It's not exactly opening a Stargate to worlds unknown but it sounds pretty exciting! Undertakencodes found the Holy Grail of Xbox 360 Homebrewers - a hole in the security of the emulator of Xbox. He says this hole makes it possible to load homebrew and backups without hardware/firmware modifications. As proof of concept, Undertakencodes developed a port of the Snes9x which loads on the Xbox 360 but is not playable at the moment.

Snes9x is a portable, freeware Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator. The emulator allows most games designed for the SNES and Super Famicom Nintendo game systems to run on PC or Workstation.

"I...hope that you believe me but homebrew already is possible in our Xbox 360s." Hey, they didn't believe Egyptologist Daniel Jackson when he said Stargate opens a can of universal worms. But you know what they say, once its open you can't hold back the door no more. Anyways, here is Undertakencodes video of the Xbox 360 loading the SNES Emulator:

In a recent shareholders' meeting, Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida has said that they have not given up on a "unified" format for advanced DVD discs, stating that the HD-DVD/Blu-ray war will go on for a long time 'fighting for consumers' as both are incompatible with each other. In a neutral stance, Nishida said "We have not given up on a unified format. We would like to seek ways for unifying the standards if opportunities arise".

Currently, Toshiba supports the HD-DVD format rather than Blu-ray, and rolled out their first HD-DVD players in Japan last March. This message from Toshiba top-dog Nishida is pretty clear - sooner or later, we need a unified next-generation media disc. The battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD has been going on for years before the launch, and the failure of the two groups to settle on a unified format could result in something close to what we saw in the 1970s/1980s in the VHS-Betamax war.

Those that can remember the war will know that it caused huge consumer confusion, and both formats took a beating, with VHS coming out on top. Personally, I hope that we do not see a repeat of the VHS-Betamax war. I would like to see a more 'universal' format that everyone can agree on. Technically, Blu-ray is the stronger format as it stores more data, however, HD-DVDs are cheaper to manufacture. Surely, a hybrid of these two strong points would emerge to be the best for all parties?

Hopefully, with more encouragement and pressure by large company bosses like Nishida we could see a move towards a united format. However, that is only a hope - or more accurately, wishful thinking. Many people have been trying to stop this 'war' before it started, but now with both Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs and players on the market...it's hard to see an outcome that doesn't involve one format lying in ruins.