>>12603081
It had really competent emulators for the time, sometimes better than they were on PC. I remember the N64 emulator being especially impressive and working better than it ever would on my PC at the time.

>>12603081
i got a softmod for my xbox. it didn't work and i wasted all that time reading about how to take apart my xbox for nothing. looking back i don't even understand why i did it. i had no aim as to what exactly i wanted to do.

>>12603081
mistakes were made

>>12603081
>a little witchcrafty with hard drive swapping
>exciting with all the emulators
>media center shit blew peoples minds
>can still play online and cheat like crazy
>unbannable
>free games out the ass
>fast forward 20 years
>online play is back
>free
>people have learned the original xbox library is one of the best ever
>basically all 6th gen killer no filler, superior to PC versions
>even 4gag and the nintendofags here kneel to it
>homebrew scene 20 years ahead of where everyone else is

>>12603081
You had to go to some obscure IRC channel and type commands to a bot to get temporary access to an FTP server where you could download the latest versions of emulators and homebrews. And that was if you managed to mod your system via hotswapping the hard drive from a PC running a custom boot disc and typing in esoteric commands to unlock, mod and then relock the drive otherwise console BRICKED, or managed to flash the TSOP via a homemade serial port adapter with the right BIOS for the eeprom size or else BRICKED. The barrier for entry wasn't very low.
But once everything was all set up it was absolutely godly for its time. The Dreamcast was the first home console I know of that let you run emulators on your TV but the original Xbox did it 100 times better.

>>12603081
the only person I knew who had one fully kitted out while it was contemporary went to jail for sex crimes