In the world of Android devices it usually takes no time at all for a new device to get rooted. When it comes to Android consoles, this is also true and the Mad Catz MOJO game console is the newest one to be added to the list of rooted game consoles. What’s even better is that Mad Catz fully supports whether or not you want to root you console.
The root comes way of the MoDaCo Mod for MOJO and when installed your console will gain root and increased Google Play Store app availability. Even though the console runs stock Android already and full supports all marketplaces including Google Play, gaining root will grant you access to any and everything that is on the Play store, even if it is something that is restricted to, as an example, tablets only.
Of course with root you can also customize the MOJO as you see fit and that could be pretty much anything under the sun. We wouldn’t be surprised if we even started seeing custom launchers and themes for the console appearing in the near future.
Gaining root on your MOJO is incredibly easy. You just upload Superboot, which is a boot.img, to your console. This is what will be booted up when you turn your console on. That is it. No flashing of partitions, no overwriting the ROM that comes with the MOJO or anything like that. Just boot up the new boot.img and you’re set.
Here are the directions straight from MoDaCo:
– Download the Superboot zip file above and extract to a directory
– Put your device in bootloader mode – Unplug the power cable and any USB cables (the dongle can stay in), insert the USB Male A-A cable in the port labelled ‘2.0’, then insert the power cable. ‘Key driver not found.. Booting OS’ will appear on screen.
– WINDOWS – install the device drivers from the directory you extracted above if required, then run ‘superboot-windows.bat’ as Administrator
– MAC – Open a terminal window to the directory containing the files, and type ‘chmod +x superboot-mac.sh’ followed by ‘sudo ./superboot-mac.sh’
– LINUX – Open a terminal window to the directory containing the files, and type ‘chmod +x superboot-linux.sh’ followed by ‘sudo ./superboot-linux.sh’
– You will see ‘Booting downloaded image’ and a black screen, then the screen will return to ‘Key driver not found.. Booting OS’. At this point, unplug the USB cable and the power cable, wait a few moments, then reconnect the power cable to boot as normal.
After that you will need to clear the data for the Play store app so that all missing apps and games will appear after you’ve booted up using the new boot.img. Once you’ve cleared the data, reboot the console and everything should appear in the Google Play store.
For those of you interested in rooting your MOJO console, you can download the new boot.img for free over at MoDaCo through the link below. We will be rooting ours in a bit and our full review is well under way and should go live later this week. If you’re interested in buying a MOJO, you can snag one off of Amazon for $249.99. You can also check out our unboxing of the MOJO console as well.
Website Referenced: MoDaCo
