First of all I wasnt sure what forum I should ask this in, so mods please feel free to move this post if needed.....


A friend of mine is opening a Game Store, with pay to play xboxs setup. He was wanting to install mod chips into the Xboxs and install bigger hard drives so he could install all the games to the HD. Then run them with a menu program so the custumer could just choose from a list of games, without him having to change the game every time a custumer wanted to change games.

What are the legalities on this? Are you not allowed to have them running in the store?

Also what software would you reccomend running on the xboxs?:

not sure about the legalities but games are intended for home use only, it state's this on the back of the book on all games. As far as legalities go i would imagine if you get commercial rights to use the game to make $$ as long as you have a legal copy for every machine cant see why not.

He has the commercial rights for the pay to play xbox setup. But i wasnt sure about running a bios with copyrighted code?

haahahahaha, ILLEGAL,

you cant do that, it's against the law to chip that's one. second it might promote chipping and copying games.

totally not legal, all code in EvoX, DVD2Xbox and all(most) software you'd run to accomplish this task is compiled with the XDK which makes it illegal to own, posses, or use (unless you are MS ofcourse).

A@ron

ok yea it could be illegal but why not do it?? he's not saying how to do it and it's a good idea.. I mean if I ran something like that I woundn't want to hand out games every 5 seconds or have to change the games for everyone. If he legally owns the games and the systems and pay MS to use his xbox for pay to play services why not. Just because some code he suses. SO WHAT. I can see why MS would care but he's doing everything by the book. If I were him I'd do it. If anyone asked to see the games I'd open a locker or where ever he keeps copies for each machine. I'd say GO FOR IT!!!

Aren't cromwell BIOSes supposed to be legal, since they only have linux? Adding the modchip by itself isn't illegal, it just voids the warranty.

If I were him, I would have a lawyer handy. And if he does it, what's to prevent the game publishers and/or MS from getting an injunction until the legal issues are settled. A fellow got 5 months sentence in Virginia for selling modded xboxes with "illegal" software installled. How will you backup the games with "legal" software, especially patching them. I know Ninja Gaiden specifically says in their legal notice, "It is forbidden to copy any game code, movies, etc to any hardware device" . If other games say the same thing then what he is doing is illegal, since by buying and playing the game you are implying that you accept their legal restrictions.

Chipping is legal.... but using a hacked bios isn't

Yup, illegal.

Is it really that big of a deal to change out the discs when people want to play a particular game? A large portion of business would come from a couple friends coming in to play a multi-player game, not some kid that wants to play every game for 2 minutes, switch to another game to play for 2 minutes, switch to ... etc.

Your friend is going to need someone at the counter all the time anyway. Why not set up accounts (that's necessary anyway) and check games out to people. If they want to switch games, they bring the other game back to the counter, your friend checks it in, then checks out another game.

I can't imagine what kind of nightmare you'd have if every customer wanted to put a menu system on their XBoxes anyway. You'd be running customer service, and when the first person farqed up their XBox they'd be calling MS to tattle on the happenings at the business. (not talking to you per se.