ModChat

ModChat 108 - Dreamcast Doom Prototype, 60FPS PS5 Patches Released, Xbox 360 Marketplace Closing

A bit of old and new for this episode of ModChat! The Original Xbox gets some love in the form of the LPC Mangler and accompanying LPC Recovery Tool released as new open source projects. A FlippyDrive update for GameCube comes about, now showing some amazing promise of being able to retain the DVD drive and have the ODE installed as a drop-in solderless addition! A lost Doom prototype developed on the Dreamcast in 2000 has been found and released. The 60FPS patches for PS4 and PS5 games shown in the last episode have been released, with some amazing ones so far including a much desired patch for Bloodborne! Baryon Sweeper also get additional progress shown, now confirmed to be working on the PSP Go. Finally, we talk about the sad news of the upcoming Xbox 360 marketplace closure coming up next year.

ModChat 107 - 60 FPS Patches on PS5, Retail Xbox Homebrew is Dead, Retro GEM HDMI Mod for PS2

Starting with more Dreamcast news covering the iconic Daytona USA coming back for online play! Xbox-Scene makes a return in the form of a spiritual successor site. FlippyDrive, a new and super affordable ODE for GameCube, has been announced for an upcoming release! Some awesome PS5 news comes in the form of seeing the Secure Processor dumped, as well as improvements to existing tools allowing for some of the first game patches on both PS4 AND PS5 games running on the PS5! More news of Vita unbricking progress is now shown, Retail Homebrew on the Xbox is officially dead, Dolphin Foundation responds to claims about the Common Key, and a super awesome looking HDMI mod compatible with the PS2 was announced with much fanfare and controversy. Finally, Xbox 360 players rejoice over the Call of Duty games being fixed up online... And more?

ModChat 106 - First Official Dreamcast VN Fan Translation & Self-Booting PS1 Backups Possible?!

A new episode for July 2023, but a whole lot of old console related news to talk about here! The Dreamcast ended up getting a big English fan translation patch, with this being the first fan translation for an officially released visual novel on the console! A couple years ago the PS Vita had the KyuHEN homebrew contest, but it looks like it returns in the form of FuHEN which I cover a bit of here. Although nothing has released on this, we take a look at a proof of concept showing full self-booting PS1 backups being possible. The oldest console covered seems to be some old 8-bit Atari computers, which I've never covered on here, but I'd say a homebrew DOOM port is worth covering for it! Insignia, the original Xbox Live replacement service, got a lovely article covering it from GameSpot which we briefly go over here. Finally, the talented Kaze Emanuar covers a place where you can get some of his work... Which is Walmart?

ModChat 105 - Yuzu on Android, Switchroot for All Models, McDonald’s Released a Game Boy Homebrew

Transformations, homebrew games, and more in this episode of ModChat! Starting out with possibly the smallest iteration we've seen of real NES hardware, the TinyTendo has been teased with more details and instructions coming soon! If the Famicom is more your preference, the Famicom Disk System gets an awesome new development with the FDSKey. The Switch gets some great developments for both emulation and real hardware. First being Yuzu's release on Android, and as a reversal we now have Switchroot working on ALL models of the Switch. Super Mario World's decompilation project gets some attention here, as does a new kernel driver for the PS Vita more geared towards the PSTV called "tvikey" to allow for native keyboard and mouse support. Finally we cover not one, but TWO Game Boy homebrew games. The first being an upcoming game from Mega Cat Studios called Kudzu, and the second being a game released by... McDonald's of all companies?!

ModChat 104 - Dolphin, Steam, and the Wii Common Key

Back in March 2023 it was announced that Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator, would be getting an upcoming release on Steam. About two months later the impending Steam release was taken down from the Steam storefront, with news coming out of this being a Cease & Desist sent over to Valve from Nintendo themselves. Now a week removed from the initial takedown, we take a look at what's been going on, what the issue is, and possibly how Dolphin could fix the issue of keys being pointed out as the issue here.

ModChat 103 - Deck HD for Steam Deck, PS5 Game Decryption Now Possible, XBHD for Original Xbox

Coming back for a second episode of ModChat this month, talking about everything from a new Steam Deck hardware mod, to an odd PS4 prototype! First up is the Deck HD for the Steam Deck, a whole new screen upgrade and replacement packing a great looking punch for $99. The PS3 gets an update some people have been waiting for in the form of CCAPI compatibility working up to firmware 4.90. In a world of 60 FPS patches the PS4 gets a Force 30 FPS plugin, which we talk about the benefits of having. PS5 game decryption is now possible on firmware 4.03 consoles thanks to a new release we also discuss! The Original Xbox gets some love in the form of the upcoming XBHD device, but for who is this device exactly aimed at? Finally, we see a pretty wild looking PS4 prototype in the form of the SYRUP-11.

ModChat 102 - Solderless PS1 ODE Announced, Xenium Black Ice Reverse Engineered, Lockpick Takedown

Baryon Sweeper for the PSP gets a big update allowing it to currently unbrick nearly every model of the PSP out there! In more PSP news, CheatDevice Remastered for the Grand Theft Auto games goes open source. Following last month's news of PS1 ODE devices, we get even more news with the successor of the xStation being announced, this time being a solderless solution called the mStation! In original Xbox news, we see the official Xbox Wireless Adapter get reversed as well the Xenium Black Ice being open sourced. Project Stellar also has a lovely enhancement for those special Xboxes out there with upgraded CPUs, with a small showcase of enhanced game compatibility looked at here. The Switch homebrew tool Lockpick has been taken down, so we look into that as well covering what happened and why? A preview of an upcoming GameCube jewel mod is teased from Laser Bear Industries, and finally we take a brief look at the homebrew port of Zelda's Adventure to the Game Boy!

ModChat 101 - de_Fuse for Wii U, Paper Mario Decompilation, PSIO Gets ps-iowned

A brief look at the Switch here with a new update for Atmosphere which adds in a USB file transfer module. We also go back to the Wii U to take a look at progress on the de_Fuse project. Paper Mario gets some appreciation here with the announcement of the US version of the game being decompiled to 100%! PS3HEN gets an update to 3.2.2 with some extra features we take a brief look at. PSIO owners sitting without a new update for years can hopefully celebrate with ps-iowned and upcoming progress on it. Some Xbox 360 hardware gets reverse engineered, with a new look at the Open Demon Project.

ModChat 100 - PS3 4.90 Updates, Retail Homebrew Blocked on Xbox Platform, McFly for Picofly

Unfortunately last month of ModChat was missed so... I figured I'd double up and pack two episodes worth of content into one for hitting the ONE HUNDREDTH episode milestone! Here we discuss an whole slew of PS3 news and updates related to the recently released 4.90 firmware update. Legendary PS1 game The Legend of Dragoon gets a playable PC port, and PS1 games get some more love with mouse support in DuckStation! OPL for PS2 also gets a BIG upgrade in the form of exFAT internal hard drive support. We also cover some sad news with CTurt deciding to retire, but we get a look at his mast1c0re part 2 write-up.  Modern day Xbox (One and Series) homebrew takes a hit where we discuss the recent outright block of retail side homebrew. We revisit the Picofly rumors showing a release and an upcoming piece of hardware teased by the name of McFly! Finally after this long, LONG episode I have a bit of an extended outro reflecting on the inception of ModChat, phases it went through, and the future.

ModChat 099 - PS3 PEX CFW Released, Xenia Ported to UWP, IDE Emulator for PSX HDD

The PS3 gets some love with a new CFW release from developer Evilnat, this being the debut of PEX/D-PEX variants! Bringing back the possibility of DEX CFW on a new firmware for the first time since 4.84! Castlevania: Symphony of the Night also gets some coverage in the form of a new decompilation project, currently in progress at the time of recording. Xbox 360 on the Xbox Series consoles is opened up even further thanks to the power of UWP and the Xenia emulator being ported over! The PSX (not the original PlayStation) gets some exciting news, seeing the possibility of replacing the hard drive with an upcoming IDE Emulator device. We also revisit the possibility of full CFW on all PS3 consoles, although it has come to a bit of a disappointing ending. Finally, we wrap up this episode with a new variant of the OpenTendo project: the OpenTendo TopLoader!