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Week of January 12, 2003
Duncan leaves Xbox team
>> Another one bites the dust ..
From theregister.co.uk
[QUOTE]
The effusive head of Microsoft's Xbox division in Europe, Sandy Duncan, has announced his intention to retire from the games industry this year in order to focus on his personal life. Duncan has headed up the European Xbox and Home Retail divisions since early 2000, and has been with Microsoft for 16 years.
He will continue to work with the Xbox team until this summer, when he will be replaced by Eduardo Rosini, formerly the Argentinian general manager of Microsoft and latterly a key figure in the Xbox operations in the USA.
[/QUOTE]
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(Saturday 18 January 2003 22:10 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
New release: neXgen Remote v2.0
>> What's new/fixed:
* Fully Customizable Skins
* Windows 9x/Me/2k or Windows XP selection on startup
Official Site: here[cx2.cxgames.co.uk]
Download: here
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(Saturday 18 January 2003 11:49 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
New Release: xbepatch for unix
>> XboxDev released debug->retail xbe patcher for linux fully opensource!
[QUOTE]
A debug to retail patch program has been released, as source code. Has been tested with cygwin, however of course it should work with any other unix based system (i.e. linux). Just extract , and type make, to compile the app into an executable. Download it here. Thanks to yuv422 for the source code release, download should be linked sometime soon in the downloads page, whenever I get around to reinstalling dreamweaver (the html is a mess!).
[/QUOTE]
Official Site: here[xboxdev.xemulation.com]
Download: here
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(Saturday 18 January 2003 11:46 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Work In Progress: Dreamix
>> For those who forgot what's Dreamix:
[QUOTE]
Project Dreamix will turn the Microsoft Xbox into the ultimate home entertainment center. Right now we are in the alpha phase of course, but below is what we plan to complete before Beta release:
* PVR Features (Scheduled recording, fast forward, rewind, pause Live TV)
* Video Playback (Based on Linux MPlayer - all popular file formats)
* Audio/Music Playback (Based on Linux MPlayer - all popular file formats)
* Image Viewer (Slideshow + Photo album)
* Setup Menu (All configuration will be done with the Xbox controller and/or DVD Remote with the use of a graphical keypad)
Although Dreamix will be based on Debian Xbox-Linux, all necessary libraries will be included in the distribution of the CD image and will auto-excecute upon being inserted into the Xbox DVD drive. This will allow for a friendly install by the average user.
[/QUOTE]
Today's update:
[QUOTE]
Well, good news! We finally got our Boot Logo code finally working. Still experimenting with 640x480 resolutions though. We will crack it eventually. We are currently in the process of development changes in our software, we want to expand compatibility even further. Yes, Xbox is our main platform; we will not steer away from Xbox ever. Here are our supported platforms we plan on getting fully supported with our software.
* Xbox - Main Development
* PC - Secondary Development
* Mac/Linux - Third Develpment
Progress Update:
We are currently have main menu design interface ready and TV Overlay design interface complete. We are currently working on the TV Guide design interface and should be releasing screenshots tomorrow.
* TV Guide - In Progress
* TV Overlay Design - Complete
* Main Menu Design - Complete
* Boot Splash - Complete
[/QUOTE]
Official Site: here[sf.net]
Download: not yet released
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(Saturday 18 January 2003 00:20 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Microsoft says Xbox sales on track
>> From CNet news.com
[QUOTE]
Mitch Koch, vice president of retail sales for Microsoft's games division, said the company has sold 8 million Xbox units to date. With the holiday sales season over, Microsoft expects to sell about a million more by the end of the company's fiscal year June 30.
"We expect to finish our fiscal year with just over 9 million units sold worldwide," Koch said.
That would bring lifetime sales in line with the lower end of Microsoft estimates, which forecast an installed base of 9 million to 11 million Xbox units worldwide by the end of the fiscal year.
The Xbox has been nearly invisible in Japan, selling slightly more than 300,000 units since its debut there last March.
Koch said Microsoft is still committed to making the Xbox a success in Japan and is counting on Xbox Live, the new online gaming service for the console, to help distinguish it from competitors.
[/QUOTE]
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(Friday 17 January 2003 16:39 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Work In Progress: XBConnect 3.0
>> From xbconnect.com
[QUOTE]
Work on XBC 3.0 is going well. Still no word on a release time. So much to do and so little time. I am concentrating on adding peer to peer support and improving the chat interface. I may be redesigning the XBC server as well to support more options.
We have also added a trivia game to our trivia channel. Its a nice place to drop in and kill a few minutes while waiting for your game to get together. Of, course, we are keeping stats too.
[/QUOTE]
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(Friday 17 January 2003 15:55 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
isomaker v2.0 released!
>> What's new/fixed:
* Total redo.. it appears that peeps were making a iso of the folder, not the contents of the folder, so this should solve this...
Official Site: here[x-forums.co.uk]
Download: n/a (using GDFimage - MS copyright)
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(Thursday 16 January 2003 23:39 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Xecuter2L Contest Part1 Winners
>> Here are the winners of the part1 (50 X2L) of our X-ecuter2 Lite contest.
Team Xecuter (http://xecuter.gotmod.com/) gave us the modchips and we will send them.
Forum nicknames:
jlm5151 Captain_Dunsel hblix djdgd00d00 Shock-Zone 047025n echto zt321 geespot mniax keon houbie krashco Ali-Wise jackrussell0232 snkoosj gilimeno carwash kryptonik Col.Havoc atlanticblue coach Xbox_CLL derfybzh j0j0 pudbuq imaya Anastrophe RiceCake zedsterinwoosac drdata TheVaNdaL spyd4r xlcusiv bjork Sim jymbob imnotatfault plas netfiend {ErO} SkinNBones Conrad toky x-power n0lbert Meee overkill Nakor
#cheaters found in initial 50 winners : 6
All those persons have been mailed.
If you see your forum nickname above and you didn't get my mail , contact me ASAP.
(note: yahoo!mail and hotmail users might have to check their "Bulk/Junk mail folder" as all 50 mails have been sent in 1time)
These nicks have been RANDOMLY chosen by our script that you can find here if you want to see it. (it's another random-method then I used last time. There are alot of ways to do something random :) )
Part2 (next 50 X2L mods) will start soon ...
Thanks goes to the guys at Team Xecuter for their support!
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(Thursday 16 January 2003 17:57 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Xbox Live Makes its Debut in Japan
>> From japancorp.net:
[QUOTE]
Tokyo (JCNN) - Microsoft Japan launched online game service Xbox Live at 10:00am on January 16. The Xbox Live starter kit hits the store shelf at retailers across Japan.
Available at a suggested retail price of 6,800 yen ($58), the kit includes Xbox voice communicator, a one-year service fee, and two game titles "Fantasy Star Online Episodes I&II" and "Zuno Taisen Live (Brain Battle Live)," and a collection of four table games: mahjong, go, Japanese chess, and reverse game.
Capcon and Microsoft also brought to market one title each. Victor Interactive Software, From Software, as well as Microsoft, are expected to release new titles after January 16.
[/QUOTE]
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(Thursday 16 January 2003 11:04 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
XB-ftp v0.59 released!
>> What's new/fixed:
* added text editor/text viewer to the filehandler part, keyboard only for edit, navigational with arrows / pad.
* changed some minor issues to the socket system, might have to rewrite that one again.
Official Site: n/a
Download: n/a (build with MS SDK)
Thanks to Hyper Gamer for the mail.
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(Thursday 16 January 2003 10:34 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
XBtool 0.8.7 released!
>> Yep , already a new version!
What's new/fixed:
* fixed multimonitor issue with the color popup
* text error in the color popup
Official Website: here[skyscraper.fortunecity.com]
Download: here
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(Wednesday 15 January 2003 15:21 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
XBtool 0.8.6 released!
>> It looks like I missed a few releases of the bios-mod tool.
What's new/fixed v 0.8.4:
* Better error messages
* Fixed Profiles.ini for D.6
What's new/fixed v 0.8.5:
* Color picker for setting the color of the word XBOX
What's new/fixed v 0.8.6:
* Color picker for X edge
* Purple option
* Automatically sets appropriate edge and "XBOX" colors when a color radio button is clicked, so you don't have to go through the color pickers if you just want a matching motif (you can then change these if you like).
* Profiles.ini changed again. I didn't have time to do a D.6 profile, due to the many changes in the way the profiles.ini works.
* Various internal reworkings.
Official Site: here[skyscraper.fortunecity.com]
Download: here
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(Wednesday 15 January 2003 13:55 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Pictures of final X-ecuter2 Pro & Pogo Pins
>> Team Xecuter released pictures of the final X-ecuter2 Pro & and the pogopin (no solder) addon (will work on both lite & pro).
The X-ecuter2 Pro Final Design.
The jumper is for the flash protection. Bios selection & enable/disable will be done with the external switches. The expected shipping date to the resellers is 25 january 2003
The Pogo Pin Addon.
[QUOTE]
After a LONG wait the factory has finally received the components required to make the pogo pin adapters. As you can see from the pictures everything will be supplied including a locking washer, extra sized screw & pin header), and also notice the PCB design. We've made this as easy as possible to align without any fuss, and it includes a mod disable switch as per the X2 LITE design. The factory in China will begin shipping to all resellers around 25th January. One other design change has been made to the X2:PRO External Controller, due to popular demand we have made the PCB black to improve the aesthetics. We also expect the X2:PRO to be shipped at the same time.
[/QUOTE]
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(Wednesday 15 January 2003 11:47 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Microsoft promotes ATI as Nvidia Xbox 2 replacement
>> From theinquirer.net:
[QUOTE]
ANALYSTS AT THE Dundee Securities Corporation said today that Canadian company ATI was "well positioned" to pick up future Xbox business.
Obviously, Microsoft is trying to lever Nvidia and ATI against each other – both of them being suppliers, or would be suppliers.
But we wonder who is playing hardball here. Nvidia faced off Microsoft before. Will ATI crumble for the extra revenues the next Xbox will bring?
We suspect Microsoft thinks its power is as it was before. Tell its suppliers what to do, and wait for the fallout...
[/QUOTE]
Thanks to J.S. for sending us this link.
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(Tuesday 14 January 2003 22:27 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
XboxMediaPlayer 2.2 Manual
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(Tuesday 14 January 2003 12:58 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Work In Progress: Xecuter2 Bios Manager
>> From Xecuter Forums:
[QUOTE]
As promised Xecuter bring you professional software along with its Professional hardware.
We've been working on this windows app for the last week - I think you'll all find it VERY useful
The XECUTER2 BIOS MANAGER (X2BM) is basically the first windows app that is dedicated to both Bios Image creation & management along with full and comprehensive BIOS programming functions. The great thing about this app is that you don't have to have an Xecuter mod to use it - it's free for everyone to use for all their BIOS Managment functions (good riddance to copy /b eh ? )
BIOS IMAGE CREATOR:
* Graphical display of bios banks (256k / 512k / 1024k)
* Easily create a 1MB image with whatever bios's you choose
* Save images in 256k / 512k / 1024k format files
* Read bios file to view contents of image
MD5 MANAGMENT:
* Database of all known BIOS's
* If unknown bios easily create its name with a simple click
* All bios names and MD5 Hash stored in easy to share BIOS.ini file (used for evox.ini and identification in X2BM)
X2 PROGRAMMING:
* Erase / Programme / Verify Options
* 100% Compatible with Win9x / 2k / XP (No extra direct io sys setup needed)
* Fast 1MB Programming & Verifying (2 Minutes)
* Program and Erase 1x256k bank at a time for optimum flash time (in dev)
To Be added / completed:
* X2 LITE Programming functions
* Matrix / Cheapmod Programming functions
Heres a sneak preview (see picture below) - still a bit more to add / change about but we should be ready for release in the next day or so.
We value your comments and suggestions and will do our best to answer all your questions. If you can think of a feature that we haven't listed - tell us about it, you never know we may add your idea
[/QUOTE]
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(Tuesday 14 January 2003 09:36 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
EU sales: Nintendo & Microsoft both claiming #2 position
>> From gamesindustry.biz:
[QUOTE]
PlayStation 2 sold more than 6.5 million units worldwide during the month spanning Thanksgiving and Christmas, Sony has announced. That’s compared to five million units during the same period the previous year.
Once again Sony has rewritten the book on the console market, breaking virtually every record associated with hardware sales in Japan, North America and Europe.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and Nintendo have both claimed the No.2 position, but the latest data suggests that Nintendo has the upper hand. In the UK though, figures seen by GI.Biz put Xbox well ahead of GameCube.
[/QUOTE]
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(Monday 13 January 2003 23:27 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
New Tutorials
>> 4 new tutorials for you!
* Quick and Easy HDD Blinking LED for XBOX Case
by wmz & stanz // read now
* External Matrix Switches With Front LED Indicators
by wmz & stanz // read now
* How to change your Xbox name using WinHEX
by vokal4 // read now
* Change the name of a game in in Evox or NeXgen
by GrumpY // read now
I still have a several tutorials in my mailbox , they will be upped later.
If you made a tutorial (hardware mod , homebrew util manual , ...) and you want to share it , mail it to me (zipped html/gif/jpeg , txt , doc , pdf).
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(Monday 13 January 2003 23:01 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
The Neo Project : Update
>> From theneoproject.com:
[QUOTE]
We are currently working on version 1.0.750 which will be a cross platform client. It will work with Linux, MacOs, Windows, Sun, and on your Xbox! We should have a private beta available soon. Our data servers are currently offline until version 1.0.750 is online. Last we counted we have around 25,000 computers, in order to keep the data flowing we had to do a few modifications, it will be available soon.
[/QUOTE]
The private beta is expected around 15 february 2003.
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(Monday 13 January 2003 18:46 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
EvoX Skinner 2.0 Test Release 1
>> From wildabeast.net:
[QUOTE]
This has been sitting on my hard drive for a while doing no one, but me, any good. This version is full of bugs and some options have been disabled due to being incomplete or extremely buggy. Run time files, instructions and an installer will be included in the stable release. Until then extract the exe to a new directory and run it.
Report any problems you have in the forums.
Known issues are:
Text placement isn't always correct when a skin is loaded. Loading the skin a second time usually fixes this.
Text colors are sometimes incorrect. Sometimes black text will show up as white, etc.
Region settings have not been taken into account yet. This may crash on systems that use a "," for the decimal place and a "." for character seperators.
This version is extemely unfriendly at smaller resolutions. You will probably have to run at 1024x768 to get it to fit on your screen.
Use this version at your own risk!
[/QUOTE]
Official Site: here[wildabeast.net]
Download: here
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(Monday 13 January 2003 18:07 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
X-ecuter2 Lite in stock - ready for new orders
>> From Extreme-Mods (official Xecuter reseller)
[QUOTE]
We are almost all caught up with our backorders. If you do not receive a tracking number tonight you will have one tomorrow evening. We will have this item in-stock and ready to ship in 24 hours by tomorrow (1-14-03). We are looking forward to carrying the X2:Pro here shortly and will start taking preorders in about 2-3 weeks. We will of course keep you updated :)
[/QUOTE]
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(Monday 13 January 2003 17:47 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
X-ecuter2 Lite flasher for Windoze XP & 2k
>> Team Xecuter released the schematics & application to make the homebrew cable that allows to flash your X-ecuter2 Lite modchip via PC some days ago.
The software didn't work correctly on windows2000 & windowsXP so they made a new version for MS windowsXP/2000 that you can download from the Xecuter forums
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(Monday 13 January 2003 16:02 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Media X Menu 0.9f (Beta) released!
>> What's new/fixed:
* Moved "Font16.xpr" internal to the xbe, so no media directory is required anymore.
* Added the ability to put passcodes in the game entries. This will allow those with children to prevent easy access to games without having to enable parental controls or prevent unauthorized access to programs. (I added this so my 10 year old son would not have easy access to BMXXX)
* Changed IR remote "boot to dash" function to "Title" (Was "0" key)
* Added support for MXM and game help screens. There are 3 built-in help screens for MXM. See "Entry" and "Help" configuration for more details on these options.
* Help for games may also be auto-config'd like the screenshots, using MXM_GHxx.* where xx is a value from 01-99 (must start with 01 and continue contiguously) and '*' is a valid image extension.
* A TitleDelay of 0 prevents the display of the title screen.
* Added a TitleImage.xbx icon to be 'friendly' with NexGen. It will install the icon on startup, if it doesn't already exist (internally generated, no extra files needed).
* Cleaned up the launch code a bit. Now it checks to make sure a title exists before launching it; if the xbe does not exist, it puts up a detailed message and kicks back to the menu screen.
* Added ability of AutoConfig items to pull title and description from the Game's ID. A few titles have regular descriptions (in many cases, this is the part of the title following the colon) and for those without, the publisher's name can be used in their place.
* Odd, for some reason, the system was not initializing all of the drives (T:, U:).
* MXM should run without any MXM.xml file or support files. If it doesn't find entries, it will display the likely entries it finds for a dashboard.
* A new switch "AllowVideoSound" allows you to pause the music when videos are shown as screenshots, so the audio may play (good option to use on DVDs, too, due to speed/disc access issues)
Official Site: n/a , for more info go here
Download: n/a (build with MS SDK)
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(Monday 13 January 2003 08:16 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Fix for problems with XBMP 2.2 & Evox IGR
>> Several people reported there are problems if you try to run Xbox Mediaplayer 2.2 from Evolution-X with IGR activated (software-IGR).
Xbox Mediaplayer released a fix to solve this problem.
Official Site: here[xboxmediaplayer.de]
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(Sunday 12 January 2003 21:59 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
UAEX v0.7 released!
>> What's new/fixed:
* added directory support when browsing for floppies
* added multiple resolution support: 640x480, 720x576, 720x480 (Thanks to japennan)
* added 2nd controller support (you need to enable it in the options menu)
Official Site & Sources: here[sf.net]
Download: n/a (build with MS SDK)
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(Sunday 12 January 2003 20:00 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
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