Playing Japanese Games on an American Xbox

[Super Christ]

I'm seriously considering buying an Xbox, but before I do I want to know how I can make Japanese games play on it. Preferably a method that doesn't involve actually modding it, because while I have no intention of using Xbox live, I'd like the possibility to be there should I ever have the inclination.

[Sepho]

I'm no guru on the subject, but I'm more or less certain that you would, in fact, have to mod your XBox to be able to play Japanese games. The two regions use different media protocols that are, I believe, coded into the bios (or it may even be hardware related). You'd have to mod your 'Box before it would ever let you tamper with the bios. I'm not sure, though. I could very well be wrong.

[Shoeberto]

There is a way to completely soft mod it.
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/lofiver...p/t262740.html
Saw this a while ago on TV and thought it was bad as hell. No popping open the box or anything - it's all software based.

Good luck.