Console Hacking

Want to get the most out of your consoles? All of them?

A long time ago, someone laid some ground rules. These rules stated that companies would make as many electronic components as they could, and then reincarnate these same physical components into as many more expensive devices as possible. By doing this, the companies could then add features to their hardware that had been intentionally turned off in earlier revisions of the hardware or software, making the unsuspecting public pay for an upgrade for which had essentially identical physical electronics. The world wouldn’t knowingly stand for such behaviour for long.

It is no wonder console hacking has become such a popular concept for so many. Why wouldn’t you want your console to be able to do more?

This month, we are going on a console-hacking world tour. We’ll be looking at:

• The anatomy of a console hack.


• Back yard software engineering efforts. Brew, sweet brew.


• Why modding has become so popular.


• The PAL market curse.


• The ‘import companies’ and what became of them.


• Retro-hacks: Making all that is old, new again.


• The dark path ahead: the hypervisor and hardware abstraction layers.

The disclaimer
Before we go any further, we need to get something straight. We aren’t going to teach you to modify your console to play pirated games here. Sorry folks. You walked into the wrong freakshow tonight. If you want that kind of thing, go elsewhere. We are about the hardware, software and technology, not wrecking the games industry that both entertains and employs us! This article is about exploration, understanding and above all else, the passion within the technology. You have been warned.