Xbox Debug Unit

[MD]

Apart from playing the game that is on the system, what else can you do with the green box of uselessness?

[LeGIt]

umm .. .you can debug it (it being the game on the system)

[MD]

You mean I can pause the game at any point and watch Kasumi in a stretch pose... and test xbox joypads. :P

[Topic Archive]

Oh dear :(

[wombat]

you can also connect it to your pc with using the xbox sdk. then you can make screenshots/video's etc etc. but there must be an way to play other games on an debug .......?

[ASSEMbler]

Can't you just restore it with the commercial restore and make it a normal xbox?

[asnozz]

you can also connect it to your pc with using the xbox sdk. then you can make screenshots/video's etc etc. but there must be an way to play other games on an debug .......?

cant you just do that with a TV card too?....... I do :smt023

[HI_Ricky]

you can also connect it to your pc with using the xbox sdk. then you can make screenshots/video's etc etc. but there must be an way to play other games on an debug .......?

cant you just do that with a TV card too?....... I do :smt023

no, you can not do that like vram caputer graphic...like this:

[Topic Archive]

Can't you just restore it with the commercial restore and make it a normal xbox?

You could do this, but it's not desirable, or necessary.

...If you know what your doing you can run ALL games, including Retail signed games, on the Debug Kit just by loading a suitable BFM BIOS :)

[virtual alan]

Yup

The one I have has had the BIOS changed so plays "ALL" retail games :smt023

How it was done I don`t have a scooby!

[hl718]

Can't you just restore it with the commercial restore and make it a normal xbox?

If you use the Debug restore disc to configure the unit as a retail Xbox it will not load the XDK Launcher and associated tools (just the Dash) but it will still be limited to running debug titles. There is no "official" way to run retail titles on a debug Xbox.

That said there are more than a few ways to run retail goodies on a debug Xbox (including modding) but that seems kind of pointless. Heh.

-hl718

[ASSEMbler]

an xbox mod chip would make the debug an ultimate debug, no?

[Calpis]

An Xbox modchip can make your retail INTO a Debug :\

[hl718]

While a mod bios will allow a retail unit to run debug code, simply dropping a mod into an Xbox doesn't "make" it a debug.

You would still need to find a debug recovery disc so that you could install the XDK launcher and unencrypt the EEPROM as well as solder an extra 64MB of RAM onto the board. At that point you would be *close* but still not 100% identical. A real debug uses a different MCPX than a retail unit.

-hl718

[Elgr]

At that point you would be *close* but still not 100% identical. A real debug uses a different MCPX than a retail unit.

-hl718

Correct, this means the bios is encrypted with a differeny key than 1.0 and 1.1 xboxs. So, while the same xecutor or evox bios will work on a debug unit, the specific encryptions for the other two are different.

BFM is the way to go in this case. Even that requires you to have the rc4 encryption key for debug units in the ini file.

[ASSEMbler]

The Xbox debug mem card is it special? I have about 100 of them in these yellow envelopes.

[hl718]

The memory units shipped with the debugs are just normal memory units, nothing cool.

Early debugs shipped with a transparent green original size controller (non-S) that was never available separately.

Really early debugs shipped with the prototype "Dakota" controller that had the fancier jewel in it.

Both controllers should fetch interest among collectors.

One thing the memory units may be (assuming the ones you have a used and assuming they were acquired from a former dev house) is ROM keys. Many larger developers will key their discs to either a USB dongle (PS2) or Memory Card (Xbox) with a special file on it. Without the card the rev won't run.

-hl718

[gadget]

An Xbox modchip can make your retail INTO a Debug :\

That's the route I was forced to take since I couldn't track down one of the Xbox dev units. It's acceptable enough for dev work.

[macwest]

I have developed on both. The big advantage of a debug box is that you can ghost the system to the different bios versions released and test on it making sure there are no conflicts on each bios version. Also if you mess up for some reason you can ghost your machine and be back up in a few minutes. A modded system is much tougher. The devlopment box gives you the advantages of the debug but also a seriel connection allowing you to do more extensive debugging

[Polak]

Xbox Dev Kit is much higher than debug kit. It comes with SCSI, USB and RS232 ports. SCSI is much faster than LAN, so I can on Dev Kit even play games from my HDD in PC computer.