Xbox questions

[MDesigner]

I have some questions to Xbox owners:

1) I know Xbox ships with Ethernet support.. but do you still need to pay yearly for Xbox Live, even if you already have broadband?

2) Can you plug in a keyboard and/or mouse (USB) and use it for most games? How do you know if a game supports it? This would be a good option for first person shooters, which I think function much better on the PC with the WSAD+mouse controls, than an analog gamepad.

Thanks!

 

[Nothinman]

1) XBox Live runs on top of your Internet connection, so yes you need to pay for it.

2) No. Microsoft used 'almost-USB' ports to stop this kind of thing, they don't want the XBox seen as a normal PC. You can get adapters to plug XBox controllers into a PC USB slot but I'm not sure about the reverse.

 

[madthumbs]

1) No, but there are free alternatives. One popular one featured on front page of www.xbox-scene.com atm.

2) No, but you can plug in a keyboard for linux and other grey market stuff as well as some rpg that the usb keyboard adapter was made for. I'm not sure if they're still working on mouse drivers or not.

 

[ScottMac]

I believe they're USB ports, but they are wired backwards. Same signals, different order to the connections.

Something like that...


FWIW

Scott

 

[leolaw]

Seem like this two are just FAQs:

1) You will have to pay $60 (beginning at Novemebr 25, 2003) for an annual subscription in order to play xbox live. With Xbox live, you will have to use a credit card to create an account and a gametag(just like a screenname in AOL). However, if you dont want to pay that $60 for the voice communicater and subscription, you have a second alternative. In the future (After November, 2003), Microsoft will require the Xbox-live-enabled game to include 2-months free xbox-live service (voice-communicator will not be included I believe, and credit card or debt card would also been require (which is the same method as AOL, it is free to use but no free to open account)) By the way, your ISP would charge you seperately, there are no connection between Microsoft and your ISP.

2) Yes, Microsoft does have USB-Adaptor provided and it is FREE, all you need is to play for the so-called $6.99 "shipping & handling". Info is on here http://www.xbox.com/pso2/keyboardadapter.htm

The other alternative is that you can DIY. More Info is on here: http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/articles.php?aid=20030055005846

If you want to simplify the problem, here is how you can do it: both normal USB cable and the xbox USB cable are identical, but there are two differences:
1) As you can see, the Xbox Male connector would not be fitted into the regular female connector
2) Regular USB cable has 4 wires inside, but xbox USB cable has 5. As from the article from http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/articles.php?aid=20030055005846, the fifth cable is the color of yellow and they have no ideas what the heck is that used for so far. OKay, so all you need to do is to solder the same color of wire together and leave the yellow wire alone. And you would be all set.
However, as I have said before, if you dont wanna read the article on http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/articles.php?aid=20030055005846 which gives you informative detail that teaches you hwo to build your own xbox-USB cable, you can just order the "Free" adaptor on xbox.com ( Remember the Shipping and handling and you have to pay a$$ to M$. As a linux user, I recommand you not to do so)

Peace

 

[kendogg]

I just downloaded xbc (www.xbconnect.com) this allows you to play limited titles online without having to mod your xbox. Its pretty neat.