Xbox preservationists have been hard at work developing XCAT, an automated tool to allow Xbox owners to search their consoles for lost Xbox content and have it be uploaded as part of a collaborative effort to archive DLC, title updates, homebrew content (apps, skins, etc), and more. Using this tool, the community can pool their efforts to archive lost Xbox content that may be lingering out in the wild on Xbox consoles and preserve it for the benefit of everyone. As of today, March 25, 2024, the team behind this powerful tool have released version 1.0 to the public.
This v1.0 release includes a standard XBE, compatible with softmodded and hardmodded Xbox consoles. In addition to this, the team has also bundled a variation that is compatible with ENDGAME, the new softmod method requiring only a memory unit (or USB drive). This utility is just 3.7MB, meaning it can fit onto a memory unit (alongside ENDGAME). This is especially useful for users who may not be interested in modding their console, but still wish to contribute potentially lost content on their Xbox to the XCAT project for preservation.
Video demo:
How It Works
XCAT will scan the user's hard drive, searching these paths:
C:\
E:\
F:\apps\
F:\games\
G:\apps\
G:\games\
X:\
Y:\
Z:\
XCAT calculates a unique checksum for each file found. A list of checksums is then sent to the XCAT servers for analysis. If any individual file is determined to be new and not-yet-archived, it is then put into a queue and uploaded right from the user's console. If a file is already present on XCAT's servers, that file will not be uploaded again. This method also avoids duplicates caused by differing naming schemes, as each individual file is hashed.
The XCAT team has also made great efforts to gather checksums for existing/known files, such as redump / CCI gamesets, and known homebrew to avoid these being uploaded. As more people use this tool over time, more checksums will be gathered, meaning each individual person is less likely to have a large amount of content that is needing to be uploaded.
The Goal
Collecting lost content is just one step in the preservation process. The next step is to share any relevant lost content with the community as a whole. This will happen in a variety of ways. Recovered content that is useful or relevant for playing games on Insignia (the modern replacement for Xbox Live) will be shared with the Insignia team and may be made available as updates that from within said game.
Other content, such as lost homebrew apps, games, skins, etc.. will be made available in the relevant channels (to be determined).
The Hotlist
A list of specific content that has yet to be archived is available on ConsoleMods.org here:
https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:Unarchived_DLC
Privacy
The XCAT team acknowledges that modded Xbox consoles can be used for a range of purposes beyond just gaming. As such, XCAT intentionally avoids directories that may contain potentially sensitive data, such as media playback history and thumbnail caches generated by XBMC. XCAT also is designed to skip scanning DEVKIT directories so developers who are working on projects do not inadvertently upload their unreleased software.
That said, users should be aware that this tool scans a large portion of their Xbox's hard drive. If you have a Linux distro on your console, XCAT won't intentionally seek this out, but they do advise that you take steps to protect any personal information that you do not wish to have shared, should it exist on your specific console. If such personal content does exist, you can avoid it being uploaded by simply moving it out of one of the scanned directories (listed above in this post).
How To Get It
XCAT can be downloaded via the usual places under this path:
/XBOX/Console Based Applications/apps/utilities/XCAT/
Feedback / Discussion
Want to submit your feedback or have any questions for XCAT? Join the Xbox-Scene Discord server:
https://discord.gg/VcdSfajQGK (see #xcat channel under Preservation Efforts)
Further Reading
Read more about XCAT on ConsoleMods.org here:
https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:XCAT
