ModChat

Here's to the first episode of 2023! We take a look at a whole slew of systems, first of all we cover ENLBufferPwn being disclosed impacting the 3DS, Wii U, and Switch! The DSi also gets some WebKit appreciation in the form of Stylehax, making access to homebrew easier than we've ever seen until now. PS4 gets some love with the PS4 CFW Toolkit release for reverse engineers. HENlo after being teased/announced years ago finally gets a release as well, which we see turned into a full jailbreak with HENlo-jb. The Vita gets even more love with NetStream, a new video player and streaming app for the console! RPCS3 gets a fantastic announcement, covering that ALL released PS3 games at minimum run on the emulator! L4T Ubuntu get an awesome release for ALL Switch models, allowing L4T Ubuntu to work on all models of the Switch for the first time. Sonic the Hedgehog gets a demo of all things working natively on the original PlayStation, and we shine a light on a relatively new English patch for the Japanese release of Aconcagua. Finally, we delve into an article from Eaton showing how Microsoft attempted to speed up the Xbox 360's Dashboard late into the console's lifecycle.

To finish off the year we've got some old hardware becoming new again, upcoming projects being announced, and a neat looking yet credible rumor to investigate! We take a look at the latest beta of GoldHEN together with SCANLINES being added in, perfect for retro titles! The RP2040-Zero makes an appearance possibly showing a new affordable hardmodding method for newer Switch models using an off the shelf component. The Raspberry Pi Pico makes an appearance with the announcement of Picostation, and open source ODE (Optical Drive Emulator) for the original PlayStation! Finally, we see what The Mod Shop has been up to with reversing and releasing open source boards of the original Xecuter 3 components!

A bit late this month, but we're back for another episode of ModChat! This time around discussing the recent announcement of SD2PSX, a brand new open source hardware and software solution for the PS1 and PS2 using the memory card port. Supporting FreeMCBoot, OpenTuna, FreePSXBoot, and more to be announced! We also take a look at Gran Turismo Sport's online only save access being liberated to work offline with an awesome patch, and the introduction of a new plugin based game patch loader for GoldHEN! Cemu is looked at briefly with it recently going open sourced. We also check out some awesome, long awaited Vita ports of mobile Dead Space and Mass Effect games!

More developments coming quickly in the PS5 scene! We've had a WebKit vulnerability released publicly in the past, but this time around we now have a kernel vulnerability out in the wild, released, and usable! Although this is still early on and similar to the early days of the PS4 on firmware 1.76, this is still a start which will help developers and reverse engineers. Don't expect anything such as GoldHEN so early on, there's still a lot of work to be done, but quite a bit has already been completed to get to this point! This episode will be more of a show & tell episode discussing the recent release, showing it in use, and even doing some testing with an updated BD-JB implementation. Although BD-JB has been released before, we now have our first public release with kernel level access baked into it!

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!