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Title: Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering by Andrew Huang ISBN: 1-59327-029-1 Publisher: No Starch Press Pub. Date: July, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.99

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (9 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: THIS BOOK HAS IT ALL!!
Comment: This is truly one of the BEST books Ive ever purchased.
It has information not only how the XBox was hacked but
on FPGAs, Cryptography, fabbing PCBs, and so much more!
And throughout, its beautifully written and organized.
If Andrew (Bunnie) ever writes another book, Ill be the first to order!

Rating: 5
Summary: Gentlemen, Start Your Soldering Irons...
Comment: I bought this book, probably as most people do, out of an interest in getting into my Xbox from a software viewpoint. I wound up enjoying it from an entirely different viewpoint - the insights into the obscure process of hardware hacking that people like Andrew Huang love to do. In the process I gained considerable respect for Microsoft's ability to protect their investment in what has become the number two console in the game world.

To put this in context, the Xbox is really a full fledged PC, repackaged and sealed up with security to prevent game copying and to stop buyers from turning in into the ultimate cheap computer. Microsoft sells the Xbox considerably below manufacturing cost, using it as a loss leader to sell games. The last thing they want is for everyone to turn the Xbox into $150 computers. Hackers like Huang saw the opportunity to do exactly that and began the ultimate adventure a trip into the devious mind of Microsoft's engineers. Every bit as exciting as the latest game disk.

This is both the story of that effort - the creation of a fully functional Linux computer and a fascinating training manual on what actually goes into the hardware hacking process. Huang understands full well the danger that he might go over the heads of his readers and makes every effort to explain exactly what is going on. He has a lucid, self-effacing style that is like a geek chat session. For someone like me, who started out with a pile of 'chips' and a breadboard, and then graduated to 16 Kilobyte memory boards it is pure fun to see what has happened in the past 40 years.

I also was astonished at the ingenious subterfuges Microsoft used to hide the Xbox's innards from casual observers. For those who always are critical of Microsoft's capabilities, this is a lesson in hubris. Huang proves that the time honored traditions of hacking as a way to learn and grow still exist, and that not everyone with a soldering iron is out to bring the Internet down. This is probably the most technically informative book I've read in the past 10 years. If you are a 'gotta know' kind of person, this is a must have book.

Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating book
Comment: This is a fascinating book. The biggest revelation to me was the existence of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) which caused the Author no small amount of aggravation just to get the book published. I had never even heard of the DMCA, and the idea that people at MIT are worried about publishing research because it might offend some corporation is frightening to me.

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