I just bought an oXbox for the first time (sorta)

[Jagosaurus]

Pretty sweet you can swap put the intro boots ... but yeah, I'd also be tempted to keep stock flubber LOL.

Yeah, 128mb RAM isn't as useful today as when the mod scene was in its prime. It allows native 720p HD video playback via XBMC which was a big deal at the time.

It's my understanding the dev kits have 128mb RAM so some prototypes files floating around will only run RAM upgraded systems. But in vice-versa scenario, the debug/dev kits don't really run retail games.

The Sega Chihiro "ports" ... based off the Sega games ... based off the Xbox hardware seem to be the biggest draw today.

This recent Halo 2 true 480p and HD mod is amazing. RAM upgraded required for the 720p option. Amazing to see what he is pulling off and the scene still active:
https://youtu.be/O_nk21389u8?si=KOSqYfuf0MgzyS7q

I never personally got into the RAM mod, but yeah, that's my understanding on populating board.

[Reprise]

Just came into this section to ask if getting an original Xbox in 2024 is really a particularly clever idea and stumbled on this thread

Sorry to hijack the thread, but is it worth avoiding collecting the Original Xbox if you are no good at opening up and repairing them? I have contemplated getting one for probably around 5 years now, if not longer. Growing up, my brother had one (as did a lot of my friends) and I have quite a lot of nostalgia and love for the console. It's a unique one from that generation, since it has a lot of exclusives, superior versions of multiplatform games, console exclusive PC ports and cross-gen titles that ended up on the 360 and PS3.

The last few days, seeing how cheap the games are and really REALLY wanting Panzer Dragoon Orta, Jet Set Radio Future, the Project Gotham games and a bunch more, I have started to get really tempted.

But over the years I have heard all the horror stories about units dying and the issues with various models having leaking batteries and all sorts of stuff (I forget all the specifics). I have done a bit of research and seen even OG Xbox fanatics basically advising that it's not worth getting into the system, unless you are confident and capable at opening up consoles, soldering and doing work on them, repairing them and backing them up etc.

I am not though. I just want to buy a console, unmodified and be able to play some classic games I loved as a kid. Should I not bother? Are the consoles all basically ticking time bombs that will give me nothing but problems?

I am eying one up that is apparently in good working order, has the Evo dash (no idea what this is - tried googling it and still none the wiser) and has had new thermal paste applied and new clock cap. Would this be ok?

I just want to play some Xbox games again, but it all looks complicated and googling just brings up loads of stuff about modding them and installing hard drives bla bla bla. That's not really my thing.

[Ziggy]

This recent Halo 2 true 480p and HD mod is amazing. RAM upgraded required for the 720p option. Amazing to see what he is pulling off and the scene still active:
https://youtu.be/O_nk21389u8?si=KOSqYfuf0MgzyS7q

I never personally got into the RAM mod, but yeah, that's my understanding on populating board.

Ah, sweet. Thanks for that link! Looks like the 480p patch with the correct aspect ratio does not require the RAM upgrade. I'll definitely have to check this out when the time comes!

Just came into this section to ask if getting an original Xbox in 2024 is really a particularly clever idea and stumbled on this thread

Sorry to hijack the thread

No worries on hijacking the thread!

I may not be the right person to ask, if you have no interest in modding or repairing.

The leaking that you've heard of is the clock capacitor. The fluid that they leak will eventually corrode the motherboard. So it is highly recommended to open every Xbox and at the very least tear out the clock cap. It's very easy to do, and requires no soldering skills. You can simply remove the cap and leave it out, the only side effect being that you will have to reset the date and time every time you unplug the console. If the cap has leaked (which it almost certainly has) then you should clean the motherboard with rubbing alcohol and an old toothbrush. The only caveat to removing the clock cap is on later revisions, mostly the 1.6 revision, you have to replace or bypass the cap as the console will not boot with it missing.

https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:Clock_Capacitor

There's probably a ton of YouTube videos on it as well. It's very easy to do, I swear!

Opening the console to remove the clock cap also gives you the opportunity to remove any dust. No dust means better cooling which probably means longer life. Most people go a step further and replace the thermal compound, which should improve temps a little.

Clock cap aside (since it's an easy fix)... Is the Xbox a ticking time bomb? I haven't owned dozens of them like some other people on the internet have, so I guess I can't really comment. The two that I recently acquired are both running great though. They are 1.0 and 1.1 revisions, and both seemed to be well used. To some extent, every retro console is a ticking time bomb. Optical drives are usually the biggest concern. For the Xbox, if either the DVD or HDD fails then the console will be unusable. However, it is fixable (to different degrees).

When I was hunting for the first Xbox, I saw a lot on eBay that were semi-refurbished. Having the clock cap removed and new thermal paste applied is not an uncommon thing to find. But definitely a huge plus if you don't feel like doing it yourself. "Evo dash" probably means that it was softmodded, and has the Evolution X dashboard installed. Being softmodded would allow you to do all sorts of stuff, but you can just ignore all of it if you just wanna play games.

I would say it's worth getting one. A lot of the games are dirt cheap right now. Even if you have hardware failure down the road, I bet at that point you could sell the games for at least what you paid for them, if not more. And an Xbox with some kind of hardware failure is still desirable because they are usually easily fixable. Even if you didn't wanna fix it yourself, you could possibly get someone to help you with it. Or sell it to someone that would fix it up for themselves or to resell.

[Reprise]

No worries on hijacking the thread!

I may not be the right person to ask, if you have no interest in modding or repairing.

The leaking that you've heard of is the clock capacitor. The fluid that they leak will eventually corrode the motherboard. So it is highly recommended to open every Xbox and at the very least tear out the clock cap. It's very easy to do, and requires no soldering skills. You can simply remove the cap and leave it out, the only side effect being that you will have to reset the date and time every time you unplug the console. If the cap has leaked (which it almost certainly has) then you should clean the motherboard with rubbing alcohol and an old toothbrush. The only caveat to removing the clock cap is on later revisions, mostly the 1.6 revision, you have to replace or bypass the cap as the console will not boot with it missing.

https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:Clock_Capacitor

There's probably a ton of YouTube videos on it as well. It's very easy to do, I swear!

Opening the console to remove the clock cap also gives you the opportunity to remove any dust. No dust means better cooling which probably means longer life. Most people go a step further and replace the thermal compound, which should improve temps a little.

Clock cap aside (since it's an easy fix)... Is the Xbox a ticking time bomb? I haven't owned dozens of them like some other people on the internet have, so I guess I can't really comment. The two that I recently acquired are both running great though. They are 1.0 and 1.1 revisions, and both seemed to be well used. To some extent, every retro console is a ticking time bomb. Optical drives are usually the biggest concern. For the Xbox, if either the DVD or HDD fails then the console will be unusable. However, it is fixable (to different degrees).

When I was hunting for the first Xbox, I saw a lot on eBay that were semi-refurbished. Having the clock cap removed and new thermal paste applied is not an uncommon thing to find. But definitely a huge plus if you don't feel like doing it yourself. "Evo dash" probably means that it was softmodded, and has the Evolution X dashboard installed. Being softmodded would allow you to do all sorts of stuff, but you can just ignore all of it if you just wanna play games.

I would say it's worth getting one. A lot of the games are dirt cheap right now. Even if you have hardware failure down the road, I bet at that point you could sell the games for at least what you paid for them, if not more. And an Xbox with some kind of hardware failure is still desirable because they are usually easily fixable. Even if you didn't wanna fix it yourself, you could possibly get someone to help you with it. Or sell it to someone that would fix it up for themselves or to resell.

Thank you so much for the response!

So it sounds like it might be worth picking one up. I have looked into more there are probably maybe 15-20 games I really want, if even that many. Realistically, as a retro gamer/collector, I don't think it will break the bank for me to pick up a lot of the games I want and seems like a cheaper console to get into now than many are. It's certainly going to cost me less than the Mega CD and its library I was eyeing up recently.

My wife is going to kill me, because I don't have room for an Xbox or to start yet another collection of games, but oh well...

Edit: Ok, I just bought one and Panzer Dragoon Orta and Jade Empire. Next is to get a component cable or RGB scart at least and will look at a few cheaper games

[Ziggy]

Thank you so much for the response!

So it sounds like it might be worth picking one up. I have looked into more there are probably maybe 15-20 games I really want, if even that many. Realistically, as a retro gamer/collector, I don't think it will break the bank for me to pick up a lot of the games I want and seems like a cheaper console to get into now than many are. It's certainly going to cost me less than the Mega CD and its library I was eyeing up recently.

My wife is going to kill me, because I don't have room for an Xbox or to start yet another collection of games, but oh well...

Edit: Ok, I just bought one and Panzer Dragoon Orta and Jade Empire. Next is to get a component cable or RGB scart at least and will look at a few cheaper games

Awesome!

Yes, it definitely is cheaper to collect for right now than some other retro consoles. I haven't really collected in a long while due to the prices of games, and that's one reason I got into the Xbox. It feels good to be able to collect again, without breaking the bank!

What kind of TV are you planning on hooking the Xbox up to?

[Reprise]

Thank you so much for the response!

So it sounds like it might be worth picking one up. I have looked into more there are probably maybe 15-20 games I really want, if even that many. Realistically, as a retro gamer/collector, I don't think it will break the bank for me to pick up a lot of the games I want and seems like a cheaper console to get into now than many are. It's certainly going to cost me less than the Mega CD and its library I was eyeing up recently.

My wife is going to kill me, because I don't have room for an Xbox or to start yet another collection of games, but oh well...

Edit: Ok, I just bought one and Panzer Dragoon Orta and Jade Empire. Next is to get a component cable or RGB scart at least and will look at a few cheaper games

Awesome!

Yes, it definitely is cheaper to collect for right now than some other retro consoles. I haven't really collected in a long while due to the prices of games, and that's one reason I got into the Xbox. It feels good to be able to collect again, without breaking the bank!

What kind of TV are you planning on hooking the Xbox up to?

Yeah, I just picked up Jet Set Radio Future... Well, we will see. I bought it blind from a popular retail store here who have a website. They don't grade all their games and so it could mean it doesn't have the manual and is absolutely trashed, or they could even cancel the order if it's not in saleable condition. Either way, it was the only way to not get it without paying nearly £100 (I paid £38) and if it's no good I'll just return it for a refund.

Otherwise though, there's a bunch of games I want that will only cost me a £1. I am going to go into town later this week hopefully and pick up some of super cheap games. It feels nice being able to get a nice collection off the ground quickly without it costing too much.

The TV I have is unfortunately a modern LCD Panasonic tv, which isn't great for retro. It's a really old one now though and still has a bunch of inputs (basically everything imaginable - composite, component, s video, rgb scart, VGA, HDMI etc). My CRT died a while back and as I am not as into gaming as I once was, I never got 'all in' with my retro gaming like some people do. It does the job though.

[Ziggy]

Ah, no worries. I'm actually using an HDTV for my Xbox gaming. I just wanted to give you some advice on AV cables.

I wouldn't go with RGB SCART because then you'd be limited to 480i. This is perfectly fine for a CRT, but should be avoided on an HDTV for two reasons. One, you can get flicker with an interlaced signal versus a progressive one, which may or may not bother you. But more importantly is two, your TV might not deinterlace all that well. And especially bad is if your TV adds a ton of lag during the deinterlacing process, which I would assume it would.

Component cables would be great, but I will caution you that the most widely available ones these days are shit quality. My first Xbox came with composite cables, which look great on a CRT but it was a blurry mess on my HDTV. Knowing I wanted to eventually get something else, I just wanted to grab some cheap component cables for the meantime. So while I knew they weren't shielded properly, I grabbed a cheap set of component cables. The ones that can easily be found everywhere for around $10. They do look a crap ton better than composite, but because of the poor shielding there is a ton on interference. I bought them knowing this would be the case, and just because I knew it would be a temporary solution. But yeah, I would totally recommend getting something better!

It doesn't seem like anyone is making quality Xbox component cables these days, just those cheap poorly shielded ones. You can get old stock ones from eBay, like Microsoft's official products or Monster cables. But they are kinda pricey, and for the cost of those you can get something more modern and arguably better.

Here are some pros and cons of the two I'd recommend...

XEDUSA+ - https://www.beharbros.com/product-page/xedusa-plus

The Xedusa is the more versatile. It will convert (but not upscale) the video to HDMI and output either stereo or surround sound over HDMI as well. Although the catch there is that "some" 1.0 revision consoles have an issue outputting audio over HDMI, which kinda sucks. The Xedusa will also output component video, as well as analog and digital audio. For digital audio, it can output optical or coaxial (the yellow RCA jack is digital audio out, not composite video). So with two video output and three audio output options, it's extremely versatile. And that's why I got one. The HDMI output looks amazing on my HDTV. Unfortunately, my 1.0 Xbox does in fact NOT output audio over HDMI. But the surround sound in games is great when I use my 1.1 Xbox. I wanted the ability to output HDMI, but I also wanted component as an option in case I want to use my RetroTINK 5X for upscaling. If you got the Xedusa and wanted to use component as an option, just be sure to use quality component cables. Otherwise you might as well just get the $10 cables LOL.

ElectronXout - https://electron-shepherd.com/products/electronxout

The ElectronXout is more limited than the Xedusa in that it only outputs HDMI. Although they fixed the problem with 1.0 consoles, so the HDMI works better than the Xedusa. So for that reason, as well as the cost difference, if you're only interested in HDMI then I would recommend getting the ElectronXout. And if you think you're only going to be using an HDTV, then I would say just stick with HDMI because everything is easier. Also, this product is probably cheaper than what you'd pay for an old used set of Monster cables or Microsoft's HD Pack. I ordered the ElectronXout for myself but do not have it yet, they are out of stock but are suppose to be back in stock soon.

No matter what you do... Component cables, Xedusa or ElectronXout... Once you hook up those better cables, go into the system settings and turn on widescreen, 480p and 720p output. A lot of people recommend keeping 1080i set to off, which I concur. I don't think many games even support that resolution anyway, but it's worse avoiding an interlaced video output for the reasons stated above. And if you have a cable that can output digital audio (Microsoft's HD Pack, Xedus, ElectronXout) then also be sure to turn on the digital audio output options in the system menu if you have a surround sound system to take advantage of it (I guess this doesn't matter if you're just using your TV speakers).

[Reprise]

Ah nice one, I'll avoid the component cables for now then and will look into those solutions you mention. Upgrading my cables on all my consoles or possibly even getting a CRT sometime is definitely on my list of things to do sometime over the next year.

Just picked up Dead or Alive 1 and 2 Ultimate and Unreal Championship 2. Ok, I'll slow down now

[Ziggy]

I had a rough work week, so I didn't really do any gaming at all (too tired at the end of the day). But last week I did blast through Tony Hawk 3.

I didn't know how I felt about THPS3 at first. It just seemed kinda blah, like more of the same, but with different music tracks. But after playing it for a while and getting a medal in all three competitions, I like it a little more now. I still don't like the soundtrack nearly as much as THPS2, and not any where near as much as the first game. But it did have some fun levels. The airport stuck out to me as being a lot of fun.

I played a lot of the first THPS but resisted playing any of the sequels until just recently. And that's mostly because of the manual mechanic that allows you to stitch tricks together to get massive scores. Without ever trying that mechanic, I just knew it wasn't something I was going to like. Having it instantly makes the first game feel dated. But in the first game, to get high scores you really need to rely on vert tricks. So if you can find a half pipe and work up your special meter, you can rack up your points that way. But in THPS2 and on, since you can stitch tricks together via a manual, that really became the main game mechanic for high scores. So when you're going for the high scores in levels or in competitions, it's all about the manual. The score requirements get to the point where you pretty much can't stay in a half pipe. You have to go and find a run or a loop that you can grind and manual, doing a kick or grab trick between grinding and manualing. It just completely changes the way you play the game. In THPS1, you had a better balance. And being in a half pipe FELT like Tony Hawk. Then after THPS2, the series really turned into just doing these insane grind/manual runs and if you want a high score you have to ignore half pipes. I know that in later entries that made it possible to manual between half pipes so you no longer have to ignore them, but this kinda makes the problem worse. You're pretty much required to rack up these massive combos. The longer you go, the higher the score. But the longer you go, the more points on the table you will lose if you bail.

I guess that's why in THPS4 and onward they removed the time limit from levels. After three games, this definitely feels like a welcomed change. So I've been playing THPS4 a little, and it's pretty fun. But I still have the complaint that the games became more about stringing together massive tricks and less about the half pipe. They're still fun, just in a different way. But at the end of the day, nothing is every gonna compare to the first game in my mind.

[Ziggy]

I decided to take the dive and buy a 3D printer!



The above pic is of two fan mount adapters and 4 feet for the bottom of the Xbox.

The Xbox has those rubber feet that hide 4 screws. So it's a little annoying every time you want to open it up and put it back together. Which for right now I am doing often. So I found these feet online that allow access to the screws. I'm going to save the original rubber feet in case I ever want to put them back on one day. But I don't need the rubber feet right now, and I'd rather have better screw access.

In the above pic, I actually had my local library print that green fan mount. This is an adapter that lets you use a 70mm fan. I chose green, naturally. But then I was doing a little reading, my library has a lot of color choices but apparently only prints things with PLA. I was reading that PLA isn't the best choice for anything that might be in a high temp environment because it might warp and stuff. PETG is a better choice. So in the above pic, the grey fan adapter is a PETG version that I printed!

The fan of choice, at least the one that most everyone seems to use with this adapter, is the Nexus 70mm "Real Slient" case fan. The thing is, this fan isn't especially cheap. I may pick one up and give it a try, or I may research a little and see if there's another 70mm fan that I can try. But I may also try lubricating the stock fan and seeing if that makes it any quieter. I've seen this in retro PC videos for years, but I'm not sure why I've never actually tried it. But on a lot of fans you can peel that sticker back to expose the bearing and just put a few drops of machine oil in there. I've seen some people say they use 3-In-One oil, which is what I would try using since that's what I always have on my work bench.

I ended up picking up one of these to refurb that one controller with...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175759038838

The thing is, there's nothing super special about the Xbox controller cable. It's really just a USB cable. I was gonna just pick up an Xbox controller extension cable, cut off one end and solder it inside the controller. But the extension cables do not have the break away plug, not that I really need it. But they also aren't as long as stock Xbox controller cables, and that I might find annoying. I thought about just using a decent USB cable, of which I have plenty on hand. But then I found this action. It not only has the plug connector which makes it a lot easier to install, it has the straight relief on it which is the important part. It also has the break away plug at the end, and is the correct length. So I figured for $10 shipped this was sort of a no-brainer. And even adding that $10 cost to what I paid for the controllers, my total is $23 shipped which is still a great price for two controllers.

I also ordered a bunch of crap from Console 5. I ordered a cap kit for both the 1.0 and 1.1, including caps for the main board as well as the PSU and DVD drives. I also ordered a new belt for each drive as well as the clock cap for each console. I don't really need a drive belt for the 1.1, it's working fine, but I figured for the price I might as well grab one to have as a backup. The 1.0 though, every once in a while the drive fails to open. The eBay seller said he installed a new drive belt. But I was reading on Console 5 that those cheap bulk belts aren't actually the correct fit, and that theirs are. So I want to replace the drive belt in the 1.0 for that reason. The clock caps you really don't need, but I'm sick of having to input the date and time every time I unplug them. Which is often right now, since I'm constantly swapping between them or opening them up to do something.