The original Xbox has been and remains my favorite console of all-time.

In elementary school I bought a used one from my Dad’s coworker because I really wanted to play Halo after being introduced to it by a friend.

A little while later, Kevin Rose showed up on TechTV and taught me that they could be modded and made to run custom software.

Unleashing The Xbox

The Xbox was a unique console in that it was very similar to a desktop PC of the era.

It ran on an x86 processor, used USB to connect controllers and accessories, featured an Ethernet port for network connectivity, and came equipped with an internal hard drive for storage.

Though it was a perfectly capable gaming machine, there was a lot more potential hiding behind Microsoft’s security measures. Once circumvented, a flood of amazing software and functionality became available:

• Loading media and software to the internal hard disk (which could also be upgraded to a larger capacity)
• Running homebrew games and apps built by the community
• Running emulators to play arcade games or games from other consoles
• Playing movies and music from the DVD drive, the hard drive, or streamed over the network
• Running a full Linux desktop operating system

This is XBMC (Xbox Media Center), originally built for the Xbox, but later becoming available on a variety of operating systems and renamed to Kodi:

My First Mod

Inspired, I went on the internet, ordered myself an Xecuter 3 modchip, and struggled for multiple days to solder it in place before finally seeing the X3 BIOS show up and feeling total relief and elation that I didn’t completely destroy my Xbox.

Here it is after years of neglect, somehow still working despite the horrendous solder job:

Xbox Resurgence

A little after 2020, the original Xbox saw a resurgence in community activity.

New mods were released to add an HDMI port, allow huge hard drive sizes above 2TB, play Xbox Live again, and more.

I decided to grab myself a fresh Xbox off of eBay and set it up with the latest and greatest offered by the community.

Assembling My Own Mod Chips

For some reason I also decided that this was a great opportunity to improve my soldering skills. So, instead of ordering a pre-assembled modchip, I ordered some unpopulated PCBs and components to assemble the open-source OpenXenium mod chip myself.

After some hours of tiny component soldering I had myself a few fully assembled OpenXenium mod chips!

More Xboxes

With a handful of mod chips in my possession, I decided the next logical step was to make use of them (and continue improving my soldering/electronics skills) by buying the cheapest broken Xboxes I could find on eBay, repairing them, and installing the mod chips.

I was able to find a bunch of Xboxes at around $20 each. Some had issues with blown capacitors or loose connections between the hard disk, but I was able to get every one of them booting and working properly.

After repairing and modding 4 more Xboxes, my soldering skills significantly improved. And now I can give away some cool Xboxes to friends and loved ones!