Is the original X-Box worth it?

Post by **GagaMan** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:37 am

Or, should I say "is it worth keeping one", seeing as I just got one today for £20 at a boot sale. GAH, I've got to stop buying consoles, that's 3 in one month! It came with Soul Calibur II, Burnout 2, two pretty crappy controllers (one has a dead down d-pad button, the other doesn't work at all) a DVD remote, and a rather funky paint j...wait, sticker job that makes it look crazy taxi themed (I'm gonna call it my Crazy Tax-Box! =D). I also found the Jet Set Radio/Sega GT pack in disc for a quid, so I'm happy.

Not to sound like everyone else on the internet but blimey, THE XBOX IS HUEG!!1!

Ahem...It's way too big, I just barely managed to fit it into my console area of my room. It's bloody heavy too. What excatly have they filled this thing with? Does it have a hidden 3 CD changer? The PS2 slim looks like a mouse next to this elephant.

Still, I've been looking about for games, and when you cut out the games that you can't get on the PS2 and the Gamecube there's...err...not a lot there. In fact, it almost sems like a over-weight twin brother of the PS2 when it comes to games, with the exception of a few exclusives, mainly from American companines and Sega. There doesn't seem to be that many, though, not enough to warrant the space it's taking up.

So other than:
A bunch of exclusive Sega stuff, some Dead or Alives, the odd exclusive like Stubbs the Zombie and Forza, what is there that I can't get elsewhere? And dont rattle off some fantasy bore fests and FPSers because I'm not intersted in those. Any other reasons I should keep it?

Post by **nightwalker** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:45 am

Well if you want emulation thru a console everybody here knows the xbox is the best "console" for emulation. Well if you want to consider it a console but the xbox is a very old pc inside that black box. And besides keeping it for games if you have or are thinking of buying a 360 they are making decent improvements with the compatibility list.
Besides that you can always use it as a parking break for your car!!

Post by **GagaMan** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:51 am

The 360 is currently on my No-no list because it's beyond £200, and I never like to may more than that for a console. So is emulation on the X-Box a mod chip job or is there another way around it?

Post by **NebachadnezzaR** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:57 am

Mod it and you have yourself both the best console for emulation and an awesome media player.

You have 2 ways to mod it: mod chip and softmod. There's a topic somewhere around here with everything you need to know, search for it.

If you want to know which games are worth checking out, you'll find most in Racketboy's list of hidden gems:

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/microsof ... games.html

There's obvious choices, hidden gems and more great games in there, so you should find all the games that deserve to be played.

Post by **fastbilly1** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 10:05 am

Your elephant and mouse comment made me think of the Girl and Elephant puppetry street play:

Post by **roushimsx** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 10:13 am

GagaMan wrote:The 360 is currently on my No-no list because it's beyond £200, and I never like to may more than that for a console. So is emulation on the X-Box a mod chip job or is there another way around it?

You can just load up an exploited save for Splinter Cell and within a few minutes, you'll have a completely (soft)modded Xbox. Not sure if the Mech Assault or Agent Under Fire exploits work for PAL regions, but I do know that there's a PAL version of the Splinter Cell exploit.

There's actually quite a few excellent Xbox exclusive games out there. Just some quickies (not completely sure about PAL releases here, so don't kill me if I something is NTSC only):

Breakdown - Japanese FPS that focuses on complete immersion and emphasizes hand to hand combat over gunplay. Play it on easy because on normal it gets really fucking hard towards the end. Really, really fucking hard.
Chronicles of Riddick - European FPS that serves as a prequel to Pitch Black and manages to be one of the greatest first person shooters yet made. Also on PC.
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge - Actiony flight combat game with a bit of exploration. Based on a pen and paper game and surprisingly well done. I still prefer the PC Crimson Skies, but both are great.
Deathrow - Futuristic sports combat. If you enjoyed Speedball 2 at all, you will like Deathrow. The only thing missing was Xbox Live play

Enclave - Hack n slash from Starbreeze Studios (Chronicles of Riddick). Also on PC.
Ghost Recon 2 (and Summit Strike) - Sadly, only the Xbox got the good Ghost Recon 2 (2011) from Ubisoft Montreal. Gamecube and PS2 got fucked over with the shitty Ghost Recon 2 (2007) from Ubisoft Shanghai.
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath - Mix of third person and first person action in a strange (odd!) western/fantasy-ish world.
Operation Flashpoint Elite - Reimaging of the PC game with a new engine, enhanced graphics, and reworked campaign. Downfall is that the framerate takes a beating.
Sid Meier's Pirates! - Crack cocaine. Sail around the Caribbean and live the pirate life. So much more awesome and addictive than you'd think, though Pirates Gold is a bit better overall. (ok, PSP and PC also)
Star Wars Republic Commando - It feels a lot like Halo 2...if Halo 2 had bothered to include a single player campaign that didn't suck.
Tron 2.0 - One of the most underrated first person shooters released in the last 5 years (from Monolith, makers of No One Lives Forever, FEAR, and Alien vs Predator 2...among others). Xbox port has some screen tearing issues, but otherwise it's a great way to get to experience a badass game.
Unreal Championship 2 - Successfully merges and balances hand to hand and ranged combat in a deathmatch package. Surprisingly easy to pick up and play with gameplay that would not transition well to a PC.

For a nice, PAL-centric focus on Xbox goodies (well, cult classics anyway), check out this Eurogamer article.

Post by **philipofmacedon** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 10:52 am

There are several reasons that your Xbox is a great system to hold onto.

1. Generally the Xbox versions of multiplatform games are the best of the three.

2. If you mod it there are some great benefits. Emulators of a great many systems. Also you can install a bigger hard drive and backup your games right to the hard drive. It saves on load times and saves the life of your laser.

3. There are many fine games to be found. While I enjoyed the Halos there are still lots of other gems. Ninja Gaiden Black, Otogi 1-2, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Pirates! (which amazingly managed to capture some of the original's magic and also is the bane of my productivity), these alone are good reasons to hold onto your xbox.

BTW great article roushimsx. I've never heard of some of these games and they look worth checking out.

Post by **GagaMan** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 12:04 pm

roushimsx wrote:
GagaMan wrote:The 360 is currently on my No-no list because it's beyond £200, and I never like to may more than that for a console. So is emulation on the X-Box a mod chip job or is there another way around it?
You can just load up an exploited save for Splinter Cell and within a few minutes, you'll have a completely (soft)modded Xbox. Not sure if the Mech Assault or Agent Under Fire exploits work for PAL regions, but I do know that there's a PAL version of the Splinter Cell exploit.

Ooh, nice. Any idea how I would go about getting this exploit, and even more importantly, how to get it onto the Xbox?

Something odd I noticed: I can play American DVDs on it as well as PAL ones. Is it supposed to be multi region? Not that I'm complaining..

Post by **NebachadnezzaR** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 12:43 pm

GagaMan wrote: Ooh, nice. Any idea how I would go about getting this exploit, and even more importantly, how to get it onto the Xbox?

Something odd I noticed: I can play American DVDs on it as well as PAL ones. Is it supposed to be multi region? Not that I'm complaining..

Here's the topic I told you about:

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=170

The whole process of softmodding is explained there.

Post by **roushimsx** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:32 pm

GagaMan wrote: Ooh, nice. Any idea how I would go about getting this exploit, and even more importantly, how to get it onto the Xbox?

There's an awesome, easy to follow, and reasonably clean looking wiki run by Waffle Zone that I strongly recommend. Remember: always have a backup of your eeprom. It can never be said it enough times. Whenever I softmod a buddy's xbox, I always make a backup of his eeprom for him just in case and then I'll also burn off a restoration disc in case anything really gets borked.