XBox Alpha Development Kit Build Log

[xicat487]

I know it probably doesn't work but I was going to try anyway.  I just like messing with hardware.

I believe this is due to the GeForce 3 only having directx 8.0 support and retail NV2A has 8.1

AIT at the time released the Radeon 8500 with 8.1 and resulted in a quick move to the GeForce4. In all reality maybe shortening the lifecycle of the xbox due to chip production Nvidia did not want to make anymore.

[Rob Black]

Awesome info. I would like to build my own XBOX Alpha dev kit eventually.

Linus just uploaded a video regarding the alpha kit. 

https://youtu.be/c-J229FzKXk

 

[KaosEngineer]

On 5/15/2020 at 8:08 PM, xicat487 said:

Does anyone have the May 2001 ISO as mentioned in the directions ? The forum download only has December 2000 and February 2001.

They are on mega.nz along with many other versions of the XDK.

Check PM.

 

Edit: Old thread being reopened almost 2 years later.

[Puritan001]

15 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

They are on mega.nz along with many other versions of the XDK.

Check PM.

 

Edit: Old thread being reopened almost 2 years later.

Yeah, linus tech tips showed an alpha 1 and 2 and built one the same..  

 

Unrelated, one came up for sale in my area and I was second.  First guy got it for 500, got it booting then sold it for 15k to a museum or something.  Typical me second place gets nothing. Lol

 

Now parts used for building an alpha clone will get rare and prices will soar after linus told everyone how hu?

[Rob Black]

8 hours ago, Puritan001 said:

Now parts used for building an alpha clone will get rare and prices will soar after linus told everyone how hu?

Thats how it goes typically...... Some big Youtuber will talk about some product and most of the time people will go out and buy it. 

[sajtcraft]

How can i do it with a vm making app

Like vmware or virtualbox

[sajtcraft]

Please help i really want it to try out but im not risking a hard drive

[Bowlsnapper]

4 hours ago, sajtcraft said:

How can i do it with a vm making app

Like vmware or virtualbox

Doubt it'll happen.

[slycooper124]

from what i can tell you, i tried running one with a cf card and the kit didnt like it. and i heard codeASM and one other tried looking into a emulator and had no success. im working with a buddy to get the sound card reverse engineered and sofar it looking promising. my buddy and me hope to release the pcb schematics and parts list really soon. for now you can buy premade boards from dirtypcbs.com in packs of 10.

[biddle]

So if you used newer components because it's 2023 now and old stuff is harder to find now, would it not work or just be too fast or what?

[Bowlsnapper]

6 hours ago, biddle said:

So if you used newer components because it's 2023 now and old stuff is harder to find now, would it not work or just be too fast or what?

The hardware you build with is what the alpha kits for the Xbox were built with. They are basically the same hardware, just in PC form factor. The software that is meant to be installed with this stuff is designed to run on it. It would not run on a regular Xbox, as far as I know, just like a regular MS dash would not run on an alpha kit. Newer hardware is definitely not an option. There was only one set of components that worked, which is why the parts list and tutorial are present.

Edit, well 2 sets, if you count both alpha builds.

[biddle]

I would think it would be easier to mod the Xbox firmware code to not require specific motherboards or soundcards than to try to find old working museum pieces? Then the problem would go back to being if having newer hardware would make it run too fast to be playable on some games.

[Bowlsnapper]

56 minutes ago, biddle said:

I would think it would be easier to mod the Xbox firmware code to not require specific motherboards or soundcards than to try to find old working museum pieces? Then the problem would go back to being if having newer hardware would make it run too fast to be playable on some games.

What exactly is meant by newer?