The legacy of the original Xbox - Pushing Rivals further and raising the standard

[Zeus]

Mercurynews held an interview with Kevin Bachus, one of the co-creator's of the original Xbox. As part of the interview, Bachus was asked to identify what he felt was the legacy of the original Xbox 1. He felt that the Xbox played a key role in raising the standard of the offerings from Sony and Nintendo and in turn helped nature the industry further.


Here’s a guest essay by Kevin Bachus, co-creator of the original Xbox and one of a handful of guys who got Microsoft serious about the console business. Bachus is most recently the former CEO of Nival Interactive, a Los Angeles video game developer with studios in Russia. Kevin’s purpose here is to start off a discussion on the legacy of the Xbox.

And a funny thing happened. Though we can never be sure what role Xbox might have played, we couldn’t help noticing that Sony and Nintendo suddenly started raising their game, becoming even more focused on developers, helping nuture the industry and ushering in a whole tidal wave of unbelievable games of their own.

And that, I believe, is the legacy of Xbox.


News Source: <A href="http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/05/guest_essay_kevin_bachus_talks_about_the_legacy_of _the_original_xbox.html" target="_blank">Mercurynews.com</a>

[kilodelta]

it also makes one kick-ass media center.

[mystic54]

He felt that the Xbox played a key role in raising the standard of the offerings from Sony and Nintendo and in turn helped nature the industry further.
Exactly, and even if you said the Xbox 1 sucked, you have got to argree with that one.

[{{909}}]

welcome to microsoft dreamworld. population : 1

[So-Unreal]

best media center!!! and
1st system that came with a hard drive.
1st to have game patches?

[Tempos]

welcome to microsoft dreamworld. population : 1

Do the moderators around MC actively encourage spam? Actually, after searching your posts it turns out you don't spam, sorry. Most posts around here seem to be from either 360 fans, gaming fans or the other crowd who answer to Sony as god and use terminology like Xbot and Microshaft. You seem to fall in the middle :cool:.

[Adopted]

defintely set the bar for homebrew, DC was nice, but come on look at Xbox1's Emus and that absolutely stellar XBMC

[SSChevy2001]

Greatest things about Xbox

HD Support 480p / 720p / 1080i
8-10GB Built-In Hard Drive
Built-In 10/100 NIC
4x USB Controller ports
Xbox LIVE
Xbox Media Center Extender

Other :cool: stuff
XBMC
Linux Support
Many Emulators
Many Homebrew Appz

[XxBigP123xX]

best media center!!! and
1st system that came with a hard drive.
1st to have game patches?
dreamcast was the first with patches.

[Adopted]

dreamcast was the first with patches.

what game had patches?

Best I could remember would be PSO but I dont remember any "patches" for it, other then v1 which was sorta a new retail game.

[{{909}}]

Do the moderators around MC actively encourage spam? Actually, after searching your posts it turns out you don't spam, sorry. Most posts around here seem to be from either 360 fans, gaming fans or the other crowd who answer to Sony as god and use terminology like Xbot and Microshaft. You seem to fall in the middle :cool:.


hehe, well atleast i didnt come off as a 'wiitard' as certain individuals claim i am :).

the reason i posted the short reply here was mainly because i thought such a ridiculous claim didnt deserve any further effort, but here goes anyway..

The only area that i think MS lead the way in last gen was Online,, but to say ninty or sony have followed their style would be far from the truth (unfortunatly). You could also say the xbox having a standard HDD was a market first and a good one at that, but on that level even MS failed to see their own good ideas and crippled the 360 without it, something i feel was a very big mistake.

In every other aspect the xbox was nothing more than we had seen before, and better on the ps2 90% of the time. The homebrew side of things is a different matter, hardy in MS' business plan afterall was it.

[{{909}}]

what game had patches?

Best I could remember would be PSO but I dont remember any "patches" for it, other then v1 which was sorta a new retail game.


No DC game had true patches, there was no way to apply them. MSR had bugs and a fixed version was released, but this was a new version of the game the same as PSO, not a patch, in this sense even the nes had patches.

[mystic54]

The only area that i think MS lead the way in last gen was Online,, but to say ninty or sony have followed their style would be far from the truth (unfortunatly). You could also say the xbox having a standard HDD was a market first and a good one at that, but on that level even MS failed to see their own good ideas and crippled the 360 without it, something i feel was a very big mistake.

I really agree with that. Just doesn't make sense that they would set a precedent then go back on it and actually hurt them.

[msanchez]

Personally didn't care for the xbox, and don't care for the 360 much either. Hardware wise I don't believe it brought anything WOW, simply natural evolutions of the previous specs, but definitely to me it's greatest contribution was the extra pressure it put on nintendo and sony to futher develop their consoles/games. When big companies fight, consumers win. There's probably no way I could be convinced that this isn't the case.

[Kenban]

Mercurynews held an interview with Kevin Bachus, one of the co-creator's of the original Xbox. As part of the interview, Bachus was asked to identify what he felt was the legacy of the original Xbox 1. He felt that the Xbox played a key role in raising the standard of the offerings from Sony and Nintendo and in turn helped nature the industry further.



News Source: <A href="http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/05/guest_essay_kevin_bachus_talks_about_the_legacy_of _the_original_xbox.html" target="_blank">Mercurynews.com</a>

Honestly I don't see it. He says "Though we can never be sure what role Xbox might have played, we couldn’t help noticing that Sony and Nintendo suddenly started raising their game, becoming even more focused on developers, helping nuture the industry and ushering in a whole tidal wave of unbelievable games of their own." The problem is Nintendo already started trying to take care of its developers better after the disaster that was the N64. I can't think of a single time Sony has tried to make a system easy to develop for or have I read any articles about Sony being helpful or providing good tools to developers. There were functions built into the PS2 that were not put into the libraries until around 2 or 3 years ago. To this day no game can take full advantage of the PSP hardware. This is not to say Nintendo is much better they are still working on the online functions for the Wii. Maybe it is something that you have to be in the industry to realize but I have not read anything that would even hint at this.

[Frak-Frakistan]

Exactly, and even if you said the Xbox 1 sucked, you have got to argree with that one.


are you all retards? youre telling me that the xbox1 set the bar in gaming and the ps2 had to follow it?

you must be out of your mind.I don't think this post can hold the number of ps2 games that raised that very bar.I shouldn't be even making this point.

The xbox 1 was huge,heavy and ugly as admitted by bill gates himself.
The 360 resembles it with its huge power supply and hddvd drive.


Greatest things about Xbox

HD Support 480p / 720p / 1080i
8-10GB Built-In Hard Drive
Built-In 10/100 NIC
4x USB Controller ports
Xbox LIVE
Xbox Media Center Extender


Now you xbox hypocrites/fanboys are telling us that so much stuff is built in.
So what abot "Microsoft gives us lame fanboys choice"

As did the ps2 with it's optional modem for free online gaming,it's optional HDD to boot games off,It's optional eyetoy and several other OPTIONAL stuff.

now don't make me get into the controller. yuckkkkkk

Now shutup and let me play god of war 2 and you play youre latest blockbuster release on the mighty xbox,oops forgot publishers have abandoned it.

[Adopted]

No DC game had true patches, there was no way to apply them...

Yeah thats what I thought too, but I shoulda considered the source of said claims.

:Rolleyes:

And whats this clown above me talkin bout? Even if you dont like the more comfortable analog stick layout, **** at least had a 10 ft cable w/ breakaway. Just to bad this hit at the end of the Corded controller era.

[msanchez]

...As did the ps2 with it's optional modem for free online gaming,it's optional HDD to boot games off,It's optional eyetoy and several other OPTIONAL stuff..

There's also a few games that do 1080i and various that do 480p.... not sure about 720p though.

[SSChevy2001]

There's also a few games that do 1080i and various that do 480p.... not sure about 720p though.Here's the list for 1080i and 720p. ( Of course all 1080i games ran 720p as well ). I might have missed some.

720p
25 to Life
Amped 2
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Crash Nitro Kart
Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure
ESPN Major League Baseball 2K4
ESPN NBA Basketball 2K4
Evil Dead: Regeneration
FIFA Soccer 2006
FIFA Street
FIFA Street 2
Freedom Fighters
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
Justice League Heroes
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
MVP Baseball 2004
MVP Baseball 2005
NBA 2K3
NBA Ballers
NBA Live 2006
Scarface: The World is Yours
The Sims: Bustin' Out
Soul Calibur II
Steel Battalion: Line of Contact
Street Hoops
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
Tony Hawk's Underground
Tony Hawk's Underground 2
Total Overdose
True Crime: Streets of L.A.
The Urbz: Sims In The City
Virtual Pool
The Warriors
World Series Baseball 2K4
X-Men Legends
X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse

1080i
Atari Anthology
Dragon's Lair 3D
Enter the Matrix
MX Unleashed
MX vs. ATV Unleashed
Syberia

[SSChevy2001]

Now you xbox hypocrites/fanboys are telling us that so much stuff is built in.
So what abot "Microsoft gives us lame fanboys choice"

As did the ps2 with it's optional modem for free online gaming,it's optional HDD to boot games off,It's optional eyetoy and several other OPTIONAL stuff.

now don't make me get into the controller. yuckkkkkk

Now shutup and let me play god of war 2 and you play youre latest blockbuster release on the mighty xbox,oops forgot publishers have abandoned it.What did Microsoft put in the xbox1 that wasn't as useless as the blu-ray drive that's in the PS3? F choice, I still hate the core 360. As said earlier MS set the bar with the built-in hard drive, and F that up with the core. Like I said before 2 steps forward one step back. The PS2 Hard Drive and NIC Card was a joke, Sony waited way to long to release it in the US, only to shorty after come out with the PS2 Slim which doesn't even support a HD. The xbox controllers were great. They had break away connection and were very long. Also they had 2 built in USB ports, not bad at all. You play your god of war 2, cause lord only knows when a real PS3 game will ever come out. As some else said in another thread.

PS3 = 4everDelayed Gaming

[gonepostl]

Wtf?
Everything on the Xbox was a port from the Ps2!?
Are you high!!!
Exactly, and even if you said the Xbox 1 sucked, you have got to argree with that one.
Says you....
K they brought Halo. Quick! Now name 5 other games! NOW QUICK! Run to an ebgames/gamestop and look at all the ports!

Your pointing success in the opposite direction my friend.
This is coming from a dude who owns 7 xbox's. I mean jesus christ!

[SSChevy2001]

Wtf?
Everything on the Xbox was a port from the Ps2!?
Are you high!!!

Says you....
K they brought Halo. Quick! Now name 5 other games! NOW QUICK! Run to an ebgames/gamestop and look at all the ports!

Your pointing success in the opposite direction my friend.
This is coming from a dude who owns 7 xbox's. I mean jesus christ!The point wasn't about the games being ported, if you read it. It was about how the xbox1 made thing easier for developers. This is still one of the biggest down falls of the PS3. How many times have we heard over and over again how hard the PS3 is to develope on?

[Scorpion3]

Wtf?
Everything on the Xbox was a port from the Ps2!?
Are you high!!!

Says you....
K they brought Halo. Quick! Now name 5 other games! NOW QUICK! Run to an ebgames/gamestop and look at all the ports!

Your pointing success in the opposite direction my friend.
This is coming from a dude who owns 7 xbox's. I mean jesus christ!

Otogi, MechAssault, Unreal Championship, Splinter Cell, Ninja Gaiden

I find it funny how many fanboys are in here saying "The Xbox 1 suckzorz!!! PWNED" or whatever else they think is funny or intelligent. Did it sell as many consoles as the PS2? No. Did it beat the PS2 in any way, yes. It may have not had the Quantity, but it did have quality exclusives. When looking at reviews, there were a ton of PS2 games that got ok reviews and several that had very good reviews. The Xbox got a lot of great reviews considering it didn't have a slew of games. So in a ratio sense, the Xbox had more good games than the PS2 did. But of course, in the eye of the beholder.

The xbox 1 was huge,heavy and ugly as admitted by bill gates himself.
The 360 resembles it with its huge power supply and hddvd drive.

Now you xbox hypocrites/fanboys are telling us that so much stuff is built in.
So what abot "Microsoft gives us lame fanboys choice"

As did the ps2 with it's optional modem for free online gaming,it's optional HDD to boot games off,It's optional eyetoy and several other OPTIONAL stuff.

now don't make me get into the controller. yuckkkkkk

Now shutup and let me play god of war 2 and you play youre latest blockbuster release on the mighty xbox,oops forgot publishers have abandoned it.

1. So is the PS3? That's a stupid excuse.
2. Power Supply is the only thing big about the 360, if it had the power supply inside it's case like the PS3 does, it'd be bigger on the inside. HD-DVD doesn't come with the 360, so that idea is out the window.
3. With every post you make, you sound like a huge fanboy. lol

Before you...yet again...call me a fanboy, I own 2 Xboxs. 1 for gaming and XBMC, another for a server.

[{{909}}]

although you do have a point scorpion, we are losing the value of the original post, sure the xbox did have a few exclusive games, but with the exception of 1 or 2, they would have appeared on the PS2/PC had there never been an xbox. It was only M$ cash that swayed the vote on those. There were games such as riddick, doom 3, HL2 that were only possible due to the HDD, but then as i said, MS failed to follow that themselves so you can hardly call it "raising of the bar"

For the original claim to hold any water we would need to see the new elements that MS bought to the table with the xbox appearing in subsequent generations of consoles, and to me, i dont see any.

At the time of the lauch of the xbox, it was classed as a joke, nobody bought it and it definetly had no impact on the already failing GC, what were the sudden changes in the PS2 that happened due to MS' presence?
The xbox 1 was in all essence a huge financial failure, had it been any other company they would have writen the whole thing off as a bad idea. MS' should admit to that instead of trying to make out it was some sort of landmark in games history.

[Red Striker]

OMG !
Microsoft's first computer that can plugged into the TV !
what a miracle !

no offense but its an American gaming console , so I'm not a fan...
I really think that japan > America at VGs.
Don't flame me for I haven't flames you.

[Tempos]

Everyone's missed the biggest feature the Xbox had, harddrive caching. Best console technology in a long time.

[Scorpion3]

OMG !
Microsoft's first computer that can plugged into the TV !
what a miracle !

no offense but its an American gaming console , so I'm not a fan...
I really think that japan > America at VGs.
Don't flame me for I haven't flames you.

The first gaming console ever made was made in America. Just letting you know that it wasn't until the 3'rd generation of gaming that Japan stepped in.

Everyone's missed the biggest feature the Xbox had, harddrive caching. Best console technology in a long time.

Exactly, which made games able to load faster when looking better than other consoles. GTA is a prime example of this.

[msanchez]

Even if the ps3 or the wii don't show obvious signs of any improvements brought upon by the xbox, I still believe that the more competition the better. Saying that the xbox had land mark games, or hardware features is in my eyes a bit of a stretch. I'll give them points for "adapting" the pc's online functionality to a video gaming console, and even that you can say that it was first done by the Super Famicon and Dreamcast. As I said, hardware wise the xbox is simply the natural evolution of what was currently available at the time. Better cpu, better gpu, better memory etc, etc, but any claims that ms invented something I really can't agree with.

[Evolution]

The Wii blows this guys viewpoint out of the water. Its not raised the bar in anyway except with the controller and Nintendo have always had innovation on their controllers from the NES onwards.

However, graphically, storage wise and power wise it is the antithesis of what this guy is claiming because it does nothing innovative at all yet it continues to sell in huge numbers.

So how do we explain that one? Luck?

[Tempos]

However, graphically, storage wise and power wise it is the antithesis of what this guy is claiming because it does nothing innovative at all yet it continues to sell in huge numbers.

The Wii is the new ipod, it doesn't interest those who previously love(d) music/gaming quite so much, but has kickass marketing and word of mouth behind it. I honestly don't understand why a serious gamer would buy a console with no good online component. Most of my fun these days is from multiplayer, the Wii is ok as a party console but then when you mix alcohol, everything is fun.

Personally I dislike the bassless sound produced by ipods and the equalizer settings leave a lot to be desired, as does the battery life. I may appear to be anti-playstation in some posts but I do buy Sony products when I believe they're among the best on the market. I love my new Sony portable mp3 player; the UI isn't great but the sound quality, ooooh it's so lovely :D, and ~50 hours battery from 128kbit atrac3plus, good stuff - it even lasts long with my lame -v1--new encodes. The NW series were great players (had to return mine for an ipod because of faulty battery :() yet the ipod outsold them and every other product like crazy.