The seventh generation of consoles headlined by Microsoft’s Xbox 360 may not be so dead after all. Despite Microsoft’s determination to end its elder console’s long lifespan by killing off the Xbox 360 game store last year, prospective modders now have a new way to access a horde of homebrew content without having to crack open the near-20-year-old system’s shell. All you need is a little know-how, a USB drive, and a fair amount of patience.
The software is called BadUpdate, and you can get for free on the creator’s GitHub page (first noted by The Verge), To get it working, you’ll need either a copy of Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, or the demo for Rock Band Blitz. You’ll need to format the USB drive to FAT32 format, but after that the instructions are relatively simple. The exploit should work on any console updated to dashboard version 17559, the latest version of the Xbox 360 software.
Running this hack will enable “unsigned code,” effectively meaning any software that isn’t hogtied by the Xbox 360’s hardware locks. So you could use it to run the Xbox 360 Homebrew Store straight from the console. This will let you access a huge number of emulators, homebrew apps, and customized dashboards.
There are other ways to exploit an Xbox 360, including the old RGH exploit, otherwise known as Reset Glitch Hack. The reason the BadUpdate software hack is great news for prospective modders is you no longer need to physically open up the console or do any hardware modifications.
The main issue you’ll run across is, if you ever turn your console off, you’ll need to re-run the exploit again. Other than that, the exploit should work on consoles with the Winchester-model Xbox 360, which were the latest version of the console Microsoft released back in 2014. The YouTubers at Modern Vintage Console also confirmed BadUpdate works on the most-recent version of the Xbox 360. The channel offers a video tutorial. They noted it takes around 10 to 15 minutes to run it successfully, requiring several attempts.
The original Xbox was even more easily moddable without needing to dig into the system’s guts (its how we got XBMC!). In that case, you need to use a USB drive, a software pack called Softmod, and a copy of the original Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. This let you play homebrew titles, load up your own custom menus, and—of course—play modded games. That software mod was more persistent than BadUpdate, but the RGH process for the original Xbox also involved soldering resistors on a motherboard.
Modding old consoles is a right of passage for many who want to experience all the homebrew and hardware hacker scene has to offer. If you have an old Xbox 360, why not give it a try, if nothing else than to grab your old Xbox 360 controller off its dusty shelf for the first time in more than a decade.
