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The Original XBOX is still AWESOME in 2021

Fermbiz

Gold Member
Thanks for sharing, most definitely going to watch!

I haven't done any homebrewing on the Xbox OG. But i recently took it out and did some emergency surgery to take out the capacitor that can render it completely useless.

I never played the Xbox OG on an HDTV back then. So i connected it via component cables and played Dragon's Lair 3d at 1080p. I was blown away at how well it ran the game.

I recorded the game at 720p but I assure you it was at 1080p.

 

kiphalfton

Member
I don't agree with the "large storage" comment. IIRC, it only had an 8GB hard drive? I had to up mine to 250GB for it to really get the most out of it.

Otherwise, yeah it is a great emulator box.
 

killatopak

Gold Member
I still have mine displayed under my tv,

Problem is I only have the unit. The power cable, component cables and the controller have long been thrown out.
 

Naked Lunch

Member
OG Xbox is basically a Dreamcast 2. So much Sega goodness.
For me, its a permanent Outrun 2 player.

You cant go wrong with Jet Set Future, Orta, Otogi 1+2, DaiSenryaku VII, Fatal Frame I+II, the Dead Or Alive offerings, Phantom Dust, and the original (and best) Red Dead Revolver (not Redemption).

Back in 2001-2002, I was an xbox doubter and hater - until I saw how many Capcom and SNK fighting games were on the system - and they were online. A first for consoles. It was a dream come true playing Street Fighter III + Capcom vs SNK 2 online back then. My mindset back then did not think 2D Capcom fighting games were gonna be on an American made console, and online no less.

There's a company out there that makes a high quality HDMI adapter for the system - no modding needed. Chimeric Systems.
 
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TwiztidElf

Member
I finally got around to ripping out the capacitor a couple of weeks ago.
PGR1, 2, and JSRF are amazing still.
Links 2004 is still the best golf game ever made.
 

MrTroubleMaker

Gold Member
I still have my launch xbox, I modded it years ago. Also got one when they were discontinued, I haven't modded that one. One of these days I will get back to messing around with them.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
8gb was a shit ton, because originally it was only for saves. No memorycard needed and you would never fill it up.

Xbox is great. This system was clearly ahead of PS2 and GC graphically speaking. DoA3 looked incredible at the time. The games were very sound.

Fond memories:

-I won the Xbox via something, wasn't planning to get it otherwise. Bought DoA3, PGR and borrowed a few games like Munch and RalliSport.
-Playing PGR non stop. It was brilliant, 60fps and in my opinion the best game in the series.
-Buying JSRF, GunValkyrie because I'm a sega fan. Also bought a very cheap copy of Sega GT. Which looked spectacular.
-PD Orta released. Another Sega gem. This stuff didn't sell. Blasphemy.
-Playing DoAX against a friend. He was totally in awe of the DoA girls and we also played 3.
-Constantly rewatching Ninja Gaiden trailers, not believing it was actual in game.
-buying Tony Hawk 4, hating it, refunding it and bought TH3 for a tenner. TH3 on Xbox was the fucking best TH I have ever played. Best deal ever.
-Playing Soul Calibur 2 against a group of friends for nights straight. Xbox version was the first one I had.
-Halo. I'm not a big fan but before Halo I don't think I ever really enjoyed an FPS on console, had no N64. This game was revolutionary.

When I modded the Xbox, it went downhill. At first it was awesome to put MAME etc on it but its become sort of saturated.
 

HE1NZ

Banned
The original Xbox is awesome to be sure, but I don't really want to use for homebrew. After all it's a 20 y.o. system (and has a crap controller).
 
8gb was a shit ton, because originally it was only for saves. No memorycard needed and you would never fill it up.

Xbox is great. This system was clearly ahead of PS2 and GC graphically speaking. DoA3 looked incredible at the time. The games were very sound.

Fond memories:

-I won the Xbox via something, wasn't planning to get it otherwise. Bought DoA3, PGR and borrowed a few games like Munch and RalliSport.
-Playing PGR non stop. It was brilliant, 60fps and in my opinion the best game in the series.
-Buying JSRF, GunValkyrie because I'm a sega fan. Also bought a very cheap copy of Sega GT. Which looked spectacular.
-PD Orta released. Another Sega gem. This stuff didn't sell. Blasphemy.
-Playing DoAX against a friend. He was totally in awe of the DoA girls and we also played 3.
-Constantly rewatching Ninja Gaiden trailers, not believing it was actual in game.
-buying Tony Hawk 4, hating it, refunding it and bought TH3 for a tenner. TH3 on Xbox was the fucking best TH I have ever played. Best deal ever.
-Playing Soul Calibur 2 against a group of friends for nights straight. Xbox version was the first one I had.
-Halo. I'm not a big fan but before Halo I don't think I ever really enjoyed an FPS on console, had no N64. This game was revolutionary.

When I modded the Xbox, it went downhill. At first it was awesome to put MAME etc on it but its become sort of saturated.
Spot on
 
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Trimesh

Banned
I'm so scared about taking the capacitor out. Is it a difficult job?
If you have a temperature controlled soldering iron or a vacuum desoldering tool it's easy - it's a bit more challenging if you're using a low-power soldering iron.

Also note that if your Xbox has one of the yellow Nichicon EDLCs you don't need to remove it - it's only the black Cooper caps that are the problem.
 

kiphalfton

Member
If you compare to any machine of that time, it is the only one that had internal storage out of the box.

Ah, you're are so totally right.

I hated the need for memory cards, as I only ever had enough money for the console, and maybe one game (since I was in my teens, I had to save up my allowance my parents gave me for doing chores, so generally it took a couple months to save up $40-$50).
 

Romulus

Member
I have mine modded with every original xbox game and dozens of emulators. Love playing 4 player splitscreen couch coop with all those old consoles.

And to top it off, it was the only console I've ever seen that felt like a near generational leap over the competition graphically.
 
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S

Sidney Prescott

Unconfirmed Member
That original Xbox start-up
QONVIyz.gif


 

cireza

Member
Lack of 240p is the big issue here. Awesome console otherwise. I have one (modded) with a lot of stuff and Sega Saturn controller adapter.
 
Design wise, yes
Tech side...
Eh? It had more hardware performance and forward-thinking GPU features than either PS2 or even the Gamecube, plus built-in HDD, built-in broadband ethernet, MP3 music rip functionality, etc. Tech-wise and library-wise it's clearly a fantastic system.

One of the few drawbacks tbh was needing to buy a $30 remote to unlock DVD playback functionality. Must've been MS's way of not needing to pay the license fee with each system and throw that into the remote instead. Rather clever in hindsight but it's something you could've only gotten away with back in the early 2000s (when DVD playback was not a feature expected to be standard with a games console).
 

Havoc2049

Member
OG Xbox is basically a Dreamcast 2. So much Sega goodness.
For me, its a permanent Outrun 2 player.
So true. In the span of approximately 13 months; Gunvalkyrie, Shenmue II, The House of the Dead 3, Crazy Taxi 3, Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Sega GT 2002 and Phantasy Star Online Ep. I & II all released.
 
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dan76

Member
I play my modded Xbox all the time. It's a constant. Other consoles come and go but it's always under the tv. I've got a 500gb hd with coinops8 and a ton of original games. Played through Tron 2.0 over Christmas and just started Timesplitters 2. As others have posted it's a great machine for Sega with both Outruns getting fantastic ports, JSRF and Orta.

I've been dipping back into Silent Scope Complete, pretty great even with a controller and I'm looking for games that past me by at the time. Never played Red Dead, might give it a go. Also been enjoying SNK vs Capcom Chaos.
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
I donated my modded Xbox to the grad student lounge after I finished grad school. It was such a great late night emulation machine. Also the older Burnout games were great as was XBMC. The fact that I couldn't run XBMC on any consoles after that pushed me towards hooking a PC up to my TV. PC is the best console, but back in the Xbox days, hooking one up to a TV was a challenge.
 
8gb was a shit ton, because originally it was only for saves. No memorycard needed and you would never fill it up.

Xbox is great. This system was clearly ahead of PS2 and GC graphically speaking. DoA3 looked incredible at the time. The games were very sound.
It depends on the game and genre, but Gamecube had plenty of games that looked better than Xbox stuff. Xbox had a more advanced, higher clocked gpu but it lacked eDRAM which meant it could choke on a lot of transparencies and couldn't use framebuffer tricks like the cube which could net it cost free reflections and the like. Its processor was better as well, but the gap isn't as big as it seems due to GC's lower latency.

GC and Xbox are in the same class, Ps2 one below overall though it had advantages as well. Ps2 was by far the most flexible with polygons, and could throw tons of alpha effects at the screen and not break a sweat.

I would say Xbox showed its chops on fighters and racers esp., as you said DoA3 was insane, Soulcal 2 at 720p likewise. Of course cube got a great version of that as well, but it was 480p. Ps2 version sucked. Rallisport challenge 2 looks leagues ahead of any realistic racer on ps2 or GC. Panzer dragoon orta is a work of art. Conker live and reloaded had insane detail. etc. etc.
 
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Anyways, I posted this in another thread but might as well ask here too.

I want to buy an OG xbox and I heard model 1.1 is the best version. I want to put all my roms (games I own) on it and not use the disc drive. I have a 360 for some of my games but the BC quality varies...

I know that model 1.6 doesn't have the leaky capacitor issue, but as mentioned above has problems with 480p so I will avoid that one.

Is there any reason not to go with a model between 1.2 and 1.5 considering I only want to put OG Xbox roms on it and not emulate or upgrade ram? Obviously I have to upgrade the HDD though.
 

Krathoon

Member
I just fired up my 2001 Xbox. It still works. I guess the capacitor has not ruined the board.

I used this adapter that changes the video to hdmi.

I wish I could get someone to replace the capacitor.
 

Krathoon

Member
It had a Fatal Frame 2 disc in the drive. I loaded up a save. The hard drive still works.

I got out my "Duke" controller.
 
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Krathoon

Member
I there a way to transfer saves between Xboxes? I was thinking about swapping the 2001 one with the 2004 one.

Really, I haven't played it in so long that I might as well start over on the games.
 
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Ceadeus

Member
The clock capacitor on the motherboard is prone to leaking. I've been meaning to replace the capacitors on mine but I haven't gotten around to it.
Ok! It makes me a little paranoid, maybe I should open mine? It's plugged right now and working fine but I suppose you can't notice until you crack it open right?
 

Havoc2049

Member
I there a way to transfer saves between Xboxes? I was thinking about swapping the 2001 one with the 2004 one.

Really, I haven't played it in so long that I might as well start over on the games.
For most games you can use an Xbox memory card. Some games can't be transfered though.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Let me guess, Call of Duty and Halo play fine in the real world.....

unimpressed morgan freeman GIF
Call of Duty in OG Xbox? Writing a template answer for drive by trolling only makes you look more dumb CitizenX CitizenX . Also you clearly gave enough shit to click and reply.
 
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Trimesh

Banned
What are the caps?

There is a supercapacitor that runs the real-time clock for a short time when the console is unplugged. Unfortunately, the part used on all but the final production xboxes has a tendency to leak corrosive electrolyte which can damage the board - in some cases to the point of rendering it inoperable.
 

Ceadeus

Member
There is a supercapacitor that runs the real-time clock for a short time when the console is unplugged. Unfortunately, the part used on all but the final production xboxes has a tendency to leak corrosive electrolyte which can damage the board - in some cases to the point of rendering it inoperable.
Well! I might be in luck, I believe mine is one of the latest bundle. It uses the latest DVD drive so I suppose it's correct?
 
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