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The Battalion
l^age 6A • Tuesday, September 2,1
Mod chips catching on in College Statior
Students buying and selling mod chips despite legal and ethical ramification
By George Deutsch
THE BATTALION
Many college students consider
playing video games a legitimate
hobby and a way of life. The newest
generation of home gaming consoles
— the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and
GameCube — have introduced tech
nology vastly superior to the 8-bit
Nintendo in 1985, making these sys
tems particularly popular with col
lege students who have witnessed the
evolution of gaming
firsthand.
But as with any new
technology, hackers
pose a significant threat
to system and software
manufacturers, and
today’s gaming systems
aren’t exempt from this
burden. Much of the
hacking done to today’s
home video game con
soles is made possible
through modification
chips, commonly called
mod chips, which
attach to a system’s
internal motherboard
and circumvent security measures.
Available for self-installation on the
Internet, mod chips can transform
video game systems into media melting
pots, enabling Microsoft’s Xbox, for
example, to store illegally-pirated
movies, CDs, video games, still images
and other things Bill Gates never
intended on its hard drive. Since these
chips encourage the bypassing of copy
right legislation such as the Digital
Millenium Copyright Act, they present
a dilemma for gamers seeking to
unlock their system’s full potential
while also wanting to stay on the right
Ljijde of the law.
Senior economics major Joel
Hoskins has his own mod chip sales
and installation business, CUSTOM
MODS. Hoskins said though mod chips
were originally intended for legal pur
poses, they also serve illegal, gamer-
friendly functions.
“If you’re going to burn every
game (onto a hard drive), you’re rub
bing dirt in their (game developers’)
faces,” Hoskins said. “ These guys are
working hard to make games, and
they don’t make much money doing
it. And I’m sitting here trying to sell
chips that illegally play burned games
but also do legal things. It’s a double-
edged sword.”
But not all mod chip
distributors go unno
ticed by the
Department of Justice.
In December of 2002,
22-year-old Virginia
native David Rocci was
convicted of selling
$28,000 worth of ille
gal mod chips and was
forced to turn over his
Web address,
www.isonews.com, to
the DOJ.
Rocci’s site now fea
tures an unpleasant
video clip from
Attorney General John Ashcroft about
the ills of computer crime. So selling
and owning mod chips doesn't come
without consequences.
For around $50, a student could pur
chase a mod chip from an Internet deal
er or someone like Hoskins. The sale of
the chips is not illegal, though many of
the chips’ functions are, which raises
concerns with companies such as
Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.
Microsoft’s customer service represen
tatives, for example, will not answer
questions relating to mod chips.
The installation of a mod chip also
voids a game system’s warranty and, in
the case of Microsoft’s Xbox, will dis
qualify a gamer from online play,
I’m... trying to sell
chips that
illegally play burned
games but abo do
legal things. It’s a
double-edged
sword.
— Joel Hoskins
senior economics major
Photos courtisy or www.divinio.co.uk. www.auhackikshakovyaki.com and www.consou s"'
Pictured clockwise from top left ore the Messiah 2, the Matrix 2, the X- for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 gaming systems, and they allow w
ecuter and the Enigmah modification chips. These chips are designed play illegally pirated games and save downloaded games and m??
according to the Official Xbox
Magazine.
Still, one country is taking steps to
recognize gamers' rights, though no
other countries have followed its lead.
Australia recently declared mod chips
legal, effectively throwing out a Sony
lawsuit. But Sony is considering an
appeal.
For some, mod chips — which sell
under names such as Enigmah, Messiah
I and Messiah 2 — represent the evolu
tion of video games, while for oik'
they represent computer crime.
In either case, the College Slit
mod chip scene is alive and well.
Hoskins said, in a world of black i
white, "this is a gray market."
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