I've had all my games boxed up for quite some time now, before the move, then having a little one. After scoring a pretty sweet CRT TV a few weeks ago I decided to dig some stuff out and hook it up. My Saturn and Dreamcast are to the point where they won't read games anymore, same for my PS2 slim. So I dusted off the old Xbox I have and it looks absolutely fucking glorious on this CRT.

I haven't had time to get into any games but I've been loading all of my oddball CD soundtracks onto the hard drive over the past week, Desperado, Dracula 2000, Lost Highway, Mortal Kombat, that one X-Files CD that came out in 96, you know the stuff you can't find on Amazon music or spotify. This was by far my favorite aspect of the original XBOX that you could load all this music on it and pull it all up so quickly and easily, faster than loading up youtube even, and offline. 

We've reached a major nostalgia point for this system. I had one soft modded with thousands of old games a few years back and it was truly spectacular. I'd love to have another one like that. It emulated so many games perfectly and some of them looked better through the XBOX on a newer TV than hooked up through the original system(N64 games especially, really loved playing Waverace on there, looked beautiful and maybe played even better with that controller). 

Can we get an open discussion about this amazing old system? I have gone through a lot of these as a collector over the years, maybe 10 of them, they do not hold up anymore but god they are sweet while they last. I'm looking around to pick up some games and notice some prices have skyrocketed, I want Outrun 2, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Blitz: The League, and Samurai Showdown V. I love how they were still putting out 2D games on the system. 

Was this one of the quickest dropped systems also? The 360 came out in 2006 and by 2007 there were like 3 games released on the old Xbox, only 1 in 2008(Madden 2009, the final game for the system). It's easy to understand why but still that such a sweet system that was capable of doing so much still was just universally dropped by all developers so quickly.

Yeah, it didn't last too long. The 360 came out in 2005 and had all this hype surrounding it with HD graphics, storage and highly anticipated launch games like Perfect Dark Zero. I think consoles like the 3DO and Atari Jaguar were only around for three years but it obviously fell short of the six year lifespan most consoles have.

It was a beast of a system when it came out and a lot of the games look just as good if not better than some of the games that came out after. Especially games on the Wii which was essentially just a beefed up GameCube. When I think of the library I think of in-house games like Halo, Project Gotham Racing, Amped etc. SNK games like Dead or Alive 3, DOA Volleyball and Ninja Gaiden, Sega games like Otogi I & II, Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta and then big Western RPGs like Fable, Morrowind, KOTOR I & II. Throw in some obscurities like Phantom Dust, Grabbed By The Ghoulies, Oddworld and every multi-console release and it ends up being more than just the Halo machine.

At this generation, both the Gamecube and XBOX(OG) were not even considerations for me as I was a devoted Playstation fan after how good the PS1 was. The PS2 took it to the next level and became the JRPG utopia that no other system ever matched(PS4 came close though and SNES also has a fair shot at this mantra) so I might be coming into this topic more as an outsider.

I never owned an XBOX or XBOX360, in fact 2016 was my 1st time I ever got to play an XBOX system via the XB1. What did sell me on the XB1 was the backwards compatibility and how devoted Microsoft was towards bringing back old XBOX games to their systems which meant I got the opportunity to jump through 2 different generation of games I didn't get to play previously.

I tried Blinx the Time Sweeper but haven't finished it, game didn't really grip me. I tried Panzer Dragoon Orta which is considered one of the best console exclusives this system had, again didn't grip me.

The two games that I did end up finishing were Grabbed by the Ghoulies, which was Rare's very 1st game under the Microsoft partnership after the departure from Nintendo where they made a killing on the N64 with various games(Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing, Jet Force Gemini, Donkey Kong 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and of course both Banjo Kazooie & Banjo Tooie). I actually enjoyed myself playing through Grabbed by the Ghoulies and thought it was a much better game than Rare's next game, Kameo. The art is sort of wacky but it had a Saturday morning cartoon sort of feel which was totally fine for me. It was a beat em up game set in a haunted mansion and it was something that never overstayed it's welcome. Was able to play this game via Rare Replay.

The other game I ended up playing was Voodoo Vince which is a long lost & forgotten platformer. This one was just average at best with some questionable level design and a cast of characters and settings that just felt like a C tier platformer. XBOX did a remaster of this one years later.

This was a system that I felt Microsoft tried so hard to get companies like Capcom & Sega on board with trying to get exclusives. Franchises like Dino Crisis, Jet Set Radio & the aforementioned Panzer Dragoon series put out entries and with the exception of Panzer Dragoon Orta & Jet Set Radio Future, sort of felt like it was misses more than anything with games. It really wasn't until the XBOX360 happened and that the PS3 had an expensive & botched console launch that Microsoft was able to build ground on establishing themselves as legit competition to the US/EU consumer.

I forgot the 360 sure did come out in 05. I was looking at releases year by year and the OG still had some great stuff coming out in 2006 then just nothing by 2007. If I'm not mistaken they were still releasing PS2 games into like 2013? It's a shame the Xbox was the stronger of all those systems could have easily still been supported for another 2-3 years easily. It is pretty fascinating what all the system can do once you start modding it. 

I also get a kick out of the story of how Microsoft really leeched off of Sega during their development of the Dreamcast. There is a Windows logo on the Dreamcast but as far as I can tell Microsoft really had little to nothing to add to the system, they were just in there learning what they could for the XBOX. When you look at the controller and a lot of the Sega exclusives that were on the XBOX(many of which were most likely originally supposed to be Dreamcast games) it feels like a spiritual successor to the Dreamcast.

The commercials gave me serious Dreamcast vibes. They really played the heck out of these at Gamestops around this time.

I do think the fact that series like Panzer Dragoon & Jet Set Radio never showed up on any other system outside of XBOX didn't help either series gain traction. I also think Dino Crisis 3 ended up being the kiss of death for the franchise that still to this day never recovered. 

It's difficult to remember that era without thinking about the PlayStation 2. Sony just crushed that era, so even though Microsoft came in with the best console on the market and an amazing killer IP exclusive it still fell a distant second to Sony. Still, Microsoft did a great job and virtually knocked Nintendo off their perch to finish just behind Sony before turning the heat up for the 360. I think the marketing for the system really captures the time period well. It was just in that brief window where we all thought The Matrix was the coolest thing ever and everyone was sporting those black and green colours. Then the rest of the trilogy came out and I feel as a society we lost our way and got into weird things like pirates, vampires, wizards, wardrobes and stuff. But it was too late, Microsoft established itself as the 'cool' console brand that you'd play with your bros.

I think "Xbox" as a catch all term for video games is really overlooked in general society. Maybe the term was generic enough that it covered all their bases but around the time period until now really I'd constantly see it on posts or even in media when talking about guys being slackers.

"Dudes just wanna go home and play their Xbox"

I dunno if Xbox just carved a nice chunk into the American audience or what but... it kinda worked. Even when they couldn't use the term for fear of copyright/legal issues one Soap Opera I liked referred to it as the "Z Box" even though their in show actions suggested it was actually a Wii they were using LOL.

There's a nuance to it too.

If it's a kid it's GameBoy/GameGirl/Wii (they always try to pretend they don't know the name of it).

If it's a teenager/college bro it's XBox.

I miss the days when it was 'he's going to play that Mario'. You could be playing Doom, Mortal Kombat, Duke Nukem 3D and it was always Mario in that weird Yankee accent.

So I've owned 2 Xboxes in my life, one OG and the 360. The problem I've had with the Box is it didn't really have games that I wanted. I wasn't into shooters or really the bro side of gaming so it just didn't appeal to me. Sure I could get more "life" out of it if I used it for multi-platform stuff, but I already had the PS2 for that. I was basically using Cube for Ninty stuff and PS2 for their exclusives and multiplat games. Despite that there was always a few games I wanted to play. I think DOA3 and a few Rare titles looked good. 360 I mostly just wanted it for Blue Dragon and Banjo 3, which I hated in the end LOL.

Both consoles I owned for a month at most. Just bought them to randomly play those games and then got rid of them.

Everyone knows I'm a Playstation 2 guy, so naturally I've never owned an Xbox. I've played the Xbox 360 which was the main console in my student accommodation, but never the original Xbox. Most of my Xbox 360 time was spent playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and watching my housemates play games that didn't interest me much like Crysis and some iteration of Halo.

The single player games I played at length were Final Fantasy XIII and The Last Remnant. The latter being a Square Enix RPG which interested me for obvious reasons. Me and two of my other housemates were racing to complete the game. The tragedy is that Disc 4 became corrupt so none of us could actually finish it. We tried all the disc cleaning methods, everything except getting a replacement. Why? I don't know. Students be cheap I guess.

Although I do like the Playstation Square/X/Circle/Triangle buttons, Xbox generally has the nicest and most comfortable controller design.

Yeah they really locked down the modern controller, so much that the other 2 pretty much copied it since there's no sense in reinventing the wheel.

The XBOX controller even to this day has such a comfy feel, the main issue was upon jumping into the XBOX infrastructure meant needing to muscle memory to the X-A-B-Y buttons as you said Emperor. There were games like Shadows of the Damned that had QTEs that got me hurt/killed because the X I knew via PS was in a different spot on the XBOX controller. I got to the point now where I have memorized the controller overlay but it took a lot of time. With Playstation, it was never an issue as I grew up with the simple SQUARE-TRIANGLE-X-CIRCLE design.

I bought my OG X Box on impulse. I was around 14 and it was one of those lazy Saturday afternoons where the folks decide they want to hit the shopping centre a little further out so you tag along for the change of scenary. It just so happened to be when they had this big in-store sale where X Box's were less than half price and came with a copy of Halo. I had no intention of buying an X Box, but the thought of owning all the consoles sold me right away.

For two weeks I was a dorito guzzling, mountain dew swiggin' dude-bro. I played through Halo, I bought WWE Raw 2 because that's what I did and I rented out Ninja Gaiden & Deus Ex: Invisible War. Then I came to my senses and went back to my Nintendo GameCube with my JRPGs and WWE Day of Reckonings because that's what I do. The X Box then became that system my brother and I would dust off whenever there was a new release whether it was Halo 2 or Conker's BFD: Live and Reloaded. My brother really got into that game and actually got an X Box Live membership and would play that most afternoons. My last memory was going to see Star Wars Episode III and being so blown away by the movie I bought KOTOR, spent a few hours of it, really enjoyed it and then never returned to it.

I wonder how emulation is these days?

Xbox is a summer fling but we'll never take her home to meet mama!

What about the 2 Showdown: Legends of Wrestling games? Goat tier rosters and looked cool but man what shitty gameplay.

I don't think I've ever actually played on the first Xbox. There were really no games on it that appealed to me and the controller looked gross.

I remember when it first came out Internet was like this thing is too BIG. MERICA. Course I think the PS5 is a big pung tang pie? Did they resize the controllers because people be acting like they were Big Show sized frying pan mitts.

Didn't seem to get over in Japan. Obviously they didn't need it and well what were they gonna do with it? You make a friend overseas and they have an Xbox. It's like finding a McDonalds in a foreign land. Don't it feel like a lowkey US embassy?

I hung out with a friend (while wearing a penne necklace) one night with some of his friends and they played Xbox. I sucked at Halo and saw MK Deadly Alliance. Hadn't touched MK since the trilogy so I was like whaaaaaaaaaaaat. I used Scorpion and stabbed a dude and then jumped away as he slowly bled to death. I was called names for that LOL. I barely could play. It seemed much simpler before. MK4 and 3D I remembered on PS1.

Anyways I didn't see Xbox very often IRL.

I stumbled upon a really good series on the free Tubi app about the whole story of the Xbox, I can't remember the exact name Powered or something but it was really good. The Windows CE team that was a part of the Dreamcast development were actually the team that lost out, Microsoft had them against DirectX division which had bigger ideas than Windows CE(who essentially wanted to recreate the 3D0). DirectX won the project with their prototype they took into the meeting and the rest is history.

Also interesting that Microsoft really wanted to buy Nintendo to get into the market, for the reason that they had better games. It's a shame they didn't scoop up Sega to keep some of those IP's going strong(or bring back some that were forgotten) but the state of that company was such a mess it would have never made sense. But it would have accomplished what they set out to do, gain credibility(would have been huge for them in Japan) and also Sega made solid hardware that was tough and didn't fail like the red rings stuff. 

The show went into great depth about how the 360 was rushed into launch to beat the PS3 and all of the Red Ring issues. Also went into detail about how they got crushed by Sony in the generation after that, I had no idea they have kinda settled into being the clear cut #2 behind them at this point. I actually never really was a fan of the 360 I felt like it wasn't as cool as the og. This was definitely my jump off point of gaming though, my PS3 was used to watch blu rays and download old ass games from the PSN. Metal Gear Solid 4 was cool though.

Apr 24, 2023 12:10:20 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I stumbled upon a really good series on the free Tubi app about the whole story of the Xbox, I can't remember the exact name Powered or something but it was really good. The Windows CE team that was a part of the Dreamcast development were actually the team that lost out, Microsoft had them against DirectX division which had bigger ideas than Windows CE(who essentially wanted to recreate the 3D0). DirectX won the project with their prototype they took into the meeting and the rest is history.

Also interesting that Microsoft really wanted to buy Nintendo to get into the market, for the reason that they had better games. It's a shame they didn't scoop up Sega to keep some of those IP's going strong(or bring back some that were forgotten) but the state of that company was such a mess it would have never made sense. But it would have accomplished what they set out to do, gain credibility(would have been huge for them in Japan) and also Sega made solid hardware that was tough and didn't fail like the red rings stuff. 

The show went into great depth about how the 360 was rushed into launch to beat the PS3 and all of the Red Ring issues. Also went into detail about how they got crushed by Sony in the generation after that, I had no idea they have kinda settled into being the clear cut #2 behind them at this point. I actually never really was a fan of the 360 I felt like it wasn't as cool as the og. This was definitely my jump off point of gaming though, my PS3 was used to watch blu rays and download old ass games from the PSN. Metal Gear Solid 4 was cool though.

I'll have to check it out.

If you want to learn more about XBone there's a pretty good YouTube doc by Stop Skeleton's From Fighting that runs down the lead-up and how their generation bombed out.

With the 360, it just seemed like Microsoft had a better understanding of the market. They did well to establish themselves in certain markets, but it just wasn't the Sony PlayStation 2. So by beating Sony to the digital/HD era they got a leg up on them and really established themselves as the system you play online. You didn't even need bros anymore to play with, you could be sitting in your bedroom with a wifebeater and tighty whities losing your mind over some 12 year old teabagging you in Halo 3. The console exclusives were better too - Gears of War, Bioshock (timed), Oblivion (timed), Dead Rising etc. were big gets. I thought them going after the Japanese market was pretty smart too with games like Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata & Tales of Vesperia. It just broadened the appeal of the console and while Japan shunned it, the Japanese at heart niche fans were all over it.

Also seemed like the 360 versions were usually the better versions. The PS3 ports were notoriously buggy whereas the 360 usually seemed optimal. The only down-side is that 360 was still on DVDs, while Sony future-proofed itself going with Blu-rays. It meant that some games needed a ridiculous amount of discs before being played.

I just want to know why you killed Bobby

Blue Dragon was so good! A Switch/PS release would be nice, but I think it was published by MS, so maybe not!

We doing this again, Shin? I'm all out of bullets!

Tell me more about your experience with the 360 @papaya

Apr 24, 2023 17:27:19 GMT @papaya said:

Blue Dragon was so good! A Switch/PS release would be nice, but I think it was published by MS, so maybe not!

Great boss and final boss themes.

That said Microsoft does have a relationship with Nintendo and I believe they did have a sequel/spinoff on DS so anything's possible. They might assume there's no demand for it though.

I haven't got a lot of memories of the XBOX, as I was firmly a Playstation fanboy but a buddy of mine had one, and 4 of us had a 4-way ladder match in one of the WWE games that went for hours, a single match that no one would give up in. It was glorious.

The 4 of us also got into a tennis game, and we got so good the doubles match went on for hours, rallying back and forth all night.

Read an interesting article that the 8 gb hard drive they put in the Xbox was so expensive it was the reason why they had to abandon it so early and big reason why 360 was rushed(without the hard drive space?)

Reading up on what I can fit on the hard drive, I think I am going to get the kit to soft mod one of the 2 that I have and load it with roms and emulators. I seen posts talking about the hard drive being nearly impossible to fill up. That’s actually not true, my friends Xbox back in the day I attempted to burn my whole cd collection to it, ripping cds for hours at a time for a solid week(and taking the time to name everything properly, via controller ugh they needed a keyboard). I remember I just about maxed out the memory and it caused the thing to red ring, RIP.