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The 1991 "X-Box"
Jim Hall writes "Back in college (1991), I wondered why no one had bothered to make a DOS-based game console.
One day, in the back of a notebook, I made some notes about how you might go about creating a DOS-based game console. (I even called it an "X-Box", but really the "X" was there because I didn't know what else to call it. Microsoft's current "XBox" console is completely different, and I don't claim any rights to the "X-Box" name.)
I've posted some scans of my notes, and a discussion about how you would create a DOS-based game console."
"player 4 hit player 1 with 0 stroms"
What's the big deal, really? It's basically a computer in a small case that plays DOS games.
1. Create fake story about "inventing" X-Box
2. ???
3. Profit!
Maybe no one bothered with a DOS-based console at the time, because of the cooling and power requirements (big fans and power suppies) as well as the form factor? If something were to be competitive with Nintendo, it would not only have to be as cheap, but also as small and quiet...
um.....did he say he expected a medal?
Worst episode -er- article ever!
Ligaguinggligagiggagoogoogwillgo
To give an opinion from the other side of the gaming spectrum, I don't think Commander Keen I could be better than Super Mario Bros, Excitebike, Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, Rivercity Ransom, Dragon Quest[Warrior], Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, et cetera...could anybody who did both PC and console gaming during this time give an opinion on the matter?
There was NO 3D in 1995 unless you wanted an insanely expensive Silicon Graphics box. Back then a 2MB S3 board - a Diamond Stealth 64, for instance - was damn nice. I think the first Voodoo was in '97, and the Voodoo 2 in '98. UltraHLE came out in late '98 or early '99, and managed high-speed N64 emulation using SLI'd Voodoo 2s. Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo 3 started making 3D popular because you could have it all on one card; about this time people like nVidia and ATi started getting serious marketshare as well, since 3dfx didn't go in for 32-bit colour, preferring speed over quality.
Voodoo 4 and 5 were too late to save 3dfx, but wonderfully cheap after the wreck :-)
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Bingo. Not only was EGA about as cool as it got back then (i remember VGA becoming more popular on high-end home computers in 92-93ish, around when Wolf3D took off) but Commander Keen? Come on. In 1991 i'm talking Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception on a monochrome screen... An early, very crappy, Test Drive under CGA. Lode Runner. Mines of Moria (like Nethack). Space Quest 1. PCs were worse than Amigas and even the 8-bit systems back then. The people who could afford VGA systems (with CD-ROM drives!) were like the people today who have Radeon 9700s with 1 gig of RAM and God knows what other overclocked monstrosities in their system. Contrary to what we read on Slashdot, that is by far not the majority of PC users :-)
I got a sig so you would remember me.
Umm, no. Not even close.
MS-DOS is an operating system. Since no Atari system has ever run it, nor did the Colecovision (correct spelling), those systems aren't DOS systems.
And there were quite a few DOS games that were better than what you'd find on an old Atari: Commander Keen was just one of them.
At work, I always date my notes with month, day, year, and also include which project the notes are for.
Not for IP, lawsuit, or policy reasons, just to remove the "WTF" that will come up when I look at the notes after four or five years. Or in case I get hit by a minivan again; I may not be so lucky next time!
I'm not saying that this guy did or didn't do that... I'm just saying that it's not that unusual.
I do NOT generally write any kind of copyright info on any of my notes, though. Whether this is good, bad, or indifferent is an exercise for the reader.
The gamepad he drew did exist back then. You'll note that the first page of his notes mentions Gravis. See the following Usenet post from 12-30-1991 by Mark Rein, president of Id Software at that time, regarding a 4-button digital Gravis gamepad and support for said gamepad in Commander Keen:
Usenet post
In 1994, I bought a 486 system for around $2000 (it was a Packard Hell :( ). Anyway, the CDROM drive that came with it was a 2X. It wasn't until later that a 3X, then a 4X drive came out. (And then the speeds started to exponentially increase.) Although I've never paid any attention to the market back in 1991, I like to take a risk, and say that CDROM drives at that year weren't very popular and not many CDROM aps, games, etc were out there. To see this guy suggest using a CDROM in a console back in 1991 brings me a lot of doubt.
Perhaps this guy had a innovative mind, perhaps not. I hate to do it, but IMO, this story has 'hoax' written all over it.
... source code that would be exchanged with anyone who want it back in 1989. I used to be on an Atari 16/32 bit forum on the old Cleveland Freenet and had some interesting conversations with other people about making an alternate OS for the Atari that would be freely distributable and completely open since that seeme dot be a good idea at the time. I even chatted with some guys from Helsinki. :) Nothing ever came of it though.
Same as this guy, a lot of people come up with ideas and jot them down every day. Although they may never follow through, it's not impossible. This guy isn't claiming that he invented the XBox, he just had an idea for a PC based game system. Not too far out for 1990. I think this guy is legit and the whiners here are jealous.
I have a ton of concepts that I've written up over the years but have never gotten back to. Maybe one day...
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