XBOX = Best Console Ever

[Theodore Kurita]

I have been looking around when it comes to stuff related to the Microsoft XBOX.

It is one the best game consoles ever!


You can literally play any game you want on it... Even Atari games. Play your commodore 64 games, Playstation games, Sega Genesis games. etc etc. etc...

Take a look at the link below:

http://xport.xbox-scene.com/



Hey, run Linux on an Xbox if you want to

http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/

I almost forgot, you can even install Windows XP on the Xbox if you dare.

http://xport.xbox-scene.com/emutemplate.php?emu=bochs


This one alows you to install any x86 based OS on the Xbox.

Which means you can install....

Windows

Linux

or

Unix if you really want to use it as another PC!

 

[ImpyTimpy]

You forgot to mention that a person would have to tinker with the insides of their XBOX before being able to install things on it.

 

[Cain]

I believe these modifications are also illegal.

Anyway, a friend bought an X-box with an attached 90 gig hard-drive that contained all the games out at the time. Very cool.

Hackers use Dreamcast systems to infilitrate corporate networks. A University in Illinois (I think Urbana) took a hundred or so Playstation 2s to make a cheap supercomputer.

I believe X-boxes and PS2s are sold at below cost (because the real profits are in licensing), so with a little ingenuity, you can have a decent computer for cheap (and those modifications are even more popular in europe).

 

[Andonyx]

I believe X-boxes and PS2s are sold at below cost (because the real profits are in licensing), so with a little ingenuity, you can have a decent computer for cheap (and those modifications are even more popular in europe).

That was the prevailing theory for a long time. They figured consoles were like razors....practically give the razor away, and then sell the hell out of the blades. Sadly after MS was (and still is) hemmoraghing money in their Xbox division, Wired ran a great story about the economics of console production.

I can't find it at the moment which annoys me no end, but it was great article looking at Sony and Nintendo for their last two consoles. The average console has a prduction life of about 5 years. The first shipments of about 500,000 are usually sold at or below cost in order to get as much market saturation as possible and to entice high-profile developers to work for that system....

BUT!!! Then something begins to happen as the production process is straemlined. Productions cosst fall dramatically. In the playstation 2 already several different processors have been combined as opposed to the first batch. New prefab boards with chips already integrated have made the whole thing faster and cheaper. Even with a price discount now to about $200 Sony is stil making a profit on each PS2 sold. The game cube is even less expensive and still has a profit margine at $100.

The xBox has NOT fallen. Or at least not nearly as much. The graphics card design is still the property of nVidia, and MS still has to buy straight from nVidia, so the chip has fallen very little in cost. The motherboards, harddrives, etc, are all proprietary components that MS does not manufacture themselves, and so they cannot consolidate or streamline the process nearly as much. Sony by contrast didn't develope the emotion engine, but they own it lock stock and barrel and make it at their own manufacturing centers. It probably costs 1/10 per unit what the nVidia component costs.

So MS working under the ssumption that all three companies would be operating at a loss didn't calculate quite right. That's also why the xBox is always the last to have a price drop. Of course when you're MS you have some money to lose, and they can probably continue to suffer the loss for two more full console generations, or until they have enough market saturation that the volume of game sales balances it out.

 

[Underemployed]

You will find an excellent article on the "Consoles sold at a loss" myth at The Gord's website - this is the page. It's also one of the funniest sites on the internet, so go and read it all now.

Sony have never sold the PS 1 or 2 at a loss.

 

[Cain]

I stand corrected. How can a self-respecting socialist such as myself swallow the lies of evil multi-national corporations like Sony and Microsoft? Serves me right for trusting the New York Times:

In fact, Microsoft lowered the price for Xbox to $179.99 in May. In a sense, Xbox hackers are exploiting Microsoft's business model, which is to sell Xbox hardware at a loss (to build penetration of the system) and make the money back on royalties from the sale of Xbox software.

Anyway, the same article looked into the Linux modified Xbox scene:

Rather, an online confederacy apparently numbering in the thousands -- including accomplished hackers of varied motives and everyday technophiles like the Manhattan financial executive (who shared his experience on the condition of anonymity) -- is taking the lead. Those involved often call their efforts "unleashing" or "unshackling" -- freeing the Xbox to express its inner PC. Technology industry executives, however, often call such activity a bald attempt to hijack the Xbox illegally.

...

It is a battle that involves many of the ethical and legal issues facing the technology and media industries at this digital moment. What rights do consumers have to tinker with products they own? How far should companies go to protect their intellectual property? What happens when the desires of consumers conflict with the business models of companies they patronize? Who gets to decide just what a particular product may be used for?

The Xbox is a particularly attractive target for hackers because while it is essentially a standard PC modified to do only a few things, like play Xbox games, it is much cheaper than a PC. It is like an economy car modified to follow only a few roads -- but one potentially as powerful as a far more expensive model.

...

In the Xbox, that power comes in the form of a 733-megahertz Intel processor, comparable to a midrange personal computer, and sophisticated graphics and audio systems. Its limited operating system, based on a version of Windows, can be used by a programmer to run simple software like a music player -- or the machine can run a new operating system altogether, namely Linux. "The reality is that if you could bypass Microsoft's operating system you would end up with a fairly powerful computer for less than $200," the Manhattan financial executive said.

...

So someone who buys the Xbox hardware, modifies it into a general-purpose computer and does not buy Xbox games potentially undermines not only Microsoft but also the personal computer industry. But that is not how some Xbox hackers think about it.

"Especially in Europe, computers are more expensive than they are here, and the Xbox is the cheapest computer you can get," Andrew Huang, author of a new book called "Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering," said in a telephone interview. "Basically," he added by e-mail, "once you have Linux, you have everything."

(July 10, NYT)

The last console system I owned was a Nintendo 64.

 

[Occasional Chemist]

I have been looking around when it comes to stuff related to the Microsoft XBOX.

It is one the best game consoles ever!

You shouldn't post stuff like that during lunchtime. You almost made me spit Sprite all over the computer keyboard here.

Funniest post I've read all day.

(By the way, you can run Linux on the Dreamcast and the PS2 as well, meaning you can likely run MAME there too.)

 

[Theodore Kurita]

Re: Re: XBOX = Best Console Ever

You shouldn't post stuff like that during lunchtime. You almost made me spit Sprite all over the computer keyboard here.

Funniest post I've read all day.

(By the way, you can run Linux on the Dreamcast and the PS2 as well, meaning you can likely run MAME there too.)

Yeah, but the modding equipment is much more expensive for the PS2 or Dreamcast.

The Xbox has pretty much everything you need minus the mod chip, and the moddified keyboard.

 

[ImpyTimpy]

Let's not turn this into a console war people. All consoles are good, each offers their unique titles to the scene.

 

[heresiarch]

I believe these modifications are also illegal.

It's a gray area, but I don't think it's illegal to modify an Xbox.

Modding an Xbox means adding a ROM chip with an alternate BIOS on it. The Cromwell BIOS, developed by the Xbox-linux project, does not use any pirated Microsoft code and cannot be used to circumvent copyright restrictions.

Of course, that's the reason that most Xbox modders use any BIOS except for Cromwell.

Maybe it would be better to say that most Xbox mods are illegal, but it's possible to mod an Xbox without breaking the law.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

This just out...

M$ Looks to block use of Linux on Xbox..


Xbox update shuts out Linux

Microsoft is updating Internet-enabled Xbox game consoles with a software patch that blocks users from installing the Linux operating system on the machine, and also apparently deletes some files Linux users have stored on the Xbox's hard drive, according to the Xbox Linux Project.

Wow.. Is it legal for them to delete files on the HDD.. ? Where do owners give them the permission to do this?

 

[Andonyx]

Re: This just out...

M$ Looks to block use of Linux on Xbox..


Xbox update shuts out Linux



Wow.. Is it legal for them to delete files on the HDD.. ? Where do owners give them the permission to do this?

I don't have it in front of me, But I'm fairly certain that the EULA you have to click through to start an Xbox Live session is insane! I recall signing away my rights forever throughout the universe to all content on my xbox, or even in the same house as my xbox...

I'm exaggerating obviously, but I have a macabre fascination with these agreements, and I remember the xbox live one being particularly nasty.

 

[Occasional Chemist]

Re: Re: This just out...

...I'm fairly certain that the EULA you have to click through to start an Xbox Live session is insane! I recall signing away my rights forever throughout the universe to all content on my xbox, or even in the same house as my xbox...

I guess the appropriate question here is ... was it worth it?

 

[Andonyx]

Re: Re: Re: This just out...

I guess the appropriate question here is ... was it worth it?

For two weeks out of every six....yes. That's when I'm having a blast playing Ghost Recon, or Wolfenstein, of Midnight club, with a couple of buddies.

Then we get board of a particular game, and I forget I even have the account.

 

[Lord Kenneth]

Instead of an Xbox, just use a real PC.

 

[Andonyx]

Instead of an Xbox, just use a real PC.

I suppose I could If I wanted to not be able to lie on my couch, play the game on my big screen, and play with a bunch of a**holes using speed cheats and transparent walls.

Look I'm the first person to defend the PC as a gaming box, it took me forever to see the benefits of console gaming. The graphics are much sharper on a properly equipped PC, the mods and framerates are far better etc. But there are charms to soothe the savage breast in a console environment, such as those mentioned above which make console gaming a good time as well.

Also since I use my PC for work on occassion, having a PC that could play games really well, AND edit audio and video become absurdly expensive....like $5500 expesnive. Having a PC that can do one OR the other is about half that. So my PC is now adapted to do that.

I used to have Alienware gaming rigs that I added a few things to allow me to do the ocassional freelance gig on.

Now, I have a Boxxtech system that is designed for Video and Audio work, that I can play the ocassional game on.

The next game slated for my PC is Deus Ex: The invisible war.