾♂️
Love the increased usage of FPGA boards. They are more or less programmable hardware
So they are super fast and great for IO and Video/Audio
One function I'd love to see is ram with backup to a microSD to replace the swap/cache partitions to allow for the use of an SSD without the potential for wear out.
Do you know how fast that micro SD card will die if used as swap?. Also not to mention performance loss.
@@RandomNJ I said ram backed by a microSD card for a reason.
Add enough caps to dump the contents of the ram to the microSD when it's powering down.
Then the microSD will only have one write on power loss.
Same principle as an acard ans 9010
@@magfal I don't think you know how much the og Xbox used it's swap.
@@RandomNJ enlighten me then. I've monitored disk activity on a running system using a TSR tool.
Have you seen any games that didn't constantly write to and read from the disk to make up for the low amount of ram?
Did you know that quite a few games does this in partitions that are supposed to be used for persistent data?
@Random NJ I don't think the micro SD will die quickly. They make Security ones for dashcams and such that are written to constantly and exposed to much higher temps than are in an Xbox.
I wouldn't use an off the shelf one, but a security one would likely work fine.
And if the micro SD is just swap space it doesn't really need to be that large either.
Big ups to Nacho. Modded 4 systems since watching and now sounds like 5!
Thank you! So glad your found the videos helpful! 🙏
He modded more than 4 Systems lol
@@whitewolfsounds2273 tool is saying he himself has modded 4 systems thanks to nachos videos guiding him....
@@norith4300 oops, my bad, didn't read that right
@@MachoNachoProductions great video
Definitely want to see how much easier it is to upgrade hard drives. That's been on my to do list for a while.
May have to do a follow up video
+1 for me! I would love a full stellar xbox video from start to end, including new hdd!
Agree 100%.
Please make the video. I was a big part of the xbox modding community back in the day. Currently the lack of concise information is slowly leaving the xbox modding to advanced users. Making these videos plays a major role in preserving the Xbox modding scene
@@MachoNachoProductions That's something I would like to see.
Imo it seems like they are overselling the product. This isnt an OS, its just a settings app, and there were a lot of bold/exagerrated claims/promises being made that i found weird, like how he 'reverse engineered the entire xbox os'.
Even if theres more to the OS, the vast majority of the code is still unmodified microsoft code, so i kinda hate when people market these custom distributions as unique OSes, because they are still the exact same OS, just with different apps. This is really common with android ROMs and modded OSes, but you never see it with linux distributions which is how it should be.
They have also made their HDMI adapter proprietary to Stellar in a move likely to force people to choose their chip. You can no longer buy the stand alone non Stellar version.
tbh its not like reverse engineering the OS is that difficult of a task bc the source leaked a while back (when xp leaked, the xbox bios did too)
Not only that, its essentially a raspberry pi running its own operating system, connecting to the Xbox like every other modchip. Its nothing special. Take a look at how many wires there are going to the ram chips, and all the other components involved on the Xbox motherboard. How practical do you really think the extra handful of Mbs of ram this thing provides really is when its coming through something as limited as the debug port.
Luckily for us, this thing has already been exploited and you can bypass it to use the HDMI. That’s what they get for trying to corner the market with lies.
As someone who came into the scene at the same time the Xbox was getting modchips and softmods, I tend to take my software knowledge of it for granted. Hearing you say that the software side was a bit cumbersome and sometimes confusing but not the actual hardware modding made me chuckle because Im the exact opposite. I have no problem with bios,dashboards, hard drive upgrades, etc but the thought of soldering is just something I dont have any skills in. Tried to do a Wii modchip back in the day and ended up paying a friend. Love all the videos! Anything original Xbox on this channel is an instant watch.
Also, for those who see this and get this chip. Give insignia a try! Its a fantastic service that will only get better with more members! Amazing to see the setup utility included.
Damn. I wish I had the time and skills to create things like these. Amazing work from the developers. Thanks to Nacho for showing us these devices.
fr
it's almost Gibberish to Me, but I'm TOTALLY undeducated in Code etc, well just Uneducated Generally I s'pose 😂
@@mrmagoo.3678there are services that will take your console and mod it for you! It is expensive but if you love these games and maybe dont have the skill to mod them its a good option.
you encouraged me to mod my original gba console with the aluminum shell and i did really well with the mod and im very happy i found your channel
That’s awesome! I’m glad you found the channel too!
The soldering skill needed to mod the OG xbox is still the major wall to entry. What they really need to mass produce is those easy solder ribbons of theirs. The HDMI mod soldering is especially daunting not that the d0 point is easy either. (personally I lifted the pad when I did it an had to solder a bodge wire, which make that easy kit impossible)
Nice video 👍
I got my Stellar and installed it into my main Xbox, a debug kit shell with a 1.4ghz CPU board. For me, the CPU being supported it really nice. It negates having to patch each game individually.
It's an impressive piece of hardware, and I'm excited to see what new features are added over time. One thing that really makes this modchip stand apart from others is that it recompiles the Xbox bios at boot, and has a dual-core ARM processor on board. This means it can patch routines in the Xbox's bios without needing to re-flash, and it has extra memory and processing power, which opens up new possibilities. My main gripe is just that some features aren't there yet (that were put on the features page as if they were present) but I trust they'll be added over time.
Definitely a project to keep an eye on.
Mine is already modded from way back in the day (been so long since I fired it up I can't even remember what I put in aside from the fact that it was a "solderless" kit). I'd love to change it out for a new, better mod chip along with HDMI output, upgrading the cooling and putting an SSD in.
I remember how much of a pain in the butt formatting a bigger HDD was, i think it involved disconnecting the DVD drive and running both HDDs to clone. Soft modding was fairly simple but required specific things
Swapping to a bigger Hdd is simply as balls in 2023. You can do everything pc side with fatxplorer now.
@@JoshLineberry Eatonworks put so much into fatxplorer, definitely the fastest route for setting up drives and moving large amounts of data to the xbox.
I definitely remember softmodding my Xbox being a chore
This seems really cool especially if it supports modern hard drives
It took a while didn't it? Splinter Cell and all that. I'm stuck in the stone age with my mods. I'm still doing disc swaps etc lol. Just can't get the new soft mods to work (Xbox, Saturn).
Going back a decade later trying to re-softmod the Xbox gave me no joy as there must have been some confusion with the old firmware and tying to install over it..
This looks pretty interesting to me then, as a savage with no soldering skills (and happy on my crts), I'm going to see what my specs are and give this a go.. Hopefully 😆
I was shocked this wasn't $200 or more, considering the list of features, the design, and the polished GUI. what a wonderful addition to the modding scene. always really happy to hear about new tech for retro consoles, especially if they make it easier to do.
Luckily those days are over it seems. Especially FPGU prices and custom printed board prices. Back in those days it was so much different.
Nice to see some new blood in the old xbox, but I have the Xecuter front LED panel and would really want to retain that. Otherwise looks awesome, particularly with the HDMI upgrade!
there are plans to add support for new and existing panels
Let's hope these remain available for quite some time, this really is the xbox modchip to end all modchips.
Seems like a massive oversight to not include built in wireless networking. Giving the xbox WiFi and Bluetooth seems like a no-brainier. It's quite overpriced too, and it will be even more expensive if there are separate modules for wireless.
I got mine, i can’t wait to install it. But would really like to see a front panel display. I had to remove my display due to it not being compatible with the Stellar, so at the moment i just have a cutout in my front panel. Another thing i would like to see is the ability to reflash the original bios chip using the modchip. Very few modchips were capable of this, and the ones that were have long been discontinued making them really difficult to find.
There goes another $105! 😂
I did the same setup after watching your 20th anniversary build, and I’m looking forward to project stellar delivery!
I also ended up installing a mod for using an Xbox 360 controller on the original Xbox using a 360 USB dongle for PC, but I’m looking forward to newer Xbox controller support as well!
You have no idea how glad I am that I waited on modding my Xbox and went for my GameCube after recent updates to its scene. This is not only amazing but timed amazingly too!
Love it and your content.
Why? Cerbios that has been out for a while can do everything most users need or want and you can do it with a 20 dollar chip or a tsop.
@@JoshLineberry What is tsop?
Definitely would like to see an HDD setup! It's probably the most daunting part of the mod process at this point, so a clear tutorial would be amazing to have!
It's very easy now due to eatonworks fatxplorer beta3 and jcrocky5 tools disks/XBMC4Gamers dash
I hope that one day a mod chip that requires no soldering or modification to the board becomes a reality. Like something you can just plug in to an existing port or something. Id love to mod my og 1.0 xbox but i dont trust my soldering ability
Same here.. everything system I have modded has always been soft modded bc I hate taking a chance on ruining a board. I did a Xbox 360 controller mod one time but it was just 3 wires and I still made it look straight fugly on my controller board.. It worked but you could tell my soldering skills were straight garbage hahaha.
If you can find one these days, they used to make solderless adapters. Just screw it on, slide the pin into d0, and plug your chip into it.
I still have mine with a Xenium Ice on it.
My Xbox has an original Zenium Ice chip in it. Bought it in 2002-2003 and used the solder free installation adapter. Super easy to hook up. Still works perfectly too.
Legit! Still rocking my Xenium Ice over here, as well. Amazing chip, and the solderless adapter made everything an absolute cakewalk to install.
I've installed it with the HDMI upgrade kit. Can't wait for the native iso loading!
Thanks Nacho! I just got mine in today w/ the XBOXHD+!!
It's fascinating to see how Xbox modding has progressed over the years. Especially when there's still big improvements being made
well, the original xbox is that technology piece that is designed to avoid obsolescence, a 1.4ghz 128mb xbox can play youtube and all games on 720p, and a lot of stuff can be ported to work on original xbox... and nowadays still not exists a proper mini OS with more PC features for the OG xbox, its a 22 years old hardware that can do more things than a raspberry, and we atually dont have a proper HalfLife1 port that allow us to install MODS.... imagine that! the original xbox running HL1 mods with xlink kay. This newer chip makes that easier. A plug and play chip with all ready to mod the xbox is now a thing, anyway, xbox deserve a real OS mixing all the features of all dashboards, with youtube, download center, etc, not 4 different ones.
Wow! That is one hell of a clean mod. I have modded a 1.6 myself and there were lots of wires(used an aladdin). Glad to see the OG Xbox getting some love in '23.
looks really promising, will be following closely. Seems like switching from a soft mod won't be too difficult.
I briefly got into soft modding Xboxes years ago, did a few for friends as gifts, etc. My experience was the same. I always had to cobble info together and use different sources because I'd inevitably find that the guide I was using had incorrect/outdated info. I had begun cobbling everything I had found together to hopefully make a definitive soft mod guide, but I lost steam and never got around to actually making the guide.
it would be really helpful if you did this but using a stock Xbox it’s assuming a lot that we’re already coming with a modded Xbox. Thanks as always for the great content.
I remember modding the drive but good God that was ages ago. Crazy that people still rock this old Xbox.
Mod chips have had those "future" options greyed out for a decade or more, and no one made them work yet. Other than the easier setup and nice menus, this mod chip is little more than an iterative change to decades of mods for the console. Would love to see someone make all that other stuff work, but the probability that this will be "the one" is quite low.
Wow -- what an EXCELLENT vid!!! The photography is OUTSTANDING! As a YTer myself, I know EXACTLY how much work it would be for you to capture all that excellent video! Great sound, too! Nice to see someone who KNOWS HOW TO USE A MICROPHONE! So many YTers have their friggin' mic in front of their face and I HATE that, so good for you!
I would love to see the HDD video, hope you'll find the time to make it!
This look awesome. Kind of wish I didn't promise myself I'd leave my OG xbox as stock because of nostalgia.
Modding is superior....
That moment where I look at a stack of XBox components in storage and think: Modding these is suddenly exciting again.
I heard you on the Xecuter LCD mod. I did this to my main Xbox way back and never regretted it. The information is quite helpful.
I have a ton of love for modding the OG Xbox. I have 7 of them in various states of mods. Always remove that catastrophic clock capacitor unless you have a version 1.6. It will leak if it already hasn't and most likely kill the motherboard.
I'd definitely like to see a follow up video doing a swap of the HDD!
It would be great to see how easy this could be with this mod
Swapping the hdd is stupid simple already. You can do everything pc side now thanks to fatxplorer and it's so fast.
@@JoshLineberryIf it’s so easy, maybe post a link to how to do it?
@@majorgear1021 don't even need a video. Is it softmod or hardmod?
Nice looking bit of kit, and great to see the XBOX modscene is still alive and well!
When you do the comparisons, the 720 and 480 should be swapped. People are accustomed to having before and after shots be left and right respectively. Its just weird seeing the after shot being on the left side of the screen.
Yep. Threw me off
I felt that
I still have the original X-Ecuter chip running in my OG Xbox, man I was probably 17 at the time and had the crappiest soldering iron and didn't even use any flux. That thing was built like a tank!
The last update for the cpu upgrade is awesome! I wonder is it works okay for the @OC Cpu as well.
It would be nice if they added the 720p patches somehow as a stellar feature
CPU Modded Xbox you say?....... ooooh oooh oooh, I do, I do, I have one. This is huge because it means I do not need to patch those games to ensure compatibility.
Great video! Definitely gonna pick one of these up. Glad to hear, too, that they sell an upgrade kit, as I still have a legacy XboxHD+.
One tip, if I may: you had a lot of close-up shots of components from the kit being held in your hand, which were visibly shakey. (Everyone’s hands shake; nothing weird about that!) If you want to make that less apparent, you can film at double the frame rate and then play it back in the video at the video’s normal frame rate, making it a slow motion shot. It’ll smooth out the shakes and make the footage look smooth as glass.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t mean to say the video looked bad! I’ve always been impressed by the quality of your videos. Just thought I’d pass along the tip. :)
Thanks again for another banger of a video!
I have been waiting so long for a video on this!! Thank you!!!
This thing is unbelievable. The way it interacts with the HDMI kit is so so cool. This is one to definitely keep an eye on!
Given the age of the XBOX OG, this is a great thing to see, one mod to rule them all, over HDMI.
I really like that they modeled the menus after the current series x menus
12 year old me would absolutely be salivating over this mod chip. I didn't have much money growing up so buying a chip wasn't an option. Softmod was always the method to my madness. Breathing new life into a console I loved so much and introduced me to video games!
Now THIS is a gamechanger. The 500 Gamecube options, the 2-5 PS1 and Dreamcast ODE mods… all boring and convoluted (yet awesome when you decide to install one)- but the OG Xbox is the one system we just didn’t have any accessible-for-the-masses modding options for until now.
This is so cool.
Soldering the HD+ kit IS NOT for the masses. Completely the opposite.
Xbox has been an easy console to mod for a long time, especially through soft mods.
@@blahdelablah yeah sure, look at Nintendo Wii
@@pftmclub The Nintendo Wii is easy to softmod too, what's your point?
@@blahdelablah how did xbox became easy console to mod when nintendo wii only need one sd card?
IDK if anyone here used the hotswap but it was sick! No chips or game exploits were necessary. When booting the OG XBox you would wait for a click (drive unlock) and swap the IDE cable to PC with the drive was still powered by Xbox. It would still work today if you could find the iso and a PC with a IDE.
I like some of the mods shown in this channel, my issue is with sellers of these mods since they are always sold out. Just checked this seller’s mod store and they were already sold out of the hdmi mod, this is annoying.
This is incredible work and super cool. Makes me wish I gave a flip about the original Xbox's library lol
You’re right, this really is a fresh restart to Xbox modding. I’ve also struggled to make heads or tails from various old forum posts or outdated websites.
Would love to see a complete go-to-whoa setup video for the software.
I stumbled across this video by chance in my suggested video list. I'm not into gaming, and I've never owned an Xbox, but I find this very impressive.
Man never ceases to amaze me.
I am so glad I have put off modding most of my consoles. This year has been huge for the movement of mods and I can honestly say the game has really been changed
I don't understand why you don't have more subs your one of the best modders out there, your tutorials are well detailed and precise..
The og Xbox is such a great retro gaming device. I own 3. Two soft and 1 hard. Great to see the system still getting love today.
Been following this project for a long time; I can't wait to see where this will be in a year
Edit; 11 months later and this chip still doesn't do anything a xenium or any other significantly cheaper option does. Save your money.
Man I some have some very fond memories of soft modding way back in the pre 360 days. That's all I needed 😊 been so long its hard to believe it's still goin hard
I was just looking for information about this mod yesterday. Awesome video!
Thanks! Hope you found the video helpful!
WOW I think I speak fro everyone when I say the production quality on this chanel is amazing! 😀
There's no need to blur out your IP address. Its just a local private IP address
I got mine in the mail just last week. I like you have an older revision of the HD+HDMI mod for my 1.6 Xbox. Glad the upgrade is such a breeze from another modchip.
I was wondering what the Chihiro compatibility is going to give. I couldn't really find much detail on it though, seems a future feature set.
Still requires 128MB RAM upgrade, regardless.
@@TexasHollowEarth for the Chihiro mod? Interesting because the Chihiro arcade boards have 512mb and 1GB of extra RAM to front load the entire game data in for quick reading.
Got into modding xboxes recently ... I'm so hyped!!
Man, this is AWESOME! The flexibility of the hardware and OS looks really impressive. I can't believe we're using old RPi SoCs in *modchips* now (if RP2040 means what I think), the scene has come so far. And this mod maker clearly listened to everyone when it came to adding functionality, like fix for the 1.4GHz CPU swap mod. That helps out such a small part of the overall modding community, but it's there for the few who need it. You don't get that kind of granularity with a mass-market item. Always glad to see you dropped a video!
RP2040 is a brand new MCU (Cortex-M0+ x2@125MHz) and architecturally nothing like the decade-old BCM2835 SoCs. Often MCUs and FPGAs are suitable for modding, unlike standalone Cortex-A systems.
Would love to see a "Project Stellar: One Year Later" video in the future. Alongside hdd installation
i really hope we continue to see more rp2040 modchips, especially ones making use of the pio cores. excellent little chip.
my old xenium chip burned out leaving my og xbox working but unusable. maybe i should install this.
Great video, and i love the fact you were so clear and honest about its cons.
Wow, links are dead and can't buy it. Pretty odd. Read through comments and this whole thing is suspect.
Still not convinced that any of this is necessary for most end users nor that the extra features used as selling points are coming to current owners or improve past external upscalers enough to warrant both the work or the cost. Seen no major waves recently in this side of the scene. However, if people are happy with what they have so far, then I guess its not money lost. I will hold out until I feel further progress has been made though, as many a time in the past, once the money has been earned the rest of the work gets dropped into the open-source bin for others to continue and not developed by the lead devs. Only way to see how that goes is to wait. Have now grabbed an Andonstar AD409 Pro with a neat little endoscope which will come in handy for other stuff whilst I see how the cards stack.
thanks my fears are assured
This is the Xbox mod chip I've been waiting for! Is a tad pricey but the features are exciting!
Ironically I keep watching your channel for the OG XBox videos and yet your channel is number 360 in my subs list. I just wish I could read my game discs so I wouldn't have to either repair my XBox or buy another one.
Wait! YOU CAN UPGRADE THE CPU???? Caught that in the Enhancements options screen! WTF!!
Right, I wanna see what that seems like.
whats the point
@@ilyarepin7750it actually can increase fps for games! And make the xbox faster! .. but it can also mess up some games . Its pretty cool!
13:01 Ooohh!!! Haven’t seen the Xbox Logitech controller in the longest time!!!!
I liked the Duke the most but it was my first wireless so it was still pretty exciting
That wireless Logitech controller is actually very nice.
Finally, a clean looking, no wires everywhere mod.
This is one I have to try.
Dead link for stellar. :-)
i have 2 of them,and its fantastic,works fine with my 1.4ghz xbox with 128mb ram and 2tb ssd.
Seems like an ad more then a review. How much they pay? lol Couldnt finish watching.
Ok, less than 3 minutes in and I already want one. lol.
Wow, this thing is only $100. That's pretty crazy tbh.
it's really interesting to try the best version of GTA SA that was released only for original XBOX in 720p
links are dead.
@rogersmith4363 trash comment
Product deed?
"Xbox modding is a cumbersome process."
..... Erm... a TSOP flash only takes soldering 2 bits together, most systems you don't even need a wire. The only model Xbox that even needs a mod chip is the v1.6...
That said, this does have some compelling features.
I would like DOS support. Windows is a pain. Windows XP games with a React OS/wine would be neat.
Im convinced that this guy gets paid to promote on the sly. Much of it vaporware
Just got into Xbox Modding; stellar is gonna be my first project! Wish me luck
Why are you shilling software that doesn't exist yet.
I hope they paid you a lot for this...
Cerbios has some amazing features such as native iso and compressed iso loading larger hdd support etc and its free can even be flashed to tsop.
Yep. Cerbios is the better option atm.
but like, you can do almost all of the same things with cerbios for free
Yeah I was wondering what new features were included. Biggest one is an OS that removes the need to access these settings in dash
True.
Always the same thing with Makemhz products. They are not finished. XboxHD was a mess at the beginning. I prefer a lot citrus3000psi products. Awsome video as usual!!
a couple years ago I had asked why people hadn't used the pi to make xbox mod chips yet. Now they've been used for the GameCube and the OG xbox. I figured it had to only be a matter of time.
I softmodded mine by doing a hot swap of the hd while playing a song from the Xbox. Now it’s 256gb and plays everything almost as long as it’s younger than the box.
never watched your vids before but just came across this one and i absolutely LOVE your intro video man!
love seeing projects like this, Accessibilty causes adoption but a lot of techy projects forget that and go full RTFM.