Zig's Xbox (Original & 360) Chronicles

Yeah, that's sad to hear confirmed again since I remember seeing that in Gamestop/etc, beat up cases and loose discs. Same fate with the Wii too (no surprise with how popular it was with normies? hah). This makes me want to point out when it comes to 5th/6th gen gaming purchasing, I favor eBay over Amazon Prime. It's rare you get any good pics or details on used Amazon game sales from my experience, so eBay has it beat in that area. It's pretty rare I go for anything without a case but I've had to make a few exceptions. I got Crimson Tears for the PS2 without a case and the big one was securing a copy of Dragon Quest 6 DS, which goes for absurd amounts now complete. But I at least got a cartridge of that to play someday.

My Xbox's codename is "The Bear" haha. I think they only had a few codenames though, so they got repeated a lot. The Xbox was the first console I bought with my own hard earned money as a kid. My dad was still annoying about Mature game ratings and stuff, when my mom never cared. Well he always said if I could buy Halo and whatever, he wouldn't say no. So that's what I did. I loved Halo and played it to death co-op with some buddies back then. On my own Xbox I had multiple profiles for it, beating it again and again on all the difficulties, etc. Even did a solo Legendary run once. Ninja Gaiden Black is still to this day one of the best games in the "character action" genre to me. It's sublime. It's actually a fascinating look back on some history how Team Ninja were so gungho over the Xbox and their games really did flex the hardware. Even to this day, Ninja Gaiden and all the DOA's look pretty stellar.

I have a slew of Xbox games on my "to play" shelf now I need to get to eventually. I played Otogi and Van Helsing most recently. Both are decent but I didn't stick with them fully. Maybe I'll just jump to Otogi 2.

I remember loving MechAssault. Felt like a cool modern take on those isometric helicopter games where you're rescuing people while leveling buildings, haha (thought Blast Corps on the N64 fit that bill a bit too).

For me growing up without good family PC's for gaming, I could finally hit up some of that on my Xbox back then. I remember one of my friends got Deus Ex Invisible War on PC, while I got it on Xbox. Went over to his place with a TV I lugged around and we played it all night on our own platforms haha. That one was one of the earliest games with good physics. We had fun killing enemies and dumping them all in a dumpster. Gotta love how easy it is to please with some early advancements in gaming tech.

The original Xbox controller is hilarious. It has two names from my circles and what I've seen online, The Duke, and the Hamburger. I still think it's a decent controller though, maybe since I have big hands. It's like if the Dreamcast controller was actually good (sorry, I just hate the DC gamepad only having one joystick! haha). That said, the S revision was awesome. Also it rules that the Xbox had four ports and LOOOOONG cables, even with that short break off part that was handy around kids or animals. My friends and I had a lot of fun with Fusion Frenzy back then. The Xbox Mario Party, haha.

The weird gap in my Xbox history, is that my parents were sure as heck not paying for Xbox Live, nor did I have the internet or money to do so myself. So for as popular as online gaming was with Halo 2, I didn't get into it much. On the other hand LAN parties were legendary with Halo 1. I was able to attend several full 16 player LAN setups. Usually was one of the most dominating players, but there was this one guy "Greg" who was perhaps an even greater prodigy. Yes I remember the other Xbox player who was better than me, all these years later. lol

The system is huge, heavy, and kind of ugly. But it's got charm. I love the weird infatuation with the blobby green back then.

Off the top of my head some random Xbox memories for now there. It's one I still keep hooked up and looks good via component for the most part. Feels like an old buddy of mine still rooming with me haha.

I'll get to my 360 history another time. The "Xeo Bro Years" and when I went crazy with Gamefly, even had a subscription for 3 games in rotation at one time.

It's just because the Xbox had the most powerful hardware, compared to GC/PS2. So when I say "superior" I just mean in rendering capability of the game, how well it ran, framerate more consistent, better lighting and clearer textures, that sort of thing.

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So I didn't personally own an Xbox until 2007. That's when I bought a used one off eBay myself. I've still got that Xbox and it still works to this day, though I've had to replace its disc drive twice. Both drives that died were Samsung models. The drive in it now is a Phillips. I hope that drive lasts long enough for me to finish off what's left of my Xbox collection. IIRC the most Xbox games I ever owned was around 100 physical games, but that's down to about 40-ish now. I played Xbox fervently from 2007-2009, beating many games. This was before I started using HLTB (started in 2013) so it's harder to remember all the Xbox games I loved. But I'll see what I can recall...

If I remember any more later I'll edit them in.

Overall for being Microsoft's first console, I think they did fairly well with original Xbox. Except for Japanese gamers. I remember they didn't like the large physical size of the Xbox, and the whole "X" thing being a faux pas in their culture, and it being a gaijin console in general. But westerners certainly loved their Xbox, especially the Halo bros. The one thing I don't' like about the Xbox is that it lead the charge for console/PC games homogeneity. But that's a big topic in and of itself. The Xbox 360 is a whole other story for me as well. Save all that for later!

Also can't believe Sarge forgot to mention his all time favorite Xbox game:

So here are the oXbox games that I currently have...

Halo 2

Panzer Dragoon Orta

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars KOTOR 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X

Ultra Bust-A-Move

Call of Duty Finest Hour

Call of Duty Big Red One

Medal of Honor Frontline

Medal of Honor Rising Sun (LOL by mistake)

Robotech Battlecry

Soul Calibur II

Roadkill

I was kinda iffy on getting oXbox games, since I only owned the 360. But now that I have an oXbox, I think I'll be more inclined to get games for it.

Ugh, that's right. At one point they took every game under X dollars and tossed any case and manual they had for them. Just so they could save space in the store by putting the loose disc on a table up front. Bastards!

I would really like to pick up another copy, but it looks like they're going for $25-30 right now on eBay. I can get like 2 or 3 games for that much money. I think I actually purchased Ninja Gaiden Sigma for PS3, IIRC that's a remaster of the first game. Still, I might purchase Black again at some point, to appease my irrational collector's mind.



Yeah, The Duke sucks. I know some people like them. And I'd be curious to hold one again since it's been over 10 years. But I remember hating it. When I briefly owned an oXbox, it came with two Duke controllers and I just found them to be practically unusable. I eventually got an S controller, but I still couldn't shake off how bad The Duke irked me! And yeah, having four controller ports was awesome. Doesn't matter a whole lot to me now though LOL. I can remember people ragging on the PS2 for still only having 2 controller ports. I did get a multitap for my PS2 and didn't really mind, but thinking back on it, PS2 was the only console to NOT have four controller ports built in at that point.

It was pretty cool that the Xbox had Ethernet built in. I got the network adapter for my PS2, and use to play a couple of games online with it. That's awesome that you did Halo 1 LAN parties. I think I mentioned in another thread, I played a decent amount of Halo 1 on PC. Halo 3 was out at the time, and most everyone in my group of friends at the time were playing it online. Except me, since I didn't own an Xbox 360. So for whatever reason, every one decided to pick up Halo 1 for PC (and one dude on Mac) and we all use to play online together. I would usually host them. And yeah, I ended up being one of the most dominating players too, most of the games I played.

I don't know where the franchise is at now, but Halo was kinda synonymous with Xbox for a while. I might pick up the first Halo for oXbox so I can give the main game a playthrough on that console. It just seems like it's a must have, even if I already have it on PC. It would be like owning a SNES without owning a copy of Super Mario World.


So heavy! I remember it being a decent amount to ship back when I got rid of mine. I use to rip on how big it is, but now looking at it, Microsoft basically just made a really small PC with an integrated video card. I can dig it for what it is. For one thing, it looks like it's really easy to take apart and work on.


Thanks for sharing!

Mine is coming with composite cable, and I was planning on getting component cables for it. I mentioned in another thread, in my current setup is a 3 input component switch box hooked up to a RetroTINK 5X. I have my Wii and PS2 hooked up to my HDTV that way. So I figured it would be a no-brainer to use that spare component input into the TINK. But I was looking at the ElectronXout and might get one.

So I didn't know that Microsoft had an official product to get S/PDIF out of the oXbox's AV multi out. If I use standard component cables, I will be limited to analog stereo audio. But if I use that ElectronXout, I will have digital audio over HDMI. So it will support surround sound, for any games that have that option. Also, current offerings for oXbox component cables are pretty much either really cheaply made ones or paying a decent amount of old/used quality ones. So the ElectronXout might cost as much as a decent set of component cables, maybe even less!

They have a 30 day return policy. But get this: one of the things I liked about this listing is that they had a UPS and USPS shipping option. After my last two packages that went through USPS were delivered to the wrong house, I decided to go with UPS. Even though UPS can be pretty rough with packages, usually USPS treats them better. I don't know, I guess my faith is shaken in USPS right now. So I get an email today with my tracking number for the oXbox, and I notice it's a USPS number. So I messaged the seller and asked if it's not to late to switch it to UPS. Long story short, it's going USPS and the seller gave me a refund for the difference in shipping cost (UPS was a few more bucks than USPS). It just made me laugh more than anything, because there's just be something with every recent online purchase. Who knows? Maybe it's fate!

I think I never wanted to admit it because I was such a loyal PS2 fanboy. No way the Xbox could be better! But yeah, after watching comparison videos over the years for various games, the Xbox usually looks like it has an edge as far as texture quality goes (that's what stands out most to me in YouTube videos). It will be nice to finally explore this console.

-I played these but fell off, interested to see what you think.

-I actually beat this turd via split-screen co-op back in 2007.
-No way I would have finished it solo.

>now that I have an oXbox, I think I'll be more inclined to get games for it

Hope my rec's come in handy. It's a great console to collect for. The games mostly aren't stupid expensive in the retro market, and are generally easy to find (online at least).

I beat both of those long ago, and the 2nd game is much improved.

>it looks like it's really easy to take apart and work on.

It is, and you are right that the Xbox is basically a custom desktop PC with a nice case.

Same thing happened to me. Maybe second time is the charm.

>It will be nice to finally explore this console.