Fastest a console has been "cracked"?

[Flack]

Does anyone happen to know what system/console was cracked the quickest? I'm leaning toward the Wii (approximately three months). Has any major system been cracked quicker than that?

[Mayhem]

If you define it in terms of "playing a game from another region to which the console originated" then probably the GameCube. Modded versions were available almost directly after Japanese launch due to eagle eyed people spotting how the mod was done at a trade show (from what I recall) and a developer had a demostration board out being played on with a slightly obvious "JPN/US" switch on it!

[Superman]

It depends on different things, like the region of the system.

When I was working at an import company, I told my boss when he was going to Hong Kong to get me a mod chip for the PS2. This was before the American version was released, so I wasn't planning on getting anything. When he came back, however, he had the mod chip and instructions. Unfortunately, it was for the Japanese system.

My guess is that cracks occur within days, rather than months. Its just that when the average person hears about them is when they have reached a mass market capability.

[jajaja]

I think the Wii too. Never seen any console before that got several of modchips this fast. Hell, you can even make your own modchip for it, its that simple. Wii is basicly a Gamecube tho so its no huge suprise. This itself will also result on more consoles.

[jonjandran]

The N-Gage system/games were cracked less than 30 days after the system was released if i remember correctly.

[walrusmonger]

The psp was cracked pretty fast too

[jajaja]

*delete, wrong post*

[gepeto]

I say the genesis model 1 break the tabs or shave the cart and japanese game would play and if I recall(don't quote me) change the language from japanese to english

[roushimsx]

I say Gameboy Advance, as everything other than the memory was understood and reasonably emulated before the system even came out (GBAEmu actually came out 6 months before the GBA launched in Japan). GBA piracy/emulation was live and in effect from the first day the GBA games were on sale.

[jajaja]

GBA was never really cracked tho. Most of the games can be dumped easy and then just flash them over to a cart and play. No cracking is needed :)

[MarioMania]

The Super NES(Break the Tabs)

[davidbrit2]

I've heard rumors that the Dreamcast was playing bootlegs within 48 hours of release, but I have no source for that and would be interested in seeing confirmation one way or the other.

[diskoboy]

I've heard rumors that the Dreamcast was playing bootlegs within 48 hours of release, but I have no source for that and would be interested in seeing confirmation one way or the other. I don't think it was within 48 hours... But it was soon after the DC was release that the GD format was cracked.

[ProgrammingAce]

If we're only counting "modern" systems (ie, no NES, SNES, N64, etc) then i believe the record belongs to the Xbox1. The firmware on the xbox DVD drive was cracked within 30 days to allow burned games to be played. Strangely enough, the creator of the hack was able to keep it somewhat secret until the 360 came out.

[Spartacus]

According to Dean Takahashi's books on the Xbox, an MIT doctoral student named Andrew Huang found a way to decrypt the flash ROM used to start up the Xbox and posted it on his website early Dec 2001, a few months after the US launch.
Huang would also soon discover a hidden security key inside the NVidia communications chip that would give him the ability to take complete control of the Xbox. He would eventually publish a book on the subject called "Hacking the Xbox".

Microsoft created a new security system with a new version of the NVidia chip. A British hacker named Andy Green cracked that system within a day. He had discovered that one of the security algorithms Microsoft used had a known vunerability.

[s1lence]

I'm going to say the Wii and the GC were both pretty close, though in terms of true hacks, the Wii is the fastest complete hack.

I would put the Dreamcast in the 2nd spot as it was about 4-5 months for Utopia to release the boot disc.

[Flack]

Yeah, I was going to correct the Dreamcast information that someone else posted. The Dreamcast was released on 9/9/99, and the Utopia boot disc was released on 6/23/2000.

I think the Gamecube was actually one of the last consoles to be modded, no? It was released in the fall of '01 and mod chips were released in the Spring of '05, IIRC.

My intent with the post was more about playing pirated games than breaking off tabs for region mods, but that information is interesting as well.

[s1lence]

Yeah, I was going to correct the Dreamcast information that someone else posted. The Dreamcast was released on 9/9/99, and the Utopia boot disc was released on 6/23/2000.

I think the Gamecube was actually one of the last consoles to be modded, no? It was released in the fall of '01 and mod chips were released in the Spring of '05, IIRC.

My intent with the post was more about playing pirated games than breaking off tabs for region mods, but that information is interesting as well.

Yeah I checked the NFO for the game when I got home from work. I didn't think it was that long for the DC.

[NE146]

I'm leaning toward the Wii (approximately three months).

hmmm I might be wrong, but I'd say it's closer to 4 months.. at least till it was available commercially.

Then again the supposedly iron-clad Xbox 360 was hacked in about 5 months as well. The PS3 remains the last to be hacked in this generation :)

I forget how quickly the Xbox got hacked.. but I remember talking about it on these boards in hushed whispers very shortly after it's launch.... Which is funny since 'course now it's the most popular hacked console out there I think. Who doesn't have a hacked Xbox? :p

[Flack]

hmmm I might be wrong, but I'd say it's closer to 4 months.. at least till it was available commercially.

Then again the supposedly iron-clad Xbox 360 was hacked in about 5 months as well. The PS3 remains the last to be hacked in this generation :)

I forget how quickly the Xbox got hacked.. but I remember talking about it on these boards in hushed whispers very shortly after it's launch.... Which is funny since 'course now it's the most popular hacked console out there I think. Who doesn't have a hacked Xbox? :p

The Wii launched on 11/19; the Wiinja (the first Wii modchip) publicly went on sale 2/26.

Paradox has claimed to have a working PS3 boot disc for a couple of months now. According to rumors, they were waiting to release it until the PS3 launched in Europe. That launch has come and gone and the disc hasn't appeared publicly yet, although both Team Xecuter and PS3news.com have both apparently seen and verified its existance. According to the latest post on ps3news, Paradox is having difficulties getting the disc to work on the PAL PS3 due to hardware differences. I gotta think that if a boot disc comes that doesn't require the PS3 to be modded a'la the Dreamcast, that could be both good and bad news got Sony (good, it'll sell a lot of consoles, bad obviously for software developers).

I'm with you on the Xbox ... I can't seem to find a date for the first Xbox 'sploits and now all my Google searches are reporting back 360 info. I remember there was a save game exploit that a few people used before modchips were released. I didn't buy an Xbox for a while; in fact, the first one I bought came pre-modded.