Team Xecuter - The story of the infamous Nintendo Switch Modding Group | MVG

Team Xecuter is a notorious scene modding group that started all the way back in 2002. They are currently involved in a piracy lawsuit vs Nintendo for the sale of their SXOS line of modchip products for the Nintendo Switch. In this episode we take a look at their past, the present and what's in store for the future of the group?
Music Credits:
Estrayk - The HER song number 3 - • Estrayk - The HER song...
Monty/Interpol - Flashback Cracktro - • Interpol cracktro - Fl...
Sources:
www.5rb.com/case/sony-compute...
web.archive.org/web/200206122...
www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...
web.archive.org/web/2009120610...
www.washingtonpost.com/archiv...
www.gw3ds.com/
www.shop01media.com/en/Xecute...
web.archive.org/web/2002072301...
demozoo.org/sceners/15339/
www.ogxbox.com/forums/index.p...
wololo.net/2021/11/04/nintend...
• Preview of Team-Xecute...
torrentfreak.com/team-xecuter...
www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-me...
#NintendoSwitch #TeamXecuter

[@ryu_san_]

TBH I have a lot more sympathy for the mod scene seeing how badly Nintendo treats it's classic games via NSO and killing off the virtual console

[@Goldfire345]

I'm with you there

[@franciscofarias6385]

I mean, if the matter is preservation to hell with the Switch, let's focus on emulators for PC/Linux The truth is that if I bought a device I should be able to mod it. You don't need to be anti-Copyright to defend that

[@nuclearbeeberman]

There was so much negativ news about the NSO N64 emulation that no one talked about the good stuff quite as much. For Example Star Fox 64 on NSO runs in a much higher frame rate and plays and looks excellent... It's mainly Zelda that sucks to be honest. Also I have no sympathy at all for people who make money with hardware mods like what Xecuter did... its just really bad

[@rauljulia9557]

@@franciscofarias6385 imagine being sued for modifying your pants. It's your GD property.

[@13JacksonMr]

@@nuclearbeeberman honestly there is some good stuff, but some of the basic things that aren't in there that has been in N64 Emulation since like 2014 (like remapping controls), unable to emulate the expansion pack of a N64, input lag in some of the games (which let's be real, is still unacceptable, especially when modders have had better Emulation on the switch itself), and a bunch of other things, while charging an extra $30 a year (making it $49.99 a year in total), Nintendo kinda shot themselves in the foot with cocaine if I'm being honest

[@fwef7445]

So they arrest Bowser over this but he always gets off scott free for kidnapping the princess

[@luiseduardohd]

Patriarchy you know.

[@AiraDelasse]

That's because they already had a Bowser, so they don't want any impersonators

[@receivegreatest6802]

@@AiraDelasse which bowser is the oldest ?

[@LennyQUMFIF]

That’s because the princess thing happens in the mushroom kingdom, where laws are different… in fact their laws might also be different from the Delfino Island laws and the laws from Bowser’s places where he builds his castles

[@bryan.t777]

back when the X3 chip was about to be released, Team Xecuter had a contest to take a picture of their promotional artwork in front of a Microsoft building. They upped the anttie by offering a cash award if you managed to take a pic of a topless female holding the X3 promotional artwork in front of a MS building. I was able to provide such a picture, but ended up losing because someone else had managed to get a similar picture takens in front of the Redwood campus, where as mine was a different campus. Paul said he sent me an X3 chip but I never received it. But no worries, it was a fun contest from a lifetime ago.

[@SummonerArthur]

I'm curious now. How did you got a girl to do that?

[@MichaelDeHaven]

@@SummonerArthur Obviously she loved playing Xbox like the rest of us.

[@JasonALMS2010]

Wow what a story lol

[@ModernVintageGamer]

dude i remember this. TX used to do all sorts of contests like this back in the day.

[@bryan.t777]

@@SummonerArthur she is a good friend of mine and I promised to get her 60% of the money

[@HoZKiNZ]

I miss LikSang so much. I only ever bought one thing, and it took 9 months to arrive, but it was great to just spend some time on and look through.

[@Matanumi]

9 months!? Jesus...

[@Ryanoceros06]

@@Matanumi Yea that sounds about right haha.

[@ThisIsNeccessary]

I still have a PS2 with their flip-top case on it, and a LikSang sticker on it

[@whohan779]

Dafuq? I mean it might have come from China, but I've had free shipping

[@Di3mondDud3]

@@whohan779 they're talking about 15+ years ago kid.

[@corgano6068]

The reason the switch modding communities were so salty at team Xecuter was because their "sxos" was a literal copy paste of Atmosphere (the homebrew OS that most people use) with an added skin and added DRM. This was theorized for a while, but made obvious around the 8.0 update where they made a release and forgot to rename the "atmosphere" folder to "sxos" and it soft bricked a bunch of consoles. The fix was as simple renaming the folder on the SD card but the fiasco made it obvious that they were ripping atmosphere off. This is made worse by the fact atmosphere has a firm stance of "homebrew only" and doesn't encourage or permit loading backup copies out of the box, something that team xecuter was very public about. Fast forward to the mariko consoles, and TX ends up releasing a limited run of their mod chips that allows you to rcm a newer switch unit. This development could have been super useful for the community if it was an open sourced project but TX kept it to themselves. Any progress the wider community made they copied without contributing back to the community. It also doesn't help that they charged a ton of money for it, and advertised openly how their system enables piracy which ultimately got nintendo's attention enough to have it nuked from space. To what had been a parasite on the homebrew community at large all I can say is good riddance.

[@bitelaserkhalif]

Yup, the only thing that TX/gateway3ds I can only approve (partially!) is the mariko/lite modchip. Remaining are shit. No one on community has figured out how to do modchip on Mariko until those figured out how to do it. Also we need to reverse engineer modchip with full compatibility but without troubled components (hwfly said to be buggy). We need revival of pre switch TX... Xbox era ones.

[@AJ-dx6bn]

And you're salty af

[@Jekuma]

​@@AJ-dx6bn Okay and? He made a perfectly reasonable and detailed case against why TX were a detriment to the switch modding community. Sure, that last sentence definitely smelled salty, but it's justified considering what TX did in both the Switch and 3DS modding scenes.

[@projectz358]

@@Jekuma I always wonder, do we respond with a gut reaction or do we think about why we decide to write and not because of feeling a particular way?

[@Jekuma]

@@projectz358 what

[@donjezza]

"... Bowser was arrested and took a plea deal..." you can't defeat Bowser that easily!

[@nomad1337]

Especially when your princess is in another castle

[@NightcoreClips_]

Mario knows

[@AiraDelasse]

Bowser vs Bowser (I think many forget NoA has a Doug Bowser too)

[@paulhjelmen8495]

He forgot to bribe judge peach

[@kenrickeason]

(Street fighter 2's Versus screen music intensifies) Doug Bowser vs Gary Bowser

[@nektworks]

Interesting look into the history of Team Xecutor. It should be noted that they are not well liked by the Switch modding community, mainly because they stole code from the GPL-licensed Atmosphere project. Next to that, for a short while, SX OS would brick your system if it was booted up without activation, similar to the problems with the Gateway 3DS cart.

[@Matanumi]

Did sx os actually do that?

[@jamesb.6177]

@@Matanumi If you tried to access its source code, yes.

[@wizit1993]

It's a love to hate them and hate to love them scenario. Of course everyone knows that Team Xecutor has done some scummy stuff in the modding scene, and almost everyone would prefer to use the Open Source/Atmosphere based systems on the switch, however that's just not realistic for a lot of people. The problem is that the "Open Source" solution just doesn't work reliably like you would hope it would. For some people it works without issue, and that's great! Freeware solutions required a jumper for initial bootup, and then if you set the system to automatically run unsigned code it required a payload to be pushed via a computer or another dongle. Very Inconvenient. In the switch scene TX: -Created the first EmuNand solution -Allowed ANY switch system to run unsigned code -Created a stand-alone boot solution (Once installed, no payload ever needed to be pushed again) -Pushed the Open-Source community to copy a lot of the SXOS features Team Xecuter's solution just worked, and worked pretty damn well.

[@vincere_]

@@wizit1993 Their '3ds hacking' solution was overall worse than the open source alternative and could brick your console if you were using a clone of Gateway.

[@OctoFlare]

@@vincere_ Some genuine ones break your console too

[@TheGlitchyMario]

I think they’ll pull through. It’s happened before, even when they were a smaller company. The X-ecuter brand might die though.

[@TheGinGear]

As an avid switch modder, I honestly hope they don't. The scummy practices and theft they did to the scene was absolutely not positive to any development. The only real contribution to the scene they made was the Mariko modchips, but even those were riddled with drm you had to circumvent.

[@whohan779]

@@TheGinGear Exactly. When using Atmosphère I never felt like I missed out on anything, so why would I ever have bothered with SXOS or their 'hardware' unless I wanted to be among the very first to have a modded OG Switch or mod a Switch Lite? Nowadays it might be different but in 2019 the OG Switch was readily available second-hand, so no need to mod a later (non-Lite) model to just have the newer SoC as the warranty would be lost anyway.

[@derkernsen]

@@whohan779 The only thing missing on atmosphere is xci mounting. I would love to have an hdd with all my game backups. Now I have to keep installing and uninstalling.

[@whohan779]

@@derkernsen Oh yeah, that's right. Though for portable use, you'd like to have all games installed internally anyway, but I could see why you would want to avoid juggling μSDs when playing stationary. Nowadays luckily μSD storage is rather cheap so even 400 or 500 GB (sometimes even 1 TB) are rather affordable.

[@cemsengul16]

They shall rise from the ashes like a phoenix with a different brand name.

[@MisterTipp]

You should do a retrospective on Team M33! They were the king's in the early PSP modding days!

[@MisterTipp]

I've always wondered about who that mystical dark Alex was

[@Xgen001]

@@MisterTipp i thought team m33 was just dark_alex? ppl always would debate between 3.40 OE-A vs 3.51 m33 but i think it was all him.

[@MisterTipp]

@@Xgen001 maybe it was just him, but damn did that one guy have Sony locked down though, what a legend

[@SullySadface]

I wish I still had my 3.73 or whatever flashed psp

[@RaphaelDDL]

+1 for Dark Alex story and all the other folks

[@thenostalgiafactor5023]

Personally, I feel comfortable modding systems that are EOL (thus reviving them). Current gen systems that are still active (especially with digital online stores) makes me nervous.

[@Leonard.L.Church]

Same! Also did you hear about the ps5 exploit? Thats gotta be embarising for sony

[@Alexander_l322]

@@Leonard.L.Church can’t wait to get my hands on it. I won’t be updating my PS5 anymore. I’ll play offline Or not at all until I can exploit my ps5. My PS4 pro is still waiting for an exploit 8.xx

[@Leonard.L.Church]

@@Alexander_l322 sorry to tell you this, but you will have to wait at least a year. If they release the exploit anytime before that, then sony will find a way to fix it. Thats how modding works.

[@Alexander_l322]

@@Leonard.L.Church yea so I’ll wait.

[@Leonard.L.Church]

@@Alexander_l322 smart. I mean it doesnt have many games that you cant play on your ps4 anyway

[@TubbyJ420]

What a nostalgia trip seeing those old modchip pictures, names & websites i haven't thought of in years.

[@immersivegamer7640]

100% true. Was thinking exactly this - how many sites and resources came and went over the years... Early 2000s were a great time for sure...

[@shangxiajiu1]

@@immersivegamer7640 I stood in the network engineer office at a fed agency talking to one of my coworkers we both say about nuts n volts hahaha look at us now

[@SomeOrangeCat]

I tend to softmod my systems after official support is done and dusted. My favorite one being my Wii Family Edition. Softmodded to the nines, with Gamecube support restored.

[@hotcocoabomb_]

You can restore GameCube compatibility?

[@JDactal]

@@hotcocoabomb_ yeah using Nintendont

[@Aztyph]

It won't be able to play GameCube discs, but yes. You can basically have a digital library of GameCube and Wii games, all available on your hard drive.

[@abumonke118]

@@hotcocoabomb_ with nintendon't installed, you can play gamecube games even on a wii family or wii mini. gamecube controller support is lost however.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@hotcocoabomb_ The method is found on this exact channel.

[@lotan9398]

I would love a deep dive on Dark Alex and the flow for the psp/vita modding

[@jajabinx35]

The flow is still doing things.... But yes, dark Alex would be a good episode

[@ModernVintageGamer]

id love to cover Dark Alex but he was/still is extremely difficult to reach

[@H4KD11]

What a guy

[@receivegreatest6802]

@@ModernVintageGamer don’t have to reach him to do it

[@INRamos13]

Nice, I love getting some scene history like this. Please consider covering the history of the Wii scene in the future. I was around during those days but I was too young to understand what was really going on.

[@lainwired3946]

He did, see the team twiizers video

[@blob4477]

He did idiot lmfaoooooo

[@sanyogjain9195]

I read that as World War II and got confused

[@lewis6932]

It's so sad, and Nintendo wonder why we pirate their stuff. Cause the fans can do what Nintendont

[@Leonard.L.Church]

Yeah like why didnt they add gamecube to wii u? The total could have

[@KUIJEN8659]

They only provide barebones features

[@Leonard.L.Church]

@@KUIJEN8659 "what? Players want a actually usable online multiplayer? Did you say ice climbers and gyromyte? Ok more NES games it is!"

[@wickedweavile4612]

Just like local save backups. Nintendo doesn't do it, modders did. Home menu themes, modders did it too

[@Yusei255]

cos nintendo simply don't give a crap.

[@nurk_barry]

I love that MVG always drops a new video within minutes of me waking up in the morning!

[@dave7244]

It is absolutely mental you can be locked up for allowing people to use the hardware they purchased to its fullest extent.

[@GODCONVOYPRIME]

Yeah it sucks but charging people for that is trashy as hell.

[@ChicagoMel23]

That’s not why. It’s because they were stealing games

[@dirtkiller23]

@@ChicagoMel23 oh no stealing games from a multibillion dollar company bad

[@eXtremeAzureProductions]

Modding for fun and modding for piracy are two different things. These devices circumvented the copy protection of games and systems, so of course it's illegal.

[@halotroop2288]

@@eXtremeAzureProductions Modding for piracy IS modding for fun. Why else do you think people play games???

[@FoxbatStargazer]

Its not just that free Switch CFW exists, its that SXOS is 95% that same free CFW, except they lied about it and did not follow the GPL for Atmosphere, rebranding and selling it for profit. They also tried to pay homebrew devs to make their software SXOS exclusive and succeeded in at least one high profile case. So they not only ripped off Nintendo but the homebrew scene as well, that is why they are so controversial. Modchips were their first actual contribution to the scene and its ironic that they fell for that moreso than selling other’s code.

[@GODCONVOYPRIME]

Yet people still defend them for some reason.

[@JoaoPedro-ki7ct]

"They also tried to pay homebrew devs to make their software SXOS exclusive and succeeded in at least one high profile case" What developer and what software?

[@jamesb.6177]

The real tragedy is the desperation of some people to defend these crooks.

[@loen6478]

from what i understand they made an easy to use product and sold it, for sure i dont know the implications of GPL but i think its fair for them to profit if they are making people lives easier with tools. correct me if im wrong tho

[@vincere_]

@@loen6478 Depending on the GPL, your product may legally have to be fully open-source if you use portions of code from software under that license. They didn't do that. Pretty cut and dry case, stealing code and then profiting off it.

[@johncoakley]

Man… I still remember the first time I successfully booted into custom firmware on my Xbox . Great memories!

[@serpent480]

I still have mine! if you still have yours remember to take out the clocking fuse, dont want that boy to leak!

[@johncoakley]

@@serpent480 I wish I still had mine :(( I had the xecuter3 with the custom faceplate

[@shangxiajiu1]

I remember selling ps2 mod chips

[@JP-dv7rf]

I love these old scene history videos, I really hope that you continue making them!

[@AttractionSpot]

If Nintendo would just release all the games in the virtual console a lot of people wouldn't have to mod their consoles. The way Nintendo does things if we didn't have people doing software mods or dumping Game cartridges and stuff some of the classic games would be gone forever. But yes I feel like they'll definitely be back maybe not as team executor but under some other name. They should do it like The Pirate Bay where they're in a place where there is no copyright laws that way they can't charge them.

[@JaysonHoang14]

Not even. People will always pirate for the sake of pirating. Unfortunately for Nintendo, this isn’t even their fault.

[@lucuslopez6866]

lol. People how hack their switch do it for the free games. 99.9999%.

[@ringring8938]

Lol, you only pirate games cause is free. You steal cause your a thief, no excuse 😂 in Islam they choose your hand off cause it is not food.

[@SummonerArthur]

Would love to hear more stories from cracking/hacking groups... Fairlight, Paradox, bring 'em on!

[@stewartmacdonald601]

Ahhh. Old school xbox mod-chips. I remember the xecuter team from back then, although I mostly used the Aladdin chips personally.

[@destronger5313]

Remember the older xbox mod chips looked like spiders due to all the wires? I took one out and replaced it with xcuter 2. It was so much cleaner.

[@vogotell8480]

20 hours

[@hbdragon88]

A video "Mistakes were Made" regarding the 3DS security would be poggers.

[@jamesb.6177]

I feel that, at the very core of the homebrew community is the principle that ideas and information (source code) is meant to be shared openly and freely. Selling license keys for access to open source firmware, and punishing those who try to learn more about your creation (bricking switches if you try to access SX OS source code) is ridiculous and manipulative. Not to mention the fact that they included a full fledged launcher built in to SX OS which enabled piracy to the extreme. I think, rather than asking “Will Team Xecutor come back?”, we should be asking “Do we WANT them back?” I know I don’t.

[@nintendero65]

I actually want them back, no everyone have the money to buy expensive nintendo switch games :p

[@anthony2be559]

@@nintendero65 well that's your issue since piracy is very frowned in the homebrew community

[@whohan779]

@@nintendero65 I don't endorse what I'm throwing into the replies right now (unless you have a grudge against the publisher or own the game on other platforms already): Piracy is easily doable on vanilla Atmosphère through Goldleaf (not directly via external media or relying on some easy to use repo like Tinfoil once was though). Even if it wasn't I'm guessing most people emulating Switch games don't go out of their way buying it on a platform (eShop) that's probably inaccessible on non Nintendo hardware anyway. And I also don't believe in the tale of every emulator user just using a dump of a cartridge they own as that would require having a modded Switch or some very specific hardware anyway. What's piracy and what's homebrew is muddy anyway as much of the homebrew somehow relies on copywritten IP (like say RE3 or a Morrowind implementation). As some licenses forbid unintended playback they technically can't not be breached on other platforms.

[@whohan779]

@@rockapartie Not necessarily much easier if you want to save space on the device that you're downloading on (you can save directly to a USB-C stick or even the Switch medium itself if the filesystem has enough space). Though what I would agree on is that it sucks Goldleaf doesn't support NSZ and alternatives that do (like full-blown Tinfoil) aren't as complete or open. Also is what you're describing just an alternative to Nut or is it somehow much better?

[@CarbonRollerCaco]

@@nintendero65 But you have the money to pay a bunch of shifty guys to install dubious hardware for you and are willing to give them personal info for it, right?

[@LumbyMcGumby]

I always wanted to hard mod my xbox with their mod chip. Softmodding the xbox though is almost just as good so I never bothered. This team has left an impact and a legacy.

[@at-cj2iy]

Me too softmodded mine it's just easier for me

[@TheDudeWithNoName]

You're so god damn awesome MVG, always covering stuff like this in very good details going back in the history as far as you can.

[@ruxtonau]

When you were 20 and in the scene, there were people that were 40-50 with families risking it too, this isn't anything new. Who you think funds all the dump sites? it unlikely to be 20 year olds.

[@jamesb.6177]

Sure, but That doesn’t make his point moot. At that point You arent just risking your own well being, but potentially that of children. And thats pretty messed up.

[@theMoporter]

@@jamesb.6177 And plenty of people get "stable" jobs for that reason, only to get fired a decade later and their kid suffers. Plenty of people are wrongfully arrested or only found not guilty after years of litigation. This is about selling dubious computer chips so you can play Mario for free, not a drug empire.

[@robertrule]

@@jamesb.6177 0

[@slushg3326]

@@theMoporter this.

[@Adam_Outdoors]

@@jamesb.6177 Bullshit. Gary may have been risking as h lives in a silly country like the US that has idiotic laws that prohibit you modifying your own hardware. The rest of the team are breaking no laws in their own or most other countries. This is why they have never been extradited.

[@acadiel]

Gary Bowser was released on 3/28/23 - so no longer in prison.

[@skiez7430]

hes on a $10 mil debt tho

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

0:39 There couldn't be a better origin story than this.

[@rustymixer2886]

Genesis

[@blacksunshine7485]

Or this 7:34

[@Darthborg]

Very good video Upvoting this. Having a mix of storytelling and history is what your channel is about.

[@Playa-V]

Such a great video recap of xbox modding and team Xecuter. Modding the OG xbox is where it was at for me, in the mid 2000’s. Still have my X3 with an Xecuter front LCD panel.

[@voca-chan7953]

Nice, a new video! My day is getting a little better!

[@Leonard.L.Church]

I know right? Its the only thing that saves mondays for me

[@benblem147]

6:49 Small clarification. Sony went after Lik Sang twice. The first time was in 2002 (Microsoft and Nintendo did cases too) resulting in Lik Sang not selling modchips and flashcarts anymore (if you look on the wayback machine you'll notice 'Backup & Import' sections have no products listed after some time). In terms of being shut all I can find is that Lik Sang website was down for over two weeks when the court case was initially filed. Now it was the 2005/2006 cases about selling Playstation to Europeans (only Sony has the right to do that, or something) which was what shut the retailer permanently. I understand missing this small detail because you've got to keep the narrative flowing in the video (why customers flocked to divineo) but one could get the impression that modchips and flashcarts were what shut Lik Sang down when it does not appear to be directly responsible (there seem to be some interim payments made on account of damages and apparently Lik Sang got a new owner would could be taken as signs of financial difficulty).

[@PixelCherryNinja]

Mate, I really enjoy your videos, but this one was just so good. Loved the research that went into it. I remember paradox from my Amiga days. This video provides great insight and explanations to anyone that knew even a little bit about the modding scene.

[@svenbtb]

I've never bough or installed a modding chip but I always find these stories so fascinating, thank you for your video!

[@offspringfan89]

Absolutely fascinating stuff, I love to know about the history of scene groups, damn these guys are on another level. BTW, I think MVG is as good as historian/researcher as he is a programmer, superb content.

[@ItsTeezoUBZ]

Dude i was blown away on how easy it was to mod the Switch, Back ups, home brew, custom shit, probably the best console to mod at the moment. Oh another please keep making these modding video i love this stuff, i literally started buying console too mod now. It’s so interesting.

[@heyisleo]

Awesome video MVG! I've learned a lot with your content. Please, keep it up!

[@lemoncake6957]

I just want to say thank you for taking the time to create videos like this. I was young (born 1994) when stuff like this was going on. I sort of knew about it but was too young to understand. Now I’m getting older, this stuff is super interesting. When I was about 12 I think, I had an XK3Y put into my 360. Brilliant bit of kit, as a kid this opened up my library of games

[@xb0xisbetter]

I used the Xk3y to run modified GTA IV ISOs so I could join random games and do things like pick one person to just light on fire every time they respawned and listen to the stupid things everybody in the game said trying to figure out what was going on. Sometimes they would get to water and thought they finally broke the cycle but then they would explode, respawn and light on fire again. It never got old. Giving people cars with modification combinations that didn't exist naturally in the game and lighting underneath was fun too though. Also did some genuinely interesting things with it with GTA V on 360 like swapping values to make the laser fighter jet function like a car so we could paint them random colors and friends could store them into garages and actually retrieve them normally and getting the snowy variant vehicles from the intro area of the game into multiplayer. Getting the tow trucks into multiplayer was hilarious because then I could tow people's supercars into the ocean and they had to pay the insurance cost to replace. The 40s style tow truck just froze people's consoles if they got close to it.

[@phil_law]

Great video and amazing to see it all playing out. I remember sending my PS2 to Channel Tech for a Neo 3 modchip back in the day and then later selling the PS2 and buying another one to get it Messiah modded.

[@Microang]

As a side note, I think Nintendo is crazy to demand what they demanded in losses. The people who are going to pirate their games, are unlikely to be buying those same games if they couldn't pirate them. I know when I was a teen and would "alternatively source" my games, it wasn't for kicks, but because it was my only option to play anything other than demos... A lot of software piracy is done by poorer communities and more so in poorer countries. For example in Latin America, the PS3 is still really popular because it is easily modded to play "backups". These are not lost sales at all... It is far easier to buy your games legally, as most of us who can do.

[@Gatitasecsii]

Yeah but these assholes were selling stuff. If you can afford them stupid overpriced chips, you can afford to buy games. I modded my switch but I didn't pay anyone a single cent for it.

[@ultimaterecoil1136]

@@Gatitasecsii i mean the over priced *chips* are still cheaper then buying an old console and a game you wanted to play on it often times since the few that are selling sometimes jack the prices up into the thousands

[@pelgervampireduck]

the only reason ps1 and ps2 sold like 200 millions is because you could buy cheap pirated games everywhere on the streets or even stores. people in the united states or europe forget most of the world is NOT the first world, and a legal game is too expensive, nobody is going to spend a big part of their monthly paycheck on a game because everything else is already expensive enough. you work to barely pay where to live... for now... next month you can be under a bridge. so if you see there's a console that has cheap games like "3 cds for $5" on the streets, you save money two years to buy that console, the most popular one, and you buy the cheap games. the same goes for movies or music. in the 90s and 2000s people in places like south america had entertainment thanks to piracy. without it, nobody would have bought movies, music or games.

[@ignacio6454]

@@pelgervampireduck Preach.

[@CarbonRollerCaco]

@@ultimaterecoil1136 I didn't realize all I needed was the chip. No need for a Switch to install it on. Just load the game and play it on a single powerless, buttonless, screenless, speakerless IC! YEE-HAW!

[@Pyroja]

Man, I'm still sad about LikSang getting shut down. I loved that site.

[@heartlesslink17]

Always look forward to your videos! I remember when all that was going on when the switch first launched. I was fortunate enough to grab myself a SX product back then

[@gab_v250]

Finally someone who explained me the full story with Team Xecuter.

[@kenrickeason]

I love it! I love when he gives a historic prospect of Emulators or/and hackers..

[@sugarfree_]

Not the whole story here. Team x-shitter is heavily disliked by a lot of people for a reasons that were left out in this video. I would highly recommend that you read through a bit more of the comment section

[@serfraust]

This explained their backstory and current circumstances, but it really didn't touch on anything to do with why their reputation went bad in the modding scene after stealing Atmosphere open-source GPL code to sell it in addition to intentionally bricking user consoles (in a way very akin to Ransomware.)

[@user-bq2ej4ge8f]

I don't get these court cases at all, modding or hacking is never going to stop, not even if you'd get the death penalty for it. Just like the war on drugs, this copyright crap is already lost. All information should be free, and everyone should be able to do what they want with the products they own. It's only a matter of time until the whole DMCA thing is going to turn even more against the freedom of customers.

[@jeja6801]

xecutor sold stolen atmosphere cfw code and included a brick code I don’t think they deserve any sympathy yeah nintendo has shit practices regarding homebrew but xecutor deserved it

[@vincere_]

xecutor advertised their own 'storefront' from which you could download pirated games, if you paid them more money.

[@receivegreatest6802]

@@jeja6801 Shill

[@dandiaz19934]

Fascinating look at the industry of modding and its brushes with the law. Thanks for the coverage, MVG!

[@ThommosTech]

Fascinating insight. Thanks for putting this one together.

[@savioxavier4155]

The scene of modding is always so needlessly dramatic. For poor people in poor countries, piracy has been the only option that allowed gaming to flourish for the past 3 decades. I'm thankful for all the solutions for piracy that those guys have created, and specially Team Xecuter with the Nintendo Switch. I hope they manage to get through these dark times and come back sooner rather than later.

[@DragonProtector]

Exactly

[@libardomm.trasimaco]

Yes. I can confirm that living in Colombia.

[@thiefrules]

It's better to support open source projects that the community works on (that allows you to pirate games, but not as a primary function) vs supporting a closed source OS made for the sole purpose of piracy that has the possiblity of bricking your console because the developers think you're doing something bad. would you still be thanking Xecuter if you had a Switch and SXOS bricked it because it thought you were trying to access its source code?

[@bulletpunch9317]

Your countries poor had the money to get a switch huh.

[@thiefrules]

@@bulletpunch9317 you can find non-working Switches for like $60 USD, it's possible to buy it and repair it so it works again. boom, a working Switch for well under retail. not everything is purchased brand new from a retailer

[@PKspectre]

Xecuter? The same guys from the Xbox days? I still have one of their flashy mod chips in my original Xbox. Can't wait to watch this in full

[@PrecludeLP]

Excellent video. What an interesting look into the history of team X-ecuter.

[@KillaBitz]

Thanks for all your hard work Paul, It meant a lot to me when I was poor. People who think he cost them money don't realise that not everyone has money to spend. I always found a way to pay for the games I loved (sooner or later)

[@JelloFluoride]

Nintendo deserves to be sued for the faulty joy cons.

[@NatetheNintendofan]

And the us later going to be sued for for an antitrust law

[@mbii7667]

They have been

[@receivegreatest6802]

Yea Nintendo makes faulty Joy cons on purpose ‼️

[@exil13n]

Loved the details, thanks MVG !

[@danotorious12]

Thank you so much for this trip down memory lane....I was there for each and everything you talked about...I miss the good old days of xbins,mirc, and telnet

[@flyingmonkeys96]

people should do whatever they want with the hardware they own. companies should offer the ability to "unlock" the device if requested. simple as

[@qlum]

The SX core allowing for newer Mariko Switches to be modded is something I feel is left out here, as that was right before the crackdown on the team. Although possible unwarranted takedowns by Nintendo could be a reason to not include it.

[@youwayo]

Glad you brought that song back in the intro. It’s my favorite.

[@Cuzjudd]

Me too

[@yvendous]

Very interesting! Thanks for covering this

[@immortallix]

Agree with the bit at the end. Putting your family at risk for an extra buck on a cfw is dumb all the way through

[@mikesierra85]

Except it was for a lot of money...

[@jamesb.6177]

@@mikesierra85 Everyone else: Think of the children!! An absolute Chad: OK but hear me out… SwagBucks…

[@MrDavehathaway]

Just from a hardware point of view, companies should have ZERO rights to tell consumers what they can and can't do with something they OWN.

[@bitelaserkhalif]

If somehow the Nintendo tactics got copied by auto manufacturers.... Outrage ensues. (Although EPA act is kinda close to Nintendo crapshoot, DMCA wise it got exempted)

[@Hidyman]

I agree completely.

[@retrodkcn1979]

Yeah

[@GameAW1]

The general rule is you can do whatever you want with what you own, and they can do whatever they want with any services provided. If they don't like you using CFW, they have every right to ban you from their online services, requests to repair, etc. Your console and accounts can and should be rightfully exiled from the manufacturers' eyes... But they should not have any right to tell you that you CAN'T mod it in the first place. And Nintendo keeps trying to change it in such a way that they have all the power no matter what, regardless whether its a product or service. Keep pressing this way, and its sure to bite them in the ass when it inevitably becomes the case that having a relationship with them in any capacity is too much a risk to ever be worth it, be it developer or consumer. Just ban those guys from NSO and eShop, and leave it at that. If they hack themselves back in to the service, THEN get the lawyers ready.

[@BeB02090]

Love the shirt my dude and that intro is spine-chillingly awesome. What a wonderful channel you have. Thank you for what you do. 😉👍

[@ModernVintageGamer]

thank you!

[@BeB02090]

@@ModernVintageGamer You got it! 😊

[@supernoob17]

This is an awesome video I'd love to see more videos about the history of the scene

[@tdata545]

I didn't know they were at it for that long. I have their Switch mod for my Switch. I mod all my devices. I like the cheat functions it offers. BUT it was shame on them for offering a "market place" where you could literally download official switch games. Really removing that level of plausible deniability, or even that argument that you're selling it to enhance games like I was using it for for cheating in Pokemon or Xenoblade or whatever, and also using it to load retroarch.

[@josebr0]

They weren't the good guys and they made sure everyone knew it. They made you buy a license for their piracy OS. I had their dongle for the switch and it was awesome though. Worked like a charm and with almost 0 effort.

[@tdata545]

@@josebr0 Yeah, the license gimmick was annoying, but I knew what i was buying and getting into. THOUGH, PSP had the best hacking scene. Got me into repairing my own psp, and hacking which then led me to repair my pc. The battery mod was the weirdest hack ever. Where you were writing code to the battery's charging board, so strange. Man that was fun times.

[@merkyofaycemfx2944]

@@tdata545 I remember making my own pandora battery by destroying a solder joint with a pencil. I could have had that shit explode in my hand. What scares me even more I did it several times for my friends.

[@tdata545]

@@merkyofaycemfx2944 HUH, I ONLY VAGUELY remember that method. Mine was just writing dirty code to the battery on my hacked PSP 1000 to hack my 2000. Then George Hoetz (??? on the spelling?) came and made all methods irrelevant.

[@merkyofaycemfx2944]

@@tdata545 probably because there were sites that sold them pre shorted. But you really only needed Pandora batteries in PSP modding infancy. The later hardware revisions patched out that vulnerability altogether and newer exploits pushed payloads over savegame hacks and modified update eboots.

[@mcain2911]

That’s a valid point at the end. If you’re 20 and have no real responsibility, you’re gonna do dumb crap. When you have a family to provide for, arrest and/or extradition is something you would hopefully not to put yourself in the position to face. Then again, some people never grow up.

[@applehazeva2739]

I just wanted to say please never change the music of your Videos!

[@theraygood]

Mvg has the best sound track for his videos.

[@ReigningSemtex]

Really loved this video. Bought a few xecuter products over the years and have really liked the ease of use that comes with them.

[@davkdavk]

Still got an Xecuter 3 in mine. Also have the LCD faceplate

[@martinantelo7086]

One would think that people like Max should have earned enough money to live comfortably and retire by now. In the end their greed with SXOS has been their downfall, they couldn't play the "it's for homebrew" card anymore. It was a device for piracy, at the time in 2018 regular open source alternatives didn't offer backups support and they did.

[@NightcoreClips_]

A shame they didn’t invest in bug bounties.

[@HelloGlamorous]

thank you for making a video about this, been waiting cause I knew you would 😁

[@jackmullin9247]

Love your channel bro 💖 one of my faves on YT. Keep it up 😀

[@alehey]

I do not see any problem in the very hacking of consoles, I am interested in examining the internal structure of the device system and getting the opportunity to launch and test custom applications, and the fact that the Team Xecuter provided such an opportunity is great. The main problem of the Team Xecuter is that they openly provided the opportunity to launch pirated games.

[@alexalin9341]

When its a current gen or a console that makes the company money its a bad thing

[@danbooke2001]

@@alexalin9341 Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I'm neither pro nor con on the pirated software scene, but that is a lesson quite a bit of us should learn.

[@dustojnikhummer]

And that they sold licenses to do it.

[@lopesinho]

Yes Piracy is not ok and will never be

[@dustojnikhummer]

@@lopesinho Against Nintendo piracy is absolutely fine in my eye. What I don't like is other people profiting from that piracy. Be it by selling piracy tools or selling ROMs

[@NomadsBoyTv]

One thing to note, the community turned on SX OS. Gbatemp even banned linking to it. There was a rumor that sx os' loaded backups via proprietary code from Nintendo. Putting a pay wall when Atmosphere was in its infancy at the time pissed off a lot of people. There were so many accusations. They also made a mod for the switch lite that never released. It was going to be a hard mod.

[@dinodin007]

Not rumor of the Nintendo code, proven.

[@NomadsBoyTv]

@@dinodin007 I never saw the proof. Would you mind posting the forum thread or what proved it?

[@ghostskills]

great documentation, like always

[@GEEK88]

I can’t get enough of these videos mate … keep them coming..

[@XXXLaurel]

This is an interesting story, altough for the time i was involved in modding consoles they were never that popular (atleast here in Mexico) as paying for a chip (or any 3rd party hardware) was redundant because the last thing you want to do was pay high prices for pirating, you’re looking for whatever is closest to free.

[@shangxiajiu1]

do you go back to the cube days and the mod kits for tv box's?

[@SuperSmashDolls]

My personal opinion is that Team Xecuter are scumbags - they write modding tools with *antipiracy features* that brick your consoles if tripped. That alone makes me *never* want to touch anything even remotely associated with them.

[@Gatitasecsii]

I don't know why people in the comments and MVG don't recognize this...

[@receivegreatest6802]

@@Gatitasecsii I guess it didn’t happen to everyone

[@MassiveRican]

Loved this vid, I was heavy in the modding scene during the Wii & early Wii U days. Would be fun to see a retrospective on their open source stuff.

[@henk8105]

Great video! Very interesting, well done.

[@ITNoetic]

This video represents a wild nostalgia trip through my youth. I had no idea the same guy was behind all these things I relied on as a broke elementary and high schooler back in the day. It's like finding out most of your top 5 musicians were actually just the same guy under different fake names.

[@desmondbrown5508]

Me as well. I explicitly remember the releasing of a lot of these chips. And I remember the going-ons and all of the talks around those times. Very interesting. But like you, I didn't know it was the same basic group doing most of it.

[@damonflavell]

Half expected a video on the recent PS5 developments, thanks for the quality video as always MVG

[@Leonard.L.Church]

No point. The exploint wont be public for a year or two, or else sony could patch it.

[@dr.kamuffel7953]

Awesome level of detail, thanks!

[@sergeleon1163]

Brings back memories ordering my team Xecuter modchip from Lik Sang for my OG Xbox back in the day.

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

8:00 _Of course_ Bowser is behind all of this!

[@qlum]

Except he is small fry, taking the blame yet only getting a small piece of the pie. From what I heard at least.

[@receivegreatest6802]

That part is still kind of weird it’s like Nintendo manifested it ‼️

[@thetofulord3249]

The modding scene is a retaliation to the scummy practices in the gaming industry. Therefore, I believe the modding scene has every right to exist

[@droidchevere]

Awesome content as always

[@dizzer182]

Thank you for the continuous on point content. You are awesome.

[@ShortHax]

I just know Bowser was behind this. I hope someone warned them not to pick up Joycons off the shower floor in prison

[@V1CT1MIZED]

The first time you’d be happy to have a joycon with drift

[@-aexc-]

prison rape is so fucking funny. prisoners are subhuman

[@heikadog]

prison jokes aren't funny :/

[@ass.blaster2000]

@erik the duality of man

[@mohamedkadhemmansour7058]

MVG quickly giving you the reasons why he quit the console modding.

[@lahma69]

Great job covering such a controversial group (at least very controversial in the Nintendo Switch modding scene). There were several threads to this story that I was not aware of and I was not aware of the connection with Kim Dot Com. As always, keep up the great work!

[@MrChemceb]

Thank you Sir. Wonderful video. Keep going!

[@fleebleflam]

Wow!! I was on ALL of them sites back in the day, such a shame about GaryOPA, i used to chat to him all the time. Really brings back memories for me. The good ol days!!🎮😊 And i STILL can't find a XC3P!! Wish i could find a Crystal clear one!😫

[@pswadedgafboi7813]

Always happen to be online when MVG releases a new vid; smart mature content and interestingly informative (especially the historical/emulation specific ones)

[@danbooke2001]

"Happen"? He uploads at the same time every Monday morning...

[@Leonard.L.Church]

@@danbooke2001 shhhhhh... Let them feel special and rake in likes...

[@rolandssavdons7993]

Interesting part of history, MVG! Good video!

[@Gabrielarandapedroza]

Really love your content the detail each video. Please keep up the work I look forward each one

[@mephistovonfaust]

I honestly think it's absolutely ridiculous that it's literally illegal to sell people something that enables them to mod their own property.

[@RippahRooJizah]

In the grand scheme of things the issue is that piracy extends to getting stuff that isn't their property. Selling the stuff isn't a good look to some like Nintendo.

[@Matanumi]

Modding console- fine Modding console to take software that isn't yours- not fine. That's why its such a gray area

[@ArpeggioPegasusMusic]

But it isn't your property anymore. Nowadays you rent games for an indefinite period of time, and as soon as online services go down you won't even be able to play some games that require day-one patches and such. We went from owning hardware that lets us run software that we bought, to buying the access to online services that may or may not stick around depending on how much money it generates under the form of a video game console.

[@mephistovonfaust]

@@ArpeggioPegasusMusic that may be true when it comes to software, hence the licensing agreement but it certainly doesn't hold true for the hardware and that's what was modded. Whatever you do with it is your personal responsibility, not of the company providing the tools to do so.

[@RippahRooJizah]

@@ArpeggioPegasusMusic Hey, it's good to throw in some physical games alongside digital. It's not like console game patches invented incomplete games being released.

[@needdles1]

I used this hack for years. After being a lifelong Nintendo fan I couldn't stomach giving them money anymore because of their disgusting anticonsumer mindset which led me to SX OS. Since last October and no new updates in the pipeline my Switch is just a dust collector.

[@DragonProtector]

Hm

[@MrDmoney156]

you can stil use that same modchip you have now and transfer your SX OS stuff over to Atmosphere easily now.

[@needdles1]

@@MrDmoney156 I've tried and my system just won't boot into the hack for some reason, even atmosphere. I kind of just stopped caring after a few months of trying different things.

[@dpatt6175]

Hell yeah!! I was praying MVG would cover this

[@spitt0110]

I can't believe how long I've been following your content or content you have had a hand in. small world.

[@shadoom]

Super interesting story and it really shows how powerful one single corporation like Nintendo is... Kinda scary