Xbox 360 Homebrew Achieved? Surreal 64, Avalaunch and 500GB Drives

Developers, Developers, Developers. No doubt if you saw the classic video of Microsoft’s very own Steve Balmer gasping for breath after applading 3rd party developers you wont be forgetting it anytime soon. Seems Microsoft wants to make it clear that they love developers who want to take their tools into their own hands and run with it.

While there has been quite a number of great developments recently in the gaming scene, not many deal with the Xbox 360. Custom case accessories are nice, and playing legal backups to preserve your original is a cool feature. However these are “normal” compatability functions of the Xbox 360 and leave little area for exploration. Leading me to my next question… Where is the homebrew? The ability to play backup games on the Xbox 360 is facilitated by using a DVD firmware hack. So in essence, you can still only play Microsoft Official games. Not quite a full breakthrough when compared to the original Xbox.

So while Microsoft is apparently having problems with backwards compatability, hackers are not.

With a modified Xbox you are able to load up homebrew games, emulators for classic consoles as well as custom dashbords (replacement operating system) which you can customize to your hearts desire. But wait! Whats that there in the background? Is it a new menu for XBL Arcade, or something more?

 

Upon closer inspection you will see what appears to be the first homebrew running on the Xbox 360 console. The applications running in the background are original xbox emulators and homebrew applications. So while Microsoft is apparently having problems with backwards compatability, hackers are not. From left to right we have; Surreal 64 (a Nintendo 64 Emulator which provides 3 different engine modes for emulation), Avalaunch (a multi function dashboard, IRC client, file manager, news reader, etc.), and the Xbox 360 Storage Devices Menu displaying what appears to be a 500 GB Hard Drive. Whats your take? These look real to us but then again the internet and crafty photoshop’ers do go hand and hand.

Via XBox Scene

Developers, Developers, Developers. No doubt if you saw the classic video of Microsoft’s very own Steve Balmer gasping for breath after applading 3rd party developers you wont be forgetting it anytime soon. Seems Microsoft wants to make it clear that they love developers who want to take their tools into their own hands and run with it.

While there has been quite a number of great developments recently in the gaming scene, not many deal with the Xbox 360. Custom case accessories are nice, and playing legal backups to preserve your original is a cool feature. However these are “normal” compatability functions of the Xbox 360 and leave little area for exploration. Leading me to my next question… Where is the homebrew? The ability to play backup games on the Xbox 360 is facilitated by using a DVD firmware hack. So in essence, you can still only play Microsoft Official games. Not quite a full breakthrough when compared to the original Xbox.

So while Microsoft is apparently having problems with backwards compatability, hackers are not.

With a modified Xbox you are able to load up homebrew games, emulators for classic consoles as well as custom dashbords (replacement operating system) which you can customize to your hearts desire. But wait! Whats that there in the background? Is it a new menu for XBL Arcade, or something more?

 

Upon closer inspection you will see what appears to be the first homebrew running on the Xbox 360 console. The applications running in the background are original xbox emulators and homebrew applications. So while Microsoft is apparently having problems with backwards compatability, hackers are not. From left to right we have; Surreal 64 (a Nintendo 64 Emulator which provides 3 different engine modes for emulation), Avalaunch (a multi function dashboard, IRC client, file manager, news reader, etc.), and the Xbox 360 Storage Devices Menu displaying what appears to be a 500 GB Hard Drive. Whats your take? These look real to us but then again the internet and crafty photoshop’ers do go hand and hand.

Via XBox Scene