Lik Sang shutdown by Microsoft
10 April 2002, 01:00 PM
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Darren,
I've ordered my pre-chipped PS2 from Kanection. They do Magic2's for £50 + about £10 p&p (IIRC).
Daniel
[Edit for price update
]
[Edited by ScoobyDan - 10/4/2002 1:02:02 PM]
I've ordered my pre-chipped PS2 from Kanection. They do Magic2's for £50 + about £10 p&p (IIRC).
Daniel
[Edit for price update
][Edited by ScoobyDan - 10/4/2002 1:02:02 PM]
04 October 2002, 11:50 AM
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ChristianR:
Microsoft appears to have shut down one of the world's largest distributors of "mod chips"--gray-market add-ons that allow Microsoft's Xbox and other video game consoles to play pirated games.
A representative in Microsoft's Australian subsidiary confirmed that the company has taken legal action against Hong Kong-based Lik Sang.
Lik Sang's Web site has been offline for nearly two weeks, with a notice on the site blaming a server outage.
Lik Sang representatives could not be reached for comment, and Microsoft attorneys were unavailable to explain the exact nature of the legal action.
Lik Sang was one of the top worldwide retailers of mod chips, devices that, once soldered to a game console's main circuit board, disable security components. The chips typically allow a game machine to play legally and illegally copied discs, run unauthorized software and play game discs intended for other geographic regions.
Hackers have latched on to mod chips as a conduit for running homemade software on the Xbox, leading to development of programs such as an Xbox version of the Linux operating system.
Lik Sang offered a variety of mod chips for the Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 2, along with game consoles with mod chips already installed by Lik Sang technicians. The company went into the manufacturing side of the mod chip business last August when it acquired OpenXbox, a mod chip design intended to allow upgrades.
Though mod chips have bothered the video game business for years, Microsoft has been particularly zealous in fighting them. The company reconfigured the Xbox's innards partly to deter hackers and has sought to hire a mod chip expert.
Microsoft appears to have shut down one of the world's largest distributors of "mod chips"--gray-market add-ons that allow Microsoft's Xbox and other video game consoles to play pirated games.
A representative in Microsoft's Australian subsidiary confirmed that the company has taken legal action against Hong Kong-based Lik Sang.
Lik Sang's Web site has been offline for nearly two weeks, with a notice on the site blaming a server outage.
Lik Sang representatives could not be reached for comment, and Microsoft attorneys were unavailable to explain the exact nature of the legal action.
Lik Sang was one of the top worldwide retailers of mod chips, devices that, once soldered to a game console's main circuit board, disable security components. The chips typically allow a game machine to play legally and illegally copied discs, run unauthorized software and play game discs intended for other geographic regions.
Hackers have latched on to mod chips as a conduit for running homemade software on the Xbox, leading to development of programs such as an Xbox version of the Linux operating system.
Lik Sang offered a variety of mod chips for the Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 2, along with game consoles with mod chips already installed by Lik Sang technicians. The company went into the manufacturing side of the mod chip business last August when it acquired OpenXbox, a mod chip design intended to allow upgrades.
Though mod chips have bothered the video game business for years, Microsoft has been particularly zealous in fighting them. The company reconfigured the Xbox's innards partly to deter hackers and has sought to hire a mod chip expert.
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04 October 2002, 01:04 PM
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Just read this from the makers of the original messiah chip (said to be the best):
Clones and Technical 'copies'
There are many clone and 'copy' version non-swap chips now being distributed worldwide. All of these chips are based on the Messiah, and have names such as Magic, Apple, Titan etc. etc. and use all the same connections and amount of wires.
Analysis of these chips show design flaws that can create potential problems and issues, here is an example of the Titan and Magic:
The Titan chips is a poor quality attempt at duplicating Messiah technology, it cannot correct logo display properly and hence a user will immediately notice a scrambled picture upon booting of a game, some other chip versions also suffer this flaw. Reliability of the design is reported to be poor.
The Magic chip (also known as Magic 2) is an even poorer attempt at duplicating Messiah technology, but currently has pushed forward with a version for the V7 type console. The Magic design shows poor reliability, inability to load imported PSX titles or DV9 imports, jittering problems during DVD playback and is too large to fit properly under the consoles metallic casing. There are also issues with many software titles not able to run on the design. The build quality of these chips are also poor, and the components used are typically less than $5 USD in value.
Remember:
Genuine Messiah's were the first non-swap modchip design for the Ps2, and have been produced through many months of intense development working with consoles and producing the design to the required standard necessary. All 'copies' are attempts at duplicating the information that is produced by Messiah connection points and then re-manufacturing, often with bad results in performance, or loss of functions. Messiah components are fairly expensive, the typical main IC costing in excess of $12 USD alone, whereas copies tend to use IC's from Xilinx that cost less than $3 USD, the purpose of this is to simply allow more profit from the sale of a Messiah competitor, but at the expense of quality and reliability. Genuine Messiah have been proven worldwide to work flawlessly in all supported consoles, and many installers insist only on using the genuine product. Unfortunately, some companies even call their modchips 'Messiah' and attempt to manufacture or resell in a similar design so as to fool buyers into thinking they are genuine versions, one such copy version is a false Messiah that is easily spotted by identifying holes in the connection pads. Purchasing these 'copies' can cause problems for performance of your console, and unfortunately can undermine the solid reputation of Messiah modchips. Genuine Messiah's are manufactured to the specifications required for electronic compatibility, and quality necessary for flawless operation of your console, and are produced using high quality components and manufacturing techniques.
Clones and Technical 'copies'
There are many clone and 'copy' version non-swap chips now being distributed worldwide. All of these chips are based on the Messiah, and have names such as Magic, Apple, Titan etc. etc. and use all the same connections and amount of wires.
Analysis of these chips show design flaws that can create potential problems and issues, here is an example of the Titan and Magic:
The Titan chips is a poor quality attempt at duplicating Messiah technology, it cannot correct logo display properly and hence a user will immediately notice a scrambled picture upon booting of a game, some other chip versions also suffer this flaw. Reliability of the design is reported to be poor.
The Magic chip (also known as Magic 2) is an even poorer attempt at duplicating Messiah technology, but currently has pushed forward with a version for the V7 type console. The Magic design shows poor reliability, inability to load imported PSX titles or DV9 imports, jittering problems during DVD playback and is too large to fit properly under the consoles metallic casing. There are also issues with many software titles not able to run on the design. The build quality of these chips are also poor, and the components used are typically less than $5 USD in value.
Remember:
Genuine Messiah's were the first non-swap modchip design for the Ps2, and have been produced through many months of intense development working with consoles and producing the design to the required standard necessary. All 'copies' are attempts at duplicating the information that is produced by Messiah connection points and then re-manufacturing, often with bad results in performance, or loss of functions. Messiah components are fairly expensive, the typical main IC costing in excess of $12 USD alone, whereas copies tend to use IC's from Xilinx that cost less than $3 USD, the purpose of this is to simply allow more profit from the sale of a Messiah competitor, but at the expense of quality and reliability. Genuine Messiah have been proven worldwide to work flawlessly in all supported consoles, and many installers insist only on using the genuine product. Unfortunately, some companies even call their modchips 'Messiah' and attempt to manufacture or resell in a similar design so as to fool buyers into thinking they are genuine versions, one such copy version is a false Messiah that is easily spotted by identifying holes in the connection pads. Purchasing these 'copies' can cause problems for performance of your console, and unfortunately can undermine the solid reputation of Messiah modchips. Genuine Messiah's are manufactured to the specifications required for electronic compatibility, and quality necessary for flawless operation of your console, and are produced using high quality components and manufacturing techniques.
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