After careful consideration I have decided to transfer all hardware review activities to a new domain. I purchased Hardwareasylum.com in 2012 and have been working hard to build a new and improved Ninjalane on that domain. If you are reading this you have reached one of the archived articles, news, projects and/or reviews that were left behind during the site migration.

Please update your bookmarks and be sure to visit the new and improved Ninjalane at Hardwareasylum.com

Xbox Gaming Goodness

Author: Dennis Garcia

Published: Thursday, November 15, 2001

Introduction

I was never a huge console gamer though strangely enough I have played many console systems over the years, Atari 2600, Sega Genesis, Saturn, and Dreamcast, I have even bounced a few on the original Pong system. We all know that in the early days electronic gaming was played on the family TV. Then as PC's and Mac's became more powerful gaming expanded to include these platforms as well, Graphics where better, games where more advanced, and everyone was happy. Well my dislike of the game console has changed with the introduction of the xbox. In a way I feel like Cartman (thinner of course) when I say "I have an xbox, who wants to touch me?.... I said, who wants to fscking touch me!?!" Seriously, not since the Atari 2600 have I ever lost track of time playing a console gaming system, this thing is amazing.

Now I'm not going to take the xbox apart and show you what makes up a console PC. That has been overdone already. Rather I'm just going to show you some photos of the xbox console, mention a few games that we got, and show off one of the alternative controllers that we've found for those of you with smaller hands, and wrap it up with some 53" gaming goodness. Short, sweet, and too the point.

Xbox System

Here is the heart of the xbox system, the console CPU. Inside there is a Pentium3 733MHz, Nvidia nForce chipset and 64MB of DDR ram. The nice thing about this console is 5.1ch sound, support for many TV formats including HDTV, and a single RJ45 for use with Broadband. You can also play DVD's out of this thing but unless you are without DVD player I'd save your money and hold off on buying the remote.

By default the xbox only comes with one controller so instead of buying the larger xbox one we opted to save some bux and pick up the smaller trick version. The handles on the trick controller are a little on the square side, but for those of you with smaller hands (women, kids esp.) it works out just fine. Plus you get a "macro" button that you can program with your favorite moves.

Xbox Controllers - Standard an

Here are some up close shots of the xbox and trick game pad controllers.

To wrap things up here is a shot of the entertainment center. You will have to pardon the shoddy photo the "media" room is a little on the dark side. Here you can see part of the Bose sound system and big screen TV. The red things are to keep the rabbits out from behind the TV, in case you where wondering.

Well this concludes the overview of the xbox. Below are some cool links and my recommended list of games not to be without.

http://www.xbox.com/default.htm
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/filters/0,10850,6019665,00.html

-= Game List =-
Project Gotham Racing
Halo
Dead or Alive 3

Of course everyone has different tastes when it comes to games so make up your own mind. These are just a few of games that I have played and feel good about recommending.