Look what I found in the trash– seriously, someone was just throwing it away:
A perfectly good, original Microsoft Xbox, complete with an original massive controller. At least, I assumed that it was working. It didn’t have a power cable or A/V connector. But a quick browse at Amazon and US$10 remedied that problem and I was able to certify that it works fine.
I’ve never owned or really even played any Xbox stuff (1st gen or 360). But I’m free to accumulate games now (as long as they’re free or sufficiently cheap, as per my policy). The only Xbox disc I had handy for testing was a demo disc that came with an Xbox magazine I bought many years ago, when I was just studying random optical media for fun.
The stories of the gargantuan original Xbox controller certainly were no exaggeration. I’m ordering up one of the smaller ones ASAP. The Xbox console itself is quite the beast as well– I fear I’ll hurt my back just carting it about.
Jim Leonard says:
You might want to spend a weekend modding it — an original xbox with a hardware (chip) mod is incredibly useful. Mine runs XBMC and is used for playing odd digital file formats on my tv (the more modern formats get played with ps3 media player).
And, a modded xbox can dump games to the hard drive and play them from there, greatly reducing frustration and loading times.
Multimedia Mike says:
@Jim: Funny thing about this one is that, for all I know, it may already be modded. I can tell that it has already been opened — stickers on the bottom are punched through to reveal all 6 screws (been reading on the internet to learn how this works). Plus, it wasn’t put back together *quite* right (one corner sticks up).
Interfacing to an Xbox Optical Drive | Breaking Eggs And Making Omelettes says:
[…] The next generation Xbox is going to hit the streets soon. But for some reason, I’m still interested in the previous generation’s unit (i.e., the original Xbox). Specifically, I’ve always wondered if it’s possible to use the original Xbox’s optical drive in order to read Xbox discs from Linux. I was never curious enough to actually buy an Xbox just to find out but I eventually came across a cast-off console on a recycle pile. […]