Why you should get into modding

A few years ago when I started my journey to become a full-stack developer, I went down a rabbit hole that took me to the hardware layer. Specifically to an online community about console modding. In this community, I started to learn about modding and its different use cases.

Eventually, I started my very first modding/hacking project, which I did, on my old Xbox 360 slim console. It was old and had been unused for 5-6 years at this point. So my goal for the project was to enable me to store all my old games on the console. This would spare me the hassle of first having to find the games every time I want to play something.

But before I get into the meat of the project, I want to talk a little about modding itself, to give you a little insight into some of the buzzwords that I use.

What is modding?

"Modding" or a "mod" is slang, and means "to modify" or "modification". It is when you change the content of a "base" device or game. This is not to be confused with "hacking", which is when third-party software or hardware is used to enable a device or game to do something that previously wasn't possible.

In other words, a "mod" uses only what is already there and a "hack", uses outside hardware or software to expand or limit the capabilities of the device or game.

There are two types of modding. Hardware modding (also known as "hardmod") and software modding (also known as "softmod"). Often a mod is done to either extend the life or usefulness of a device or game. But, it can be as simple as painting your device or as complicated as changing how the device fundamentally works.

Is modding legal?

Yes and no. It will depend on the device that you are modding as well as the laws of the country you are in.

Eg. As of this date, here in Denmark they do not care about you modding your gaming consoles as long as you do not pirate or distribute games or hacking tools.

Why is modding important?

Modding in general can help you get a better understanding of how hardware works. Just taking a device apart can help build your curiosity and self-esteem, if you are new to the space, or if you just want to tinker.

I think modding is a useful skill that can be used to bring new life into old and new devices alike and doing a mod can help you learn different skills depending on the type of mod you are doing. But I digress.

The project.

The goal of the project, as mentioned before, is to grant me the capability of storing all of my games on the console, so I do not have to first find and then insert a game into the console before I can play it.

To do this I would first have to upgrade the internal hard disk from 60 GB to 500 GB so I would have space enough for all the games. After that, I would need to apply an RGH hack to the console to give it the capability of saving games and playing them from the hard disk.

The risk of breaking the console, while trying to upgrade it was there and could definitely happen. But if I broke it, I felt like I always could turn it into something else, or use it for parts in another project. After all, I hadn't been using the console for years anyway.

Upgrading the hard disk storage from 60 GB to 500 GB was an easy upgrade. First, I backed up all of the files on my old hard disk onto a 64 GB USB stick. Then I swapped out my old hard disk for the new 500 GB one. From here, I used the stock Xbox 360 system interface to format the new hard disk so that the console could use it. Then the last step of this upgrade was to transfer my files from the USB stick to the new hard disk, in the same way as before.

Adding new capabilities to the console can be done in different ways. But the easiest and the most reliable way at the time was to hardmod the console and then add a reset glitch chip to the system.

The reset glitch hack (RGH) comes in different versions. Mainly RGH 1.2, RGH 2.0,
S-RGH and more recently RGH 3.0. All of which can be done in different ways. But depending on the motherboard in your console, you might want to choose one version over another.

Using this diagram. I was able to find out that my Xbox 360 slim console, has a "Trinity" motherboard, without having to take the console apart first. In my opinion, it was therefore better suited for an S-RGH which is really just an improved version of the RGH 2.0.

Performing the RGH can be a challenge, especially if you haven't done something like this before. I would therefore recommend following a video guide like I did, or one of the written guides that can be found on the forum here.

I won't go into all the technical steps of the hack, since that's what the guides I am linking to are for. But I can tell you that the whole project almost took me an entire weekend from start to end and that it ended up working great.

Conclusion

After I finished the project and used the console for a week or two. I felt glad and proud of myself for daring such a project, let alone finishing it quite well might I add. I felt relieved that it was over but at the same time a thought kept appearing in the back of my head; "what else can I make it do?".

It has now been a few years since my first mod and since then, I have added many new mods to different devices, there among my Xbox 360 Slim console. To name just a few of the Xbox once would be "a custom startup sound", "RGB lighting", and "a new cooling system".

In the end, I did not just end up with a modded console. I gained the skill of curiosity and problem-solving as well as a new mindset that was hungry for knowledge and new challenges.

Therefore my conclusion will land firm on the idea that you should get into modding if you feel ready to challenge yourself or if you just want to learn something new.

After all. You are never too old to learn!