Pulled out my original Xbox the other day...

[slag]

My 16 year old asked me if we still had it as he was getting the itch to play SSX Tricky. I dug around and found it buried in our storage room along with 3 controllers and the cables. Back when it was a thing, I modded it with a homebuilt chip and put Evolution-X on the machine.

Turned it on, and got an error. We ended up having to bang the hard drive a few times and reseat the dvd rom and hd cables and boom, it started working fine.
He played SSX tricky for a bit off the HDD, and then wanted to play another game he couldn't remember. Looked it up and it was Metal Arms. Found my old burned copy, installed it, and he has been playing that game for hours. Graphics are crap, but gameplay is fun and he is thoroughly enjoying it. So glad I kept that old box around. Nostalgia is funny like that. He has a nice gaming PC in his room, access to Xbox One consoles, and wants to play a game on the original Xbox..

 

[purbeast0]

My buddy does game days every month or so and we play a ton of old school games, and his Xbox is our "emulator station". We pretty much use it just to play MAME, NES, and SNES. I don't think we've ever played an Xbox game on it.

 

[crisium]

Ninja Gaiden Black is what you need.

 

[HitAnyKey]

Nice OP. It's fun getting old tech to work again, especially giving it a tap or two.
If your Son is into Star Wars, I believe Star Wars KOTOR was a pretty decent game. I still have both my original Xbox sitting around but no clue what I did with the original power supply for them.

 

[HOOfan 1]

I kept my Playstation 2 in mint condition, and it was mostly covered up to protect it from dust. I popped a disk in about 6 months ago after I hadn't played anything on it for about 4 years and it wouldn't load the game. I was able to play music CDs and DVDs so I don't think it is the laser that has gone bad. Ticks me off considering I kept it in good condition and Sony's backwards compatibility initiatives suck comapared to Xbox.

 

[slag]

Nice OP. It's fun getting old tech to work again, especially giving it a tap or two.
If your Son is into Star Wars, I believe Star Wars KOTOR was a pretty decent game. I still have both my original Xbox sitting around but no clue what I did with the original power supply for them.

Actually have KotoR installed on the hdd. Need to fire it up and check it out. Thanks!!

 

[imported_bman]

I really hope MS enables emulation for the original Xbox on the Xbox One, that system had a lot hidden gems that were exclusives (Project Gotham Racing 1/2, Crimson Skies HRtR, Otogi 1/2, Steel Battalion, Jet Set Radio Future) or the best version of console exclusives (Shenmue, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 1/2).

 

[CrackRabbit]

Though I figure the IP is lost in some forgotten hell now, there needs to be another Crimson Skies game.

 

[Stg-Flame]

I always hoped I'd see another Aliens Vs Predator RTS game again or an Azurik sequel, but I guess those two games will forever be the reason I keep a working XBOX on hand.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Welcome to retro gaming... We have a thread over here already. While most of the talk seems to focus on 64bit and earlier (N64, SNES, NES, Atari, Genesis) consoles/games/mods really everything pretty much from PS2/XBOX/Dreamcast generation are really retro now (as there are people who were born on the release date of these systems who are in highschool). I play many of these systems for exactly the same reasons as has been said, the gameplay is just amazing on so many of these games. And really, if you think about it, the gameplay HAD to be fun, as the graphics capability/storytelling capability was so limited. If your game didn't have good gameplay, it typically didn't sell well (especially when talking 16bit and earlier, prior to CD's/DVD's with CD quality audio or FMV).

Some games have most definitely not aged well (and those tend to be early generation 3D games, which relied on blowing people's minds with the fact that it was 3D, but the gameplay sucked... now both the 3D sucks and the gameplay sucks, and thus, the entire game sucks...). 2D sprites and animation can still scale well and be enjoyable on HD TV's (heck go look at SMB or SMB2 using HQ3X or HQ4X scaling and you would think it was something made a console generation later), but nothing can fix 3D that has a poly count of in the dozens for character models.

 

[crisium]

I consider the Dreamcast the last retro console. It was the same gen as PS2, but came out much earlier than its competitors and was dead by the time the GCN and Xbox launched (last DC North American release was only 3 months after these consoles launched in NA).

 

[Fallen Kell]

I consider the Dreamcast the last retro console. It was the same gen as PS2, but came out much earlier than its competitors and was dead by the time the GCN and Xbox launched (last DC North American release was only 3 months after these consoles launched in NA).

Dreamcast's last game launch being only 3 months after the NA console release of the other systems wasn't because of the other systems, but because of fatal flaws in the security of the Dreamcast. Every game was completely hacked, as a patching system was found to be able to RIP and burn games to standard DVDs, as well as write/compile homebrew games without the need of any modification to the console itself. The only reason game publishers liked consoles was because they supposedly had better security to prevent piracy than PC's, but with the Dreamcast being entirely wide open (even more than PC's are), no third party publishers would touch the platform anymore (since their games would be on the USENET/torrents within hours of release, and still are to this day).

 

[clok1966]

I kept my Playstation 2 in mint condition, and it was mostly covered up to protect it from dust. I popped a disk in about 6 months ago after I hadn't played anything on it for about 4 years and it wouldn't load the game. I was able to play music CDs and DVDs so I don't think it is the laser that has gone bad. Ticks me off considering I kept it in good condition and Sony's backwards compatibility initiatives suck comapared to Xbox.

PS2 had a VERY picky laser in early models, it can get dusty too. I fixed quite a few lasers ($12), later smaller models sucked laser wise in early ones too. And if you modded it, again the early chips would fry um often. Cheap to fix if you know how.

Xbox, still had better first party stuff than the 360 and BONE later in its life.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I still have mine in owrking condition, but as stated above, I only really used it for emulation. I was never really a fan of many of the games on it, and marked my eventual departure from getting excited about consoles.

My HD'd PS2 still gets occasional use, but I prefer the emulators to it these days. I need to dig my DC out, though. It did have quite a few one of a kind games on it.

 

[master_shake_]

when i soft modded mine i lost all interest in it.
same with my psp.
it is a very versatile system though.

 

[slag]

I have many emulators on mine as well (I actually have two original Xboxes), both modded, but prefer to emulate on my computer. I still think Halo is the best game, hands down ever created for a console, even eclipsing SMB and its variants and the Zelda line. Zelda is a very very close second with SMB a very close third.