When Your XBox Smokes, Its Time to Go Buy an XBox 360
I estimate its almost exactly 5 years today that I bought my original XBox from the Wal-Mart in Kirksville while I was still in college, and the next day I went to work at the local Hastings and used my discount to buy a copy of World Series Baseball 2k3. Cut to 5 today I have played that game for 5 straight years and have amassed a overall record of 729-249 with 11 playoff appearances and 9 Championships all over 12 seasons (for a shortened 82 games a season) most of which on the “Expert” level.
Yeah, I like this game…a lot…and yes, I’ve tried almost every baseball game out since and none are as solid as this one.
With those stats in your head, you can imagine how sad I was when I sat down today to play the last few games of my 12th regular season and saw a wisp of smoke float out of my trusty XBox controller followed by that familiar smell of burning electronics. I looked for the source on my controller and then noticed that when I bent the cable you could clearly see sparks shooting out of a hole in the cable (see photo below). I’m no electrical engineer, but thats probably not good.
I know its just the controller and I do have a spare (though I hate it) but to me, this seems like a sign that after five straight years of use, its time for me to move on. I’ve been thinking about getting a 360 quite a bit lately anyway, and this might be the last straw.
I’m leaning hard about getting the $349 version with the 20 gb hard drive, the headset and such.
Any current 360 owners have thoughts on:
- How well Connect360 works so I can play content from my Macs on there?
- Any good baseball games?
- Is there any chance I can move my saved baseball game to the new XBox?
- What are the best shoot-em games?
I’m sad to see my XBox get old, but at least this way I can get Rock Band!
Xbox 360 Ups the Ante For Xbox Hacking
Remember when I said I would only buy a Xbox 360 when its officially hacked? Well it seems that task is going to be a infinitely more difficult that hacking the original Xbox was. Engadget has compiled a quick list of the road blocks in the way to a hacked 360.
- The flash is encrypted with a per-box key
- The key is stored inside the CPU
- The boot ROM is stored inside the CPU
- Also inside the CPU is a hypervisor that verifies the running state of the kernel, making sure there is no modification (RAM checksums), else the Xbox 360 panics and blows up!
The CPU contains RAM inside of it to store the checksums- All interrupt/exception handling is done by the hypervisor
- All code runs in kernel mode
- The emulator for first generation games can be updated via an official Microsoft download burned to CD by the user, though the CDs’ content will be encrypted and signed with public key cryptography.
- The boot ROM is stored inside the CPU.
Yikes. Anyone think Microsoft is using the 360 as a test run for their “Trusted Computing”? I guess they figured they would throw it all in the 360, and if all the geniuses out there working day and night out of their parent’s basements can’t beat it, then its golden (for now)…and if they can beat it, then they move on the 2.0 for the next try.
Either way, I’m thinking that I won’t be parting with my money for the joy of a new Xbox 360 anytime soon.
The Xbox 360 Is Released, and the World Wets Itself
I know I’m a little late to the “Lets Write Something About the Xbox 360 Party” but I figured I would chime in anyway.
Has anyone noticed the complete insanity over these things? There are guys that would beat and pee on an orphan just to get one! Of course, that is insane…why should you get a Xbox 360 for doing something you love doing every Wednesday?! Thats besides the point though. The real deal is this: Yes, the 360 is cool, and sure its faster, but at this moment, what else is there? What else is there that is better than my current Xbox that would justify me losing my mind and paying some schmuck on E-Bay $1,625.00 for one?