- Before this Xbox video, I was very nervous that I would lose my fans that followed the Amiga stuff cause they didn't care about the Xbox. [electronic music] Hi. I'm MVG. And today I'm responding to my top 1,000 YouTube comments. The following comments came from the most popular video on your YouTube channel. What video is it? I think it's the Nintendo Wii was hacked with a pair of tweezers video. It is, yes, it is the most popular video published in October of 2019. And it has over 3 million views. Honestly, I had no idea that it would even get anywhere near the amount of views. I thought it was more of a throwaway video that I did. Obviously the tweezers, beauty product, if you will, is something that a lot of people really enjoyed, I guess. So that was a, it was a fun video to make. So, the actual video itself goes into some detail about the group that was known as Team Tweezers. So I wanted to learn more about why they were called Team Tweezers in the first place. And what actually happened was they were able to use a pair of tweezers and bridge certain points on the motherboard to open up the Wii's memory and then basically get the entire dump of the BIOS. And from there, that's where they were able to hack the Wii. So it's a pretty funny story. I remember trying to find a pair of tweezers in my bathroom and I actually had to ask my wife if we had a pair. So, the thumbnail actually has a Wii with a pair of tweezers on top, and I thought it was gonna be a really cool thumbnail that would get a lot of people interested in clicking on the video. And it did. Here's one of the first comments on that most viewed video. Curt Sawyer said, "Excited about this one. I remember my Wii being my first console I made an attempt to soft mod. I could never get it to work for some reason, though, considering how easy it is." Well, actually Curt, it's pretty simple to mod your Wii these days. I would recommend looking at a quick guide to do it because there's not too much difficulty involved in doing that. The tools these days are a lot easier. Here's one of the most liked comments on that video. Can't wait to see how the new mistakes were made video about how a paperclip defeated security on the Nintendo Switch. I will definitely cover the Nintendo Switch but I'm kinda waiting for about five years or so to pass when the next Nintendo system is released because the Switch obviously is still pretty much a very popular machine right now. Gordon Freeman says, "I love seeing companies spend millions on security just to be defeated by a couple of guys. Keep it up. Your content is amazing." I agree Gordon. It seems like a lot of investment and time is put into security. The more complex things but not necessarily thinking about the easiest solutions. And sometimes the easiest solutions, just a household utensil, is what defeats security which is hilarious. It didn't seem like anyone else had really covered it on YouTube before. Pretty much every single console that has been released since the first ever system has been defeated security wise in lots of different ways, of course. And I think there's definitely some stories to tell there. The best one is these soft modding where it's really easy just for the average common person to do it. The easiest ones is where you just put a USB drive in to the system and it's jailbroken. They're always the best ones. Why do you think people enjoy them so much? What are some of the practical things people do thanks to your insights? Modding a system or defeating security has a lot to do with freedom as a consumer. A lot of the times when you purchase a system you're kinda locked into a very tight ecosystem where you really can't do anything beyond play the games. If you want to turn it into a media center or if you want to do other things, because you purchased that system, then you should be able to, and I think opening up security on these systems really gives people that ability to do so. The following comments came from the second most popular video on your YouTube channel. What video is it? Ooh, this is a tough question. I'm gonna guess how security on the PlayStation 3 was defeated, but I'm not a hundred percent on that one. Second most popular video is why you need a modded Xbox 360 in 2018, the history, custom dashboards, emulators and more, published in April of 2018 with 2.7 million views. Wow. I remember making this video and it really blew up probably after the first six months. I knew I had a good video on my hands but this one's just continued to be evergreen and it just keeps racking up views. And I'm very surprised that it's actually my second most popular videos. There are other videos that are kind of jostling for position right now, but that's pretty awesome to see that one. The story behind this video was the Xbox 360, there was always history about the system and the red ring of death and all that stuff. And some of the great games for the system. But, there wasn't really anyone that had made a good video about the underground scene. The Homebrew and the modding scene that was behind it. I felt like it was a good time to talk about it. And I think it really resonated with a lot of people. The homebrew scene is essentially when you defeat security on a system, it opens up the door to run things like emulators and all sorts of things that were not meant for the system. But because you've got this powerful console underneath it's very appealing to a lot of folks out there. "Who would win? A specialized security system with programmatically blown fuses built for nothing to ever get past it or One Hacky boi", Sawyer S. asks. That's a tough one. I think the Hacky boi would probably take that one. For me, I would probably not put any security systems into a game system because I think ultimately one way or the other, they will be bypassed. They will be breached. I'm a big believer in no security is the best security. If I was put in charge of security systems, I would probably do different types of crypto as well as putting in modern techniques. The common thing with, say, the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation 5, is the new crypto that's around it. I think that's very, very difficult to breach. I would say crypto is probably one thing that I would do very quickly. This is one of your first videos. Oh my God. The video was published on December of 2008 and it has 7,000 views. The story about the video was just, I wanted to upload some gameplay onto YouTube. People were doing it at the time. "Call Of Duty 4" had just come out, and I just wanted to get my feet wet with YouTube. There were no plans for the channel. It was just something that I did on one particular day. Couldn't have imagined at the time, back in 2008, what would've become of my channel, you know, 12 years later. It's pretty amazing. It's easy just to kind of scrub, you know, your first like 50 videos, where people didn't know who you were, but I always like to share my journey. This was the start of it, I guess. And it's just a pointless video, but it's there, it's history, and, you know, 7,000 people watched it. I feel for them. This is one of the most liked comments on this video. Tommy said, "This was the start of an amazing career." Yeah, I guess so. You know, it wasn't really something that I had planned, but going back and looking at at this video, absolutely. I think for me, the true beginning was probably in 2016 where I got monetized and I started to really wonder, is there a way to make something that I can do week in week out. When I started to really come up with an idea and a strategy about how to be successful on YouTube. That's when I would think that my career really started. This next video is your earliest video with over 20,000 views. And you would subsequently make many more successful vids involving the same subject matter. Do you know what this is? I'd probably say it's something to do with the Xbox. I'm not a hundred percent sure on that. Amiga 500 on the internet with null modem cable and Raspberry Pi, published February 19, 2014 with almost 23,000 views. Wow. So the Omega 500 was a home computer that came out in the '80s by the company Commodore. And it was a very popular home computer, especially in Europe and Australia. It did have a presence in the United States, as well. Because it was well and truly before the days of the internet, all it had was a serial port, which allows you to hook up a modem. This particular video goes into detail explaining how with the null modem cable, which is just the cable that connects to the serial port, you can then connect it up to a Raspberry Pi which obviously has internet capabilities. And basically just piggyback off the Raspberry Pi to get that Amiga machine online. So you can surf the web with it and you can do all sorts of neat things with it. And I think it was a cool video that people really kind of got behind and really liked. I remember that video well. I was not feeling well that day. And if you go back and listen to that video I've got a bit of a cold. I don't know the reason why I had to make a video that day. And it was still very much for fun, but I thought it was kind of cool to show some interesting technology with an old computer from the '80s hooking it up and getting it online with a Raspberry Pi. I thought that was kind of neat. Yeah, it was one of my earliest successful videos. The Amiga for me was the computer that I grew up with in the household. Playing games was obviously something that was one of the biggest things I enjoyed about it. But, it had so much versatility to it. It was a true multimedia machine before the days of you know, the 486 PC and the Pentium PCs. You could do music creation, art packages, programming. You could write games with it. You could hook up a sampler and then make some really cool beats on the Amiga. There was just so much versatility. So much personality with this one machine. And I really, really loved that system. This next video is one of your earliest hits with over 1 million views. Do you know what this is? This one has to be the original Xbox video that I did probably in 2017 or 2018. The original Xbox is still awesome. Softmod, bios flash, compact flash HD, games, emulators. Yes, November 27, 2017, with 1.3 million views. Jay Merritt said, "I totally agree with you that the original Xbox is the perfect emulation machine, and I still tell people that when they insist on buying something like an NES classic. So once again, thank you for everything you did with the original Xbox scene." Jay, I totally agree with you. I love the original Xbox. It's the best emulation device that you can use out. It has been for a long time. Only recently, I guess, has it been surpassed, but I have a lot of love for the original Xbox and that's why I made that video in the first place. If you really think about it, the NES classic is just a cheap system that runs emulators in the first place. There's room for both. I really do like the NES classic. I think bringing those old school NES games to a new generation, I think it's a very smart thing to do. And hopefully, you know we'll see more of those come out. I'm waiting for the N64, Nintendo 64 classic. Or the Dreamcast classic. Hopefully we'll see those one day. I don't know if it's still the perfect emulation machine, but it's definitely still up there. I probably would put something like the Nvidia Shield TV as my pick of the best emulation machine out there. Just has the right amount of power for the money you spend. Because you don't want to spend thousands of dollars on something just to play emulators on. You want a device that you're probably gonna spend anything less than 200 bucks on. And I think for me, the Shield TV is my pick of the best emulation machine. But I will say that the OG Xbox still makes a very fine emulation machine out there in 2020. Michael Manoni says, "I don't know if you'll ever see this MVG but thank you so much for this video. I watched it in early December and since then I purchased a used Xbox and hard-modded it and installed a 480 gigabyte SATA SSD. Also did a bunch of custom lighting and paint. People have done this before and I just wanted to thank you for making a video that showed how possible this is and removing the mystery behind the modded Xbox that bewildered me as a kid. You rock." Thank you so much, Michael. I really appreciate the kind words. Mission accomplished on the video there. It was really about showing people, look, it's not hard to do this and if you go down this path and kind of take these steps, then it opens up a bigger world for you to jump into. And I think Michael really got behind that one. It goes back to people want to do more with their systems. Especially the ones that don't necessarily have any use anymore. They don't want to sell them in a garage sale. Maybe there's some nostalgia that's attached to them. So what can you do with an old system? Well, I mean, there's always the soft modding or the teardown videos, where you can get a better understanding of how things work. And you can run some pretty cool emulators on many, many different systems. And just take more advantage of these systems. You know, this is one of the reasons why those videos do so well. How did the way you produced your videos change around this time? This is a great question. I remember this video well. I didn't necessarily do anything different, but I was kind of going through this phase where I was buying up. So I had invested in a better camera. I bought some lights because before that video I was using a phone on a tripod for most of my content. I wanted to make my productions look a little better. But I do remember this video very well because it was one that I set on probably for about a week. Before this Xbox video, I was making a lot of Amiga videos earlier on, and I wasn't sure how well it would be received. I was very nervous that I would lose my fans that followed the Amiga stuff 'cause they didn't care about the Xbox. But I was almost overwhelmed when I realized that when the video had come out, so many people around the world really just understood what I was trying to do and embraced that video. And it's been awesome. CrAzYgirL says, "I don't think a console is dead so long as people are still playing it, which is theoretically forever, largely through emulation." I don't disagree with you, but for me, it's really about the online networking service. I think the day that Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony shuts down their online infrastructure for a particular system. That's when you can really kind of say, I think the system is now no longer around anymore. I think it's dead. I do really appreciate what you're saying about as long as people are playing games. What is the best dead console? Which would most people be surprised to hear that many people are still playing? And why? Best dead console has to be the Sega Dreamcast. A lot of people are still playing that system to this day. There is a very active online community. And I think for me that would be the most surprising one. I think the Dreamcast has appealed because it already has a built in modem and you can get that system online very, very easily. It doesn't cost very much money on eBay. You can pick them up pretty cheap. They're very accessible. There's not really much setup that's involved. They connect up to lots of different modern displays and the games are still pretty cheap. I hate to say it, but, you can also play burnt disks on that without any type of mod device. And then, of course, you've got some great games. Some of the best games that Sega had ever made. So I think, you know, it makes sense that the Dreamcast is one of those systems. TJ West says, "There is something so calming about your videos." Thank you, TJ. I appreciate the kind words. I do tend to bring a calming presence to my content. And I really appreciate you picking that up. I just want to tell a story for everyone and, yeah, it seems like a lot of people enjoy that. I like to, you know, write a script and then really just kind of tell a story. And, and I think people really get behind that and they can understand what I'm trying to do there. So I do think a lot of people find my videos calming, you know, for that reason. Speed Round. Answer the following comments as quickly as possible because otherwise we'll be here all day. Byron says, "If you want to buy a 360 and use it as an emulation device, why not buy a cheap older PC and use that as an emulation device? A lot less complicated." A lot of people don't why you would want to run an emulator on a 360 or any console when you can just use a Raspberry Pi or a PC. But, my answer to that is because you can, so why not? Ulrich says, "1996: Do you guys not have PCs? 2019: Do you guys not have phones?" I think this was in response to my Diablo video that I brought out for the Nintendo Switch. I think it's funny that, you know, it's one of those memes that is forever going to be in the history of video games now. I love that quote. Lobothemainman says, "Can you talk about the HD loader? It was the first way to playback ups off a PS2 hard drive that I'm aware of, and it came out on a regular PS2 disc. I feel like this was important part of history." Yes. I will definitely be covering more things about the PlayStation 2. Where there's an interesting tale to tell about something unique, like the HD loader, I'll definitely be covering it. YamsDev says, "What I've always wondered is how on Earth did Datel keep breaking into consoles' security and how were their secrets nearly always kept so well? YamsDev, that is a great question. And I'm going to be looking more into the history of Datel and some of the things they did in a future episode. Flavio Neri says, "Thank you for the amazing content. Could you please create a video with the platforms that really are well emulated on the original Xbox?" Flavio, the last original Xbox video that I've done, it's been a couple of years since the last one, so I do think it's time for a refresher and maybe talking about some of the really cool homebrew and emulators that you can run on the OG Xbox that I would recommend. Forgetful functor says, "Why does every thumbnail you say, 'Mistakes were made?'" Well, I mean, mistakes were made is kind of a bit of a meme on my channel. When I'm telling a story about security being defeated on a certain system, I usually thumbnail with the words mistakes were made because people can understand what the video will be before they even click on it most of the time. What are you excited about these days? And what's on the horizon? I'm excited about the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X systems. I think a new generation of home consoles is something I always get excited about. What's on the horizon for me? I think the channel is going to be more of the same. I always want to come up with interesting stories to tell whether it's about security, whether it's about modding, emulation, to topics as well. whatever is something that I find interesting. It's usually what I'll just scribble down on a piece of paper and then, you know, come up with a script and bring it out. Which video or series of videos has been your favorite and why? The mistakes were made series is probably my favorite. I talk about the way security was defeated on lots of different systems. There's a lot more that I want to cover on that series. And a lot of people enjoy it. I really like reading these stories about how things were done because security wasn't always defeated because a very smart security researcher had discovered some kernel level exploit. Sometimes it's a very, very obvious way. So I think those types of stories and that particular series will definitely be up there with my favorites. How does it feel looking back on your career and do you have any final messages to your fans who have supported you? It feels a little surreal looking back at my career. I felt like the videos that I was bringing out was really more for a very niche type of group of people. It's gone a lot more beyond that. And I think I really appreciate the support that I've gotten from the fans over the years. It's very, very overwhelming and very, very humbling some times to really think about where the channel has grown from 2016 to today. And I just want to say thank you to everyone that has clicked on a video. If I've given you some enjoyment for those 10 minutes or those 15 minutes on a Monday morning when I released a new video, then my work is done and you know, my hats off to you for that.