The Long Road Here

Background & Early Foundations

I was born and raised in the Seattle, Washington area, where I’ve lived my entire life. From an early age, I was drawn to electronics, especially audio and video equipment. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, when I was very young, I started gaming on an Atari 2600. Shortly after that, my parents brought an NES into the house. Those systems, along with a Sega Game Gear, were shared family consoles, but they formed the foundation of my interest in technology and gaming.

In the mid 90’s, my dad traded the Atari 2600 to a local kid who worked in the electronics department at the nearby Fred Meyer (Kroger) for a hundred dollars and a stack of SNES gear. The SNES was new to the house, and on the surface it felt like a logical trade. He didn’t grow up in the same world that I did, and the Atari didn’t carry the same meaning for him.

For me, it was something I couldn’t remember a time without, and losing it left a mark that stayed with me. The SNES that followed was also a shared family system, but losing the Atari changed how I related to it, and I never fully connected with it in the same way. I always associated the SNES with the loss of that foundational pillar.

First Consoles, First Curiosity

Later, in the late 90’s, when my brother and I went separate ways, I got a Nintendo 64 and he got a PlayStation. The N64 was the first console that was truly mine, not family shared, and I still have it today. Over time, I modified it extensively and still use it. That system represents an important shift for me, from simply playing games to wanting to understand and change the hardware itself.

Discovery of the Original Xbox

In the mid-2000’s, a particular conversation changed everything. I was chatting with a friend, the manager of the local GameCrazy, and another customer overheard and joined the conversation. He told me about a new set of emulator discs that had just come out that year, called the “Big Ass Emulator Discs” that could bring older systems back to life on the original Xbox. The Atari 2600 immediately flooded into my mind. The idea that I could reclaim what had been lost pulled me fully into the original Xbox scene.

I met a local modder, had a console modified, and within a week I had taken it apart to understand what had been done. From there, I began collecting broken consoles, piecing together working systems, and experimenting on my own. I still have the first working console that I built from a pile of parts. It’s taken many forms over the years but it always gets the best parts that I have available, including my only X3CP and an Xtender kit to house 3 hard drives. (Video of my FULL Collection of Xboxes) (Most recent Video of Xbox #1)

Learning Through Experimentation

For many years, this work remained private. I spent time learning, experimenting, and fixing problems on my own. Life moved on and I had to do as we all do: get a job and keep hobbies on the side. I worked a wide range of jobs through my 20’s, from security and tow truck driving to logistics and retail, but when my father passed away at the end of 2015, many changes happened within the family.

Life Interruptions & Return to the Bench

I moved back home in 2016 to help my mother keep her house. Her needs made holding a traditional job impossible, and I found myself with time, responsibility, and very little activity to keep my mind busy.

I fell back into my favorite kind of work, hands-on tinkering. Around that time, I decided to tinker with a long forgotten Xbox 360 component cable that I pulled out of my “random AV cable” drawer. The original Xbox was built in a standard definition era but supported high definition output. Original component cables became rare and expensive, while Xbox 360 component cables were plentiful, well built, and overlooked. I followed a guide from a community member, converted the one I had, and sold it on eBay. It sold faster than I imagined it would.

From Tinkering to Craft - Component Cables

I learned quickly that there was a hole in the market and real demand for it. The missing piece was refinement and repetition, which I could bring to the table and improve through experience. This also solved the problem of inactivity by giving me something productive to focus on. I studied the market and found the raw materials to be cost effective for repeatability that also rewarded my time and skill in this craft.

I reinvested the gains from the first cable into my first small lot of ten cables. Early on, I recovered and reused AV connectors from original Xbox composite cables, but as component cable lot acquisitions grew in size, I transitioned to buying new connectors in bulk and building the cables properly from the ground up.

That work continued to grow. The income went directly back into tools, inventory, equipment, and learning. This happened during a difficult period in my life, and returning to hands-on work helped in ways I did not fully understand at the time. It gave me focus, structure, and a way to keep moving forward. There were no loans and no outside investment. The growth came directly from the work being put back into itself.

OGX360, Open Source, and Community

Around the same time, I discovered the OGX360. It was a device created by a modder that allowed OEM Xbox 360 controllers to be used on the original Xbox. Controller quality on the original Xbox had started to become a real problem in the 3^rd party market, the platform never really had great wireless options, and OEM hardware was aging and starting to become scarce. OGX360 offered a practical solution, and later expanded through Bluetooth support, an idea I helped spark and later tested, allowing the platform to remain adaptable as controller technology continued to evolve.

Through OGX360, I stepped into open source collaboration for the first time. When I connected with the creator, Ryzee119, I was not treated as someone beneath him. Collaboration felt natural and peer-driven. Being able to see how something was designed and iterated on changed how I viewed community work. OGX360 also forced my soldering skills to advance rapidly. Working with small components and tight layouts pushed me into fine solder work that later made more advanced modifications feel natural rather than intimidating.

The Jafar Chip & Design Philosophy

The Jafar chip came later, and it started as a practical internal solution. The basic mod chips on the market did not suit my needs as a builder or installer. I wanted something with more usable space and a layout that made sense for how I worked, while staying in the same budget range that made Aladdin-style chips accessible. I also wanted better compatibility across all motherboard revisions, without relying on design choices that made installs harder or less intuitive on later boards. Jafar was never conceived as a standalone product at the outset.

I brought the idea forward and defined the constraints, but I was not the designer. The early hardware design work was done collaboratively, most notably by Kekule. After the first Gen1 boards were built and put into use, it became clear the design was practical. It offered more memory, remained inexpensive to manufacture, and could support the time and care involved in building it. After I began producing and introducing Jafar to the market, Kekule made a small refinement, open sourced Gen2, and then stepped away from the Jafar chip project entirely.

At that point, I took responsibility for it. That meant learning the design deeply, supporting it long-term, and standing behind it after the novelty had worn off. I shared information openly, helped others learn, and contributed where I could. Over time, I also learned that openness without shared values carries risk. Some people wanted results without responsibility, and that behavior influenced the direction of the project. Certain design decisions were made to preserve hands-on involvement and prevent the work from being reduced to something disconnected from the craft.

Responsibility, Support, and Boundaries

Today, my work continues to evolve, but it’s grounded in the same principles. I’m still designing. That includes refining existing designs, developing the Deluxe version of Jafar, and working on successor projects that build forward from proven foundations. I am intentional about keeping works in progress that way until they are ready to stand on their own.

Where Things Stand Today

Refurbishment has become a central part of my work. The original Xbox comes from the capacitor plague era, and age-related failures are expected. I perform a large volume of recap and restoration work because keeping these systems alive is foundational. Mods, upgrades, and accessories only matter if the underlying hardware remains stable and functional. Refurbishment is what allows everything else in this space to continue existing.

I focus on work I can support responsibly and stand behind long-term. I help people who want to learn and respect the craft, and I am comfortable saying no when expectations do not align. I build, repair, refurbish, and design at a pace that allows me to remain involved and accountable.

What customers and community members can expect from me is consistency, honesty, and care. The extra time spent doing things properly is never wasted. It’s rewarded in many ways.