I've done a lot of reading but a lot of info is conflicting/outdated/confusing.

I have an Xbox1, with one controller, no memory card. I want to run SNES (Zsnexbox), NES (Mednafenx-nes), and Atari 2600 (Z26X).

Provided these are still the best emulators, I shouldn't have a problem getting them via xbins. I don't know about softmods though. What is the easiest (and/or cheapest) way to run multiple emulators? Can someone recommend a softmod and/or dashboard?

Any advice, instructions, or links to instructions would be great.

The first thing we will need to know is what version xbox you have
See here

http://www.xbox-scene.com/versions_1.php

Since I don't have the right size torx screwdriver, can we go with 1.1?

"If xbox was made in Mexico (FF==02)

If MFG. DATE is November 2002 or later you have a xbox v1.1, else you have a xbox v1.0"

safest way?

get a memory card with the krazie 1.1.1 Splinter cell save exploits on it and a copy of splinter cell.
If you dont have the latest dashboard then you will also need halo 2 or similar live enabled game that came after halo 2.
Run halo 2 and try to connect to live. it will update your dashboard, when its done copy the 2 saves from the memory card to your xbox, When that is done start splinter cell and start a game go to load, load linux, then select the option on the top left "i forget the name"
this will install the softmod which will allow you to ftp the emulators on to your xbox from your pc/laptop.

You seem to be in mexico so i cant provide you with the tools But you can probably buy a kit from ebay. It should cost about $10-$15 dollars.

Cheapest way?
(dangerous)
hotswap the already softmoded C and E drive files on to your xbox. (will need torke x screwdrivers) via windows and xplorer360.
then burn heimdals xbox engeneering disk to a dvd-r at slowest possible speed. and run that in your xbox and use the 1 click intall krazie ndure 1.1.1 to properly protect the softmod and back up your eeprom.
I wont go thru the process of doing this as i do not advize it, although it is how i used to softmod. some of the hotswap files for doing it in this manner are out dated and can be problematic on the wrong version xboxes.

how i would do it?
(splinter cell method without memory card)
Modify my controller to accept usb, use a memory stick or sd card and sd card reader (memory sticks dont all work its luck, but all my sd cards have worked)
And then its the same as the 1st method i posted "safest"


alternative dangerous way
hotswap with xboxhdm.
Again that all the details i will give because it is not how i advize you do things.

Thanks! I just noticed the "noobs" forum, sorry to not post there, and thanks for being patient!

I'm in the US (my xbox was made in Mexico). Krazie looks like what I need. I have an 8gb usb stick, so I would get something like this and install the krazie 1.1.1 splinter cell explots on it with Xploerer360 and go from there? I don't need anything like action replay?

Thanks again

it has to be 4gb or less unfortunatly..
and even then there is no guarantee that a usb drive will work at all. Some work some dont even if they seem to be exactly the same 1 can work and the other one wont.

you dont need actionreplay unless you need to transfer the saves to a xbox memory card.

-=EDIT=-

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mech-Assault-Game-with...=item1c1da07aa5

that seems to be the kind of thing you could use.
I dont usualy advize this game as there are diferent versions that wont work, but this is sold as a kit.

-=edit 2=-
I will also advize that you burn heimdalls xbox engeneering disk "hexen" to a dvd-r at slowest speed and then use that after you install the softmod.

and remember that you need to update your dashboard if it hasnt already been updated so it has xbox live as one of the options..

great, thanks. Curious if you've played SNES on an Xbox before. Trying to find out if it's slow/choppy without much luck. Reason I'm curious about xbox is, I tried emulating SNES with a dreamcast years ago and it was very slow.

Yeah i remember using Dreamsnes years ago and it was terrible.

Fortunately the snes emus on xbox are pretty much fullspeed. You'll want to use snes9xbox for snes emulation as it's basically the best one available. A new version should be out soon that's even better too.

I know this isn't the answer you want, but by far the best thing to do is to get it fitted with a mod chip. Nowadays this is cheap, removes all danger of bricking your XBox,, and a good mod chip (I doubt the bad ones are still available) also allows you to have hard drives over 120GB (or whatever the limit is) - I've got a 500GB in mine, and I've heard you can have much larger drives in there. You might think you just want to use a few emulators on the XBox, but trust me, it's addictive - you'll want to add more and more emulators and ROMS, and run all your XBox games from the hard-drive and XBMC makes a first class media centre (my hard drive has lots of films (movies) and DVD rips on there, plus my entire music collection.

You can either buy a mod chip and fit it yourself (or get a friend to fit it), or get it done at a shop that does this, although it's difficult to find shops that do this - search the FAQs and forum for advice on which chip is best for you, it's well worth it.

I dont see where the benifits are..
Softmods can do all the things you just said that you need a mod chip for, provided you get the most recent ones.
if you get the correct ones and use the game save exploit installation method. the chances of bricking your xbox are slim to none.
Installing a mod chip your self is more difficult and costly. and can cause more issues if you make errors than if you make an error with a softmod.
I believe mod chips probably do have there place and benefits, but they arent any of the ones that you described above.

modern Softmods dont suffer from the 137GB hard disk limit,
modern Softmods Install a shaddow C: to protect your moded files
modern softmods offer simple installation with minimal choices.
modern softmods allow switching of dashboards
Modern softmods back up your eeprom

the softmod I would usualy advize is krazie's ndure 1.1.1 Followed by using hexen disk to install it again cleaning up the files afterwards.
Kingroach's softmod is also advizeable. but i dont use this one personaly.

Granted a chip will mean that you dont need to relock any new hard disk with the eeprom, and a softmod makes a slimbox mod requier some aditional work.
But by soldering a few points on a v1.0-v1.4 softmoded xbox then using hexen disk to flash your tsop you can switch hard disks without locking them and you can make a slim box.
the v 1.6 xbox would be the only real exception to this rule and would need a modchiop to use unlocked hard disks or work without its dvd player.
But even the 1.6 can use large hard disk with just a simple softmod. You just have to re lock the new hard disk.

Yeah I'm inclined to stay away from the chip. I told you what I wanted to use it for. NES, SNES, and Atari. Maybe I'll go crazy and get some Genesis games or some Game Boy games on there. I don't care, and will never care, about the newer games. And my PC is a fine media server, without all the headaches. In fact, my PC is a fine emulator, but 1) my video-out capabilities to TV aren't too great and 2) my NES/SNES USB controllers don't reach to my couch, which is why I'm going this route.

Question: Assuming the HDD on this guy is 8GB, I should be able to fit all of this stuff, no? There's plenty of free space besides the OS, right? All SNES games (the biggest games) are like 1GB max, so I'm talking maybe 3-4GB of games. Will it fit?

I have aproximatly 740 snes roms these total 988MB
and some where around 640 nes roms they total like 140MB aprox

XBMC can easily be installed on to a softmoded xbox so if you wanted to have it as a media center that streems data from the internet and your pc that's not an issue but as you dont it really makes no diference.

as for the free space you will have on a stock box hard drive.. I cant tell you off by heart, all my softmoded boxes get a bigger hard disk as soon as i mod them. But i do have one crystal xbox i havent modded yet so i will mod that in a few mins and tell you what the free space on E: Il try not to install XBMC as i do the mod but i usualy do so i may auto pilot the steps. But il let you know either way

-=EDIT=-
Ok did a real fast softmod didnt install xbmc or upgrade the mod with hexen and your looking at aproximatly 4.4 / 4.6gb free space.

If MFG. DATE is November 2002 or later you have a xbox v1.1, else you have a xbox v1.0"

i was able to put a ton of the usa snes, nes, gensis, fbl, n64 roms on my nephews stock xbox hdd.

but then again... you can also network to your roms on your computer too with some of the emu's on the xbox too.


you should also look at emuxtras for some fine treats for your xbox also.

Yeah. Definitely.

Feeling lazy I just bought a 100€ (!) mod chipped xbox build in 2004. Thought I'll spare some useful time this way. Tweaking hardware being boring.

Now I just have to mount my 300GB HDD filled with Xport-Madmab emus & Xtras AND Coinops and I'll be a happy man.

Got everything working last night. Mechassault + memory card + controller to cannibalize = $20. Runs great! All emulators are perfect. 4.6GB was about right, which is plenty of room for my purposes. Thanks for everyone's help!!!



Look here:

http://www.xboxscene.com/versions_0.php

You should backup your eeprom to your pc. and probably use hexen to reinstall the mod to guarantee that shadow C is installed proptecting your soft mod, also it will prevent possible error 16.

Its simple enough to install just do softmod tools and then 1 click install either kingroach or krazie and you should be good

Will do.



Sorry but what/where is "softmod tools" ? It's not exactly a unique search phrase

Google "Heimdall's Xbox Engineering Disc". Burn to DVD-R at 4x or slower, cold boot, from there it's fairly obvious, with lots of instructions and in-line help.

oh yeah...

xbox v1.0 w/ modchip with 80gig hdd, 3 controllers... $10.00!!

beat that!!!

Thank you. If I've installed emulators already, will this wipe them?

No. I deliberately wrote HeXEn to make as few changes as possible when updating softmods. It made the scripting loads harder, but means that things like existing apps won't be touched.

There are options on HeXEn that will wipe your disk and start from scratch, but unlike all other rescue discs they are all passcode protected and have at least one "are you sure?" dialogue box to minimise the chances of you wiping your system accidentally.

The options you need don't wipe your E or F partitions, which is where your emulators should be. Options 2.1.x or 2.2.x install a clean softmod, so they replace C, shadow C, the dashboard files on E: (E:\Dash\ or E:\Dashboard\ depending on if you choose Krayzie or Kingroach), and the exploit gamesave files in E:\UDATA\ (but they leave all other gamesaves alone). They add a couple of small folders with some management tools, but nothing that would interfere with any Emulators you have installed on there.

The only limitation is that you need around 200MB free on E before you start, so if you've absolutely filled your E:\ partition with emulators then HeXEn won't work. I say "might", because if your softmod installer already took a copy of the stock C files then you don't need 200 MB, you only need around 10-20 MB (I can't remember the exact number, and can't check because I'm on a train!). In passing, it's also worth noting that it is recommended always to leave around 100MB free on E for the Xbox to work properly. However, don't worry - HeXEn checks for free disk space, and if there isn't enough space it aborts the installation before making any changes - yet another little user-friendly bit of scripting to make everyone's life easier....

Hello,

I finally got around to installing HeXen with the one click install and >200mb space remaining, but now "Emulators" is not an option on my dashboard(s), even though E:\Emulators\ still exists and is populated with all my files. Any suggestions?

paging Dr. Heimdall...

Edit config.xml to include an emulators entry in the menu:

<List Text="Emulators" Sort="On" Auto="On">
<Path>E:\Emulators</Path>
<Path>F:\Emulators</Path>
<Path>G:\Emulators</Path>
</List>

Thank you. Actually I had to edit evox.ini since I like the hexen skin so much Changed the menu to suit my preferences- works better than ever!