This one is for the old heads.

So last week I attended my first Halo 2 LAN party since middle school (2008ish) and needless to say it was fucking GLORIOUS. 4 OG xboxes and 12-16 people screaming at each other in one room was truly sublime. The only thing missing…absurd game mods, the way god intended. I'm taking throwing wraith rounds as grenades, sticky grenade snipers, rocket launchers that shoot plasma rounds and pistols that shoot rockets.

I hard modded my OG xbox back in the day (xecuter 3 in the green Halo special edition, for the curious) but it has sadly been lost to time. Needless to say, I have the itch again. I’m not looking to do anything insane like model importing, just some of the fun easy stuff like projectile swaps that can be done in dotHalo/H2edit.

I’ve poured over the forums for hours and still can’t quite figure out the best way to play modded early Halo games in a LAN setting. I’m hoping someone here or who has kept up with the halo modding scene can answer some questions. Mostly I’m wondering if I can accomplish this on Xbox 360s, as OG xboxes in good working condition are getting harder to come by.

1. Can I run full (modded) games on the 360? I know the 360 can be modded, but what would be the best method for running full games off the HDD? If yes, is there any advantage to doing so? My gut says the higher specs of the 360 might help with performance when, say, 16 people are firing hundreds of rockets out of SMGs.

2. What are the limitations? Some things I’ve read on forums indicate only the later Halo 2 maps can be modded on 360, but that doesnt make sense? Would it not be the same as the OG where you can rip the entire game onto the HDD and modify any map over FTP? Can you do the same thing for H3/4?

3. Does every console need to have the exact map mod installed to see/use the mods? Its been oh, 15 years but my recollection is that non-modded players on system link or live could not see/use most mods. But I understand H3 has the ability to load Forge maps onto non-host machines? Not sure if a similar thing could be done here. I fell off really after H2 so never understood exactly the capabilities of the 360 or Halo 3.

Please dont tell me to just use PCs and Steam tools. Not all my friends have gaming PCs, and the beauty of this setup is 4 modded xboxes can fit in a suitcase.

If I have to I can hunt down 4 OG xboxes and some xenium chips, which still seem to be available, but if I can get my middle school LAN experience back by using 360’s, that would be preferable.

I appreciate any help here! Open to any suggestions, and if there is a better sub for this, please point me that direction!