Someone named bunnie has apparently already taken Xbox hacking a step further than anyone else so far. He removed the box's surface-mounted BIOS chip and installed a socket so that he could replace it with a standard PC BIOS chip.
Then, he downloaded the contents of the Xbox's BIOS chip and posted them on his web site, along with pictures and instructions on how he did it.
Within 12 hours he got a call from Microsoft (mp3, edited for content), and the BIOS file is now removed. However, his page also points out that while the Sony vs. Connectix case set a precedent that allows for reverse engineering, it does not allow free distribution. So if you want to follow his instructions and have your very own Xbox ROM BIOS file, you can, you just can't get a copy of his.
Comments
Claude Errera
Heh...
That call was made on November 20... not sure which surprises me more, that it took less than 5 days for someone to do this (from the release of the Xbox) or that it took almost 3 weeks for someone to send it to /.
The /. link is wrong, btw - should be http://slashdot.org/articles/01/12/08/1337251.shtml.
narcogen
fixed
In reply to: Heh...Claude Errera wrote on Saturday, 12/8/2001 - 2:28 pm:
: That call was made on November 20... not sure which
: surprises me more, that it took less than 5 days for someone
: to do this (from the release of the Xbox) or that it took
: almost 3 weeks for someone to send it to /.
:
: The /. link is wrong, btw - should be : href="http://slashdot.org/articles/01/12/08/1337251.shtml">http://slashdot.org/articles/01/12/08/1337251.shtml.
Yeah, got the wrong link in the clipboard-- that one was for someone else.
Narcogen