Category: Microcode

Computers, gaming, and anything else of relevance.

Running Pro statistics

~ Inquisitor

As is being pointed out by much of the blogosphere right now, the Mac Pro is actually a seriously good deal. Most of it has been Stateside, though, so let’s take it from a UK point of view:

  • Mac Pro: 2x 2.66GHz Xeon 5150 (Core 2 “Woodcrest”), 1GB FB-DIMM memory, 250GB hard drive, GeForce 7300GT, DVD writer, keyboard/mouse etc, 3 year AppleCare, £1898.00.
  • Dell Precision 490: Custom specified up to 2x 2.66GHz Xeon 5150, 1GB FB-DIMM memory, 250GB hard drive, Quadra FX550 (about equiv. in 3D speed, really), DVD writer, standard Dell 3-year warranty etc., £2653.15. (W08491)
  • Don’t even ask about the Precision 690 (oh wait, an extra gig of RAM and £3170.15, W08691.)

Is Dell in trouble? You betcha, especially when you put in Apple’s massive education discount, which will certainly make up for putting a X1900 in there instead of the 6600 equivalent that is the 7300GT. Even if you add the cost of that and maybe an extra couple of gigs of RAM (at Crucial rather than Apple prices, obviously – with Crucial, you can get 2GB for the price of 1GB from Apple), and even a legit copy of XP to Boot Camp with for HL2 Photoshop before it goes Universal, it’s still going to be less than the cheaper Dell. Isn’t that amazing?

I’m a PC person, and always have been, but am definitely considering a MBPro if it goes Core 2 – these machines simply offer everything and they’re surprisingly competitive with normal PCs (especially after the Higher Education Discount.) Hopefully this means PC vendors might start getting competitive for a change; Dell can’t be smug about price anymore, at least for pro workstations. That’s going to be a good thing for everyone.

The XBMC experience: Setting up

~ Inquisitor ~ 3 Comments

I've never had a media centre, as such, before modding my Xbox. I've had setups like having my PC connected to my hi-fi with a 10m phono cable, but that was never handy for controlling the thing.

The modded Xbox changes this by the fact that it sits comfortably under my surround amp (connected by a short optical wire) and next to my TV, and is controllable using the Xbox DVD remote control. The DVD remote came with my second hand Xbox when I bought it, and while the Xbox is completely useless as a DVD player when unmodded – at least compared with my multiregion Pioneer – the remote comes into its own once you can use it with XBMC.

XBMC is the Holy Grail of open source software – it's a piece of open source software that actually seems to have been written with people keeping an eye on the user interface, something which many other such projects fail at miserably (GIMP, anyone?). Thus it has an efficient and self-consistent UI by default – the Project Mayhem III skin – which is endlessly customisabe if you really want to do so. It plays back MP3s, DVDs, DivXes and Xvids effortlessly, and with full IMDB, freedb and Allmusic integration. It is, truly, fantastic.

A setup guide follows after the break.

Continue reading “The XBMC experience: Setting up” →

HOWTO: Softmod your Xbox

~ Inquisitor ~ 260 Comments

It’s easy and it’s quick and it works surprisingly well, although you wouldn’t know it from most of the tutorials and forums out there. So I’m going to add one more to the pile – the way I did it, and how to replicate my findings.

[Update 8th May 2007: a video going through this guide is now available on YouTube. Thanks Ben!]

You need:

  • an Xbox (quite easy to get hold of, new or second hand)
  • a memory card (the hardest bit to get hold of)
  • Action Replay/Xploder/GameShark/etc. USB to Xbox memory card converter
  • the original version of “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell” (£2 or less second-hand at your local Game, GameStation or pawn shop, not any of the sequels, some “Platinum Hits” or similar versions may not work)
  • Halo 2 or a later Xbox Live game
  • mininova.org or your favourite Xbox-containing torrent site
  • few hours download time, about 10 minutes modding time
  • the content after the break

Continue reading “HOWTO: Softmod your Xbox” →

A new acquisition

~ Inquisitor

I've just bought a second-hand Xbox.

I've never actually been able to justify a console before – I have a high spec PC with a high spec video card. Game consoles really lend themselves to a more social gaming experience; I play strategy games and single-player storyline FPSes.

So what am I doing buying an Xbox? Well, the clue's in the category title – modding the thing is the cheapest possible way to build a media centre in my front room without putting a full-size PC in there. I'm not modding so I can run pirate Xbox games, so no-one need worry about that; I buy few games, but I buy legit (albeit second hand). I'm modding so that I can run XBMC and stream MP3s and Xvids off the large hard drives in the other room, pure and simple.

My trials in modding the thing will be posted on this blog as a warning to all that follow… 

PS3 at E3

~ Inquisitor

Microsoft and Nintendo must be laughing their heads off.

The PS3 is making the same mistakes Microsoft did with the Xbox360, only in a much worse way. It's got two unneccessary SKUs with major differences, like the 360, only Sony have made it much worse by actually cutting features from the cheaper one – HDMI and Wi-Fi – that can't be put back in using upgrades. HDMI in particular, considering that Blu-Ray movies can request to be digital only, is a big, big loss for the cheap PS3.

Add to that the ripoff of the Nintendo Wiivolution controller, with tilt sensors, despite the fact that it still looks like a Dual Shock and so you won't get nearly as much benefit with it than with the designed-for-the-purpose Wii controller; then add the fact that it's really, really expensive ($499 for the crippled version, $599 for full functionality) and also add to that that you haven't even seen proper game shots yet and all signs point to it looking about the same as the 360, and then Microsoft and Nintendo have little to worry about. Except Sony's market share, of course.

Hope the Wii launch goes better… it would be nice to see some real competition for the 360.

And they were doing so well

~ Inquisitor

The Nintendo Wii, I ask you. Pronounced exactly like you think it is.

Revolution was actually a pretty good name, all told, for what that particular console represented. Revolution represented a change: it wasn't going to win because it was as grotesquely overengineered as either the Xbox360 (a tri-core monstrosity) or the PS3 (with a processor with seriously untried architectural design and a Blu-Ray drive that probably costs about as much as a launch PS2), and in fact it wasn't even going to be that much faster than the current generation.

It was going to win with innovation. The controller is one of the most ingenious ideas I've seen – motion sensitive, push sensitive, wireless, with the ability to stick it in a GameCube controller attachment if you needed such a thing or attach an analogue stick if you needed to. It's the kind of innovative idea that's been working magic for them with the DS, a console whose simplicity and success shows that there really is no need for PSP-style overengineering in real life.

And then there was the Internet game download idea – which Nintendo refers to as "Virtual Console", an ability for the Revolution to emulate other, older systems. The iTunes Music Store-style Virtual Console ability is a brilliant idea – if you want to play Super Mario World or Chrono Trigger nowadays, you've got to play through a PC emulator and it just isn't the same. Some of the best modifications for other consoles have been to put emulators on them – especially the PSP, which with its dearth of decent actual games (yeah, Lumines, Wipeout Pure, GTA only so you can do the firmware hack, uhm…) has forced Sony into serious rearguard manoeuvres involving its media capabilities in order to stop people from running homebrew, of which the current 2.7 update is merely the most pathetic example. (It plays Flash now, but stops the GTA hack. That's it. I can imagine a Sony executive, looking at the downloads, going "…wait, are the sheep actually upgrading? Wow!")

This legitimisation of classic gaming could be a fantastic coup by Nintendo. If you could pay, say, 99p for a legit ROM of Super Mario 3 you could save to a SD card and keep forever, that would reduce ROM piracy considerably and bring an entirely new revenue stream into Nintendo's coffers. It's no surprise that Sega (who are bringing Genesis/Mega Drive games) and Hudson (who are bringing TurboGrafx games) are joining in the party. I'd probably still get a 'special' Xbox, but that's definitely not for everyone.

No, the Revolution was all there – innovative new games, accessible old ones, creating entirely new genres the way the DS has. Shame about the name, really – it kinda puts a damper on things. Nintendo aren't really a company to joke around about this kind of thing, so there's no hope of changing it to Nintendo GO, or (my personal favourite) leaving it as Revolution.

So it'll be the butt of juvenile geek urine jokes for a long, long time – let's hope Nintendo proves them wrong.

Windows XP on Intel Mac – the official way

~ Inquisitor

With full drivers, including ATI, and dynamic non-destructive partitioning.

This is the best thing Apple have done for a long, long time and it's going to hopefully be huge. Now people can use OS X for normal work, and dual-boot into Windows whenever they need to run Windows-only engineering software, AutoCAD or Half-Life 2. I don't own a Mac, but I've always liked OS X and their laptops and now they're definitely on the purchase agenda.