My Xbox Live Letter From MS!, About the beta disks! Options

[MajestacaL]

The letter I got from MS said that the beta disk with the game NFL Fever , Whacked and MotoGP would not work anymore you have to use the final xbox live disk for the game to work again they are blocking all the beta disks and they will no longer be valid thats what the letter said when I recieved my final xbox live disk today! So I would say wait until the 15th when everyone gets the final xbox live disk with the demos on it they will work they are just shutting down all the beta disks with the beta games on it!

[LumbraX]

Every thing will EXPIRE Nov 15. We All Knew This.

[LumbraX]

And their not "Shutting Down" the Beta Disc. They are programed to EXPIRE on Nov 15.

[XBOB LIVE]

wait... that doesnt make sense?? xbox live was not supposed to go on sale until the 15th... retail comes with demo disk that expires on the 15th..?? oh shit boys.. we been had.

[shanafan]

No Xbob Live. He is referring to the NFL Fever 2002 demo, Whacked demo, and MotoGP demo that just beta testers get

[XBOB LIVE]

lol i know. i just think its kinda getting old how every thinks its mod detection. anytime anything goes wrong people think thier xbox is never going to work again you guys gotta remember we are dealing with MS.... things do ocassionally go wrong

[bornonce]

It is almost indisputable that MS has learned how to detect modchips. The recent XBoxLive experience makes this very clear. I believe that MS is using the XBLive startup to scan the BIOS. And this is may not be a checksum, but a bit-by-bit IMAGE comparison. If it found a modchip, in many cases it put a hidden file on the HDD that will not allow the modded box to connect until after the launch date. (This apparently happened to me).

This is significant, because the Beta software of Motogp and Whacked! expires at the launch date, and the NEW demos must be used. Guess what! The new demos may also have modchip detection and REJECTION built into them. Trying to use the new demos on a modded box may not work. It may require you to disable the modchip. And it may do a periodic and random background check on the BIOS so that if you switch it on after the game has started it will cause the game to hang later. This has been verified by some who could connect through the dashboard but who couldn't play either the new Whacked! or motogp demos. On an unmodded XBox the new Motogp demo works fine.

And this form of protection could be used in all future games. Unlike, a PC, the XBox has some rather sophistocated encryption/decryption buit into the hardware, so the executables are digitally signed and cannot be easily modified unless you know the encryption/decryption key. This means that EVERY new game would have to be individually modified to remove the BIOS check code. On the PC, this is a piece of cake; on the XBox it may be nearly impossible.

The modchip would still allow homebrew software, Linux, modified HDDs, etc. but it would NOT allow playing games from the HDD, or from backup DVD's because the games wouldn't work with a modchip. If this is what MS is doing, piracy on the XBox is just about dead.

[ranciddc]

chill dude!!! nobody knows whats going on...we will all see in a few hours

[xdrei]

REALLY, noone cares what anybody BELIEVES, we dont care what anybody think is happening, We dont care about you people who dont even have a modchip and are saying things!! Assumptions do not help! All we want is facts (ie: i have an homebrew enigmah clone enabled cause i dont have a switch and my beta disc doesn't connect to the motogp and whacked game servers. but i can connect to xbox live from the dash, and i can play NFL fever 2003 before i get disconnected.)

From FACTS we arive and theories/conclusions... not assumptions!

we just have to wait a few days now, and gather more FACTS