Xbox (console)

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For the current incarnation, see Xbox 360

{{Infobox CVG system| title = Echhbox |logo = | Approximately 250,000 subscribers had signed up within 2 months of Xbox Live's launch.[1] In July 2004, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live had reached a million subscribers, and one year later, in July 2005, that membership had reached 2 million. In nearing mid-2007, Microsoft announced it has now reached over 6 million unique subscribers.[2]

Initial features available at launch for the XBOX system pale in comparison to what the Live service has grown into today. With the launch of the XBOX 360, many features were added to the service, the major of which includes the XBOX Live Marketplace, which offers downloadable content, demos, and videos/movies. Upon launch of the XBOX 360, the Live service was split into a Gold service (subscription based) and Silver service (free), granting everyone access to most content on the Marketplace.

Games

Main article: List of Xbox games

Hardware

Xbox motherboard with installed modchip
Xbox drives
See also: Xbox special limited editions

Xbox was the first console to incorporate a hard disk drive, used primarily for storing game saves compressed in ZIP archives and content downloaded from Xbox Live. This eliminated the need for separate memory cards (although some older consoles, such as the TurboCD, Sega CD and Sega Saturn had featured built-in battery backup memory prior to this). Most of the games also use the hard drive as a disk cache, for faster game loading times. Some games support "Custom soundtracks," another particularly unusual feature allowed by the hard drive. An Xbox owner can rip music from standard audio CDs to the hard drive so players can play their custom soundtrack, in addition to the original soundtrack of Xbox games that support such a feature.

Although the Xbox is based on commodity PC hardware and runs a stripped-down version of the Windows 2000 kernel using APIs based largely on DirectX 8.1, it incorporates changes optimized for gaming uses as well as restrictions designed to prevent uses not approved by Microsoft. A similar approach (PC hardware, stripped-down Windows) was used by the Tandy VIS entertainment system. The Xbox does not use Windows CE due to Microsoft internal politics at the time, as well as limited support in Windows CE for DirectX[citation needed].

The Xbox itself is much, much larger and heavier than its contemporaries. This is largely due to a bulky tray-loading DVD-ROM drive and the standard-size 3.5 inch hard drive. Because of this, the Xbox has found itself a target of mild derision, as gamers poke fun at it for things like a warning in the Xbox manual that a falling Xbox "could cause serious injury" to a small child or pet. However, the Xbox has also pioneered safety features, such as breakaway cables for the controllers to prevent the console from being yanked from the shelf.

The original game controller design, which was particularly large, was similarly often criticized since it was ill-suited to those with small hands. In response to these criticisms, a smaller controller was introduced for the Japanese Xbox launch. This Japanese controller (which was briefly imported by even mainstream video game store chains, such as GameStop) was subsequently released in other markets as the "Xbox Controller S", and currently all Xbox consoles come with a "Controller S", while the original controller (known as Controller "0" or "The Duke") was quietly discontinued.

Several internal hardware revisions have been made in an ongoing battle to discourage modding (hackers continually updated modchip designs in attempt to defeat them), cut manufacturing costs, and to provide a more reliable DVD-ROM drive (some of the early units' drives gave Disc Reading Errors due to the unreliability of the Thomson DVD-ROM drives that were used). Later generation of Xbox units that used the Thomson TGM-600 DVD-ROM drives and the Philips VAD6011 DVD-ROM drives were still vulnerable to failure that rendered the consoles either unable to read newer discs or caused them to halt the console with an error code usually indicating a PIO/DMA identification failure, respectively. These units would not be covered under the extended warranty.

Technical specifications

Xbox and DirectX

Microsoft's set of low-level APIs for game development and multimedia purposes, DirectX, was used as a basis for the Xbox.

Microsoft and NVIDIA chip pricing dispute

In 2002, Microsoft and NVIDIA entered arbitration over a dispute on the pricing of NVIDIA's chips for the Xbox.[3] NVIDIA's filing with the SEC indicated that Microsoft was seeking a US$13 million discount on shipments for NVIDIA's fiscal year 2002. Additionally, Microsoft alleged violations of the agreement the two companies entered, sought reduced chipset pricing, and sought to ensure that NVIDIA fulfill Microsoft's chipset orders without limits on quantity. The matter was settled on February 6, 2003, and no terms of the settlement were released.[4]

Official accessories

Audio/video connectors

  • Standard AV Cable: Provides composite video and monaural or stereo audio to TVs equipped with RCA inputs. Comes with the system. European systems come with a RCA jack to SCART converter block in addition to the cable.
  • RF Adapter: Provides a combined audio and video signal on an RF connector.
  • Advanced AV Pack: Provides S-Video and TOSLINK audio in addition to the RCA composite video and stereo audio of the Standard AV Cable.
  • High Definition AV Pack: Intended for HDTVs, it provides a YPrPb component video signal over three RCA connectors. Also provides analog RCA and digital TOSLINK audio outputs.
  • Advanced SCART Cable: The European equivalent to the Advanced AV Pack, providing a full RGB video SCART connection in place of S-Video, RCA composite and stereo audio connections (composite video and stereo are still provided by the cable, through the SCART connector, in addition to the RGB signal), while retaining the TOSLINK audio connector. As Europe has no HDTV standard, no High Definition cable is currently provided in those markets.

Numerous unofficial third-party cables and breakout boxes exist that provide combinations of outputs not found in these official video packages; however, with the exception of a few component-to-VGA converters and custom-built VGA boxes, the four official video packages represent all of the Xbox's possible outputs. This output selectivity is made possible by the Xbox's SCART-like AVIP port.

Networking

  • Ethernet (Xbox Live) Cable: A Cat 5 cable for connecting the Xbox to a broadband modem or router.
  • Xbox Wireless Adapter: a wireless bridge which converts data running through an Ethernet cable to a wireless (802.11b or 802.11g) signal to connect to a wireless LAN. While the official Wireless Adapter guarantees compatibility with the Xbox, almost any wireless bridge can be used.
  • Xbox Live Starter Kit: A subscription and installation pack for the Xbox Live service, as well as a headset (with monaural earpiece and microphone) that connects to a control box that plugs into the top expansion slot of a controller. The headset can in fact be replaced with most standard earpiece-and-microphone headsets; headset specialist Plantronics produces various officially-licensed headsets, including a special-edition headset for Halo 2.
  • System Link Cable: A Cat 5 Ethernet crossover cable for connecting together two consoles or a Cat 5 straight through cable used in conjunction with an Ethernet hub for connecting up to four consoles, for up to 16 total players. This functionality is similar to Sega's DirectLink for Sega Saturn.

Multimedia

  • Xbox Media Center Extender: A kit that allows Xbox to act as a Media Center Extender to stream content from a Windows XP Media Center Edition PC. It can also be used for DVD playback.
  • DVD Playback Kit: Required in order to play DVD movies, the kit includes an infrared remote control and receiver. DVD playback was not included as a standard feature of the Xbox due to licensing issues with the DVD format that would have added extra cost to the console's base price. By selling a DVD remote separately, Microsoft was able to bundle the cost of the DVD licensing fee with it. Although there is nothing to prevent the Xbox from acting as a Progressive scan DVD player, Microsoft chose not to enable this feature in the Xbox DVD kit in order to avoid royalty payments to the patent-holder of progressive scan DVD playback. The DVD Playback kit only plays DVDs from the local region. The DVD Playback kit will also allow the xbox to play VCD movies. By default, the Xbox can only play xbox games and audio CDs.
  • Xbox Music Mixer: A utility software bundled with a microphone that connects to an adapter that plugs into the top expansion slot of a controller. Provides a music player with 2D/3D visualizations as well as basic karaoke functions. It also allows users to upload pictures in JPEG format (to create slide shows) as well as audio in MP3 format and Microsoft's WMA (for karaoke or a game's Custom Soundtracks feature) from a Windows XP machine running the Xbox Music Mixer PC Tool.

Controllers and removable storage

The original Duke controller and Controller S

The Xbox controller features two analog sticks, a directional pad, two analog triggers, a Back button, a Start button, two accessory slots and six 4-bit analog action buttons (A, B, X, Y, Black, and White). The:

  • "A" Button is colored GREEN
  • "B" Button is colored RED
  • "X" Button is colored BLUE
  • "Y" Button is colored YELLOW

The Black and white colored buttons are recessed in the controller.

  • Standard Xbox Controller: Originally the normal Xbox controller for all territories except Japan, this has since been quietly discontinued and replaced in Xbox packs by the Controller S. The Duke controller has been criticized for being relatively large and bulky compared to other video game controllers (it was awarded "Blunder of the Year" by Game Informer in 2001).[5] The black and white buttons are located above the A, B, X, and Y buttons, and the Back/Start buttons are located between and below the d-pad and right analog stick. Also, the standard face buttons (A, B, X, and Y) were oriented in an oblong parallelogram rather than a uniform diamond, which was very unusual compared to other standard controllers.
  • Controller S: A smaller, lighter Xbox controller. Once the standard Xbox controller in Japan (codenamed "Akebono"),[6] it was released in other territories by popular demand, and eventually replaced the standard controller in the retail pack for the Xbox console. The white and black buttons are located below the A, B, X, and Y buttons, and the Back/Start buttons are similarly placed below the left analog stick. This controller has received its share of criticism as well, especially with regards to placement of the black/white and back/start buttons.[7]

There are also third party controllers such as a Logitech 1.2 GHz wireless controller. This controller is approved by Microsoft. However, third-party unlicensed wireless controllers exist as well.

An 8 MB removable solid state memory card can be plugged into the controllers, onto which game saves (zip archives in reality) can either be copied from the hard drive when in the Xbox Dashboard's memory manager or saved during a game. Note that some recent games (e.g. Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball) do not support this accessory as a cheat prevention measure. This system has been defeated by the Xbox hacking community, who have developed tools to modify savegames to work in a different console, though some unique technical information concerning the recipient Xbox must be known. It is also possible to save an Xbox Live account on a memory unit, making it possible to share it with another Xbox owner, assuming both have access to Xbox Live.

Modding the Xbox

The popularity of the Xbox inspired efforts to circumvent the built-in hardware and software security mechanisms, a practice informally known as modding. The Xbox BIOS was dumped a few months after release, and hacked so it would skip digital signature checks, and media flags, allowing unsigned code, Xbox game backups, etc to be run. This is due to flaws in the Xbox's security.[8] Modding an Xbox in any manner will void its warranty, as it may require disassembly of the console. Having a modified Xbox will also disallow it from accessing Xbox Live as it contravenes the Xbox Live terms of use,[9] unless using a softmod with a multiboot and Shadow C configuration such as Ndure.

Four main methods exist of modding the Xbox:

  • Modchip - Installing a modchip inside the Xbox that bypasses the original BIOS, with a hacked BIOS to circumvent the security mechanisms.[10]
  • TSOP Flashing - Reflashing the onboard BIOS chip with a hacked BIOS to circumvent the security mechanisms. The Xbox BIOS is contained on a commodity EEPROM (the 'TSOP'), which can be made writable by the Xbox by bridging points on the motherboard[11]. Flashing is usually carried out by using a specially crafted gamesave (see 'Game Save Exploit', below) to flash the onboard TSOP, but the 'TSOP' can also be desoldered and rewritten in a standard EEPROM programmer. This method only works on 1.0 to 1.5 Xboxes, as later versions replace the commodity 'TSOP' with an LPC ROM contained within a proprietary chip[12].
  • Softmods - Installing additional software files to the Xbox harddrive, which exploit programming errors in the Dashboard to gain control of the system, and overwrite the in-memory copy of the BIOS[13]. Soft modification is known to be safe for Xbox Live if the user enables multibooting with the Microsoft dashboard and an original game disc is used.[14]
    • Game save exploit - Using select official game releases to load game saves that exploit buffer overflows in the save game handling.[15] When these special game saves are loaded, they access an interface with scripts for installing the necessary softmod files. Disassembly of the Xbox is not required when installing most game save exploits.
    • Hot swap - Using a computer to change the data on the hard drive. This requires having the Xbox unlock the hard drive when it is turned on, then swapping the hard drive into a running computer. From there it can be accessed by a special LiveCD. The user installs the softmod files directly to the Xbox hard drive. This technique has been used extensively to harbor cheating on many online games. Disassembly is required to install this softmod.

Beyond gaming, a modded Xbox can be used as a media center with the Xbox Media Center.[16]

There are also distributions of Linux developed specifically for the Xbox, including those based on Gentoo,[17] Debian, (see also Xebian)[18] Damn Small Linux,[19] and Dyne:bolic.[20] All this above is know as "Soft-Modding" an Xbox. Soft modding refers to things that are done to the technical part of the Xbox. Such as adding files and programs to the hard drive. Or adding some game exploits onto a special memory card. Thats all softmods. Hard-Modding an Xbox refers to the other side of the Xbox, everything else. Painting an Xbox refers to a Hard Mod. Chipping an Xbox does technically count as a hard mod due to the fact that it requires a good knowledge of a soldering gun and some good hand-eye coordination to solder it in. Using a dremel, a soldering gun, spray paint. Those are all tools of hard modding.

Hard-Mods are physical modifications to hardware such as soldering connections, or attaching a chip. Soft mods are mods that are done via software without physical modifications such as running a modified game or taking advantage of a bug or (exploit) in order to perform a function not intended by the creator such as running copied games or running unauthorized software (homebrew). Softmods can also be used to cheat or change the visuals for a particular game.

Price history

Europe (prices include tax)

United Kingdom

  • £299.99 GBP (Launch Price March 14 2002)
  • £199.99 (2003)
  • £139.99 (August 27 2004)
  • £129.99 (2005)
  • £104.99 (Christmas 2005)
  • £99.99 (2006)
  • £49.99 (Christmas 2006)
  • £39.99 (January 2007)

North America

Oceania

(Quickly dropped to $399 after 6 weeks to compete with launch of Nintendo GameCube)
  • AU$239 AUD (2004)
  • AU$209 AUD (2005)
  • AU$188 AUD (2006 Q2)
  • AU$100 AUD (2007)
  • NZ$499 NZD (October 3, 2002, Launch Price)
  • NZ$399 NZD (2003)
  • NZ$349 NZD (2004)
  • NZ$299 NZD (2004 Q2)
  • NZ$249 NZD (2004 Q4) (2005)

Japan

Of note is the high European launch price. As with many games consoles (for example, the contemporary PlayStation 2), the Xbox was launched with a price in GBP equal to its US price in USD (in this case, $/£299), and this price then converted using the GBP-Euro exchange rate for the rest of Europe. Ignoring the GBP-USD exchange rate in this way creates a near 100% mark-up for Europe.

With a price-dropped PlayStation 2 and a comparatively inexpensive GameCube as competition, many users were naturally reluctant to invest in the console. Microsoft countered with a £100 price drop (and its equivalent in the rest of Europe) on April 26 2002, just a month and 12 days after its initial launch in the UK. To avoid frustrating early adopters, they offered any two current games and an extra controller for free to any purchaser who could provide a sales receipt showing the original higher price.

By September 15 2005, Microsoft reported a four billion dollar loss in selling the Xbox gaming system.[21]

UK advertising controversy

In 2002 the Independent Television Commission (ITC) banned a television advertisement for the Xbox in the United Kingdom after responses from certain members of the public deemed it distasteful. It depicted a mother giving birth to a child who was fired like a projectile through the hospital window and who flew through the air. As he flew he aged rapidly before landing in a ready-dug grave. The advert ended with the slogan "Life is short. Play more." Complaints came from recent mothers including one whose child was stillborn.[22]

Xbox 360

Main article: Xbox 360

NVIDIA ceased production of the Xbox's GPU in August 2005, which marked the end of Xbox production and the quick release of the Xbox 360.

When equipped with a removable hard drive add-on, the Xbox 360 supports a limited subset of the Xbox's library through emulation. Emulation adds support for anti-aliasing as well as upscaling of the still standard definition image. These emulators are periodically updated to add compatibility for older games and are available for free through Xbox Live or as a file download to be burned to a CD/DVD from the Xbox web site. As the architectures are entirely different between Xbox and Xbox 360, software emulation is the only viable option for compatibility without including processors from the original Xbox, unlike the Playstation 3 (Japanese and American version only),PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance which do contain processors from their previous respective platforms to achieve native backward compatibility (though not complete compatibility).

Trivia

  • In March 2007, Mexico, in an attempt to lower the amount of weapons on the street, offered an Xbox to anyone who turned in a weapon. [23]
  • In Japan, the nickname for the Xbox is "Batsu Bako," meaning 'Wrong Box' or 'Bad Box,' as the Xbox is unpopular in Japan. The choice of the nickname was inspired by the common handsign of putting the arms or hands into an X shape and saying "Batsu!" when someone did something wrong.[24]

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/10249/532/
  3. ^ "Microsoft takes Nvidia to arbitration over pricing of Xbox processors" eetimes.com March 29, 2002. Retrieved June 29, 2006.
  4. ^ "Microsoft and Nvidia settle Xbox chip pricing dispute" eetimes.com February 6, 2003. Retrieved June 29, 2006.
  5. ^ "Games of 2001." Game Informer. January 2002: p. 48
  6. ^ (October 1970). "Ninja Beach Party". Official Xbox Magazine (11): 44.
  7. ^ "Final Sniper", Hardware Review: Xbox Controller S Review, Talk Xbox, August 11, 2003.
  8. ^ [2]
  9. ^ [3]
  10. ^ [4]
  11. ^ [5]
  12. ^ [6]
  13. ^ [7]
  14. ^ [8]
  15. ^ [9]
  16. ^ [10]
  17. ^ [11]
  18. ^ [12]
  19. ^ [13]
  20. ^ [14]
  21. ^ [15]
  22. ^ [16]
  23. ^ [17]
  24. ^ Japan.com

External links

Official sites
Other sites
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