Xbox 360 News

The Game Dump Extractor incl. source code was released by Team PI Coder. It allows you to extract Xbox360-ISO image files (x360dvdfs). Just like the original Xbox (xdvdfs) the 360 does not use the ISO9660 or UDF filesystem for the content on game DVDs. This tools allows you to extract the files from an image in the 'Xbox 360 DVD file system' (.360). As there seems to be some kinda confusion about this: it does NOT bypass the protection that prevents you from reading an original Xbox 360 disc on your PC, so you can't use it to access/read original Xbox360 discs.

As this is a cmdline tool, some people released a Windows GUI for it. One is made by Halobox (shown on the left) and requires the .NET framework v2, the other is made by Sonia360 (shown on the right).

So if you hadn't noticed, Peter and I [Ryan] were in Seattle last week -- one of the things we were treated to for driving out to Redmond was an all-access tour of the Xbox facilities, courtesy of our main man, Major Nelson. See if you can notice which color plays a central role in the interior design theme of the facilities. Interesting side note: Xbox HQ is off-site from Microsoft's main campus in Redmond -- apparently they wanted Xbox to function as its own independent creative unit apart from regular Microsoft operations.



We hear when they shut down for the day this Master Chief statue gets powered on and actually patrols the halls with a Covenant Energy Sword.

There is now initial support for the Xbox 360 hardisk filesystem (XTAF) in CVS. This is a patch for the 2.4.32 Linux kernel.

He noticed that while his core system has the EEPROM chip near the CPU, his premium Xbox 360 does not have this chip. However it does not seem to be core/premium related as XanTium's (X-S) premium Xbox 360 has this eeprom chip. On the images below you can see cjack's premium 360 without eeprom on the left and XanTium's (X-S) with eeprom on the right.



Some other interesting stuff he tried:
* He desoldered the TSOP of his 2 consoles and inverted them. The TSOP of Premium soldered in the Core console did not work. The 'ring of light' blinked red ... black screen. He resoldered both TSOPs in correct consoles ... and everything worked fine again.



* He also desoldered the eeprom from his Core Xbox 360 and, a bit unexpectedly, the console worked fine without the eeprom chip! Dashboard version and Kernel versions (backup version too) were the same then when there was the eeprom. Everything worked fine, games boot without problems, Xbox LIVE worked too...

When Maruyama-san took the stage inside the TSUTAYA Q Front retail store, it was to the sound of a hundred eager gamers chanting his name. When Peter Moore took the stage shortly after, it was to the chant of his name, and resounding applause. When he uttered the words "Xbox San Roku Maru" ("Xbox three sixty" in Japanese) the crowd roared. The first consumer in line took the stage, and told his story of how he came to the store late last night to get his number indicating his place in line, and since his office was so close by, he simply stayed there for the evening, coming to stand in line at 4am in the morning to insure his purchase. By 5am, after the train lines opened up for the day, the line stretched alongside the building and around the corner into the next block, enthusiastic gamers huddled against the cold and eying the Starbucks shop standing mocking and empty before them (7am is FAR too late for any coffee shop, especially a Starbucks, to open its doors, no matter what country you're in).