Halo 2 in HD on the Original Xbox

Apologies for the poor audio quality, I don't have a good microphone and recorded this at 3am with an Xbox headset.
Halo 2 in HD on the Original Xbox. This video shows the Halo 2 HD mod on the Original Xbox and side by side comparisons with the stock version of the game.
GitHub link for the mod: github.com/grimdoomer/Halo-2-HD

[@BudgetBuildsOfficial]

Majorly impressive stuff, looks like I’m finally going to have the bite the bullet and go for a proper 128MB mod on my Xbox.

[@goatlps]

Dude, just play the Halo TMCC on XSX - 2 is remastered. The Xbox pads will still be poor, especially the d-pad and B&W buttons (I used a PS2 pad adaptor for some games). Alternatively, the (BC) H2 disc upgrades to 720p on 360.

[@NotYours-bp5fx]

You clearly dont get it

[@NotYours-bp5fx]

@@HedgehogY2K i was replying to goat sir not you lol

[@RiasatSalminSami]

Wait what, isn't 640x 480 in itself a 480p resolution? Did you mean 640x480 interlaced? Or by 480p you mean 720x480 or something like that? Edit: yeah it seems like you meant 720x480. Btw, is there any CRT or LCD monitor that has actual aspect ratio of 720x480 (3:2) instead of the usual 4:3 screen we had back in the day?

[@HedgehogY2K]

If the code says 640x480 we have to believe it. A similar misconception happened with the Wii too. I'm guessing the 6th gen consoles were using 640x480 for anamorphics instead of 720x480. Also, did you see his footage? He wasn't even comparing the Xbox's widescreen mode to 720p, he just left the Xbox on 4:3 instead of widescreen mode and then compared the two. I'm not taking a word from this guy. I'm sure the mod is fine but peoples' observation on this game is awfully skewed.

[@GoTeamScotch]

Well done, Grim! Been playing through campaign and it's been a treat to play through the game like this on original hardware. Congrats and thanks for your hard work.

[@MRSketch09]

It blows my mind the effort, you went through to make this happen. Amazing!

[@christinap802]

Can’t say I follow all the technical work you did to bring us this mod but definitely appreciate it. What a treat coming across this video. The Halo community is fantastic, and seeing passion and love for the OG instalments always makes me smile. Halo 2 was such an ambitious labour of love, it deserves to get all the attention and care you’ve put into this mod, congrats!

[@dustw08]

This is amazing! Halo CE next? ;) Please do some more xbox games!

[@OGX_Harcroft]

Great video! Thanks for taking the time to explain all the ins and outs of your work.

[@DavidIdol]

Very cool! Been following your work since the old HaloMods forum days

[@ihazcheese]

Radical. I love it. I read the whole write-up on your site and, while I understood only the words in English, I enjoyed the ride a great deal and read significantly farther than I thought I would, having as little knowledge as most of us do. You people are robo-wizards with a legitimately concerning degree of dedication, and patience rivaling boulders. We do not deserve you. Nerd.

[@Nihongames]

Excellent work! and great video. Well done!!

[@ihatecompvir1591]

This is insane. Excellent work

[@Relemsis]

I came here from that I Code 4 Coffee article which was posted on reddit, just wanted to say this is one of the coolest hacks I have ever seen

[@ToxicGopher]

Great work mate. I enjoyed the video too.

[@marcoloves360]

This is so cool thanks for your efforts

[@DoobESnacks]

That GodFather demo disc with the special .xbe dvd function ;)

[@DukeBluedevil70]

The what? Not sure what this is. Sounds interesting though.

[@DoobESnacks]

@@DukeBluedevil70 Theres a special .xbe in that beta build of God Father that would launch from the DVD Movie God Father if played on a OG xbox. It could be used as a exploit for launching .xbe from DVD by direct execution.

[@DukeBluedevil70]

@@DoobESnacks Wow that’s cool I’ve never even heard of that. And I thought I at least knew a bit about that kind of stuff. What was the utility of it exactly?

[@JayTheComputerGuy]

What a beast the og Xbox is!

[@skulutv]

It's incredible to hear about the original version of Halo 2 after 20 years.

[@jcber34]

Wicked cool! Great work!

[@Wally17.]

This is cool! Nice work.

[@evantripp2933]

This is amazing!

[@CRT-PHOENIX]

I just want to say this video deserves more views for all the hard work involved. Recently it has come to my attention that Project Stellar is promising 256MB RAM support in the future. I'm just curious if you'd hypothetically ever attempt to support 256mb of RAM. Greetings from Holland.

[@ichrismoku]

UDMA6 is experimental but would be the fastest option for this iirc

[@bitterman213]

Nice. Will be downloading this. Makes me want a ram upgrade

[@onza120]

Doing gods work.

[@itsTyrion]

Really impressive

[@clausius5120]

Very impressive and very interesting

[@LD50II]

Epic work, can't wait to test on LAN! Btw UDMA 6 works on the box, I've been running startechs and samsung SSDs in all the LAN boxes. Any plan to have something like this for CE? It'd be great to iron out 30 FPS in splitscreen once and for all

[@YouNoMeDawg]

aww yeah dawg. CE needs this so bad.

[@HedgehogY2K]

@@YouNoMeDawg CE already has a 720p patch you can get for years. It's only now that Halo 2's getting that treatment.

[@Im_Mr_Jer0me_092]

Thats look in one word.... CLEAN

[@poppysilver]

this is so sick

[@XHN_SCRAPY]

Great stuff!!!!

[@OriginofPain]

Hey this is awesome!

[@PursuedLeader]

😮😮amazing brings back memories

[@StinkzMehaff]

This goes so hard

[@gruntlord6]

just like the old days when grim would post crazy stuff lol

[@YouNoMeDawg]

1.5 update support when?

[@luism8130]

Much better than the crap remaster. That game looked so ugly, this is the Halo 2 I remember.

[@mohnjorrow1990]

I can't wait until this is playable with insignia!

[@peterdoetsch7114]

True 480p looks so much better! I want this for CE too!

[@goatlps]

Why though? What's wrong with TMCC and the latest gamepad?

[@Web720]

I thought 640x480 has always been what 480p is.

[@ComradeKoopa]

​@@goatlps Nothing really except minor unintended changes that don't matter.

[@Relemsis]

@@goatlps the latest gamepad is garbage and master chief collection is just not the same

[@ComradeKoopa]

@@Relemsis The latest Xbox controller is the best iteration yet, so this is unusual opinion. "Just not the same" is vague, do you mean the difference with the menus, AI and social features?

[@ProjectswAlex]

If you get bored, It would be cool to see a 720p mode for the UIX Ultra Lite dash

[@ryzenfox5688]

would it be possible to ever get something like this for halo ce, for those of us that have debug kits and upgraded memory consoles?

[@Mrkarate9]

Woah! Now try this with NINJA GAIDEN BLACK or DOA Ultimate 😮

[@YouNoMeDawg]

Any updates on 1.5?

[@sickSNIPE316]

Does it work well on XEMU or CXBX?

[@Fritzelmaster]

YEEESSS!

[@0Akeldama0]

does MCC allow for higher resolutions and framerates in halo 2?

[@haggis_hunter9870]

subbed

[@Banzeken]

If a game was designed for 640x480 I honestly wouldn’t bother changing that. Even early 360 games were clearly designed with 4:3 in mind despite still being able to adapt to 16:9. Just use a scaler (discrete or built into flatscreen TV) and try to respect that default game aspect ratios and resolutions used to be different in the past, especially for OG Xbox (and older). One might as well dabble in emulation otherwise if true widescreen resolutions are a must.

[@Fritzelmaster]

This patch is awesome! I’ve almost completed the campaign with it after one day lol. Are you sure 1.4 GHz cpu doesn’t help? My gpu only goes to 285 yet I’m getting 30 fps most of the time at 720p.

[@guyohmb7961]

Hi! can you just tell us how have you install the patch ? Thank you !

[@Fritzelmaster]

@@guyohmb7961 The instructions are on the Github

[@steffi6612]

where i can download the v1.0 .xbe file?

[@kadealicious]

If the game natively renders at 640x480, doesn't that mean it natively renders at 480p? Am I missing some context here?

[@Banzeken]

640x480 = 4:3 480p = widescreen (720x480) You’re correct in that 4:3 480p is still 480p, just not as wide as 16:9 480p (and by extension not as demanding). I.e. it’s not as “modern display friendly” as 16:9 480p.

[@kadealicious]

@@Banzeken ohhhh okay thank you!

[@arcturkeyturkey2099]

Microsoft needs to hire you to do something, this video can be your resume

[@HedgehogY2K]

If anything Microsoft won't either care or don't let them get their grubby little hands on him. Have seen the Windows 11 bull crap they're forcing? Microsoft has lost all trust regarding to practically everything.

[@goatlps]

Does Xbox look better on a top CRT TV then, versus a modern TV? I actually have my Xbox connected to our main 4k TV via component - DVDs look surprisingly decent...I never did manage to rip enough CDs to get it below "+99999 Blocks" (?) of storage space, and there's hours on there (128kbps MP3s?). Pretty disgusted CD ripping/playlists were removed after the 360.

[@guyohmb7961]

you can't activate 720p on a crt. many games look great on crt in 480p. In fact they look better on crt at 480p than 480p on flat screen. The og xbox games in 720p or1080i are rare and for the most oftthem , are bad games. But : SOUL CALIBUR 2 is insane in 720p on flat screen. just for this game, og xbox is a must have.

[@TheStrayHALOMAN]

I'll be playing in true 480p and using a retrotink 4k with a mclassic and mcable lol. I like my stability.

[@SpeakerBoxXx805]

Just imagine Doom 3 could have looked like had the Xbox been a little more powerful

[@goatlps]

You mean like the 360...or XSX? LOL. Provided you can tell what things are, gameplay trumps graphics. Till there's true photorealism and perfect animation graphics are just graphics - games are decades off those things.

[@Nihongames]

There's a 720p patch for Doom 3 on Xbox. Check it out. 128mb ram required

[@re4thewin]

Crts don't have square pixels 720x480 is the full pixel space yeah but that doesn't all get used your just stretching the image for no reason

[@TheRealNapsta]

How long do you imagine it will take to port this to 1.5?

[@erockbrox8484]

There are some mods that I like, but some that are a bit odd. I like the ram upgrade on the N64 because its officially supported. For the Xbox, are you saying some consoles had 64MB of ram but others had 128MB of ram? Also you can always overclock a cpu or gpu, but its not officially supported. Didn't they actually make an HD remaster for the Xbox One? Honestly, I would have just ran the game on the Xbox 360 and used that console to improve upon the original Halo 2.

[@deus_nsf]

I'll say it again and I don't know why is this the case, but OG H2 still looks miles better than MCC, despite the work they did on the final major patch.

[@tttomtxhc]

Please need xemu mod

[@michaelbarajas6204]

Jesus christ man, let's get you working on cancer I think you can have a cure in a couple months! Amazing work, love the dedication to revitalizing old hardware.

[@YouNoMeDawg]

its a 80 wire cable not pin

[@nonetrix3066]

YOu should support 256 MB RAM upgrades that recently released if possible for lols

[@DMANOG]

Jamican bobsledin

[@rationalistfaith]

This is but a glimpse of what would be possible if planned obsolescence (aka: excessive greed) wasn't a thing. Excellent work and more importantly, reuse of "old" hardware. Love it!

[@wooviee]

Ah yes, excessive greed and planned obsolescence are what caused them to decide on the hardware of the console in 1998-2001, not limitations of what was available on the market and what consumers would reasonably spend. Microsoft should've just sold an Xbox with a faster CPU, GPU, and more RAM for the same price, those greedy bastards. It's not like Microsoft was losing over 30% in cost of every sale or something due to hardware costs. I love making up fantasies about corporations instead of shaming for reasons attached to reality!

[@toajames1]

The only problem is that the 128 MB RAM mod is a PITA.

[@toajames1]

@@HedgehogY2K Are you talking about a SATA adapter…?

[@toajames1]

@@HedgehogY2K That’s for permanent storage, not RAM.

[@toajames1]

@@HedgehogY2K The comment I originally made and you responded to said that the 128 MB RAM mod is a PITA, lol.

[@toajames1]

@@HedgehogY2K Are you sure you're responding to the right OP?

[@HedgehogY2K]

@@toajames1 Oh... My bad. I delete these replies. So, what is this PITA mod? Is that what the ram upgrade is called?

[@GenesisJFAP]

Incredible work man. You deserve all the flowers for this!

[@CallMeRabbitzUSVI]

You keeps saying 480p, but do you mean 720p? Edit: I'm stupid and didn't watch the full video 😂

[@rpgdude1995]

A few questions about the Xbox's internal scaling can anamorphic scaling be modified applied to HD resolutions? EX. convert 880x720 to 1280x720p or even scale vertically to do 1920x540 to 1920x1080i? Also can the Xbox do internal integer upscale to convert 480p internally to 960p then have a bordered output to 1080i?

[@rpgdude1995]

@@1ghzxbox Yes, it was a common trick for the Xbox 360 I am curious how viable it is on the original Xbox

[@1ghzxbox]

@@rpgdude1995 my guess is, grimdoom won't be doing any of that custom resolutions stuff, cuz he aims to apply the patch to 1.5 xbe and make it compatible with Insignia, and afaik on the server side, there should be done some changes, so new modified xbe won't be recognized as something modded which triggers anticheat engine.

[@HedgehogY2K]

What? It's a typical anamorphic widescreen game just like the rest. Wait, are you comparing these images while the Xbox is set to 4:3 mode? DUDE!!! How could you be so blind (I'm crying). 480p isn't even rendered in widescreen. 480p, AKA-EDTV STANDARD DEFINITION, is 640x480. That is the true original 480p. Widescreen 480p isn't even a whole number! I don't consider a RATIONAL NUMBER 853. endless 3 an official part the 480p standard. It's an approximation of a low res output for widescreen. You need to see Game Sack's 2 part anamorphic widescreen videos.

[@goatlps]

Never liked Halo 2. Think it was overrated based on the groundbreaking online MP. Story mode is mostly close-quarter fights on ships, with too many checkpoints - I remember seeing 'Checkpoint' pop up after hearing the 'snail ewoks' accidentally grenade themselves just as I'd entered an area once. Halo CE had much better variety for its campaign.

[@Banzeken]

Variety? Halo: CE? I respectfully disagree. CE reuses levels three times in a row near the end (if we count The Maw as Pillar of Autumn revisited) and contains the incredibly dragged out and same-looking Library. How is Halo 2 *not* more varied in the campaign? It changes locations between levels damn near constantly.