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Crashing Xbox Kiosks
quannump writes "Gaming Age has an article up about some stores, including Toys R Us and Babbages, Xbox kiosk crashing at various places across the country. "Out of five stores that have playable demos within a ten mile area, only two have working units," says one Babbage's employee." It's funny because it's Microsoft. Get it? It's... oh never mind. Is DOA3 still planned as x-box only?
Wow! I've never seen *this* level before!
I must have fallen into some opaque blue liquid.
I hope I can swim to the top before I drown...
Why is it so hot? Where am I going? What am I doing in this handbasket?
I was playing one at Software Etc on Saturday.
It was some car driving game. I played for about 5 minutes when I tried to restart the race. The box locked up solid.
Now I know it was probally getting abused but I dont't think that it should have done that.
And actually I wasn't that impressed by the graphics. I think my Tbird 1.4 with my Gforce 3 is much better
Putting them inside those enclosures probably isn't the best place for heat dissipation. I know if I put my PC in something like that it wouldn't last long.
I say if the X-box is crashing this much it's pretty much DOA already.
--hongpong.com
A good friend of mine once said that if MS's development track record held up, that the X-Box would be a flop. To paraphrase, he said: "People don't expect their console to crash. If it does, they'll return it."
Now I know the PS2 had some backward-compatibility problems, but other than that, has it been rock-solid? I know I've never had so much as a hiccup from my Dreamcast.
My sigs always suck.
Taking out the Demo and blowing on it? Then they need to blow into the box itself before putting the demo back in. Then ya gotta hold down the reset button and sorta *tap tap tap* on the game, and it'll come on if you've got the "touch".
oh, wait. What? Oh, XBox. Right.
what the hell is a 'junk character', anyway?
Newer game consoles are shipping with heatsinks and fans, items which weren't needed in previous generations of game systems. What's scary is that this is even though Sega and Sony have intentionally done things to keep power consumption down, like using lower power CPUs like the SH4 and MIPS and keeping the amount of memory reasonable.
Microsoft is putting in a hot running CPU that was never designed for embedded systems use and twice the memory of the PS2. Sure, that makes it more powerful in a way, but it also may be over the line in terms of what you can do inside of a sealed consumer box. Remember, "more powerful" has never been the mantra of embedded systems engineers, but "cool running" and "rock solid reliable" are.
Demo kiosk units for modern game consoles usually have these problems, especially prerelease systems that use early hardware revisions. The crashing usually results from overheating caused by the machines running 24/7, in small enclosures with poor, if any ventilation. I have seen plenty of the old Dreamcast display units hung up and crashing to a black screen with a little text. It might also be due to the early software revisions in the machines.
Of course, anyone who had an old NES should remember that many of the system's games were very crash prone. I cannot begin to describe how many time I saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crash, to the point that I knew what areas to walk away from when parts of the screen would become distorted...
I'd personally like to assign a -2 penalty on any comment rated 'funny' because most of them frankly just aren't funny at all.
It's funny because it's Microsoft.
Interpret the BSOD - Coming soon to video game stores near you!
Publisher: Microsoft 2001
Retail: $79.95/year license
EULA: You agree to the terms inside the package by opening the package.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Here goes some precious karma
"Out of five stores that have playable demos within a ten mile area, only two have working units," says one Babbage's employee
That article describes 5 stores out of THE ENTIRE COUNTRY that have technical problems.
Think we are jumping the gun? Maybe its under super-scrutiny cause its microsoft, and people are taking advantage.
And the above quote (which will probably get that babbage's employee fired), is most likely an anti-MS/Linux Zealot out for blood against the X-Box. I don't see it very believable.
Lets wait for a few days AFTER they release the X-Box to kill it, k?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
If that doesn't work try;
http://www.evilavatar.com/EA/News/M34018/6983.jpg
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
"Microsoft technical support... can I help you?"
"Um, yeah. I was, like um, playing this game... and, uh, it like totally froze one me in the middle of a level? And then, like the screen turned all blue and junk, and all these really freaky little numbers and letters came up? And dude, it like totally SUCKS because I was RIGHT in the middle of a totally awesome part of this game, right?"
"Ok sir, can I please please have your CC # which will be billed $30 for this incident?"
"wha?"
"I need you credit card before I can issue a trouble ticket for this incident."
"...but it like totally crapped out on me, dude! I'm not gonna pay $30 bucks just to TALK to you?!"
"Sir, if Microsoft can determine that the fault does not lie on you end, you will be refunded your technical support incident fee."
"&*(%$# you #@&*$% " (click)
If early generation games crash, Microsoft will have a perception problem regardless of who is at fault. The bar is set higher for entry machines these days. PlayStation and PlayStation II were not prone to crashing.
As someone already mentioned, comparing a kiosk that runs the early version of the console 24/7 in a poorly ventilated environment is different from comparing the final consumer product being used in regular conditions. As for Playstation II's not crashing, you must have a very short memory. I seem to remember headlines like PS2 glitches likely to drag down Sony's earnings , Sony finds glitches in three PS2 games and more when they first came out and look how successful PS2 is now.
I say, the jury is out until the holiday season is over before we can tell if X-Box will be a success or failure.
This is the first time a console has been launched in America first for quite some time. Usually the majority of the kinks are worked out when systems ship in Japan first and later in the US. We're experiencing virtual "beta hardware" testing firsthand with Xbox.
Second, there have been tons of reports of Xbox kiosks failing. Not just on GA. I've been reading a lot in the news and on many forums that Xbox kiosk failures are happening very frequently, far more than any PS2 failures. I have yet to hear about a single GameCube failure since it launched in Japan, too.
DOA3 has been reported to be heading to PS2 in the Official Playstation Magazine, along with a lot of Sega games that will merely premier on the Xbox.
Also, to clear something up, DOA3 does not look as good as Tecmo would want everyone to believe. Tecmo has a bad habit of releasing ultra high-res screens captured from developer kits (we're talking near 2000x pixel resolutions). They released beautiful but fake screenshots of DOA2: Hardcore on PS2 with tons of antialiasing. Then when you actually play DOA2 you'll find it's a jagged, shimmering mess. Sad to see that people are falling for the same trick again with DOA3.
Example:
Tecmo provided screenshot of DOA2:HC:
Touched up screen of DOA2
What DOA2 really looks like:
Real screenshot of DOA2
As you can see from these screenshots and movies not supplied by the overseers at Tecmo, the game doesn't really look that much different from DOA2.
Movie of DOA3
Screenshots of DOA3
Not to mention the DOA series' gameplay is very shallow and caters to button mashing, not nearly as deep as Tekken and Virtua Fighter. From the reports it sounds like DOA3 is a carbon copy of DOA2 with prettier graphics. Odd that the DOA series has suddenly become big-game despite lackluster sales on PS2/DC... Maybe because it's on Xbox, because if DOA3 were on PS2 it would be overshadowed by Tekken 4, Virtua Fighter 4 and Soul Calibur 2?
I'd say hold off on an Xbox until they work the kinks out and better games come out for it. The Dreamcast is dead but you can grab one for a very low price. The PS2 is the best platform for gaming now, there are so many good games out and coming out next month that my wallet is going to be screaming for mercy. GameCube looks solid but not quite as solid as the PS2. Wait and see if you are still uncertain.
Men believe what they want. - Caesar
Gaming Age has a response from Microsoft about the broken XBox units.. Here's the scoop:
A Microsoft representative has responded to yesterday's FiXbox story. Here's the official company line on in-store Xbox units.
"With over 10,000 playable Xbox kiosks at retail over a month before launch, there are bound to be a few issues that crop up. Microsoft representatives are currently following up with retailers across the country to insure proper functionality of kiosks. Overall, the displays are working great and we are on track to achieve our goal of having 100% of the Xbox interactive displays working correctly and demonstrating the Xbox difference."
What you need to do to clear this up is goto www.microsoft.com/xbox and download the newest Service Pack (sp1) for the Xbox. This should clear everything up for you. We will be releasing some Hotpatches in the next couple of days as our beta testers get thier hands on the games. I am sorry I ment to say our customers get thier hands on the game. We will not be changing the release date we will just include the SP1 cd with the release.
Enjoy.
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead