The code that runs Redbox DVD rental machines has been dumped online, and, in the wake of the company’s bankruptcy, a community of tinkerers and reverse engineers are probing the operating system to learn how it works. Naturally, one of the first things people did was make one of the machines run Doom.
As has been detailed in several great articles elsewhere, the end of Redbox has been a clusterfuck, with pharmacies, grocery stores, and other retailers stuck with very large, heavy, abandoned DVD rental kiosks. To many people’s surprise, many of the kiosks remain operational even with the bankruptcy of Redbox’s parent company, which has led some people to “liberate” DVDs from the abandoned kiosks. Reddit is full of posts by people who say they have taken dozens of DVDs from kiosks all over the country.
In a Discord community called “Redbox Tinkering,” a FAQ states “just ask the store manager if you can have it. They will most likely tell you to just take it, but don’t just take it without asking.”
“Use heavy or appliance hand-trucks/dolly to wheel it onto your trailer or out to your truck,” the FAQ says. “It is heavy, so be prepared. I pull it right onto the trailer and strap it down standing up. You can lay them down, but know that most of the discs will be in disarray when you open it. Take everything having to do with Redbox, don’t leave a mess.” The FAQ also contains information about how to disconnect the Redbox from its power supply and how to cut through the bolts that secure the kiosk to concrete with a grinder. It also has information about how to open and disassemble the device at home.
“Unlike most tinkerer’s my main goal isn’t to reverse engineer the Official Software more than I have to. I am mainly interested in carousel movement, movie retrieving/returning, etc. I am using the machine to make my own version of the App to effectively do the same thing the original software does, but with my own spin on it. I mainly want to use it to create a massive DVD/Blu-Ray storage machine with ease of use for retrieving the movies.”
“I work in IT and have a decent sized Homelab and I’ve always been interested in making things work again once they break,” they added.
Goes bankrupt but my cellular carrier keeps pushing Redbox. Just got text today trying to switch me to a plan I already have (that dumb enough) but part of the plan comes with free Redbox rentals. I hate Redbox, hell I looked at one thier machines once, ( this was years ago.) And it was filled with the worse movies you could imagine. Not one blockbuster or great films. No wonder they are going under. But are they still being offered because my cellular carrier still sends me free codes once a month?
Convert the code into a holy relic that will be used to unlock the doors to the Redbox mausoleum we will build with the rest of the machines.
Okay I will start saving the codes. Didn’t think to do so now I will.