Big black Xbox makes Time's list of top Microsoft moments

by Dustin Burg { Nov 12th 2008 at 4:30PM }

Oh yes, the original Xbox in all its VCR-looking glory. She was a big beast, solid like a rock and had a controller (a Duke controller) that doubled as a serving tray. Yes, the launch of the original Xbox was a milestone for Microsoft and an important enough event to warrant its place at #8 in Time's list of Top Ten Microsoft Moments.

Love it or hate it, the original Xbox was a necessary step for us to have our pride and joy, the Xbox 360. So, let's take this Time sponsored opportunity to reminisce about the "glory" days. We ask, what are your memories of the original Xbox and do you miss the big guy?

[Via Joystiq]

Tags: microsoft, time, xbox, xbox-360

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

JCFG @ Nov 12th 2008 4:34PM

I don't miss it. My hands were too small when the original xbox whent on sale, making me horrible at halo 1.

Latin Trident @ Nov 12th 2008 4:44PM

I think i dropped it off at an orphanage once I got the 360. Actually, I left it at my parents house for my little cousin to play with. I did like the controller... i always had a friend.

leftybrown @ Nov 12th 2008 4:44PM

I remember agonizing as to which console I was going to buy, but one Christmas I gifted myself with an original Xbox because it was going to take advantage of the new fangled cable modems to play games online.

And for the record, my wife still loves the Duke controller, and wish there was a version of it for her own Xbox 360.

-Leftybrown of The Married Gamers Podcast @ http://www.themarriedgamers.net/

Pudge @ Nov 12th 2008 4:44PM

I still have my Xbox 1 with XBMC and a 250GB HD. Best media center ever made. I still play Halo 1 with my buddies a lot too.

HalfAzn @ Nov 12th 2008 8:35PM

For sure, XBMC kicked every ass. Divx streaming FT(super)W!

My favorite was hooking it up to the dorm network and streaming off some dude who had 500gb of movies on his shared drive. haha

Duke @ Nov 13th 2008 10:34PM

Yeah, XBMC kicks ass. My kids have it in their room now. They have thousands of old school games at their fingertips and a ton of Xbox backups. But yeah I liked the Duke. I actually preferred that controller when playing Halo.

Johan @ Nov 12th 2008 4:48PM

Yeas... yeas, i miss The Duke. The Xbox big daddy!

One of the best things whit the first xbox... ninja gaiden 1. Great game, hard but oh so I loved it!

ObiBen @ Nov 12th 2008 4:49PM

Some of my best memories were having gaming nights at the office where I used to work. We would bring in our Xboxs (Xboxes?) and have a good ole LAN party. Good times.

Sunny @ Nov 12th 2008 8:15PM

I prefer "Xboxen". :)

TORO @ Nov 12th 2008 4:51PM

Halo 1 and 4 player split-screen, which forced you to have your buddies over all the time. Then when Halo 2 came out it was a technological marvel.

Clark Parker @ Nov 12th 2008 4:52PM

I had been a Sony supporter and vowed not to bother with Microsoft's big black box... Until the day I heard about a little game called Morrowind. I had not played the earlier entries in the Elder Scrolls Series but from the previews and reviews I was hearing, I knew it was a must have game... I still remember trying to explain to people that you could pick up every fork on every table in the game world... As if that somehow summed up this wholly remarkable title.

After that, I was sold. I didn't care how ugly it was, I didn't care about those stupid black/white buttons (ok, maybe I did, a little) I didn't even care that I could not play GTA on it, as I still had my PS2 (And of course the ports came not to long on the heals of that, so yay) The only thing that mattered was how damn well it worked and how great the games were.

Interstingly enough, I finally broke down and bought a 360 when a little game called Oblivion came out...

And it a totally coincidental and yet fitting turn of events, I just picked up a new 360 elite the other day... And by other day I mean the day Fallout 3 came out.

I swear I didn't plan it this way. But there it is. My history with the Xbox has been linked to Bethesda games every step of the way.

yost @ Nov 12th 2008 9:26PM

I was the same way.... morrowind was the reason I bought my xbox ... I played it at a freinds house and was in love...... the elderscrolls games are amazing

drizzlenuts @ Nov 12th 2008 4:57PM

I got one two years after its release due to having too much fun with my dreamcast i didnt bother with ps2 or xbox but when i got it i ended up trading it off for a new radio.

It was a good console but last gen the dreamcast had the most of what i wanted to play.Not to mention the fact that the homebrew on dreamcast was much easier to access.

Alex @ Nov 12th 2008 4:59PM

Still play the black box almost everyday since mine is moded and i don't have my origanal xbox games on disk anymore still love it.

bioadam @ Nov 12th 2008 4:59PM

I remember how stunned I was by the opening sequences of Morrowind. A game like that couldn't have existed on any other console (until Sony started selling a HD for the PS2). I remember placing a piece of foam under it to keep it from shacking apart my entertainment center. I'd have kept it if only it were smaller, quieter, less rumbly, and better looking.

Neeko @ Nov 12th 2008 5:15PM

Oh how i miss her. i modded her to use XBMC and that was amazing all my friends were shocked at what she could do. Then one night 2yrs ago she just wouldn't turn on. I tried my best to revive her but the damn mobo was dead..tear tear.

That next day she had been gently set aside for her cuter LESS chubby sister xbox360.

Bravo6 @ Nov 12th 2008 5:26PM

My buddies and I would lug 3 or 4 of these beasts to somebody's apt so we could throw down on Halo all night. And I actually still preferred the original man-sized controllers even after the smaller version came out.

izikavazo @ Nov 12th 2008 5:30PM

I remember playing KOTOR forever. Saving and loading every 10 seconds. I was so good at that game and it was just way too much fun.
And Halo tourneys. Wow, the effort we used to put into creating a system link was ridiculous. I remember being the only person who liked sidewinder, I used to force them to play it so I could snipe my way to victory. Everyone I knew loved Prisoner, and I knew I was going to get killed by a rocket or assasinated on that level, I hated it.

TORO @ Nov 12th 2008 5:45PM

I liked hang em' high, Halo was freakin awesome man good times

cocobunny @ Nov 15th 2008 2:39AM

Sidewinder was great. These were my gametypes:

Sidewinder - Any sniping games, Team D-Ball (2 teams of 4 our more with 15 min single Oddball time).

Prisoner - Kill 'em All (shotgun, no shield, 50 kills)

Blood Gulch - 10 Flags to win

We played Halo literally all the time, we needed quick games just as much as epic ones. I miss those days. Chill Out, Damnation, Hang 'em High, Wizard, Rat Race, etc. Halo was why we owned 3 Xboxes in my house (and why we bought 2 more when the green Halo edition was released).

We also had much love for KOTOR, Morrowind, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

izikavazo @ Nov 12th 2008 5:37PM

I remembered more!
I tried to play Morrowind a few times, I couldn't get anything accomplished becuase I couldn't not explore everything or pick up everything. I would pick up every mushroom and plant, it drove my friends crazy, and it also made me never want to play the game again.
Me and my friends used to play Fusion Frenzy a a lot too. We didn't like the game (it couldn't have been less cool), but for some reason we kept on playing it.
Also Rallysport was fun, it was more fun to get new people to play so that you could laugh at them when they went over the cliffs.
As for the actual console, I remember being afraid that it wasn't getting enough ventilation, if you closed the doors on the entertainment system it would get so hot inside.
Remember that awful dashboard, it was so ugly. And trying to play music on it was way too much work.
The controllers weren't bad. I remember the MadCat minis were way too small for my hands. My friends loved them but I was completely destroyed whenever I had to use them. The huge ones used to give one of my friends cramps in his hands, that was always funny. But when they came out with the S that was glorious. I remember forgetting where the black and white buttons were all the time. But it felt so good.
I think that's all I got.
- izi

Jayenkai @ Nov 12th 2008 5:38PM

I'm probably the only guy in the universe who loved the orig controller.. Especially how lovely and forceful those triggers were.. They really felt great in racing games, giving you much more control than the floppy triggers of the new controller.

Henry @ Nov 12th 2008 7:24PM

I agree. I also liked the size. These new ones are too small (I guess I have large hands).

JJ @ Nov 13th 2008 9:34AM

I loved those man-sized controllers too, they were awesome.

I loved the size of the Xbox too and how awesome it looked.

Wish the 360 was as pretty as the Xbox :(

Corey @ Nov 13th 2008 3:08PM

the Duke controller owns!
you're not alone, i've bought several backup duke controllers in my days just so i'll always have one. i never could use the smaller xbox controller, my halo skills suffered when i had to!

Matt @ Nov 12th 2008 5:43PM

I loved the original Xbox. I don't think I've had more fun gaming than the 2 months following the release of Halo 2 and being on a campus wide college network. Those were the days.

Jonman @ Nov 12th 2008 5:51PM

I miss having a Microsoft console that didn't make my lounge sound like a wind tunnel. |>

kentawilson @ Nov 12th 2008 6:26PM

Also one that didn't feel like a gamble every time you turned it on. I should just go to one of the many casinos here.

brytdavis @ Nov 12th 2008 5:59PM

I actually bought my first gen. Xbox because my house had been broken into and my DVD player stolen.

I had wanted to get an Xbox but didn't want to pony up the coin. But when my DVD player was stolen, I remembered that the Xbox played DVDs, too, so I bought that to replace my player.

Also helping was the fact that my friend and I had just played Halo at his house the week before for ... no lie ... 8 hours straight one weekend night. Ah, life before kids, how I miss it sometimes ...

The Mighty Ant @ Nov 12th 2008 7:11PM

Oh how I miss the days of buddies coming over with their own Xbox's & TV's and a bunch of cables!!! And the booze that had to brought to whoevers house was hosting!!! Played all night and didn't sleep so never had to worry about a hangover!!!

tojfs7931 @ Nov 12th 2008 7:15PM

Maybe its just me but I thought the black and white buttons on the original xbox controllers were cool.

Mazrael @ Nov 12th 2008 7:47PM

After the Dreamcast & PSO went bump.. I waited for the PS2 to release something to catch my eye.. never happened. Then a mate showed me about Morrowind in his magazine.. can't remember what he said, but I was sold, I pretty much bought my Xbox for ot, I must of played that game for 6 months solid, finding new things each day..
KotOR 1 & 2, Halo 1 & 2.. Peter Moores' tatoo for Halo 2, Forza 1.. I loved that big O pad.. awkward b+w buttons, and the dodgy D pad that lost the down direction... Playstation pads almost fell out of my hands after that.. then the S pad, which b+w were now cramped, but a far more ergonomic.. think it was a music CD with a DVD on the reverse that knackered the drive.. had allsorts of problems then.. KotOR loaded my character without a head a few times, but I stuck with it, spent more time with my faultering Xbox than with my girlfriend.. then I got my 360 & she left me :D

AoE @ Nov 12th 2008 7:51PM

I don't miss it at all.... but mostly because it's still hooked up! It was my favorite console of the last generation that wasn't called Dreamcast, and it has some very, very excellent titles that were exclusives and still worth dusting the system off for, since BC isn't very complete on the 360...

meatee @ Nov 12th 2008 8:40PM

I don't miss the machine necessarily, but I do miss having Halo LAN parties. Lugging your TV and Xbox to a friend's house for some 4 on 4 Slayer or CTF was pure bliss. Those were some of my favorite gaming memories. Halo 2 and its fancy "Xbox Live" had to come and ruin it.

G2Iny @ Nov 12th 2008 9:40PM

You know what all you modders have to do? You guys need to make a Original Big Xbox controller mod. I would absolutely buy it... I remember those sleepless nights of Halo1 ctf Lan fun...Ahh good times. HEY is that a xbox 360 controller mic input at the bottom of the xbox1 controller???

esc1 @ Nov 13th 2008 12:17AM

The orginal xbox is actually a really dark green. Look at it in good light.

Jake @ Nov 13th 2008 1:16AM

Loved the original box, and had it a while after the new one came out. Playing co-op Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory with my brother was awesome, even though he's a bit trigger happy. Too bad Double Agent didn't have the splitscreen co-op.

BTW, the Xbox isn't number 8, it's the eighth on the list. The list is chronological.

Sir Lionhead @ Nov 13th 2008 1:30AM

I still play the orginal Xbox just for Steel Battalion. That game pwns. If only capcom would make Steel battalion 3. sigh.

MDJ2010 @ Nov 13th 2008 2:46AM

Hate it or love it?

Your mean people hated it? IDIOTS!!!!!

I loved the controller, it was the best there was at the time, it fit into the hands well (i have big hands), much better than the PS2's awkward thing.

NOOK @ Nov 13th 2008 3:14AM

I bought mine used, started to collect about 20 games and then when i got my 360, I sold everything to a friend. half a year later, I bought one again :D turned it into a media center, then bought a crystal one, installed a 250 GB Harddrive. I just sold the crystal for a whooping 140 € on eBay a few month ago. Now I'm using a HTPC with XBMC in the living room but still the other one serves my SDTV in the bedroom :)

alkeels @ Nov 13th 2008 6:16AM

I bought my XBOX on launch day, after a year of playing nothing but Halo, i sold it to a mate....6 months after i relised what was missing in my life i bought another one. still got it sitting up stairs and gets good use from the kids....still going strong. :-)

Boff @ Nov 13th 2008 6:38AM

As a PS2 gamer my only memory of the big black box was seeing that controller at my friend's house and being quite shocked!

Then it was case of seeing how many 'gigantic controller' jokes I could get in! You know how it is....

"Do you want me to hold one end of the controller while you press the buttons?"
"Don't bring your xbox over my house, you'll never get the pad through the front door"
Etc. Etc.

Mokano40 @ Nov 13th 2008 7:20AM

I still have my Original Xbox with XBMC and a 80GB HD Best media center.

I still play A lot of games from it.

Stephen Erickson @ Nov 13th 2008 11:45AM

Oh come on people, where's the love?

You know, i remember just like yesterday, my experiences with the original xbox. My original thought... Yuck! I hate that controller, Playstation 2 all the way! But then I played Halo at a local gamestop, and I HAD to have an xbox, so i later on bought one. They came out with the S-Controller which made life a lot better, so that alleviated the issue.
But the xbox was unique! It was first to have such massive built in space. It was the first to have a nice dashboard, where as you turn on any other console without a game disc in it, and system is like: idiot, did you forget to put in a game? I got my hands on xbox live when it launched, and was insane, crazy about rainbow six 3.
My original xbox was sold to some college kid on craigslist- it's long gone, but definately not forgotten.

-Trigga Fingaz

Adam Mutchler @ Nov 13th 2008 12:23PM

I don't miss it because mine is still very much in use. I use my 360 all the time but also my original xbox. I have all my emulators on it and also have a binder packed with back up dvds. Plus it can also play xvids and divx files so I have an entire movie library for it as well. The original xbox is one of the best consoles in history.

H34R7 7HR0B @ Nov 13th 2008 1:07PM

They should bring back the Duke, I say! but this time make it bigger!!! No, but seriously i loved my old Xbox and the Duke!!!

BJ is Gooder @ Nov 13th 2008 1:17PM

Ah yes, failing a full semester's worth of credits due to playing Ghost Recon til dawn. Every day. For three months. Those were the days...

Now I'm lucky if I can get an hour of CoD in daily. I am no longer a Toys R Us kid.

XSa1ntIgnat1usX @ Nov 13th 2008 1:23PM

I remember when I got the Xbox for Christmas when it first came out. I actually liked the Duke controller because it made the Xbox stand out.

I remember the first time my dad and I beat Halo CE on legendary and seeing the special ending. What an awesome moment! My dad still plays halo too.

Robbie Cooke @ Nov 13th 2008 2:03PM

Wow, my first ever console (bar the grey gameboy) gave me plenty of ups and downs.
Ups:
- It made me one of the first people in my school to have a DVD player (Aliens special edition) my first purchase
- The face on my PS2 owning brother when he saw the grass in Halo's second level
- The cool graphical interface as you turned it on, and the mp3 storage, at a time when they didn't even mention 4GB because in that dya in age, no one knew you could fill it!!
Downs
- waiting 2 years for a decent game that wasn't halo
- seeing Edge magazine declare the Xbox the next dreamcast two weeks after i bought it!!