ModChat

A bit more of a focused episode this time around, but covering mostly PS4 and PS5 developments in the homebrew and modding scene! The first of which being a new (or old?) kernel vulnerability being reported for the PS5. Next up is an awesome and potentially unpatchable PS2 emulator escape for the PS4 & PS5! We take a look at it all here on this episode while throwing in some extra commentary, opinions, and more.

Open source goodness returns for a couple of our topics: the BootMii Loader being open-sourced as well as Sonic Mania's decompilation project being released! The Xbox 360 gets yet another awesome patch this time for internal HDD and SSD users, letting hardmodded Xbox 360 owners utilize internal drives up to 16 TB compared to the previous 2 TB limitation! Finally, we take a look at proof of the first PS3 retail firmware existing thanks to recent discoveries!

The legendary PS3 Toolset has been updated, now officially supporting firmware 4.89 and having many more under-the-hood tweaks to improve the experience further for anyone using it. We also take a bit of a look at PicoBoot, a brand new development for the GameCube using the Raspberry Pi Pico, as I share my own experiences installing and using it. We even get political this episode, discussing Japan's task force dedicated towards video game preservation! TheFloW open sources his own bd-jb implementation, Apollo Save Tool gets a port on the Vita, and even the PS1 gets some love with Stealth Unlocker!

More of a show & tell episode of ModChat, this time around we take a look at a few reimplementations of the recently disclosed bd-jb development for PS4/PS5! This episode is a bit more laid back as we step through the process of getting all the files we need, burning a BD-RE disc for the first time, and testing this on a few consoles. PS4, PS5, and even a throwback to the PS3 are all included this time around!

A lot of excitement for the PS4 and PS5 (and possibly even PS3) with a new entry point showcased using BD-J! This being "bd-jb" showing the possibility of jailbreaking the PS4 and PS5 using a Blu-ray disc burned using the BD-J format. We also go back to the PS1 showing PicoMemcard which is a useful way of making a PS1 compatible memory card you can easily hook up to a PC using a Raspberry Pi Pico! The original Xbox gets an awesome development showing that RAM upgrades are now possible on 1.6 motherboards. The Wii U also gets a pretty awesome Recovery Menu option thanks to the release of UPDIH which can be launched using the oh so familiar Raspberry Pi Pico. We also highlight an awesome writeup covering the Xbox 360's architecture and an upcoming N64 emulator plugin called RT64.

A mostly PlayStation focused episode with a side of Xbox this time around! We first look at the release of Halo 3 Sunrise, a custom server revival of the Xbox 360 version of Halo 3 that's compatible with both modified AND non-modified consoles! PS3 gets a 4.89 system update, as well as PS Vita with the 3.74 system update, so we discuss that a bit as well. PlayStation Home gets a bit of a comeback with a breakthrough showing that it's possible to run it through the Destination Home project... On official firmware!? We also hopefully see the beginning of something awesome with some PS3 modchip related news, possibly leading us to full custom firmware on ALL PS3 consoles! The PS5 also has some announcements with a recent kernel heap overflow disclosed, as well as a method of showing a bit of the console's filesystem! Finally, we take a look at a lovely and flat out delicious looking modded original Xbox in the style of Mountain Dew Code Red. Tune in and enjoy!

This month sees a brief return to the PS1 right at the beginning with a look at MCTOOL, a TonyHax and FreePSXBoot installer! We also see some awesome advancement for the PS3 in the form of Project RSX Boost. Some more enhancement patches for PS4 games come out with ALL of the FromSoftware games getting homebrew patches to fix their framepacing issues! Many more homebrew ports for the Vita come down the pipeline with the release of YoYo Loader, a loader for virtually any game made with Game Maker Studio to run on the Vita. The long awaited 16 TB Xbox 360 kernel patches release to the public in BETA form, as well as some news of a native PC port of Ocarina of Time! Finally, we talk about a recent leak for the Switch, showcasing a Game Boy and Game Boy Advance emulator! Maybe something to come down the pipeline in a future NSO update? Stay tuned!

Going from old to new this episode of ModChat, starting all the way back from the NES with MetalNES, a new transistor level emulator from emulation legend Icer Addis! Gran Turismo had a recent release, but we go back in time with a recently released patch which combined both discs from Gran Turismo 2 into one! The Original Xbox also gets some love with the Titan series of patches, allowing some major storage related data and speed increases! Another HDMI project has been open sourced, this one coming from Ryzee119. An Ikuruga demake gets a port for the Vita, and the Vita itself seems to now be playable on Switch with the vita2hos translation layer! We also perform a demonstration of GoldHEN's latest big feature: a cheat menu! Finally, we also see Uncharted 3's multiplayer beta come back online for the first time in over a decade. Stay tuned!

This month we've got some more PS4 developments, featuring a way of customizing the EMC (Southbridge) functionality as well as a hands on look at Icon Mask. The PS5 also gets a demo here on ModChat for the first time with a WebKit exploit released and working for firmware 04.03! We also have some more Xbox 360 developments with PicoFlasher, allowing users to utilize an affordable Raspberry Pi Pico as a NAND programmer! J-Runner gets a fork in the form of J-Runner Pro, and we even touch up on the PS2 with a piece of homebrew by the name of M-PS2Craft.

New year, same podcast! ModChat returns in 2022 with a new emulator on the PS4 scene, this time around for Sega Saturn games! We also see Apollo Save Tool make a bigger splash on PS4 thanks to firmware 9.00 compatibility. Some more PS5 news has come down the pipeline, looking at Znullptr's most recent tease in regards to gaining kernel level access to the PS5. The Wii U makes an appearance here in the form of Tiramisu, now becoming the new standard to modifying the Wii U and replacing Haxchi/CBHC completely! The impossible becomes possible seeing OpenLara, an open source reverse engineering effort of the original Tomb Raider, ported over to the Game Boy Advance of all consoles. Finally, we poke at Microsoft's mistake earlier this month where a Developer Mode "ban wave" might have been entirely accidental. Stay tuned!

The speculation of a Christmas release has come early: a new PS4 jailbreak working on firmware 9.00 from ChendoChap, laureeeeeee, Specter, and Znullptr! We discuss the release, some exciting bonuses alongside it, and demonstrate it here on this episode of ModChat. Along with discussing the recent jailbreak release, this episode also includes a buying guide of sorts to help people track down a low firmware PS4, similar to the previous episodes made for new firmware updates.

Finishing out this year strong with a whole slew of updates going as far back as the original Xbox all the way up to the PS5! XeniumOS gets a much deserved update for the first time in over a decade, and we see another decompilation project come to completion with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time being fully decompiled. The PlayStation consoles get a lot of love here as well, first off with the PS5 confirmed to have been jailbroken! We also address some rumors of a possible jailbreak for the PS4 coming to firmware 9.00. The Xbox 360 gets some major love in the form of RGH3: a reset glitch solution without a glitch chip?! Finally, the PSP get some awesome new Despertar del Cementerio updates and even has a feature in a new anime?!

Some exciting topics all over the place as old as the PSP to as new as the PS5 for this spooky episode of ModChat! We start things off with yet another PS Vita homebrew port, this being Final Fantasy V's Android build now ported to the Vita. We also get a two-for-one special with a new WebKit exploit released which covers both the PS4 AND PS5! A Sega Saturn emulator for the Switch was discovered and... This one is an official emulator?! And a good one at that?! However the Switch news doesn't stop there, since we've got the Switch OLED Model released, we also got to see that get modified day one! The Xbox 360 sees some love with an awesome homebrew game release of PADDLE MEYHEM! CheatDevice gets the remastered treatment for the PSP, and we finish off with some awesome interactive board layer scans of the Switch hardware now for all to enjoy.

The Vita gets a ton of love this month with a plethora of ports including Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Final Fantasy 3, Final Fantasy 4, and Doki Doki Literature Club! Like some kind of cruel joke, coming off the last episode of ModChat in which the Grand Theft Auto 3 reverse engineering project (re3) was restored on GitHub, it looks like several developers are now being sued due to work on the project. Finally, we also look at some awesome PS4 emulator progress on PC as well as news of older LittleBigPlanet games going offline.

The re3 project has returned to GitHub, and with that comes another awesome homebrew Switch port, this time around for reVC! We also take a brief look at a Friday Night Funkin' port for... The PS1?! A new Xbox 360 NAND programmer has released called the xFlasher 360, beating out the current competition in terms of speed. We also talk about some old Grand Theft Auto mods being taken down, Right to Repair being passed, as well as clearing up the story of thousands of PS4 consoles being used in a warehouse in Ukraine.

The original Xbox scene gets some more love with R3DUX, the open source reverse engineering effort of the Xecuter 3 chip! We also get yet another PS3 firmware update bringing us up to version 4.88 now, with a bit more under the hood than many would expect. Another awesome homebrew port to the PS Vita comes in the form of Bully. Super Mario World gets a native widescreen patch for use with bsnes-hd, and finally we take a look at a Smash character mod.

The Switch's newly implemented Bluetooth driver gets some love thanks to the release of nx-btred! Despertar del Cementerio makes a surprise and long awaited return thanks to balika011 taking the reigns on a new implementation of it. We also get to see an awesome announcement for the Xbox 360 in the form of an incoming patch to allow USB drives up to 16 TB! Finally, we take a look at burning games... On the Wii U?

The developments for the original PlayStation keep on coming, this time around with FreePSXBoot! Shortly after the release of the tonyhax, even better is it seems FreePSXBoot can be combined with tonyhax to provide a PS1 softmod using only a memory card to boot from! This episode also discusses the KyûHEN Homebrew Competition for the PS Vita, some awesome MechaCon related releases, discussion of the CBOMB scare related to the PS3/PS4/PS5, and a FULL Xbox 360 game port found in a couple of the Yakuza games!

Another episode, another release! This time around sleirsgoevy delivers with an updated and working jailbreak working on firmwares 7.50, 7.51, and 7.55 PS4 consoles! Along with discussing the recent jailbreak release, this episode also includes a buying guide of sorts to help people track down a low firmware PS4, similar to a separate video I made covering the 6.72 and 7.02 jailbreaks.

Just a couple of topic this time around for this episode of ModChat, right after the release of ModChat 074! However we got a couple of AWESOME surprises for this episode. The first of which being a new jailbreak release for the PS4, this one being for firmware 7.50. The next surprise release being a softmod thanks to a modified game save for... The original PlayStation?! An absolute shock here, but this is thanks to a savegame buffer overflow found in the tonyhax release!

RetroArch gets a couple of awesome new developments in both the hardware and software departments! First being an upcoming open source cartridge dumper called the Open Hardware Project, and next up being a newly released core allowing for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games to play in widescreen. We also have big news for the PS2 scene seeing the MechaCon being dumped as well as OpenTuna being released, the latter being an open source alternative to Fortuna achieved through reverse engineering. iOS even gets some love this episode with a new unc0ver jailbreak working up to iOS 14.3, and we finish off with some ports! Those ports being the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and ccleste ports to Vita.

Another episode full of games! This time around it seems the Bloodborne 60 FPS patch Lance McDonald has shown for a while now has finally been released for users to patch themselves. MemCard PRO was announced, without a doubt being the most powerful PS1 memory card anyone could imagine. We also look at the re3 project yet again because as of a few days ago, both Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City have been fully reverse engineered! Might as well go over some game ports as well, including Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the PS Vita and Super Mario 64 on the DSi!

Quite a heavy game centered episode of ModChat this time around, with the biggest topic without a doubt being the leak of the long lost GoldenEye 007 Xbox Live Arcade remaster for Xbox 360! Although we do get some non-game related topics in there with Atmosphere working on Mariko Switch consoles, as well as the recent switchroot Android 10 update. As for games, games, and more games? How about native ports of Sonic 1, 2, 3, and Max Payne for a few systems?

It looks like the start of 2021 in the homebrew scene seems to be full of ports, ports, and more ports! TheFloW teases a Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas port to the PlayStation Vita, and we see Grand Theft Auto 3 show up on another console: The Wii U! Sonic CD's Android build got ported to Switch, and we even got a new map ported to the original Xbox's version of Star Wars Battlefront 2. One of the biggest developments here is the release of Baryon Sweeper for the PSP, a Pandora's Battery emulator which seems to unbrick PSP-3000 models for the first time ever! OPL finally reached the 1.0.0 milestone release. Oh, and a prototype game was not only finished but also released, because why not? Magic Castle for the PS1 through the Net Yaroze program is now unleashed upon the world!

TheFloW returns yet again with a second PS4 related disclosure through HackerOne, this time being a limited disclosure as opposed to a full disclosure. Although details are a bit scarce this time around, I explain why I believe with an educated guess this disclosed kernel exploit looks to be present up to firmware 7.55! We also briefly discuss a new permanent UART solution released for the PS4, something awesome for developers and debuggers with jailbroken PS4 consoles!

The day has finally arrived! As of December 16, 2020 a full jailbreak for the PlayStation 4 working on firmware 7.02 has been released. This still utilizes TheFloW's kernel exploit we had discussed months ago, which was paired up with a WebKit exploit and utilized by sleirsgoevy to create the 6.72 jailbreak. Well sleirsgoevy has done it yet again, porting a recently released WebKit exploit to 7.02 and pairing it up a second time to publicly release a jailbreak for firmware 7.02! We also revisit the PS3 for this episode to look at the current landscape for firmware 4.87: PS3HEN, custom firmware progress, and more!

Following up quickly from last week's episode of ModChat, but I decided to cover some topics here I originally wanted to cover last time around. This time we're looking at the 35th anniversary Game & Watch being modded as well as some awesome, quietly released homebrewed game ports to the Switch! The Xbox family returns with SMC+ being released and we take a look at the awesome progress Insignia seems to be making. A new game launcher for the PlayStation Vita, and finally the PSX game Driver 2 being ported to... PC? Stay tuned.

This mostly focused Nintendo episode comes at a time where it seems the company has been on an absolute warpath of issuing takedowns or cease and desists. After seeing countless SX OS resellers being sued, as well as the Team Xecuter arrests, the public is now taking notice with a massive uptick in activity. Starting with The Big House's online tournament being stopped, to a Splatoon 2 tournament barred from being livestreamed, soundtracks being blocked, and even Joy-Con shells in memory of the late Etika being taken down.

Homebrew ports galore in this episode of ModChat! We take a look at some exciting ports of Grand Theft Auto 3 as well as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to the Switch and Vita. The Dreamcast gets some love as well with a breakthrough Atomiswave discovery, meaning arcade games running on Atomiswave hardware can now be ported to the Dreamcast! For a small bit of Switch news, the SX Core and SX Lite chips for newer revisions of the Switch have had their firmware dumped thanks to a recent bug disclosure.

A recently unsealed federal indictment has revealed two top members of Team Xecuter were arrested, also citing a third person affiliated with product manufacturing. We've seen Nintendo really ramp up going after resellers of SX OS related products, especially involving the SX Core/Lite chips, but here is a case unlike any we've seen until now. We take a look at this case as well as a settlement related to UberChips in this episode of ModChat.

Packing a punch this month with a slew of topics ranging from the PS4 to PS2, Vita, Switch, and... Pregnancy tests? The much anticipated 6.72 jailbreak for PS4 has released and is slowly becoming more stable with each update to the jailbreak itself. The PS2 also got some great updated support in the form of FunTuna, a fork of Fortuna which now truly allows for FreeMCBoot on EVERY PS2 Slim without the need for a hardmod! FreeDVDBoot also has been backported to more DVD Player versions, meaning phat PS2 consoles are slowly but surely gaining support for it. PS4 firmware downgrading isn't possible (yet) but we're getting close with a confirmed firmware reverting method now out in the wild! We also now have an awesome new plugin to clean up PSP games on the Vita like never before. Finally, some Switch news, some of it bad news, and some of it just... Weird and out of nowhere? Stay tuned.

TheFloW enters and exits the PS4 scene with a huge development: a public kernel exploit working up to firmware 7.02! Although the latest public WebKit exploit released works up to 6.72, this is still great to have as it allows for a jailbreak currently on 6.72 and again on 7.02 once a new WebKit exploit is released. In this episode I discuss my thoughts on this release, the PlayStation Bug Bounty program, another Vita announcement from TheFloW, and even welcome back a topic covered a few episodes ago.

Trying my hand at a "mini" episode of ModChat in which I only cover one topic, this time around being FreeDVDBoot from CTurt! This is the latest homebrew scene development and release for the PS2, and the biggest one at that. Now making unsigned code run on a PS2 easier and faster than we've ever seen, this utilizes a flaw in the PS2's DVD Player which allows the end-user in the end to simply burn a FreeDVDBoot disc, boot it on an unmodified PS2 like a regular DVD, and launch homebrew as easy as that! In this episode I go over a bit of how it works, why this is important, demo it out several times, and give some final thoughts over what we could look forward to.

Another Switch heavy episode this time around thanks to SX Core and SX Lite units now getting into the hands of testers! Although it isn't all positive news on this front for anyone awaiting a device. Two new lawsuits have targeted a total of 9 reseller sites, all due to selling SX OS and any hardware related to it. With several sites previously offering preorders now shutting down, it looks like this might be a difficult purchase in the near future. We also take a further look at the much talked about Gears of War 3 build for PS3 which surfaced in the form of a full playthrough! And yet another Xbox Live 1.0 revival project?! Yes, but this one is definitely worth paying closer attention to... Tune in for more!

The PS4 scene gets some awesome spotlight this month with the Mira Project now being released, allowing advanced users to compile and get to test out the framework for the future. We also get to see a bit of Lance McDonald's work on Bloodborne with an excellent example of vastly improving game performance thanks to modifications. This episode contains no spoilers any upcoming games, but leaks are discussed with the immense amount of Nintendo console data to leak out, Diddy Kong Racing Adventure, and explaining how exactly The Last of Us 2 had such a massive leak. Oh, and Super Mario 64 will be the new DOOM porting exercise at this rate.

Another PS3 update has come in the form of 4.86, following this all of the major PS3 homebrew tools got their own updates as well! The Switch scene is discussed yet again with a PSA of hacked accounts, shipping updates on the SX Core / SX Lite products, and possibly some all new Switch models?! Going back to the PS Vita scene, rapid progress has been made on a Vita native port of DaedalusX64, as well as some impossible sounding developments to be found in psp2hfw and VR games on PS Vita.

This episode brings some new developments teased in the PS4 scene! One being SpecterDev's progress on the PS4 Toolkit, as well as a new incoming jailbreak from TheFloW? The PS3 scene gets a new toolset as well in the form of PS3 Toolset, released by bguerville of the PS3Xploit team. We also take a look at a new original Xbox Live homebrew project in the form of Noble Live and its recently revealed progress.

Recently a never before seen original Xbox was shown to the public in the form of an eBay auction, with this being an all-in-one console and projector alleged prototype! This episode of ModChat takes a look at the listing of this console, as well as some theories over what exactly this could be. I also take a look at the latest homebrew product to come out for the Sega Dreamcast, being the Dreamcase!

ModChat is alive! In this episode of ModChat I start with the open source release of xaio360, the previously unreleased Xbox 360 AIO glitch chip and SPI flasher from Team REBUG! The original Xbox gets some love in the form of a new announcement from FATXplorer getting original Xbox HDD support. With all the news of backporting games to work on jailbroken 5.05 PS4 consoles, I took some time to discuss this and how it has been happening. Team Xecuter's latest products were announced in the forms of SX Core and SX Lite, making EVERY Switch on the market capable of running homebrew! I also had to touch up on the recent news of a build of StarCraft: Ghost getting preserved for the original Xbox.

The drought is over: ModChat is back! This is just a quick announcement letting you know what to expect, when to expect it, and how often. Stay tuned!

switchroot's port of LineageOS to the Nintendo Switch is finally out in the wild! In this episode of ModChat we discuss our thoughts and experiences with Android on the Switch. We also discuss the long awaited Mariko revision of the Switch, which finally released this August. The 3DS also gets some free love in the form of the Bannerbomb3 release, which we take some time to discuss as well. Now as the title says, and as we talked about on ModChat 054, this will be the final live episode of ModChat as well as Paranoid Coder's last episode as a permanent co-host. Due to this, we wanted to do a proper send off and go out on a positive note. After the topics we discuss are sorted through, we want to do a Christmas episode early... Which means we'll do a drunken Q&A with Modern Vintage Gamer as a guest! Oh yeah, that too. We wanted to go out by bringing on one of our all time favorite guests onto the show for the final live episode. Enjoy~

This episode of ModChat has us looking into quite a few emulation related topics. One of the first being the PPSSPP standalone port releasing for Switch! We also look into news of RetroArch coming to Steam, a Jet Set Radio Future game for PC being built from the ground up, and Super Mario 64 being decompiled. Stay tuned!

This episode of ModChat has us showcasing some awesome community efforts from the PS4 homebrew scene. Some of which include a brand new Linux emulator, a historical PS4 project, and several impressive homebrew titles which have released! We also give our takes on the MegaSD flashcart from Terraonion, more developments in RetroArch, and the major love the Switch has gotten from XDA-Developers!

On this episode of ModChat we're delving into a couple of huge releases which graced the PS3 and PS Vita scenes! First up is PS3HEN, a homebrew enabler for the PlayStation 3 compatible with ALL models running 4.84 HFW! Secondly, TheFloW released his third PS Vita jailbreak about a week ahead of the initial ETA, this being the Trinity exploit chain! Among this we also take a look at A Dark Room's hidden Ruby interpreter on the Switch as well as several more topics we've seen the past few weeks. Stay tuned!

On this episode of ModChat we go over a bit of everything from teaser announcements, to YouTube developments, and of course the latest releases in the modding scene! TheFloW has given the public an "eta wen" as well as more details for an upcoming PS Vita 3.69/3.70 exploit update. We also discuss Nintendo's new tactic of taking down Nintendo Switch related homebrew videos on YouTube. And due this releasing right after ModChat 050... We give PS3Xploit some love with their latest release of tools for firmware 4.84 on the PS3!

50 episodes into ModChat, crazy! We definitely plan to touch base on this milestone, but we of course have to have our modding topics as well. Some of this episode's topics include highlighting a few awesome Vita homebrew games from VitaHEX, a new GTA patch from TheFloW, Switch controller support in Chromium, and more! Stay tuned.

A slower news month this time around, but still some awesome releases and news to cover regardless! In this episode we discuss the teased progress of homebrew coming on PS Vita firmware 3.70, PSXITA releasing their own distribution of Linux for the PS4, a PS Vita downgrader released by TheFloW, and more! Stay tuned.

New year, new month, new episode! Over 4 years of ModChat going strong now! In this episode we discuss RetroArch being ported to 3 consoles, an amendment which could throw a wrench in the modding scene in Japan, and the release of reF00D for the PS Vita! Those are just a few of the highlighted topics we have for this month, stay tuned and listen for more.

A light month for topics this time around due to the third annual end of the year celebration of making this a big Q&A session! For the most part we normally start these with no topics in mind and focus everything on what the audience wants us to talk about, so be prepared for a laid back show. We are wanting to touch up on some big topics this time around though! Including the rapid progression of PlayStation Classic mods and Nintendo going after a few people selling pirated games, such as Soulja Boy! Aside from that, we'll be hanging with you all and answering what we can. Alcohol might or might not be involved, tune in to find out the answer to that.

More news coming out of the Fail0verflow camp with a new write-up detailing possible code execution on all current PS4 hardware models thanks to the console's HDMI-CEC features! We also discuss several new legal changes towards the way DRM can be broken at a federal level. We also get to revisit the PlayStation Classic we fanboyed over with MVG in a previous episode, as news has come out that it uses the open-source PCSX ReARMed emulator as opposed to what many expected to be an in-house, closed-source emulator written by Sony. Other topics include the troubles Fallout 76 could have once it retails, YouTube terminating channels focused on reverse engineering, and more! Stay tuned.