Since my last post I did some more work on my OG Xbox’es, and yes I have multiple units now. Exactly four.
Let’s review the upgrades I did. First is OpenXenium modchip – https://github.com/Ryzee119/OpenXenium. If you just need one and it’s available for purchase then it’s better not do it yourself. I did 5 of them. Keep in mind when ordering PCB’s for the modchip that you also need to make a programmer – https://github.com/kooscode/xenium-programmer to flash them (guess how I learned). These are very simple and uses PI Zero W. Without it the programming of modchip could be a very much a pain (which I also tried).
You might ask what are the benefits of OpenXenium vs software mod. Well, you can install PrometheOS and then Cerbios. This enables numerous features that you might just need in in one or the other situation. For example forced 480p mode, large hard drives, 128MB RAM upgrade, compatibility with some backups that did not work before and much more.
Another upgrade you can see in the picture is Noctua cooler replacement. I would say it is essential if you value quiet. So in total I upgraded 5 Xbox’es like this. One went to my friend and others I keep for LAN play. Here are some photos from the LAN party I organized.
But now let’s talk about the guns! There are not too many light gun shooters on Xbox OG. Here is a complete list:
- House of the Dead 3
- House of the Dead 2 (as part of HOTD3)
- Silent Scope Complete (which includes Silent Scope 1, 2, 3, and EX)
- Starsky & Hutch
- Virtua Cop 3 *
Virtual Cop 3 was never released on Xbox, it was an arcade game on Sega Chihiro machine which actually is an Xbox OG with 128MB RAM. But it appears that you can mod some of OG Xboxes by simply soldering in two additional RAM chips. This probably could be done with all versions, but some are more complicated than others. So if you plan this mod, then choose a board that just have empty pads for additional RAM. I did this upgrade on my v1.4 board (v1.6 did not have the pads). Here is also were Cerbios comes into play, you need it for this mod to work.
So I bought the lightgun (actually couple of them for two players) and tried calibrating. And it failed, that is it does not work in a specific way that makes games unplayable. The cursor just runs frantically all over the screen. There are some reaction to my hand movement, so it works somewhat. I watched the videos on Youtube that show people testing those same guns and they are steady and very precise. So why it does not work for me? This beckons investigation.
Updated 2025-12-22 !
What was the cause of failure initially?
The problem proved to be Cerbios V2. bios. I’ve upgrade to V3.0.0 Beta and it started working. I had to buy unmodded Xbox and HOTD3 disc to find out. Due to horrible packaging the Xbox came with a broken case, but still working and I was able to confirm that guns works with it.
Virtua Cop 3 is a lie
So I finally was able to run Virtua Cop 3. And it works, but… it works with controller only. Virtua Cop 3 is almost always mentioned as a light gun game for Xbox OG, but It seldom mention that it does not work with Xbox light guns. You probably can connect a dedicated Sega Chihiro arcade light gun with custom made adapter, but this is almost the same as owning the arcade machine itself. So in reality running Sega Chihiro games on Xbox OG is kind of pointless if you actually want to play them. And memory mode is also somewhat useless.
So what light gun games Xbox OG has?
Frankly there is only House of the Dead 3 (and House of the Dead 2 as a bonus). Other games either do not work or so picky in hardware that very very few can enjoy them. I had three different light guns and was not able to run Silent Scope and even if I would have succeeded it needs brightness up to the ridiculous levels. Starsky and Hutch freezes with a lightgun attached. Maybe it works with some hardware configurations, but doggit.
Which guns are the best?
The Thrustmaster Beretta 92FS Light Gun proved to be very accurate. And it is the only gun that is accurate. Initially I bought two of these Beretta’s, one was used EU model and one was NOS from Japan. Interestingly enough the EU model worked better than Japanese in a weird way. The Japanese model was not tracking like left 1/4 of the screen. I suspected that this could be related to my Xbox being PAL (or my TV) even though with mod chip and I’m using NTSC games. So I bought another EU gun and this one worked fine on the whole screen. So now I’m not sure what was wrong, but it’s too expensive to try confirm it. The single gun costs like 150 EUR.
Was it worth it?
For a single game? Probably not. For me it became a kind of a challenge to make this work. I now have 5 Xboxes, one needs a new case…