Happy 20th Anniversary Xbox 360

To be honest, 

I'm not much of an Xbox Gamer.

I prefer PlayStation. Sorry but at least I admit it.

But I'm probably gonna get hounded if I don't give the PS Competitor it's birthday wishes.

But seeing as I did pay attention to the console and it's woes back in the mid to late 2000s as well as play on the various XBOXs owned by my friend, 

I'll give my own subjective view about the Console.

The XBOX 360.

Why is it so remembered by gamers?

Well it was the first entry to the 7th Generation of Video Game Consoles.

It was released on November 22 2005 so it had a head start compared to it's competitors as the PS3 was still in it's development phase though a controller prototype was unveiled.

and the Wii was still in active development back when it was still called REVOLUTION though we first got a glimpse of the Wii Remote back in E3 in May 2005.

But the XBOX 360 was a major deal back in 2005 because it was a glimpse at what today's modern Game Consoles can be capable of.

Not only was it a Console that plays games but it was also a Media Center device which not only plays games but also lets you browse the internet, Watch Videos through YouTube, Netflix, etc.

It also was a DVD Player too.(Though that would later be it's detriment.)

Even though not everyone had said TVs, the XBOX 360 was also the very first Game Console to use the 1080p HDTV standard for video... though that was for consoles released after 2007.

For many years until the beginning of the 2010s, this was the most common configuration for XBOX 360 owners

Eventually, people were able to realize the HDTV goodness of their XBOXs in the later years of the console's life.

Another thing that made the XBOX 360 so successful was the controller.

The aforementioned Xbox Game controller above is seen as a dramatic improvement over the previous two controllers from the Original Xbox.

The Duke Controller

The "S" Controller

Made for the HARDCORE GAMER in mind, 

The 360 Controller sought to combine the aspects of what made the PlayStation DualShock Controllers so good, 

And borrow from Nintendo's ANALOG TRIGGERS used in the GameCube,

Made for such a memorable controller,

That eventually PC Gaming made the XBOX Controllers the de facto Standard for Button Layouts to a point that many a third-party developer of PC Game Controllers also decide to borrow from the XBOX Controller in Controller design.

The XBOX 360 went through 3 different UIs in it's lifespan

First is Blades,

Second is NEW XBOX EXPERIENCE,

& Finally METRO 

I see people on the internet saying they prefer the original BLADES interface

but seeing as I never owned an XBOX, My preference is in a grey area.

And even when I did use my friend's XBOXs, by then, their 360s were already updated with the aforementioned later two versions.

Like I said, The XBOX 360 primarily uses DVD as it's Disc Medium.

So not only could you use the XBOX 360 as your DVD Player in the same vein as the PS2,

Original Xbox with the DVD Dongle,

and the Japan exclusive PANASONIC Q GameCube,

But the advantage of DVDs is that the XBOX can pack more info on the disc, especially with double the layers on the disc.

Though later on, XBOX took a gamble with HD-DVDs via an external player.

The 360 would later have it's share of additional accessories throughout it's lifespan.

Controller aside, there were things like:

A KEYBOARD for your controller

Steering Wheel & Pedals for your Racing Games

Flight Sticks for flying or fighter jet games

Headsets for trash talking to people ONLINE

The Infamous KINECT of all things

The list of Accessories is so large that listing them all in this blogpost would make long and dry.

 

Yes. Truly the XBOX 360 would have been the PERFECT CONSOLE for the gamer back in the mid-2000s.

And MICROSOFT would have gotten away with it if only if it weren't for those meddling kids at both SONY & NINTENDO pressuring the WINDOWS company to rush the release of their CONSOLE.

While the 2005 Launch of the XBOX was smooth sailing, it brought in a lot of problems.

And we can thank this RED LED PUKE below for reminding us of all the horrors that came about with this console.

The INFAMOUS RED RING OF DEATH was the BANE of every XBOX Owner's existence.

This thing lit up every time there's a problem with the console LEFT & RIGHT.

While I never owned an XBOX 360 during my childhood, I did hear about the RED RING fallout and Seen various YOUTUBE videos discussing the matter.

For example, There was this video made by TWEETERMAN287 that's long since removed where he fought with his XBOX 360 after it got the Red Ring of Death before he eventually sent it for repair.

So what was the cause of the RED RING OF DEATH?

Well we didn't know at the time due to issues like this often being kept in the dark from a lot of us but in the later years, we knew there was more to it than it met the eye.

We knew it was an OVERHEATING issue that caused the RED RING but what we didn't know until years later was that it was a RUSHED SOLDERING JOB regarding the GPU.

The XBOX 360's Graphics were supplied by the Canadian ATI TECHNOLOGIES who made the 500mhz ATI XENOS Chip that generated the game graphics for the console.

But the Soldering of the XENOS chip as I mentioned was rushed to meet the November 2005 deadline and as a result, the overheating caused the Solder Joints on the XENOS Chip to somehow disconnect from the Substrate Imposer which caused all these issues during the Power Cycling of the Console.

And if you were to blame it on 2005 Era MICROSOFT? 

DON'T!!!

The blame is primarily on the EUROPEAN UNION for forcing companies to follow strict guidelines on Electronic Manufacturing Regulations and MICROSOFT had to follow the rules or else they'd risk getting into a lot of trouble with the EU.

There were other Technical Problems with the Xbox 360 but we tend to focus only on the RED RING due to how prominent it was to our eyes.

Just imagine yourself in 2005.

You spend about US$300 or US$400 on this Console only for it to fail on you in less than a year.

Until we knew the truth in 2021 when the XBOX History documentary was released, a lot of us gamers were absolutely FURIOUS about this.

This problem could be viewed as MUCH WORSE than the...

The Lion King Storybook/COMPAQ PRESARIO WinG API Debacle of December 1994.

And back then, many gamers were rage filled & Arrogant

(And we still are today)

Here's the typical Gamer of 2005 reacting to these problems.

"FUCKERS!!!!

I ASKED FOR THE PERFECT GAME CONSOLE

AND NOW I'M READING ABOUT ALL THIS RED RING OF DEATH BULLSHIT!?

THIS IS TRASH!!!!! "

I just used that image of an Angry Earthbound Fan and typed that exaggerated dialogue just as an example of how demanding of PERFECTION us gamers are when it comes to console or computer manufacturing.

We don't care if the product needs refinement.

All we cared about is PERFECTION.

Also, the exaggerated dialogue from the above image was inspired by the clips used in the Documentary featuring Gamers RAGING over the Technical Problems.

Also my PERFECTION remarks were inspired by clips of SNOOP DOGG claiming the XBOX was less than perfect.... at least from the Documentary's perspective.

Like I said. I never owned an Xbox 360 as I had just my Wii & MDG HORIZON PC as my gaming fixes from between 2005 to 2011.

Though my father did own an XBOX 360 at one point but he never let me play with it.

I wonder why?

At least I had contact with a few friends who actually owned XBOX 360s that they let me play with though my memory is a bit fuzzy on what games I played on.

So yeah.

While I had much less experience with the XBOX 360 what with not owning one during my school years as well as being glad I didn't own one due to the hardware issues that would have pissed off my mother at the time due to Finances,

I understand the impact that the XBOX 360 had to offer as it was the first of it's kind in terms of HD Gaming as well as a Media Center for your TV before PlayStation played Catch Up 

and before Apple TV or ROKU made STANDALONE devices for Media Centers.

As for the 2021 XBOX Documentary, 

POWER ON: THE STORY OF XBOX is still available as highlighted next to this paragraph.

I highly recommend you check it out because it not only highlights the impact the XBOX brand has had to us gamers but it also is very informative about the Red Ring Controversy.