Way back in 2011, I briefly owned an oXbox. I got one from someone on the forums here, in a trade I think. It was already soft modded. I played around with some emulators on it, but it never got a whole lot of use. I remember trying to find some Xbox games that I'd like, but came up with next to nothing. At the time, I had the first Halo and Fable games on PC so I didn't care to have them on Xbox. And I also figured I wouldn't bother with any games that were cross platform on PS2. What was left over, I guess I didn't care about back then. I picked up Ninja Gaiden Black and had fun with it. But after a while I decided that the Xbox was underutilized and taking up room, so I got rid of it. I remember having it listed for sale or trade on the forums here for a while without bites, and this was back when the BST was very active. No one was interested in an oXbox back then. I ended up getting rid of it for not a lot of money.
So that's why I say this is "sorta" the first time getting an oXbox. I did technically own one already, but it was so long ago and for such a brief amount of time. And I never really gave it a chance.
In recent years, I've been regretting getting rid of it. I've come around on my opinion on a lot of things. During the 6th generation of consoles, the PS2 was my jam. And after gaming on the SNES and then Playstation controllers, I was very partial to that layout. When the Xbox first came out, I thought the controllers were big and dumb (and not just The Duke) and the offset joystick were stupid. But over the years, I eventually got a 360 and Xbox One controller for use on PC, and I've grown to really like them. After using the Xbox controllers at length, now when I switch back to a PS2 controller I'm thinking it's not as comfortable.
So back in 2022, I got myself an Xbox 360 for the first time. I posted a thread about it here. My decision to get a 360 was based off the fact that it was also partially backward compatible with the original Xbox. So I picked up a few oXbox games that I've used on my 360. The problem there is that not every game is compatible. And the ones that are might have issues. So after having some fun with a few oXbox games, and thinking of more I would like to try, I decided it would be a good idea to just get an oXbox console. They have 100% compatibility, after all.
Annoyingly, Xboxes aren't especially cheap on eBay right now. If you want one that is listed as tested and in working condition, you're looking at around $100 give or take. You can certainly get ones for less, but sold as-is, untested, for parts etc. And sometimes beat to hell. But I eventually found a listing that I felt comfortable with, so I decided to pull the trigger on it.

It comes with Halo 2 skins on it. I'm kinda taking a little bit of a gamble on that part. I'm hoping that when I remove them, it doesn't turn out that they were hiding any massive blemishes. But judging from the pics the seller provided, the console looks like it's in decent shape. I was also happy that the listing included an S type controller that looks to be in decent shape (thumb grips not worn down) and three non-sport games.
I've actually already purchased a mod chip for this. I think I will keep it stock for a little bit, since I have a bunch of legit games to use with it. But I'll definitely mod it before long. Mostly just to play games off the HDD and save the wear and tear from the optical drive. I know you can easily soft mod the Xbox, and I'm almost certain that this isn't a 1.6 revision console meaning I can flash a BIOS. But with the OpenXenium mod chip that I got, from what I understand, I can boot multiple BIOSes. And it makes upgrading the HDD easier. And the install is super easy. And it looks like it can be used as a recovery tool for broken Xboxes. So I figure I could also use the mod chip to flash the BIOS and then remove it to use in another Xbox if I needed or wanted to.
Anyways, here's the games I currently have...
Picked up when I got the 360:
Halo 2
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars KOTOR 2
Tonly Hawk's Pro Skater 2X
Ultra Bust-A-Move
Recently Acquired:
Call of Duty Finest Hour
Call of Duty Big Red One
Medal of Honor Frontline
Medal of Honor Rising Sun *
Fable
Halo
Comes with the Xbox I purchased:
Robotech Battlecry
Soul Calibur II
Roadkill
*Medal of Honor Rising Sun was acquired by mistake. I ordered Frontline, and the seller shipped me Rising Sun by mistake. They shipped me Frontline, and told me to keep Rising Sun.
I decided to order Halo and Fable, even though I have them on PC, just because they were really cheap and they seem like must haves for the Xbox. Especially the first Halo, that's like owning a SNES but not having a copy of Super Mario World. I also figured that it's been a long time since I've played either game, and it would be nice to experience them on the Xbox.
But speaking of, one factor that lead to my decision to purchase an oXbox is that a lot of the games are really cheap. Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Fable and Halo can all be had CIB for around $10 shipped. Or less! Plenty of other games seem relatively cheap, compared to what I'm use to seeing for retro video games. After the price of retro games started to rise I pretty much stopped collecting, probably just like so many of you. So it's really nice to be able to collect for a console again, without spending a fortune on the games.
Two games I'd really like to get are Ninja Gaiden Black and Conker: Live and Reloaded, but these two aren't especially cheap. Not too expensive, but not dirt cheap like so many other Xbox games.
I guess I use to be too much of a PS2 fanboy, I had no interest in playing any Xbox ports. But over the years, I've constantly heard how the Xbox usually had the superior ports over the PS2/GCN. I've looked up comparison videos for certain games, and the Xbox version usually does look noticeably better. So now I'm not resistant to checking out multiplatform games.
I'm open to game suggestions and any other tips you might have!