Soft-Modded XBOX / Save games to HDD

[Kevin Mullins]

I have a soft modded XBOX with UnleashX and hadn't come across a "clear" answer on this...

I mainly built this as a media center, music, movies, etc. Most of this stuff streams from my PC due to HDD space.

I only have a handful of actual XBOX games and wanted to just rip those to the HDD so as to not need to handle the discs. (I don't plan on getting too many more)
BUT...... can I save those to my PC HDD and stream those over as well like the other stuff?

I've read a bit about editing the config files, but nothing was clear on whether an SMB share type path could be used for those HDD games. (honestly I haven't tried it yet either)
There was plenty of mention of changing the path within the XBOX HDD, but I didn't see much more. Seems like dvd2xbox mentioned doing this to an SMB share, but I hadn't seen if UnleashX could be re-directed to find them on an SMB share directory.

[ChadTower]

can I save those to my PC HDD and stream those over as well like the other stuff?

Not that I have ever seen.  People drop the filesystem from the DVD onto the Xbox hard drive.

[Kevin Mullins]

People drop the filesystem from the DVD onto the Xbox hard drive.

Yeah, had read tons of that sort of thing. (E:/Games and all that)
Which would be fine if I planned on changing the original drive out. (which I may still do later down the road)

Just one of them curiosities I figured I'd poke at, seeing as you can SMB share dang near everything else. At last count I think I have 6 whole XBOX games..... woohoo...... so wasn't a real biggie.

[ChadTower]

I don't think you can SMB share any apps.  I might be wrong on that.

You can fit one, sometimes two games on the hard drive along with XBMC.  I usually keep one on there and swap it out when I either beat it or get tired of it.

[Kevin Mullins]

I don't think you can SMB share any apps.  I might be wrong on that.

I did notice in XBMC under "Programs" that the SMB shared network wasn't an option for adding as a source, so kinda figured "games" were something along the same lines.
Hadn't really dissected it, but hadn't had a real need to either.

Ah well...... this thing still rocks !!   

[c0rderr0y]

I believe the latest version of DVD2Xbox there is an SMB option infact I think I use to use it myself.  I have not done this in a LONG while but I can fire up my xbox when I get home if you'd like.

[Kevin Mullins]

Well the big thing is I'm already certain dvd2xbox will rip the dvd's/games to an smb directory which is good.
But that's only useful for playing movies and such ..... but not the XBOX games. (except for just saving them)

[c0rderr0y]

Oh okay sorry I miss understood you, but I do have an answer for you.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=218725

Apparently this cannot be done.

[Kevin Mullins]

With all the xbox-scene stuff I've been searching through, I must say I hadn't come across that particular post.

But hey ....... there's still a 0.1% chance..... 

[Hoagie_one]

i dont think so

[DJ_Izumi]

The Xbox can only run one application at a time.  So no software could load a game via network resources because loading the game would thusly shutdown the program that launched it.

It is technically possible, but it would have to be implimented into the firmware.  It would also have to be transparent to the games themselves as they arn't coded for it.  I really doubt anyone would make this effort to put this in mod chip firmware for such little effect.  There may not even be enough space in the firmware to even do that.

[Hoagie_one]

best bet is to drop in a bigger hard drive

[Kevin Mullins]

I plan to at some point, but for now most of what we are using this one for can be streamed easy enough.

[ark_ader]

Three answers for this topic: Yes, Yes and Yes.

In my previous post with regard to Xbox DVD drives - I have a soft modded 80gb damaged DVD Xbox I use as my arcade cab xbox (nearly full), I also have a chipped Xbox with some games already on it (all original honest..) and another two soft modded xboxes I use for XBMC around the house all linked up.

The latest and greatest XBMC is a godsend for my 80gb as I cannot load any games onto it, so I FTP from my PC using Qwix and Avalaunch and copy over the games from the PC HDD.  So Yes you can FTP into a disk less Xbox that way making sure you go on a small holiday to Brazil while the transfers complete. 

The other way is to use the latest cool XBMC (I have the 360 skin) and hookup a chipped Xbox to the network.  XBMC links up the 80gb and the chipped together and you can transfer that way.  Much faster than FTP even though the process is similar.

So I still have the 80gb and the chipped xbox cannot read a Starfighter disc.  No problem. Use either softmod Xbox with stock drives and DVDtoXbox and steam it to my Arcade Server drive via SMB, then to the 80gb via FTP.

I'm sure there are other ways you can do it via the network, but I had a real problem getting any games into a seized DVD drive Xbox, and these solutions all prevailed.  I also have my emulators using SMB but it is flaky as hell and I would just load them on DVD.

Hope this helps.

[DJ_Izumi]

The latest and greatest XBMC is a godsend for my 80gb as I cannot load any games onto it, so I FTP from my PC using Qwix and Avalaunch and copy over the games from the PC HDD.  So Yes you can FTP into a disk less Xbox that way making sure you go on a small holiday to Brazil while the transfers complete. 

You didn't even read his question, did you?  Because you answered a question that hasn't been asked.

He wanted to know if games could be STREAMED.  As in not locally stored on the Hard Drive but stored on other network resources and then accessed live, like how XBMC can view files off of shared folders.  And no, it can't do that.  FTPing data onto the Xbox so the data is stored and accessed locally on the drive is NOT what he asked.

[ark_ader]

The latest and greatest XBMC is a godsend for my 80gb as I cannot load any games onto it, so I FTP from my PC using Qwix and Avalaunch and copy over the games from the PC HDD.  So Yes you can FTP into a disk less Xbox that way making sure you go on a small holiday to Brazil while the transfers complete. 

You didn't even read his question, did you?  Because you answered a question that hasn't been asked.

He wanted to know if games could be STREAMED.  As in not locally stored on the Hard Drive but stored on other network resources and then accessed live, like how XBMC can view files off of shared folders.  And no, it can't do that.  FTPing data onto the Xbox so the data is stored and accessed locally on the drive is NOT what he asked.

Yes games can be streamed like I said, but not Xbox games or apps.  I did read the question and answered it accordingly.

I stream game info all the time from my game server, as there is no reason to waste Xbox HDD space.

Thanks for your input though, as I am sure you meant well by it. 

[DJ_Izumi]

Yes games can be streamed like I said, but not Xbox games or apps.  I did read the question and answered it accordingly.

I stream game info all the time from my game server, as there is no reason to waste Xbox HDD space.

You don't know what 'streaming' means do you?  The word implies real time access.  FTPing games back and forth is NOT streaming because it is not being accessed in real time.  All of the data has to be copied to the Xbox before the game can be played on the Xbox.  FTPing crap forward and backward is NOT streaming and it is not streaming by any stretch of the word.

The important issue is, you did not answer his question correctly.  You said 'Yes, yes and Yes' when his question was weather you could load games off of network locations and play them directly across the network which you can't.  Despite this you said 'yes' to the question anyway.  You're not helping here.

[ark_ader]

Yes games can be streamed like I said, but not Xbox games or apps.  I did read the question and answered it accordingly.

I stream game info all the time from my game server, as there is no reason to waste Xbox HDD space.

You don't know what 'streaming' means do you?  The word implies real time access.  FTPing games back and forth is NOT streaming because it is not being accessed in real time.  All of the data has to be copied to the Xbox before the game can be played on the Xbox.  FTPing crap forward and backward is NOT streaming and it is not streaming by any stretch of the word.

The important issue is, you did not answer his question correctly.  You said 'Yes, yes and Yes' when his question was weather you could load games off of network locations and play them directly across the network which you can't.  Despite this you said 'yes' to the question anyway.  You're not helping here.

I'm sorry you feel that I did not answer his question properly, which I do believe the majority of my original post is accurate.  Not only do I stream games from my xbox I also stream them to my PSP from the same server, which is basically stipulating the same argument except you cannot stream xbox ISO games or specific Xbox apps, but you can stream the game files once the software has been loaded and run via SMB.

If you can contribute to this discussion productively with sensible comments, then I would be very interested.   

[DJ_Izumi]

I'm sorry you feel that I did not answer his question properly, which I do believe the majority of my original post is accurate.  Not only do I stream games from my xbox I also stream them to my PSP from the same server, which is basically stipulating the same argument except you cannot stream xbox ISO games or specific Xbox apps, but you can stream the game files once the software has been loaded and run via SMB.

Would you mind telling me what software you are using to run Xbox games over SMB shares?  Because, I'd love to see this, especially as the Xbox can't even run background applications.  It can only run one application (XBE) at at time and to run one, it has to shut down the last.

[ark_ader]

A typical program (as I used my Xbox in a cab) would be Xport (Insert Flavor).

Hope this helps. 

[crashwg]

A typical program (as I used my Xbox in a cab) would be Xport (Insert Flavor).

Hope this helps. 

See, what you're talking about is streaming ROMs for emulators. 

I only have a handful of actual XBOX games and wanted to just rip those to the HDD so as to not need to handle the discs. (I don't plan on getting too many more)
BUT...... can I save those to my PC HDD and stream those over as well like the other stuff?

Clearly the question posed by Kevin was pertaining to real XBOX games like the ones you would find here:
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/catalog.aspx?st=&g=0&r=0&sd=1&p=1&c=10

[DJ_Izumi]

A typical program (as I used my Xbox in a cab) would be Xport (Insert Flavor).

Hope this helps. 

Xport isn't even a program.  It's the name of the site for a guy who ports various emulators to the Xbox.

More over, this is NOT streaming games.  The XBE itself for these emulators must be on the Xbox itself and if anything, the programs themselves can just access ROM files over the network shares.  But this is absolutely NOT what was asked in this thread.  He wants to run Xbox games over the network, which you can't, which you said you could, even though you can't and even though your 'example' can't do that.  It's not loading an executable xbox application over the network, it's loading a ROM file and running it within the locally stored XBE.

God, I honestly can't tell if you're trolling or just stupid. :/

[ark_ader]

A typical program (as I used my Xbox in a cab) would be Xport (Insert Flavor).

Hope this helps. 

Xport isn't even a program.  It's the name of the site for a guy who ports various emulators to the Xbox.

More over, this is NOT streaming games.  The XBE itself for these emulators must be on the Xbox itself and if anything, the programs themselves can just access ROM files over the network shares.  But this is absolutely NOT what was asked in this thread.  He wants to run Xbox games over the network, which you can't, which you said you could, even though you can't and even though your 'example' can't do that.  It's not loading an executable xbox application over the network, it's loading a ROM file and running it within the locally stored XBE.

God, I honestly can't tell if you're trolling or just stupid. :/

I think you need to take a step back and think about your comments.

[J_K_M_A_N]

It may have been a bit harsh at the end there but I have to agree with him.  You said you can stream regular xbox games without having them on the hard drive. You cannot do that. You can stream some roms for emulators, but not full xbox games.

J_K_M_A_N

[DJ_Izumi]

It may have been a bit harsh at the end there but I have to agree with him.  You said you can stream regular xbox games without having them on the hard drive. You cannot do that. You can stream some roms for emulators, but not full xbox games.

Thank you.  All in all, the only thing ark_ader added to the topic was incorrectly answering the question, thusly offering zero help to the OP and even confusing the issue at hand.  The attempt to argue they were right by sheer technicality while going well out of the scope of the original question.

As such, they just must be either stupid and doing it by accident or trolling and doing it on purpose.

[ark_ader]

It may have been a bit harsh at the end there but I have to agree with him.  You said you can stream regular xbox games without having them on the hard drive. You cannot do that. You can stream some roms for emulators, but not full xbox games.

J_K_M_A_N

I did say that: "I'm sorry you feel that I did not answer his question properly, which I do believe the majority of my original post is accurate.  Not only do I stream games from my xbox I also stream them to my PSP from the same server, which is basically stipulating the same argument except you cannot stream xbox ISO games or specific Xbox apps, but you can stream the game files once the software has been loaded and run via SMB."

Its quite apparent the old gamers out there need to get their spectacle prescriptions updated.   

Actually there should be no real reason not to write up a script that loads an ISO from the game server and deletes it afterward - like a temporary profile.  But if you read the original post looks vague enough for my comment to be of such use.   In all reality I really see no reason for anyone to be abusive, unless they have a psychological ailment.  Its a forum - learn to play nice. 

[DJ_Izumi]

Actually there should be no real reason not to write up a script that loads an ISO from the game server and deletes it afterward - like a temporary profile.  But if you read the original post looks vague enough for my comment to be of such use.   In all reality I really see no reason for anyone to be abusive, unless they have a psychological ailment.  Its a forum - learn to play nice. 

No, it's pretty obvious that his question is if he a can use a dashboard to load a game off an SMB directly.  Like how XBMC can access media files and instantly play them when they are located on the network rather than on the Xbox, he wants to know if he could do the same with games.  The question was answered clearly in this thread 'No' before you came in to muck things up by a saying 'Yes, yes, and yes', then explaining your things with unclear wording.

You even quote yourself saying 'except you cannot stream xbox ISO games or specific Xbox apps, but you can stream the game files once the software has been loaded and run via SMB.'

'Game Files'?  If you meant ROMs in an emulator, you should have just said so.  'Game Files' is really vague and would more likely be taken to mean 'all them other files inside the ISO, other than the XBE file'.  Especially on a site like this?  When we mean 'ROMs' we tend to say 'ROMs'.

The only person who has done wrong in this thread is you, you who utterly failed to word things even remotely clearly and then you go so far as to shrug off responsibility for your mistake onto others by suggesting they have reading issues.

[Kevin Mullins]

Ok fellas.... no need to get all bent outta shape. 
There does seem to be some misunderstanding here and there.

DJ_Izumi - You happen to be correct on what MY intentions were, playing XBOX games and apps by streaming the data "live".

ark_ader - You did have some very useful information to add..... just not what I was needing. Your method seems to be more of a "tranfering" of the XBOX games rather than "streaming" them if I'm understanding it correctly.

Just to be a bit more clear..... I was wanting to rip the few XBOX games I have and save them to my PC hard drive and live stream them from there. No transferring of files involved.
Same as in the movies I have on my PC drive that are SMB shared, click and play.