I recently bought an original Xbox and some gear to hack around with. The intent was to build a soft-modded Xbox with Xbox Media Center on it. I had done this before when Xbox modding was still in its infancy but had broken that Xbox years ago in miss having it. I got a late model 1.6 Xbox (The hardest to mod) for this project and the game Splinter Cell. I custom made a USB input from a breakaway cable to get the necessary game saves onto the Xbox. I then made the necessary mods and later upgraded the hard drive.
I downloaded the necessary software packages from my favorite torrent sites, and xboxscene.com. I used a very old 500MB hard drive attached to an IDE to USB adapter to plug into the computer and the Xbox to transfer the data. None of the USB sticks that I had lying around seemed to work. I used the action replay software to make the necessary transfers by adding my USB to IDE adapters USB ID to the action replay .ini file. I have included a couple of the guides I used to get this done below.
Download The Auto Installer Deluxe 4.50 Manual
Download the Softmod Installer 5.01 Manual
The breakaway cable to USB hack is kind of a custom job (though easy enough) and as such warrants some explanation. I simply wired a female USB plug onto my Xbox break away cable. This is done by simply wiring the same colored wires together and taping the two spare wires off. Here is a diagram.
I am quite impressed with the state of XBMC on the Xbox; however it is too bad that continuing development for the Xbox port seems to have fallen by the wayside. I am hoping for and Xbox 360 port however the chances look slim to none. Although the Xbox 360 has huge power to drive applications like this the scene seems to have blown its load on the original Xbox and is now done. I find it hard to believe that more development has not been done for the 360.