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Wisdom of buying proprietary hardware... XBOX

M

MasterSamwise

Senior member
Nope. Not a Mac. An XBOX. Due to all the intrest in XBOX hacking as of late I thought it would be a relativley cheap way to entertain myself over the summer. Granted not so much with the games.. Maybe Halo.. but with the adventure of loading up XBOX Linux. (It would be cool to be able to boot XBOX Linux up on my t.v. or even on the LCD panel in my car, an entire workstation, in my backseat!) I remeber seeing a controller modchip some where, mentioned on Gentoo Forums, which might make this a bit more possible for me to do, as I don't know much about saudering. The wisdom of me using a saudering iron on highly sensitive microsoft made internal components is ... questionable. (Okay so they didn't make the components but..)

I count the other reasons to buy an XBOX.


A glorified MP3 Player for my stereo
A replacment for the DVD drive which would cost less to replace by itself
Ethernet. (Most of my good buddies aren't as computer fluent to say the least, doing an ethernet lan party could be lots of fun. You might say why not just use some PC's? Simply... Some of them have trouble remebering the ordering on the simple rca plugs... I keep tellin em. "Red is always right, White is always next to Red and Yellow follows" So using a PC gets to be quite annoying! Even when I do play with them, all they do is google over the 'beautifuly smooth gameplay they don't get on their Compaq's'... go figure.
A few of the games, which are yet to be offered on PC and likely never will be.



Now all those things aside, except for item last, what games are those? All I see is the Halo PC release date being pushed back. And then a little later back some more. What games case in point is the XBOX worth having for? I have a PS2 already but it seems like a peice of #^@*, I really hate the controller. I never reallly liked PSX although I had one. The demise of the Dreamcast was really sad imo, I had some great times playing Soul Calibur on it.

Does XBOX always win out performance wise? Spec wise, it's a much better system although, it doesn't run linux. Like a PS2 cluster, The Supercomputer got game. Anyone know if a home PS2 box runs linux? Just wondering.

... So, is their Wisdom in buying this bit of proprietary hardware?

MS
 
Xbox Live is reason enough for me.....some good games, fun too 😉. And i dont think its possible to put Linux on a PS2, havent read anything about it at least.
 
If you have the itch to put linux on a console, buy a dreamcast for $40 and throw it on there.
 
In japan Playstation2 is a linux platform with full Sony support. They even sell the program for it. Its in japan however and I have no clue if they ever will bring it over to the states
 
That is so awesome. Japan rules.

As far as the Dreamcast idea, I have one in my garage... I think. I could take it apart and get to work I suppose. Although, my cat did urinate on it :-(. I like the idea of running linux on an XBOX because it's spitting in Microsoft's eye. Yet they might get a little more $ from me for a few games. Considering I don't pay for any Microsoft products it wouldn't be to terrible. Although, I have a concern about memory, 64 mb might be unbearable compared to what I am used to, even for Linux. It seems like a fun project to do. $179 is about the price of those Walmart PC's although they are undoubtably a better deal. (As a computer... not as a game machine)

MS
 
Originally posted by: KGB
In japan Playstation2 is a linux platform with full Sony support. They even sell the program for it. Its in japan however and I have no clue if they ever will bring it over to the states
Click to expand...

Evidentally its available over here now. Found this Linux kit on the US playstation site.

Link
 
Get the XBOX already. Download XBConnect and pay for it after you try to support 'em. Allows an Xbox Live feel for less, for playing LAN style games over the net. I like it better than Live personally. I know it's meant to be different, but... -Tal 🙂
 
Mechassault is fun for xbox. If you like Soul Caliber, there is an xbox version coming soon. Splinter Cell is good from what I hear.

I really only play halo on my xbox. System link play is loads of fun. I have MA and the two game pack, but MA isn't as fun as halo in multiplayer, and I got stuck in single player (hey, lets strand your thor mech in an area with helicopters galore, two atlas mechs and a couple jaguars) so I don't play it much anymore.

I'd like to mod my xbox, but i keep putting it off. As a movie/mp3 player, it'd see a lot of use. Emulation is getting good (n64 just recently with certain games) , so there's that too.
 
Emulation n64 on xbox? Interesting... never even thought about that prospect. I suppose that someone has an excelent Turbo Graffix emulator to? I love Turbo Graffix. Snes is okay to I guess.
 
Originally posted by: KGB
In japan Playstation2 is a linux platform with full Sony support. They even sell the program for it. Its in japan however and I have no clue if they ever will bring it over to the states
Click to expand...

the reason they did that was to try to get around european import regulations on video game consoles.
 
This is quite an interesting subject really. I think I am going to spring for the XBOX. If just for HALO goodness. Supposedly it's coming to P.C. but the versions will be uncompatible, which pisses me off royally. It would be nice to get PC lan + XBOX lan playing at one time.

See who wins that match. (Keyboard + Mouse all the way baby!)

MS
 
Games to look forward to?

Fable and Ninja Gaiden. And Half Life 2. And Halo 2. And a shiz load more, check out The TeamXboxForums. That's the place to go if you want to know what games to look forward to.

If you are modding your box there is a lot you can do... emulators for n64, snes, nes, mame, a whole bunch more, run homebrew software, region-free dvd player, divx and mp3 player... a bundle of goodness.

You can get an xbox for less than $175 as well (I got my modded xbox for $125).

You don't even have to pay anywhere close to $40/$50 a game.

 
Well, if it means anything to you....I haven't played a single game on my PC since getting my Xbox back in March. I bought the DVD kit for it for cheap and play my DVD's through it to my HDTV. Looks great! I've been buying dirt cheap games from Blockbuster lately. Bought Mech Assault and NFL Blitz 2003 for $11.00 a piece a couple weeks ago. Probably going back and nabbing Madden 2003 and MotoGP for the same price as well.
 
Seems like a great idea to me. Ebay has some really cheap deals. Only thing, that I wonder about is wether or not the refurbished systems actually work.

I have a monitor that I got refurb, real cheap. Most of the time it's perfectly fine. Sometimes all of the red channel mystically disappears. (It's not the pin on the connector!)

MS
 
Hey

Another question for an XBOX owner. Is the XBOX audio format a proprietary format or an MP3 format with support for ID3 tags? If it supports ID3 tags does it support ID3 tag servers?

MS
 
I have a friend who is actually running a web server off of his XBox. For awhile, before he did that, he bought a 100 GB HD for it and had emulators for MAME, NES, SNES and tons of games. He tried the mod chip where you had to solder 30 some odd wires to the motherboard but it didn't work. He got one that had spring loaded pins on it that had to be programmed from the serial port on a computer. It didn't work when he programmed it on his computer, but it did work from mine. Kinda impressive actually.
 
Originally posted by: HappyCracker
Got one that had spring loaded pins on it that had to be programmed from the serial port on a computer. It didn't work when he programmed it on his computer, but it did work from mine. Kinda impressive actually.
Click to expand...

Yep. I think I am going to spring for one, right after the XBOX. I would get a kick out of loading up some old games on emulators or the newer games from the hd. (My buddies will really love me..) As for the hardrive I think i'll transfer one from my computer, since I don't use it anyway.

Does anyone have any idea about those ID3 tags?

MS
 
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