TeamUIX
TeamUIX
Information | |
---|---|
Founder(s) | JbOnE/Gcue/BobMcGee |
Founded | 2004 |
Website | https://teamuix.net |
https://twitter.com/officialteamuix |
History
TeamUIX has a rich and storied history, originating from a group formed by Gcue and JbOnE, in collaboration with xboxdash[.]net's #xboxdash on EFNet. Initially known as tHc (the Hacking crew), this group built upon Gcue's TrueBlue MSDash Patches. tHc eventually evolved into a re-distribution of the original Xbox Dashboard, enhanced by patches and XIP mods contributed by the community.
A variant known as tHc Lite was released, which introduced innovative features such as customizable skins, minimal XBE patches for color codes, integrated reboot and shutdown functions, and the ability to take screenshots and read from extended partitions. These enhancements were made possible through the technical expertise of community members, including the notable contributions of fuck_db.
During the peak of tHc Lite's popularity, a new variant named BlackStormX (BSX) emerged. This modification introduced additional features and focused on recreating the rezn8 Dashboard style seen in early prototype videos, which popularized the "DNA" style among enthusiasts. The release of BSX led to a division within the niche community, forming two distinct factions: BSX and tHc.
As the development progressed, JbOnE announced the acquisition of source code that would enable the addition of FTP support and advanced skin switching capabilities to tHc, which was to be released as tHc Final. Concurrently, the BSX team revealed their work on integrating the dashboard's XIP engine with neXgen, a project by Team XboxOpenSource.
The tHc Final project transitioned into XboxDash.NeT, paying homage to the original IRC channel and domain where the community was born. This project culminated in the release of XboxDashNext BugBash Beta, incorporating many previously announced features, though FTP support was notably absent.
Around this time, the Xbox-Scene forums received an intriguing video teaser that introduced the world to user.interface.x (UIX). This new dashboard featured a built-in file manager, three distinct dashboard styles (Stock, tHc, and BSX), built-in FTP, and a game disc ripper, all based on the core MS dashboard. The video also marked the end of the rivalry between tHc and BSX, uniting both factions under the new banner of TeamUIX.
The first release of UIX, despite containing some bugs, was met with excitement for its fully customizable Xbox Dashboard. Meanwhile, other dashboard projects like Dash2GAM and NeoDashX also emerged, developed by members of xboxdash[.]net who had differing views from JbOnE. Notably, fuck_db collaborated with the French Geux forum and 2GAM to create Dash2GAM.
Despite the appearance of rivalry among these projects, later code leaks from the 2020s suggest that much like the mod chip developers, these groups collaborated behind the scenes, each preserving certain features for their own projects.
In 2004, TeamUIX announced plans to finalize UIX for the original Xbox with UIX2, a comprehensive overhaul of the MS Dash source tree. UIX2 aimed to remove restrictions such as XIP files in favor of folder structures and introduced a modular scripting language. The project also eliminated FTP functionality, opting instead to utilize Xbox Neighborhood from the development kit for file transfers. UIX2 was capable of patching any BIOS it ran on in memory, allowing Xbox Neighborhood to function after booting to the dashboard.
Unfortunately, some IRC members leaked incomplete and potentially harmful builds of UIX2 under the name "Enigma." This project, which lasted for about four months, was eventually blacklisted from all major scene channels on EFNet and related forums.
The widespread distribution and repackaging of these internal builds led to a decline in public interest among key developers such as JbOnE, Gcue, ImOkRuOk, and others. Consequently, UIX was largely abandoned as a public project, with development continuing privately among a small group of IRC staff.
Fast forward to 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Ryzee's release of the OpenXenium chip sparked renewed interest in the original Xbox scene. Milenko, having seen a post on r/originalxbox about UIX and the community's desire to reconnect with the original developers, began reaching out to former TeamUIX members. By this time, only seven individuals—ImOkRuOk, Mattie, gasclown, acidbath, ILTB, Odb718, and Milenko—remained active from the original team. This chance Reddit post led to the re-launch of TeamUIX, even if only as an informational archive for future enthusiasts.
Milenko connected with others, including Derf and Crunchbite, which led to the creation of #old-scene on the Xbox Homebrew Discord. This channel, along with the persistence of its members and the rediscovery of long-lost contributors, sparked one of the largest "scene booms" since the decline of Xbox-Scene[.]com in 2016.
This resurgence contributed to the revival and creation of several significant projects:
- Xbox-Scene Discord
- ConsoleMods Wiki
- Team Resurgent
- The Repackinator Project
- The Nexgen Engine
- The xboxscene.org live archive and forum
These projects, influenced by the renewed interest during the pandemic, played a pivotal role in reconnecting old friends, donating domains, and encouraging long-awaited changes. Without the dedication of this random group of people and the memories preserved by TeamUIX members, the team and its contributions might have remained forgotten in the annals of history.
Current Roster
- Milenko - Community Manager/Developer/Reverse Engineer
- BigJx - Developer
- Rocky5 - Developer
- headph0ne - Archivist/Developer
Past Members
- JbOnE
- Gcue
- |ce
- BobMcGee
- Aut0BotKilla
- ImOkRuOk
- ZogoCheiftan
- ILTB
- acidbath
- gasclown
- tayior7
- Odb718
- MerDeNoms
Projects
- XBE Shortcut Maker
- tHc Dashboard
- tHc Lite Dashboard
- BlackStormX Dashboard
- XboxDashNext
- User.Interface.X
- UIX Lite (2020)
- UIX Lite
- goXIP
- xbeGO
- Pinecone