[OG Xbox] 16 Player Splitscreen and what it took to obtain it

[TheSoulWalker TheSoulWalker]

This April I went to the Midwest Gaming Classic out in Milwaukee as I have started to do every year. My friends I've made when I worked at the internet cafe still work that convention and I enjoy my time at the event each year. One of my friends is now directing the video game museum portion of that convention, we talked about it and he had mentioned that if I wanted to I could show up to help out with the convention setup a day early and offered me table space. His stipulation is that he wanted to have something unique and not simply just "Slap a console down and call it a day."

I mentioned that I know my way around OG Xboxes best and as we discussed we both agreed no Halo. The event already has Halo 2, Halo 3 and Cursed Halo setups across the building. So the gears turned and I offered "What about Battlefront 2?" Battlefront 2 for those of you who don't know, has DLC exclusive to the Xbox Version. It also supports 4 Player Splitscreen on each system even in LAN/Online. We agreed and I started to immediately hatch a plan on how to do this.

I asked my friend for help that I would need to have him supply the TVs and dog cages for the consoles. if he couldn't then we'd work together to get that going properly. Luckily as of time of writing, there has been no snags yet on this front.

First thing's first, Xbox systems. Luckily at the time with a quick search around I found a seller on ebay charging $70 a console. They arrived and were all in working condition including the Disc Drives. I knew I had to upgrade the hard drives in these systems; if I wanted to take these consoles to a convention I had to have a means to not have to take my personal copies of certain games or spend the money to buy multiples of each game I planned on supporting with this setup. To upgrade the Hard Drive I would be spending roughly $50 a console for the SSD, the IDE Converter, and the Ribbon Cable. Around this time I had also tossed the idea of "What if I can have all 4 Xbox systems projected onto one TV so everyone watching can see all 16 views?" I found a device called a Multiviewer for $35 and it did exactly that.

When I ordered the Hard Drive Upgrade supplies I also purchased Power Cables, an Ethernet Switch and 4 HDMI splitters for a total of $277 on this order. Once everything Came up to this point I started working on Softmodding and upgrading the hard drives on the consoles. Things were working up until the first snag of the project. When I cloned the Hard drive to the SSD, I turned off the Xbox and put it aside thinking I was done in that regard. Time moves on and I finally order an HDMI Cable Pack, an Ethernet Cable Pack, and HDMI adapters for the systems for another $158.

I also took the time to give my friend an idea of what my table space would look like and was met with postitive feedback over it.

I went and tried to boot each Xbox only to be met with a black screen after the Xbox Boot Logo.

I had to re-clone all the hard drives and SSDs again. By this point I also went and swapped my dashboard from originally XBMC4Gamers and moved back to the normal UnleashX Dashboard. I did a quick google search and realized that the "Kernel Font" is set to Generic and not an actual firmware. So I loaded up NKPatcher, fixed that as soon as I got to boot UnleashX.

Finally at this point all the Xbox systems were done hardware wise, the only thing at this point was the controllers. I had settled for Ostent's Amazon Listing for third party controllers because of how expensive first and 3rd party controllers are getting. I also didn't want people to complain that one got a better controller than the other so everyone is on the same 3rd party controller. This originally was due to come out on the first Week of November. This totaled to $251.96.

Lucky me, they showed up yesterday! A whole 2 weeks early! I unwrapped everything like a kid on Christmas and got the Xbox systems plugged in, hoping that everything just worked at this point. I set up my disc copies of Halo 1 because it was already 3 AM and I did not want to run the DVD2Xbox program yet. I just wanted proof that it worked. After setting everything up I can at least confirm as far as the Multiviewer is concerned...

It works! I am now a proud owner of a 16 player Xbox setup that I can set up further to get set up on things like Insignia and host personal events, alongside the original goal which is to have my own personal setup of tables at Midwest Gaming Classic.

Now, I do have 1 thing left to test on these systems and that would be to make sure the HDMI splitters are all functioning properly which I will take a much needed break in the immediate before digging back into this project, but for now. I can call this a major success. The total price of all the equipment involved was $1003.39. The project has been in the works for the past 6 months.

I hope you enjoyed the read and I can't wait to see people's reactions at the convention!

 

[Zerpina]

That’s actual fire yo.

Glad you got it going, and sounds like it’ll be a blast. As to what it takes to get 16-player splitscreen on OG Xboxes... then, a small fortune, now....

A week's paycheck after taxes.

 

[Dick Whip]

The total price of all the equipment involved was $1003.39.

 

[Humility]

This April I went to the Midwest Gaming Classic out in Milwaukee as I have started to do every year. My friends I've made when I worked at the internet cafe still work that convention and I enjoy my time at the event each year. One of my friends is now directing the video game museum portion of that convention, we talked about it and he had mentioned that if I wanted to I could show up to help out with the convention setup a day early and offered me table space. His stipulation is that he wanted to have something unique and not simply just "Slap a console down and call it a day."

I mentioned that I know my way around OG Xboxes best and as we discussed we both agreed no Halo. The event already has Halo 2, Halo 3 and Cursed Halo setups across the building. So the gears turned and I offered "What about Battlefront 2?" Battlefront 2 for those of you who don't know, has DLC exclusive to the Xbox Version. It also supports 4 Player Splitscreen on each system even in LAN/Online. We agreed and I started to immediately hatch a plan on how to do this.

I asked my friend for help that I would need to have him supply the TVs and dog cages for the consoles. if he couldn't then we'd work together to get that going properly. Luckily as of time of writing, there has been no snags yet on this front.

First thing's first, Xbox systems. Luckily at the time with a quick search around I found a seller on ebay charging $70 a console. They arrived and were all in working condition including the Disc Drives. I knew I had to upgrade the hard drives in these systems; if I wanted to take these consoles to a convention I had to have a means to not have to take my personal copies of certain games or spend the money to buy multiples of each game I planned on supporting with this setup. To upgrade the Hard Drive I would be spending roughly $50 a console for the SSD, the IDE Converter, and the Ribbon Cable. Around this time I had also tossed the idea of "What if I can have all 4 Xbox systems projected onto one TV so everyone watching can see all 16 views?" I found a device called a Multiviewer for $35 and it did exactly that.

When I ordered the Hard Drive Upgrade supplies I also purchased Power Cables, an Ethernet Switch and 4 HDMI splitters for a total of $277 on this order. Once everything Came up to this point I started working on Softmodding and upgrading the hard drives on the consoles. Things were working up until the first snag of the project. When I cloned the Hard drive to the SSD, I turned off the Xbox and put it aside thinking I was done in that regard. Time moves on and I finally order an HDMI Cable Pack, an Ethernet Cable Pack, and HDMI adapters for the systems for another $158.

I also took the time to give my friend an idea of what my table space would look like and was met with postitive feedback over it.
View attachment 121666

I went and tried to boot each Xbox only to be met with a black screen after the Xbox Boot Logo.View attachment 121662
I had to re-clone all the hard drives and SSDs again. By this point I also went and swapped my dashboard from originally XBMC4Gamers and moved back to the normal UnleashX Dashboard. I did a quick google search and realized that the "Kernel Font" is set to Generic and not an actual firmware. So I loaded up NKPatcher, fixed that as soon as I got to boot UnleashX.

Finally at this point all the Xbox systems were done hardware wise, the only thing at this point was the controllers. I had settled for Ostent's Amazon Listing for third party controllers because of how expensive first and 3rd party controllers are getting. I also didn't want people to complain that one got a better controller than the other so everyone is on the same 3rd party controller. This originally was due to come out on the first Week of November. This totaled to $251.96.
View attachment 121663

Lucky me, they showed up yesterday! A whole 2 weeks early! I unwrapped everything like a kid on Christmas and got the Xbox systems plugged in, hoping that everything just worked at this point. I set up my disc copies of Halo 1 because it was already 3 AM and I did not want to run the DVD2Xbox program yet. I just wanted proof that it worked. After setting everything up I can at least confirm as far as the Multiviewer is concerned...
View attachment 121665
It works! I am now a proud owner of a 16 player Xbox setup that I can set up further to get set up on things like Insignia and host personal events, alongside the original goal which is to have my own personal setup of tables at Midwest Gaming Classic.

Now, I do have 1 thing left to test on these systems and that would be to make sure the HDMI splitters are all functioning properly which I will take a much needed break in the immediate before digging back into this project, but for now. I can call this a major success. The total price of all the equipment involved was $1003.39. The project has been in the works for the past 6 months.

I hope you enjoyed the read and I can't wait to see people's reactions at the convention!

Now that's just plain impressive and awesome. I wish you the best in your project.