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OG Xbox Appreciation and Lack of Emulation Thread of the big black box of doom

Borman

Member
"Hold up well?" Halo 2 got good ratings, but its image in the community wasn't exactly pristine in 2004. Not with all the weird expectations, and the still-massive shadow of Halo 1. My core opinion of Halo 2 hasn't changed much at all over the years, but it's a lot easier to be nice to its campaign today than it was in 2004.

Im aware, but it was even more inconsistent then I remembered (I played through it at the beginning of the year.)

For every this:
snap002.jpg


Or:
snap053.jpg


You had some ugly, non-fun areas. Damn me for only uploading mostly nice shots hah.
 
Hey guys, can someone point me a good source of info on how to hack the OG XBOX? I'd LOVE to be able to play JP games and install my games on the HDD. I've tried to gather info but it seems kinda complicated...

I softmodded mine years ago. Pretty sure this is the exact resource I used. http://lifehacker.com/299809/transform-your-classic-xbox-into-a-killer-media-center. Just need to buy an action replay and a copy of Splinter Cell. I'd recommend using FileZilla for the FTP program because it's free. I originally only did this because softmodding was the only way to get a PAL console to be able to properly use component cables and output in HD. Recently I also upgraded to a 500gig hard drive which I used this tutorial for http://www.instructables.com/id/Original-XBOX-Hard-Drive-Upgrade/. Those are probably the best two tutorials, nice pictures and very easy to follow. After you're done you can copy all your Xbox discs to the console and it's even possible to transfer downloadable content like the Halo 2 maps and Splinter Cell levels (if you know where to look online) to the console.
 

Oemenia

Banned
So many amazing XBOX games that would look glorious with crystal clear IQ. Somebody please make an emulator.

Its a shame that the system gets so little credit especially since Nintendo fans love to brag about the GC. Heck it even had its own set of unique Japanese exclusive games, the only thing it lacked were JRPGs
 

HTupolev

Member
Im aware, but it was even more inconsistent then I remembered (I played through it at the beginning of the year.)

For every this:

Or:

You had some ugly, non-fun areas. Damn me for only uploading mostly nice shots hah.
Oh, you're just talking visual design? Yeah... Halo 2's more beautiful areas do a very good job of sticking out in memory. The game does have a lot of muddiness to it. The worst is probably some parts of the DH/Regret temples; you have spots with very flat lighting and very poor texture-mapping, where the overlapping geometry sort of smears together. Especially at 480i.

I think I'd still call it a beautiful game, but with some caveats compared to Bungie's other Halos.
 

Borman

Member
Oh, you're just talking visual design? Yeah... Halo 2's more beautiful areas do a very good job of sticking out in memory. The game does have a lot of muddiness to it. The worst is probably some parts of the DH/Regret temples; you have spots with very flat lighting and very poor texture-mapping, where the overlapping geometry sort of smears together. Especially at 480i.

I think I'd still call it a beautiful game, but with some caveats compared to Bungie's other Halos.

Na, the game in general, but I dont really have shots showing some of the more obvious flaws with the design in the gameplay (which is hard to show in images anyway).
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

That list is incomplete. Off the top of my head, there was a Dragon's Lair game that was HD. Also, Syberia had a 1080i mode.
 

RooMHM

Member
I d love it was emulated but the lack of interest from developpers and players is easily understandable.
Most of the games listed in this thread are either forgetable or have a superior version on another hardware.

I m still mad for JSRF...
 

Oemenia

Banned
Id also like to point out to PAL Panzer Dragoon Orta owners that you can play all the levels on 360 if you amass 20 hours of gameplay. This will unlock everything in the game including the level select and the original Panzer Dragoon which is perfectly playable on the 360.

In fact its the best way to play it since its based on the PC port but has 3D filtering, something that no Saturn emulator does right now.

I d love it was emulated but the lack of interest from developpers and players is easily understandable.
Most of the games listed in this thread are either forgetable or have a superior version on another hardware.

I m still mad for JSRF...

And yet there are many unique Japanese exclusives that have no way to be played such as Otogi.
 
Pickups that are on the way:

Phantom_Dust_Coverart.png

!!d-zY+wBWM~$(KGrHqF,!jUEzKMW-kJMBM7De1uWJ!~~_35.JPG

3013.JPG


It's nice seeing that prices aren't too bad. Still need Otogi 1 and 2, Armed and Dangerous, and Breakdown.
 

IrishNinja

Member
Halo 2 Is a great game. The OP is by no means comprehensive. I just felt that of the two, Halo is still the more iconic.

yeah, i think this is inarguable - i recall many disappointed by 2, while others loved it (i don't like speaking on it since i played minimal multi & didn't run through the SP like i did with 1 & 3), but 1 was just crazy when you first played it, whether that was vehicles in blood gulch or witnessing the enemy AI dick with you in SP when you thought you had their patterns down. I'm not even an FPS guy but when you look at stuff like that and the formula changes (auto-heal vs healthpacks, limited weapons etc) it's kind've hard to overestimate the title's significance. I mean, the best of the PC FPS were being ported (with questionable quality) but on the console side of things, i didn't see any other FPS package so tightly geared at catching & keeping its target demographic since Goldeneye.
 

Mzo

Member
Halo 2 had fantastic multiplayer that did just so much right.

The single player game was extremely disappointing in terms of design and story when compared to the first. It soured me on Halo to the point that I haven't played one since.

The talking plant spoke in goddamn rhymes; I'm out.
 

~~Hasan~~

Junior Member
i still have my console. i even by mistake put it in 220v and it was 110v. there was a smoke at the back of the console. i unplugged it and 10 mins later i started playing again. it was a stunning system.
i dont have any controller for it though. i lost them >_>

used to play many games on it and i loved the system more than PS2 back then lol.
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
The XBOX required some sort of controller or device to play DVD movies, right?

Loved the system, but that was dumb.
 

HTupolev

Member
This is amazing.

:)

The talking plant spoke in goddamn rhymes; I'm out.
It bothered me the first time through, but once Halo 2's dust settled, the Gravemind's trochaic heptameter is seriously awesome.

Joseph Staten's writing can be like that. I wasn't a huge fan of ODST's writing on my first playthrough either, but after getting a sense for how the lines were messing with my expectations, I started really liking it.

I'm guessing that you can't play OG MechAssault with it on Live though, am I correct? It'd be sweet if you could.
XBL service for oXbox games died in 2010.
 
Live got awful pretty quick though. Now it's awful in a different way as people are either in parties or have their stupid Kinect mics on the whole time.

Nah man. Xbox LIVE was fun from 2002 - 2007, give or take.

Sometime between the release of Gears 1 and Gears 2, it lost the magic. I think that was around the time the Party system came in. That magic is gone forever, seemingly.
 
I never understood why the party system is so popular.

Because keeping together with your friends is fun especially across games. I do miss the old community though. I always thought the 13-year old racist/sexist asshole problem was VASTLY overstated on XBL, especially back in the OG days.
 

eso76

Member
There's one missing I can think of surprisingly - a dragons lair game I recall, it was crisp as fuck on my 36" HD CRT (Toshiba one) via component cables, I think it was 720p, may have even been 1080i

A beast console for it's time.

Dragons lair was 1080i

and I never knew soul calibur 2 was 720p..
freedom fighters too. Man that game needs a sequel, btw.

Also Wreckless 2 was 720p, but it came at the expense of graphics complexity: wreckless 1 looked much better.
 

finowns

Member
Halo 2 doesn't really hold up that well, the single player anyway. Really inconsistent. Multiplayer is a bit hit or miss using XBConnect and co.

Agree with Halo 2 campaign being 'meh', Halo 1 campaign I still play to this day. When I said Halo 2 was the greatest game ever made, I base that solely on the multiplayer which I played from the day it came out to the day Halo 3 released. I put an embarrassing amount of hours into that game. Thank you Bungie!
 
I think mine may have finally died. It just randomly turned on one night and the only way I could turn it off was to unplug it. I haven't messed with it since. But I've been kind of wanting to play some x-men legends or shenmue 2, so I may try it here in a bit to see how it's doing.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
The XBOX required some sort of controller or device to play DVD movies, right?

Loved the system, but that was dumb.

I hated it at the time, but it makes sense now. The hardware was unprofitable and they had an awful deal with nvidia. Had to cut costs somehow and chose to make consumers pay for the DVD licensing fee if they wanted to use the feature.

We gotta talk about that NBA game and NFL Fever. NFL Fever looked better than Madden at the time. It was NBA 2K14/Live 14 status.

That NBA game was next gen before next gen. It looked PS3 quality back then.

I'm still sad that MS killed their sports games to suck EA's balls. Their games had lots of potential, and they even bought the highly acclaimed high heat franchise off of 3DO but never got to do anything with it. Could have been MS's MLB The Show.
 

Borman

Member
I think mine may have finally died. It just randomly turned on one night and the only way I could turn it off was to unplug it. I haven't messed with it since. But I've been kind of wanting to play some x-men legends or shenmue 2, so I may try it here in a bit to see how it's doing.

Clock capacitor probably leaked :( Fixable, but not the easiest, especially if it has made a mess.
 
Did anyone ever get any sort of "fake" XBL working for OG stuff? It would be awesome to play Crimson Skies MP again, and I heard that Phantom Dust (which just came in) was really cool too.
 

DopeyFish

Not bitter, just unsweetened
Just want to say everyone should have bought death row

One of the best sports games...

Its like speedball and hyperblade.
 

neptunes

Member
How come original XBOX games aren't backwards compatible with the one?

Wouldn't it be easier to do through emulation as opposed to last gen?
 

Rich!

Member
How come original XBOX games aren't backwards compatible with the one?

Wouldn't it be easier to do through emulation as opposed to last gen?

Why would Microsoft give a shit? They dropped the Xbox as soon as the 360 came out apart from the piss poor emulation it offered.

I wouldnt be surprised if they never acknowledged it again. If they can't make money out of it, they aren't going to put in any effort.

On a side note, I'm off into town later to buy an Xbox from cash generator. £10 is a good price, right?
 

Tain

Member
Xbox One is x86 powered but apparently MS had to pay nVidia some licensing fees for 360's backwards compatibility. So that would suggest there's pretty much no chance (unfortunately).
 

Rich!

Member
Xbox One is x86 powered but apparently MS had to pay nVidia some licensing fees for 360's backwards compatibility. So that would suggest there's pretty much no chance (unfortunately).

Yeah. There may have been a chance if the Bone was Nvidia, but it's AMD. And even if it was Nvidia, I don't think Microsoft would have bothered anyway.

They do not make money from letting people play second hand copies of old games. The DRM debacle pretty much sums their attitude up entirely.
 

jcracken

Banned
i liked Blinx and Grabbed by the Ghoulies.. yeah i said it.

still have a small collection of games im working through at the moment, having never played them back in the day.

wanna give a special shout out to Amped 2. so good. widescreen 720p if youve got component cables handy. lots of fun.

My man.

Is there still any remote hope that emulation will actually develop for OG Xbox on PC??

Xeon got Halo running, Cxbx got super close to a working emulator and then someone else picked it up and posted some stuff about it earlier this year, and Dxbx has basically stopped development since they don't have the developers to keep working on it.

OP, don't forget this masterpiece:

Star_Wars_-_Republic_Commando_Coverart.png


We need a sequel, dammit.
 

Gunsmithx

Member
My man.



Xeon got Halo running, Cxbx got super close to a working emulator and then someone else picked it up and posted some stuff about it earlier this year, and Dxbx has basically stopped development since they don't have the developers to keep working on it.

OP, don't forget this masterpiece:

Star_Wars_-_Republic_Commando_Coverart.png


We need a sequel, dammit.

God I enjoyed that game, darn it bish, go find the spare xbox!
 

Rich!

Member
I softmodded mine years ago. Pretty sure this is the exact resource I used. http://lifehacker.com/299809/transform-your-classic-xbox-into-a-killer-media-center. Just need to buy an action replay and a copy of Splinter Cell. I'd recommend using FileZilla for the FTP program because it's free. I originally only did this because softmodding was the only way to get a PAL console to be able to properly use component cables and output in HD. Recently I also upgraded to a 500gig hard drive which I used this tutorial for http://www.instructables.com/id/Original-XBOX-Hard-Drive-Upgrade/. Those are probably the best two tutorials, nice pictures and very easy to follow. After you're done you can copy all your Xbox discs to the console and it's even possible to transfer downloadable content like the Halo 2 maps and Splinter Cell levels (if you know where to look online) to the console.

Thanks muchly for these links.

So, any IDE hard drive will do? Because Amazon have a 160gb one for just £10. I've ordered an XBMC set from ebay (splinter cell + usb adapter). It'll be awesome as a media center for upstairs.
 
Popped a list of stuff I'm looking for on BST right here

Figured I'd let the thread know in case anyone is willing to part with spares or the like.

So many exclusives I didn't know about.
 

Borman

Member
Did anyone ever get any sort of "fake" XBL working for OG stuff? It would be awesome to play Crimson Skies MP again, and I heard that Phantom Dust (which just came in) was really cool too.

You can play system link games online still. A few people have poked around with emulating XBL, but it is quite difficult as you would imagine, plus the easiest way would be using the code that leaked privately years ago, which wouldn't go over well.

How come original XBOX games aren't backwards compatible with the one?

Wouldn't it be easier to do through emulation as opposed to last gen?

Because it still isn't an easy process, and for what reason would they? They don't sell the games, most people don't have the games lying around at this point. Microsoft isn't exactly known for their good will so far this generation. I would wager the only reason any emulation was done at all was for Halo 2.

On a side note, one of the planned ideas for my original XB site was to have game nights for the system link games that still function. Could be something to look forward to anyway.
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
They do not make money from letting people play second hand copies of old games. The DRM debacle pretty much sums their attitude up entirely.

I dunno, man. There was one console last gen that received quite a hefty amount of HD collections last gen, and it wasn't the 360. In fact, to my knowledge the latest 360 models can still play many, many OG XBOX games, but there's this other console where that entire 6th gen BC was actually removed mid-gen! :^)
 
You can play system link games online still. A few people have poked around with emulating XBL, but it is quite difficult as you would imagine, plus the easiest way would be using the code that leaked privately years ago, which wouldn't go over well.

Makes sense, I wan't particularly hopeful. At least a lot of games had system link support. Which is cool. How's the lag using a tunnel?

Because it still isn't an easy process, and for what reason would they? They don't sell the games, most people don't have the games lying around at this point. Microsoft isn't exactly known for their good will so far this generation. I would wager the only reason any emulation was done at all was for Halo 2.

On a side note, one of the planned ideas for my original XB site was to have game nights for the system link games that still function. Could be something to look forward to anyway.

One, that game night sounds awesome.

Two, yeah you can tell the BC was ROUGH, and was only done to keep XBL players going as well as compete with the Wii and PS3. It really is shit though, so few games actually play as they were supposed to. Which is a hell of a shame.
 
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