OG xbox is so underrated

[JPchicre]

It has some very mysterious, cool looking exclusives there, due to being so clunky to emulate, even that trashy and weird og Shrek Tie-in game intrigues me, being largely based on a early script of the movie. (supposedly pre Mike Myers)

 

[zavbaz]

It has some very mysterious, cool looking exclusives there, due to being so clunky to emulate, even that trashy and weird og Shrek Tie-in game intrigues me, being largely based on a early script of the movie. (supposedly pre Mike Myers)

OK - about THESE exclusives! It's not often spoken in polite company. Only gourmets. :)
Anyway I have serious doubts that anyone buy a console when was it relevant just for games of same sort.

 

[Ne0Griever]

Why is the OG Xbox so underrated.
View attachment 93547

Never was, what you might be trying to say is underappreciated, that is a fact.

 

[RETRO-VETRO RETRO-VETRO]

Never was, what you might be trying to say is underappreciated, that is a fact.

ok.

 

[qw90700]

Well my first-hand experience regarding the XBOX is it came relatively late to the video game scene when PS2 was so popular. Naturally first reaction people made was like "why XBOX was necessary so American released a console?" and "is it even better than PS2?".

Then XBOX started to have video games PS2 didn't have. It made people feel like "damn because of XBOX we cannot have the cool Star Wars games and Elder Scrolls Morrowind!!!". The exclusives XBOX had was annoying because it was a bad decision from customer point to not release the games on PS2 but instead release it on XBOX.

In my country back then internet culture wasn't a thing but video game magazine culture started to be a thing. These magazines was how people learned about XBOX and also how they learned XBOX was powerful than PS2 therefore developers had no choice but to release the game on XBOX because PS2 could not handle it.

This then, at least in customer level who are not Sony fanboi, made gamers understood that XBOX and PS2 are not in competition, it was like XBOX is "next gen console" here. Comparing both would be like comparing Sega Genesis and Playstation 1 at that point lol. So it made people understood XBOX is good so they bought XBOX. Even in my country XBOX was not rare or something people disliked. People were happy that they both have PS2 and XBOX. And then everyone lived happily ever after. FIN lolol.

However around internet today if PS2 has more popularity it's because of PS2 and its Japanese games are way more popular than what XBOX had. However XBOX has significant exlusives and all that PS2 cannot handle and they are very big deal games. Back then not having XBOX and PS2 was unnecessary hinderence to your gaming experience even if you have a PC and some PC games were on XBOX and PS2.

XBOX was way powerful and loved so much it made some people skip buying PS3 and instead buy XBOX 360. In my country XBOX 360 was way popular than PS3 and even Metal Gear Solid 4 didn't help about PS3 popularity here lol. From the start people accepted "Sony is rubbish" so they believed PS3 is just a weak console compared to XBOX 360.

 

[Evil Pope]

Why is the OG Xbox so underrated.
View attachment 93547

i love outrun on this console

 

[moonbits]

Because people thought it only had Halo and then, many years later they actually found out it had a great lineup of games from all over the world and some powerhouse exclusives like Ninja Gaiden.

Playstation loosers twisting the narrative. "It only has Halo lol xD!!!" "no jRPGS Dx" "CONTROLLler so big!~!1" "only for dued bR0S" these fuckers were relentless in 2003 - 2006

 

[qw90700]

Because people thought it only had Halo and then, many years later they actually found out it had a great lineup of games from all over the world and some powerhouse exclusives like Ninja Gaiden.

I guess this is what people born in "internet is so popular even my oven need internet to work" era who never read a video game magazine in their life before would believe lolol. Video game magazines were very objective so they equally listed which XBOX games releases as much as PS2 ones so facts speaks for themselves that "if you are a gamer then better buy XBOX and PS2". It also make me think how popular games back then became "so rare" niche "hidden gems" these years because who thinks so are the Fortnite generation lolol. There is no way you wouldn't know about these games if you had read video game magazines back then, so reading the magazines there is no way you would think XBOX is "bad" and "lacks decent games" as long as you ain't Sony fan boi lol.

 

[moonbits]

I read many many, even had subscriptions to them, your assumption is wrong.

 

[SherionVane]

um...

 

[Ferik]

Then XBOX started to have video games PS2 didn't have. It made people feel like "damn because of XBOX we cannot have the cool Star Wars games and Elder Scrolls Morrowind!!!". The exclusives XBOX had was annoying because it was a bad decision from customer point to not release the games on PS2 but instead release it on XBOX.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Morrowind's save files are larger than the PS2's memory card. Rather, KotOR's are always larger, Morrowind's can get larger over time. It wasn't a bad decision to not release them on PS2, it wasn't a decision at all because it was literally impossible given the way the games are designed.

Also, no, they wouldn't have been redesigned for PS2 even had the Xbox not existed. The games were designed for PC by PC development studios, and they treated the Xbox like a low end PC because it was functionally very similar. Had the Xbox not existed they simply would have come out as PC exclusives.

 

[qw90700]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Morrowind's save files are larger than the PS2's memory card. Rather, KotOR's are always larger, Morrowind's can get larger over time. It wasn't a bad decision to not release them on PS2, it wasn't a decision at all because it was literally impossible given the way the games are designed.

Also, no, they wouldn't have been redesigned for PS2 even had the Xbox not existed. The games were designed for PC by PC development studios, and they treated the Xbox like a low end PC because it was functionally very similar. Had the Xbox not existed they simply would have come out as PC exclusives.

Dude I mentioned it from an ordinary customer POV to make a point regarding the point of this thread lol and they wouldn't care how "impossible" it is, they would want these games to magically work on PS2 and spoiler alert!!!: They did lol.

 

[zavbaz]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Morrowind's save files are larger than the PS2's memory card. Rather, KotOR's are always larger, Morrowind's can get larger over time. It wasn't a bad decision to not release them on PS2, it wasn't a decision at all because it was literally impossible given the way the games are designed.

Also, no, they wouldn't have been redesigned for PS2 even had the Xbox not existed. The games were designed for PC by PC development studios, and they treated the Xbox like a low end PC because it was functionally very similar. Had the Xbox not existed they simply would have come out as PC exclusives.

PlayStation 2 had an official 40GB hard drive (HDD) as an optional peripheral. It was released alongside the Network Adaptor, and required it for connection and power. The HDD was not standard on all models and needed to be purchased separately. It could be used to speed up game loading times, install downloadable content, and back up save data. I suspect it was possible to implement games save files on it. But most likely, by that time when this games realized, there had already been a PS2 slim without a hard drive for a long time at market. However, it would also be possible to connect an external disk or USB flash drive to it via the available USB ports, Since the modders were able to do this unofficially trough software way, Sony and the game developers themselves could do it. The USB ports on the ps2 were slow speed, but it would have been enough to save files from MANY games.
Therefore, it seems to me that the reason is not at all in this, but in something else. As far as I know, the original Xbox is generally considered to have more powerful hardware than the PlayStation 2 (imho, it's too weak for the Morrowind and KOTOR graphics level). The PS2 also had little RAM, half as much as the Xbox. As I read, these games were originally created for PC (or simultaneously develop them as a multiplatform XBOX and PC) and it was much easier to "port" them to XBOX or from XBOX to Windows (Xbox system software Windows NT-based and have DirectX) than to port them to PS2, where there was a very tricky architecture.

 

[Graw]

And these were just a few of XBOX ONLY games

The majority of those were PC games first or ported to pc soon after. Only Otogi and Ninja Gaiden were Xbox only.

That was always my problem with the xbox, all of them, they seemed pointless when I already had a computer.

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

Still one of my fav controllers
I want to hold one again

 

[Bomberman]

Because people thought it only had Halo and then, many years later they actually found out it had a great lineup of games from all over the world and some powerhouse exclusives like Ninja Gaiden.

Playstation loosers twisting the narrative. "It only has Halo lol xD!!!" "no jRPGS Dx" "CONTROLLler so big!~!1" "only for dued bR0S" these fuckers were relentless in 2003 - 2006

I grew up with a PS2 but OG Xbox in retrospect was a beast.

Its a damn shame that RE4 was ported to PS2 instead of Xbox. The future ports would have benefited from RE4 having it's extra campaign designed for Xbox. Its a shame that so many great games got locked from Xbox because of how Ps2 was the default system (don't get me wrong I love Ps2 and its exclusives)

Imagine DMC3 on OG Xbox for instance. I prefer DMC3.

I did have a 360 instead of PS3 (didnt pick a ps3 up till 2013 after saving from my jobs).

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Truth be told, I didn't even know it existed until someone posted their GameCube and this thing was just to the right of it.

It kind of blew my mind.

 

[Morgana Veil]

The OG Xbox is a damn good system for what it is, and a emulation powerhouse to boot. I know not long after I bought mine, the first mods were coming out for it. It wasn't long until I had mine fully tricked out, playing SNES and so on games on it, movies, etc.. etc.. It was basically a upper low-spec PC, in all honesty.

And I will give props to Microsoft for giving the 360 such good security with the hypervisor, which is at the point of being completely softmod bypassed as we speak. Someone once said the Xbox 360 would never be able to be softmodded.

Never say never. Hell, if I remember right, like MVG (Modern Vintage Gamer) said, the Switch's security was defeated with a goddamn paperclip.

 

[Ferik]

The majority of those were PC games first or ported to pc soon after. Only Otogi and Ninja Gaiden were Xbox only.

That was always my problem with the xbox, all of them, they seemed pointless when I already had a computer.

Actually Kingdom Under Fire didn't get a PC port until 2020.

There were also plenty of other exclusives like Panzer Dragoon Orta, Breakdown, Forza, Gunvalkyrie, Blinx, Quantum Redshift, Phantom Dust, and others. That being said, yeah a huge part of the console's appeal was the fact that it was a game console that could play a lot of PC style games at $300 in 2001-2005. If you already had a modern $700+ PC build with a dedicated graphics card it didn't have nearly the value of a PS2 or Gamecube, but as an entryway into games from until then PC focussed studios it couldn't be beat on price or simplicity. Microsoft was actually selling the console at a huge loss even compared to most consoles in an attempt to keep pace with Sony.

 

[Graw]

There were also plenty of other exclusives like Panzer Dragoon Orta, Breakdown, Forza, Gunvalkyrie, Blinx, Quantum Redshift, Phantom Dust, and others. That being said, yeah a huge part of the console's appeal was the fact that it was a game console that could play a lot of PC style games at $300 in 2001-2005. If you already had a modern $700+ PC build with a dedicated graphics card it didn't have nearly the value of a PS2 or Gamecube, but as an entryway into games from until then PC focussed studios it couldn't be beat on price or simplicity. Microsoft was actually selling the console at a huge loss even compared to most consoles in an attempt to keep pace with Sony.

I was talking about the games mentioned in the post i responded to. I definitely did not have a $700+ PC back then. I had a PC I built out spare parts I managed to acquire as a teenager with little money and I played most of those games mentioned in that post on that PC. I built it in 2001 and I didn't get a newer computer until I bought a laptop in 2008 or something like that. I'm not sure where this $700+ PC was necessary to play games nonsense came from. I did eventually buy a dedicated video card for it but it was like $120 or something like that.

 

[Ferik]

I was talking about the games mentioned in the post i responded to. I definitely did not have a $700+ PC back then. I had a PC I built out spare parts I managed to acquire as a teenager with little money and I played most of those games mentioned in that post on that PC. I built it in 2001 and I didn't get a newer computer until I bought a laptop in 2008 or something like that. I'm not sure where this $700+ PC was necessary to play games nonsense came from. I did eventually buy a dedicated video card for it but it was like $120 or something like that.

I know you were referring to that post, that's why I mentioned Kingdom Under Fire coming to PC in 2020, I was just saying that the system did have quite a few exclusives. That being said, it's highly unlikely you built a computer out of "spare parts" in 2001 that could handle most of those games unless you had very rich friends/relatives that upgraded constantly. KotOR for example required a Pentium 3 of at least 1ghz circa roughly mid 2000 to run. Doom 3 needed a bleeding edge Tualatin Pentium 3 or a reasonable Pentium 4 around 1.5ghz, both of which came out in mid-late 2001, and a DirectX 9.0b compatible GPU from around 2002 (and honestly even that was stretch, you wanted more like a Radeon X800 XT), and Riddick was even more demanding than that. Basically every game on that list required at least Open GL 1.4 or DirectX 8.1 compatibility if not higher, both of which only started getting supported in graphics hardware around early 2001. The GeForce 2 from mid 2000 only went up to DirectX 7 and GL 1.2.

The only scenarios where playing those specific games on a PC from 2001 make any sense are spending at least twice the price of an Xbox on said computer, using config edits to play the games well below minimum spec with important shader features turned off meaning you were getting a far worse experience than the Xbox assuming you could get them to run at all, or getting the computer later on in like 2003-04 once prices on capable enough hardware had come down. You simply weren't going to run them on hardware from the mid or even late 90's. Even Morrowind, which admittedly will run on a potato of a CPU from like 97, still requires a DirectX 8.1 compatible graphics card from 2001.

So yes, a $700-ish PC was necessary in 2001. By 2004 you could get away with a $130 GPU and around $200 in other scraped together parts (which would be what I did). PC's were moving extremely fast back then, but the Xbox was an incredibly powerful device for the price point when it came out. Literally impossibly so. It cost them more to build than they sold it for.

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

I dont really think so, people usually recommend and even play with it.

I think the big issue is that it was the new guy that many people didnt know about and in some coutnries they just did put all that marketing or even marketing at all. For example, on my country I saw very few people playing Xbox, and even less Xbox on display. All was GameCube or PlayStation 2, but on other places like the US the marketing has HUGE, with even the media talking about it.

 

[Max]

even today people still loving this machine

 

[Xeno]

I'm surprised that it doesn't have an emulator that is as far along in development as Dolphin, PCSX2 and Flycast.

 

[Ferik]

I'm surprised that it doesn't have an emulator that is as far along in development as Dolphin, PCSX2 and Flycast.

There are several reasons why. One of the biggest is despite the hardware being broadly similar to a PC the way the GPU actually draws vertices to the screen and handles shaders isn't really the same as a PC and is difficult to emulate, and one of the sound processors is extremely powerful even by modern standards (which would be why Half-Life 2 has much better spacial audio on Xbox than even the current PC build for example)

It's also just very poorly documented. Microsoft doesn't even have the original source for a lot of it anymore, and while devkits and debug kits are available the earliest, and thus most revealing dev units have proven extremely difficult to track down in a complete working state.

Add on to this the fact that it's far less popular than the PS2, and doesn't have the powerhouse brand of exclusives Nintendo does, and it was simply going to lag behind those two basically no matter what.

That all being said Xemu has come quite a long way in the past few years, so it's getting there.