Rejected Xbox 360 Prototype Designs

Matt writes "Next-Gen.biz has published the second set of prototype designs that were considered, but ultimately rejected, for the Xbox 360. Note the distinct similarities to the final design actually chosen." I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics. A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.

Comments

Sure they can.

[Leon da Costa]

A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.

Sure they can. Have you never heard of duct tape?

Re:Sure they can.

[Anonymous Coward]

There is always a use for Meccano.

Re:Sure they can.

[jsrlepage]

Best friend of the handyman. AND of the geek. Handyman's Best Friend Copyrights Red Green Productions.

Re:Sure they can.

[Anonymous Coward]

or rackmount kit?

Re:Sure they can.

[computechnica]

I/m using Velcro for mine. They also share the same universal Component AV cable, you just cannot turn them on at the same time. Now the Gamecube has to sit on another shelf next the Dreamcast that is about the same case design. My old Panasonic 3DO has a somewhat stackable design, It sits under my NES. The worst designs are the top loading cartridge console, the 2600, SNES, and N64 take up to much room.

Re:Sure they can.

[kereira]

Actually - I think the PS2 and Gamecube can be stacked pretty nicely, but not the XBox. Trust Microsoft, tch.

I mean, first off, how big did they need to make it?! It'd barely fit on my TV rack /at all/...

Re:Sure they can.

[Snamh Da Ean]

Have you never heard of duct tape? No, I live on Mars

Re:Sure they can.

[Invisible_Toaster]

Duct tape. That's the stuff you use for chemical attacks right? Friend of mine would make small open wooden boxes leaving space for vents of course. Painted them to match his cabinet. Looked nice but more work than I want to do.

Re:Sure they can.

[MiliusXP]

It's time to think about emulator and clear some space Do you've a picture of your "game station"

Re:Sure they can.

[B3ryllium]

You know, they filmed the final episode for that show a few days ago.

End of an era. :(

Re:Sure they can.

[B3ryllium]

Not Just Huge! Grizzly Bear Huge!

Re:Sure they can.

[Golias]

To this day, I can't bring myself to understand all the hating on the X-Box and it's controller.

The X-Box itself is smaller than some VCR's I've owned over the years, and smaller than every PC I owned prior to the Mac mini. Yes, bigger than most consoles, but who gives a shit? It only weighs a few pounds and tucks nicely into just about any home entertainment shelving.

As for the controller... It was the first game console controller I ever used which felt like it was made for a grown-up's hands. To me, the various Nintendo and Sony controllers feel like I'm gaming using a little pocket calculator for the controlls. They seem to have been designed with factors like manufacturing cost and shipping size put ahead of ergonomics. The X-Box controller, by contrast, feels more like the full-size controlls that they used in video arcades (in the days before video arcades pretty much died off.) If I had my way, they'd make one that's even bigger, so you could play with your hands a good shoulder-width apart.

Do Gabe and Tycho just have tiny, frail hands and weak, girly arms?

Oh, and swerving back on topic... I agree that the new X-Box design sucks. Game consoles are media room components, and should stack (or at least shelve) like other media room components. The goofy "balance it on end" monolith design is t3h gay. Whoever came up with it should be punched in the crotch.

Re:Sure they can.

[Golias]

You know, they filmed the final episode for that show a few days ago.

That's okay. They filmed the last really good episode several years ago.

The newer episodes were never very funny.

Re:Sure they can.

[Prophet of Nixon]

Are they stupid? I've had a PS2 sitting on top of an XBox, and a Dreamcast sitting on top of both, for two years now. I imagine the Dreamcast would be fairly easily replaced with a Gamecube and stack the same way. What's all this talk of things not stacking?

Re:Sure they can.

[Blkdeath]

I/m using Velcro for mine. They also share the same universal Component AV cable, you just cannot turn them on at the same time.

What sort of cable is that? Do you actually have all three connected to your A/V setup via a splitter? What is the make/model, and where do I find such a beast?

My present receiver has limited digital inputs, so I had to jury-rig my XBox to connect to the VCR/Digital input. If I got a second system and/or a digital cable box it would most likely have to connect to the same source.

Re:Sure they can.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, If you want, you can wait till '06 and get the Nintendo Revolution It looks like it would match Home Electronics perfectly.

Re:Sure they can.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=Universal+AV+Cab le+Xbox+PS2&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start= 0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozil la:en-US:official

Re:Sure they can.

[Anonymous Coward]

The home stereo purists won't like it, but I just bought enough RCA Y-splitters from Radio Shack. For a standard component video and dual channel sound, you'll need five of them if you have two components, or ten if you have three.

Re:Sure they can.

[Blkdeath]

Thank you, Mr. AC, for providing a link that contains useless information. Where, I might ask, is the connection for my digital cable box in any of those provided links?

I was asking about a unit that would connect multiple component/S-Video/digital audio sources to a single input. Sorry once again for not pandering to the 9 year old populous that likes to post anonymously to Slashdot.

Re:Sure they can.

[stupidfoo]

The ideal unit for that type of setup is a nice receiver. Run all your svideo, composite, component, digital audio connections to it, and then one set of video cables (composite, component, and s-video) to your TV.

Is one example (from Onkyo)

Some of the new ones even have HDMI support (but those are quite a bit more).

Re:Sure they can.

[batkiwi]

"Why do they say the Ford Expedition is huge? It's smaller than any MAC Truck I've seen!"

Place a SNES, Genesis, PS1, PS2, N64, Dreamcast, Gamecube, and XBox all in a row.

Place the controllers for each in a row (use both the original XBox controller, and the "S" controller).

Then tell me the XBox itself, and the original controller, are not huge, and I will tell you that you are either lying or blind.

The original xboxes were also QUITE noisy (new ones don't have any heat problems, and are nice and quiet).

The "S" controller is excellent, and my choice of the "current gen" controllers, but the original XBox controller was HUGE. I'm a pianist with a 1 octave and a fourth reach, and it was honestly too large for my hands for extended use. The joysticks were WAY far away from the buttons, and 2/3 of the controller was just a huge xbox logo in the middle, seperating your hands uncomfortably.

Re:Sure they can.

[Blkdeath]

The ideal unit for that type of setup is a nice receiver. Run all your svideo, composite, component, digital audio connections to it, and then one set of video cables (composite, component, and s-video) to your TV.

I've already got a decent receiver, but the problem is it was bought at the time when multiple digital input switching was becomming all the rage, so lower-end models with only 1 or 2 switchable digital inputs were selling for massive reductions. I let a good deal get the better of me using the justification that most of my other equipment was analog. Since then, I've added digital cable, XBox, a digital CD player, and a new DVD player with component output (opposed to my old s-video). Long and short of it is I'm a tad bereft of digital inputs.

I may just have to bite the bullet and pick up the Harmon Kardon I've had my eye on. This time, however, I'm not going to get the lowest model that suits my present needs. :)

Marketing

[Poromenos1]

A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.

It doesn't help with the marketing, I imagine. They want each console to be (and LOOK) different than the others, to have its own character. This is not as important for stereo components.

Re:Marketing

[Windsinger]

The target audience is also a big consideration; these things are largely marketed to teenagers first and foremost, besides us nerdy 30-something losers who still play games. :)

So the look of a console, the coolness factor, is a concern. I thought the Gamecube was well thought out for this, it had a handle on it even! The person who designed that obviously did NOT forget their childhood.

Oh yeah this site got ./'d already. Mirror plsokthxbbyelolroflcopterbbq!

Re:Marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

And the words we're using to describe the things are another clue. A "component" is supposed to be part of a larger system. It implies that the separate things should coexist nicely as a unit. A game system is supposed to be the center of attention all by itself.

Re:Marketing

[DrEldarion]

The person who designed that obviously did NOT forget their childhood.

I think that was more of a problem than anything. People saw the design and thought it was childish, whereas they saw the PS2 and XBox and thought of them as more "mature" consoles. Since the aforementioned teenagers and 30-something losers are the ones buying most of the consoles, the childish design didn't fare as well.

Re:Marketing

[Dracolytch]

Which is perfectly fine with Nintendo, since by leveraging their niche market effectively, they're the only one of the three console groups to do well financially.

~D

Re:Marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps, if you consider marketshare to be worthless.

Re:Marketing

[FinestLittleSpace]

If you consistently, but only sell 5 consoles a year but make a profit, you by definition are doing well. And there's nothing to say that selling less products is bad.

Also, Nintendo own the Pokémon brand. I think that has some money, somewhere ;-)

Re:Marketing

[cowscows]

The only big mistake in the GC design was the original color. It just looked silly. A black GC looks fairly sleek and cool. I'm not entirely sure who that pastel purple was supposed to resonate with.

Re:Marketing

[CastrTroy]

Yeah, the handle on the GC is something that's really nice. It shows that they encourage you to bring it with, you, and that they thought you might actually want to do that. With the XBox, the thing is really heavy, and big, and not meant to be brought with you. It's meant to sit under your tv. Are people aware you can hook up 2 GCs to two TVs, and play 8-way mariokart? Whoever thought internet multiplayer is the best should really try some real multiplayer games, with people in the same room. This is the same reason why lan parties are so much more fun than just playing against your friends over the internet.

Re:Marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if you're a retarded fanboy who finds himself baffled when others enjoy themselves with another console, sure. While Nintendo has a small share of the market, they receive a higher share of their profits than Sony and Microsoft do.

Re:Marketing

[badasscat]

The only big mistake in the GC design was the original color. It just looked silly. A black GC looks fairly sleek and cool. I'm not entirely sure who that pastel purple was supposed to resonate with.

It is (or was, not sure if it still is) Nintendo's "house" color since the early 1990's. And it's not purple, it's "indigo".

The stock SNES and N64 both had indigo accents. The base Game Boy Color was also indigo (there was also a clear indigo model, which is the one I have). Nintendo also used that color for their logo for a while (though not consistently). The official Game Boy logo is still indigo. It was/is a branding thing.

Whether you do or don't like the color, I think almost everybody who knows games identifies that color with Nintendo, in the same way people now identify Apple with white. And I don't think the color hurt the system - black was available fairly early on (if not at launch, I don't remember for sure - I know black was available in Japan before the US launch, when I bought my system).

btw, to go back to the original point regarding stackability, here's a list of some other systems that were not stackable:

Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Coleco Vision
Intellivision
NES
SNES
Sega Genesis 1, 2, and 3
Sega Master System
Neo Geo AES
N64
PlayStation 1 (unless you put it on top, with clearance for the drive door)
PlayStation 2 is marginal, again unless you put it on top
Xbox

In other words, pretty much every major console ever made. If this is news to anyone, then you just haven't been a gamer very long. Consoles are meant to stand out, they're meant to be conversation pieces, the center of attention. I personally like it that way.

Re:Marketing

[mtdnelson]

They want each console to be (and LOOK) different than the others, to have its own character.

You're right, that is clearly the reason for the non-conformity, however...

Is it true that every box that conforms to the (fairly) standard dimensions of hi-fi equipment needs to look similar? Dimensions and shape aren't the only things that can make a product stand out.

I'm sure that a good design team could come up with a stunning eye-catching console that will stack neatly with other equipment.

This is not as important for stereo components.

I feel the need to question why... There are countless hi-fi components that sell very well without having to have some wacky shape. Why can't a console manufacturer sell a console on the basic of its features, the games that are available for it, or maybe, let's say, the convenience of a conventional shape?

Maybe the first console that does this will sell successfully, because it is distinctive. Maybe some will prefer having a collection of consoles that aren't so obvious - there might be people who would prefer that their smart trendy living room doesn't make visitors think of a teenager's bedroom.

Personally, I'd like all of my audio, video, and computing hardware to be 19" rack-mountable. I'm getting there slowly... Next I'm going to build myself a desk and entertainment centre with rack shelves incorporated.

Re:Marketing

[iainl]

It might not be as important, but people like NAD and Arcam manage character perfectly well without losing the standard 19" stackable shape.

Re:Marketing

[Golias]

A game system is supposed to be the center of attention all by itself.

Really? I would think most people would be far more interested in what the game console puts on their TV screen and plays through their stereo speakers than the console component all by itself. Otherwise, why connect it to anything?

How is a game console any different than a DVD Player in this regard?

Re:Marketing

[dresgarcia]

I agree with you on this. My NAD reciever looks great, and very unique. It also looks like it takes command of its task, and it does it well.
The PS2 I think did the most to accomodate size and placement, it has a stand, when its sitting down its flat, the discs are not top loading. However the shape is far too small to make it stackable in any way, unless its at the top of your unit or sitting between two larger anchored units. This has always been an issue with me as I like to have my tv, consoles, record player, reciever, dvd player, and tape player hooked up as one system and the consoles are always harder to situate than even the clunky top loading record player.

Re:Marketing

[thesnarky1]

Good point! However, same for an XBox. I happened to get a network going on my dorm floor last year of 4 XBoxes for 16 player Halo. Of course, a few days we had more then that on, as people wanted their own screen. Using a router, two 8-port hubs, and a lot of Cat-5, I've even done 16 boxes, and 16 TVs. It was quite fun. Oh, but I suppose 8 player mariokart's ok too... I suppose...
But seriously, WHO would walk down the street carrying a game cube by it's handle?! Just throw it in a backpack like any other console, it's sturdy enough.

Re:Marketing

[Brushfireb]

they're meant to be conversation pieces, the center of attention.

That might be the funniest thing I have ever heard. Oh wait, you werent kidding. Nevermind, its the most depressing thing I have ever heard.

Re:Marketing

[mink]

The Gamecube was released in your choice of original color here in the USA, Indigo or black. The consumer had a choice in color from the start. In Japan, as I recall, it was released in a few more colors, an orange called "spice" and I think red or blue, I cant remember exactly.

Re:Marketing

[drinkypoo]

Most significantly, I suspect no one wants their console to be the one on the bottom :)

Also, making stackable components means they have to be larger (yes, even larger than the Xbox Monolith o' Doom) and heavier because they have to be designed to have things stacked on top of them. I strongly suspect that Software Etc., Kay Bee Toys, and the others would object to having the size of game console boxes go up from (on average) something that would hold a toaster to something that would hold a VCR.

Re:Marketing

[drinkypoo]

Really? I would think most people would be far more interested in what the game console puts on their TV screen and plays through their stereo speakers than the console component all by itself.

Clearly you don't know much about marketing.

How is a game console any different than a DVD Player in this regard?

DVD players are marketed to everyone. Game consoles are marketed to people who are children, or childlike. (Myself included.) When the current crop of gamers turns 80 or something, maybe that will change :P

Re:Marketing

[Golias]

Game consoles are marketed to people who are children, or childlike.

If so, that's a rather unwise choice... at least if my experience tells me anything.

I have a lot of friends with children, at ages ranging from six months to 18 years... and not a single one of them has ever bought a PS2 or an X-Box for their child.

Meanwhile, almost every 20-something or 30-something adult (or couple) I know has one or the other, if not both.

Conversation at parties often gravitates towards speculation about the upcoming PS3 and X-Box 360... and the question is never "which one should I get for my kids?"

Re:Marketing

[Pxtl]

Well, the PS2 is good except that it is small. Would you rather tha they pad the thing out with empty space to expand it out to the full width/depth? Then it would be cumbersomely large.

Personally, I think that the PS2 had the best approach - flat on top/bottom, small as it needs to be, and stands on it's side if necessary. You can put a Cube or a DC on it without much trouble.

Re:Marketing

[drinkypoo]

All this tendency to aim all the game equipment at children will continue to lose dominance as the average age of video game players tends upwards, as it is continuing to do. Children are still a serious driving force behind the sales of video games, though, probably still the single strongest factor. They have more time to play them, and their parents will buy them for them just to shut them up.

Re:Marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, because taking a loss with the largest marketshare is MUCH better than making a profit with a smaller marketshare. Every idiot knows that!

Re:Marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought the handle added a little bit of superfluous bulk (not that the GC is huge...); if you're taking it somewhere, you still want to carry controllers and the wires to hook the thing up to a TV. The only convenient way is to put everything into a bag or something, like with any other console.

I say this as a supporter of Nintendo, btw. I just think the handle's a bit misleading.

And yeah, same room > playing against faceless strangers.

Re:Marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

And don't forget the death grip they have on the handheld market. PSP is nice, but Nintendo's gip hasn't loosened one bit. Plus you can put pokemon in Nintendo's handheld ;)

Re:Marketing

[BarneyRabble]

Gee, I never thought I could get a "handle" on the GameCube for some odd reason...
(rim shot, thank you!!)

Well they're not running a next gen webserver

[sam_paris]

/.'d already by the looks of it

Stackable Console

[Dubpal]

I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics.

I've often wished the same thing, and it turns out that Sony actually made something to cater to that market.

The PSX is a DVD Recorder/Tivo-Like device (that uses an interface similar to the XMB type used in the PSP) that's also a PlayStation 2. If you look at the image on the first link, you'll see it wouldn't be at all out of place in a home theatre set-up. It looks like they're still making them, but you can't get them outside of Japan.

Re:Stackable Console

[Anonymous Coward]

. It looks like they're still making them, but you can't get them outside of Japan.

They're selling them in Australia too. Not common, but you do see them in sydney shops from time to time.

Re:Stackable Console

[McFadden]

There's plenty in Japan, but who wants to pay $800 (80,000 yen) for one -which is what they were retailing for in Bic Camera when I bought a Gameboy Micro a couple of days ago.

Re:Stackable Console

[sznupi]

IMO, PS2 isn't any more out of place (the original model of course)

Re:Stackable Console

[Lord Byron II]

In the same vein as the PSX was the Panasonic Q, a Gamecube DVD player. It wasn't stackable, but it did offer front loading instead of the flip-top design on the Cube.

Re:Stackable Console

[Winterblink]

As long as it comes with a longer than normal cable, I'd be happy with consoles that are more stereo componentish.

My problem is my rack is way up by my television. I have a fairly large TV, so I sit further back, so I'd probably end up needing at least an additional 4" of cable on my controller to reach comfortably. Preferrably more, so it's not stretched taut, a couple feet above the ground. ;)

Re:Stackable Console

[RabidMoose]

Which is part of why, as bigger TVs become more affordable, and more people get them, controllers are going wireless. The Gamecube really started it with the wavebird, which proved to be a perfect proof of concept to Microsoft and Sony (and Logitech, who came to their rescue this generation). And now, all of the next gen controllers are going to be wireless (unless you count the "core" Xbox360 system), since RF and improvements in batteries makes it feasible.

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

3 comments and the article's slashdotted. Are they hosting it on one of the prototypes?

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me be the first to say that it could be the final....keep in mind that it would still be M$ though.

I'm the other way around

[Saven Marek]

I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics. A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.

I wish my stereo components looked more like the consoles;. imagine a dvd burner looking like a ps3. that would be awesome.

Link Slashdotted Already

[Dubpal]

But the Coral Cache works fine. http://www.next-gen.biz.nyud.net:8090/index.php?op tion=com_content&task=view&id=1550&Itemid=2

Re:Link Slashdotted Already

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? I can't get to the Coral Cache link either.

Re:Link Slashdotted Already

[Dubpal]

Yeah, coral cache is fubar'd too now. Try this instead: http://mirrordot.org/stories/bc769158991c5dfeb61d7 05cab151e6c/index.html

Re:Link Slashdotted Already

[Lord Haha]

Not exactly same article but has pictures too:

http://gamasutra.com/features/20050712/sheffield_0 1.shtml

Re:Link Slashdotted Already

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

no it's not.

the /. eeeevil is so great it can take coralcache down too...

Re:Link Slashdotted Already

[Anonymous Coward]

The pics are also up at http://www.xbox360news.com/Blogs/News/hqs/blr_892. aspx/

Re:Link Slashdotted Already

[Jarlsberg]

Hehe. You could have "beaten the rush" by reading about this on digg three days ago. ;)

Mirror

[Rinnt]

Here

Re:Mirror

[syntax]

Too bad the mirror does not host its own images! It links off-site! Why bother even posting it?

Re:Mirror

[Rinnt]

Not sure why you're having problems. It worked and still works for me (yes even after cleaning out my local image cache...)

Re:Mirror

[Archibald Buttle]

I checked the URLs this mirror uses for the images. They all point to the original host machine, thus are not mirrored.

Since the images are the bulk of the web page in question this mirror is basically worthless - all it's saved is the original host pumping out the HTML which is a small proportion of the demand.

So much for mirrordot dealing with the slashdot effect...

Could be worse

[hal2814]

At least the systems mentioned would stack better than this monstrosity.

Re:Could be worse

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny thing is the Revolution should replace that mess.

there must have been more.

[CDPatten]

Those are all hideous. I can't imagine the ONLY decent looking one is the one they went with. Also, anyone wonder why they don't have the shiny metal look (e.g. PS3) for any of the prototypes? Its pretty common, and you would think that with all the money they spent it would they would have gotten at least one.

All and all, those are interesting, but I doubt that's it, or any of them were finalists.

Re:there must have been more.

[Hieronymus Howard]

The one that they went with isn't decent looking. It's an incredibly boring beige box, that looks like a slightly shrunken and sucked-in office PC. I wouldn't want one in my living room.

Re:there must have been more.

[CDPatten]

I disagree. If you look at who MS has said they are targeting then you understand the decision. They are looking to bring in young women and soccer moms to this market. The hardcore gamers are going to buy it no matter what it looks like, and it isn't so ugly that they don't want it (frankly I don't think its ugly at all, but we disagree about that point.) The important thing to note is that the Xbox 360 design doesn't look intimidating or complicated or as you put it a "boring beige box". It has sleek curves, simply design and not to flashy. Those are important things because the largest deterrent for women is it seems like a "boys" toy and the systems are intimidating and complicated. They are trying to break that stigma and grow the market.Its a very good design considering their stated objectives for the device. The objectives also make good sense, grow the market, make more money.

Sony's design isn't going after most women with the PS3, but to be fair they are doing lots of things different (no x-box live-style service, taking huge losses for years on each sale of the system, etc.).

Re:there must have been more.

[solive1]

How is Sony doing something different by taking huge losses on the system for years? MS hasn't made money on the X-Box yet!

Re:there must have been more.

[CDPatten]

Read the Meryl Lynch analysis on the link I posted. You will quickly learn that the Xbox will be costing MS about $250 a unit this spring and the PS3 will be costing Sony $500. The problem for Sony is that it will stay that way for over a year, while the Xbox keeps costing MS less and less. MS is releasing the Xbox 360 at about cost for them, at a cost of $500, Sony will be losing from day one. The link is in my thread above.

Re:there must have been more.

[solive1]

Yeah, but it's still not a different strategy. Different in this generation, perhaps, but not different overall.

Re:there must have been more.

[Anonymous Coward]

Please check the FACTS before making statements like that.

Xbox have been profitable for over a year now.

Re:there must have been more.

[ByteGuerrilla]

I presume you mean to say MS don't make money on the individual console sale. Both Microsoft and Sony lose money on each sale of their current top console, but make all their losses back and much more through games, etc. Nintendo is the only one of the Big Three currently making money from each individual sale of its console. Next time round it will be different, apparently.

Re:there must have been more.

[hattig]

But Sony will be manufacturing most of the components themselves. That cuts out the middle man for many of the components. I don't think that Sony will be taking anywhere near a $500 loss on the PS3 when it comes out, if it costs $299 upon release.

Dual Layer BluRay drive may cost quite a bit in March next year, yes. Come the US release 6 months later the cost will probably be half, maybe a quarter of the early drive costs.

The XBox360 looks acceptable* for the living room in my opinion. Much better than the original XBox, which is why I don't own one. I only got a PS2 because it was second hand and cheap - I wouldn't have paid full price for that design! I don't have any hopes for the PS3 however, Sony are quite design limited. Gamecube was the best design of the last generation. This generation - between XBox360 and Revolution.

* I don't mind admitting that appearance is a large contributing factor to whether I buy something or not, regardless of specifications.

Re:there must have been more.

[KDR_11k]

No. It has been profitable for that one quarter and dropped off again after that. MS spokesmen stated that this spike was due to the release of Halo 2.

Stacking

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, I think they don't want you to stack them right on top of each other as this causes heating and drive issues.

Yes You are alone

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics.

Yes. I'm also perfectly ok with my game system going horizontal. The argument against which is even more inane. I definitely prefer the horizontal footprint. Heck you can't exactly stack these things if they all go vertical.-
The Wolfkin

Marketing departments won't grant your wish

[ChrisF79]

"I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics. A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely."

Although that would be nice for the consumer, it offers Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo no product differentiation. They want their systems to be flashy and unique so the convenience of stacking for the consumer goes right out the window.

Re:Marketing departments won't grant your wish

[F_Scentura]

While branding is certainly important, the Japanese do seem to place a design importance on space and organization of their a/v equipment, convenience is certainly a factor there.

GC in my computer

[CastrTroy]

I've often thought of modding my GC right into my computer. There's a lot of empty space in the bottom front of my tower, and it would be a great place to put it. With the revolution being even smaller, it looks like it will even be easier. Maybe in the future we can just use the same computer forever, since most productivity applications don't require that much CPU power, and use consoles that drop right into a drive bay in order to facilitate playing games.

Re:GC in my computer

[Sockatume]

When the Dreamcast was on its last legs and Sega turned into a thirdparty publisher, there was serious talk of a "Dreamcast-on-a-card" PC graphics card which would allow PC users to play DC software. It fell through in much the same way as the Dreamcast-in-a-set-top-box, but it'd be great to see it revisited.

Re:GC in my computer

[Admiral Frosty]

I've seen that done with an N64. The guy wired the ports to the front of the case, and the whole thing look slick as snot. I'm sure its still possible with a gc!

Re:GC in my computer

[Masami Eiri]

Yoshi from the Screensavers did that. He also threw in a PS2 and XBox. The video out went to a flat screen monitor with S-Video in additon to the usual monitor connections (I think, its been a while). Pretty cool.

Re:GC in my computer

[hobotron]

Its called a video card, it costs near twice as much, and you get the joy of replacing it 2-3 times more often.

Oh and you can thank the computer industry for fucking that one up.

Re:GC in my computer

[uberjoe]

When I first saw the revolution I wondered if I could fit it into a drive bay. Now that would be cool.

Re:GC in my computer

[Golias]

I've often thought of modding my GC right into my computer.

That's funny. I could probably fit my computer into a GC.

Re:GC in my computer

[Anonymous Coward]

Thus creating the world's most useless device.

Re:GC in my computer

[chundo]

Maybe in the future we can just use the same computer forever Hahahahahahahahaha!

Re:GC in my computer

[KingNezII]

I went to a LAN party that forbid console systems. Smash Bros. Melee will not be denied! I stuck the entire unit above my power supply, had the power cord shoot out an empty extension slot in the back and the controller cables came out the front (power button was permanently set to on). It would have been way better if all wave birds were used, but the length of cable was acceptable. The only problem I noticed that whenever the unit was on, I couldn't change the state of my computer or risk the system crashing. It was a small, weird inconvenience.

Re:GC in my computer

[SilverspurG]

It took me a moment to figure out that GC was used as "game console" and not as "gas chromatograph".

nintendo started that

[Odocoileus]

I remember an article when the super nintendo came out, they said they made the surfaces non-flat so that you wouldn't set your drinks on it. Seems logical since most kids back then would sit on the floor and play (shorter cables?), and drinks spill easy when sitting on the carpet.

Re:nintendo started that

[Grey Ninja]

You know... given how often my PC gets used as a cupholder... I have to admit that there's a certain amount of logic in that. hmmm... time to get to work on making the surface of my PC uneven. :)

Re:nintendo started that

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the real reason has to do with heat dissipation. If it's sandwitched between a DVD player and a stereo, it could get pretty hot.

Re:nintendo started that

[steveo777]

Just do what I do! It's really easy. Just stack about thirty product manuels on top. I know they're most likely neatly put away in a safe location, but now's the time to keep your computer safe from liquid assaults. Next, keep a stack of of about thirty CD-R's sitting information side-up. This usually works best when the content is something that's relatively trivial, like mp3 backups and old school assignments. Okay, if there's a tricky part, this is it. Put that box on the floor and make just enough room on the edge to rest half a foot and go to town.

Congradulations, you've just saved your computer from being destroyed by malitous caffienated beverages, hot and cold! Hope this helps.

Re:nintendo started that

[Mojojojo Monkey Inc.]

That sounds like a pretty irrelevant reason for designing a game console in a non-stacking style. You'd think Nintendo would ENCOURAGE kids to put their drinks on their consoles so they'd spill, void the warranty due to liquid damage, and be forced to buy a new one, that'd just be extra cash in their pockets.

Or a more likely reason would be to promote better heat dissipation, as another poster said, or just for the "coolness factor" of not being yet another black/beige box.

Re:nintendo started that

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a nice thought except for the fact that you can spill almost anything on a Nintendo system, let it dry out and turn it back on again.

Re:nintendo started that

[RabidMoose]

Except the kids' parents might not buy them a new one after they spilled drinks into it. And then Nintendo loses out on future game sales from that family, since they don't have a system anymore.

Re:nintendo started that

[monthos]

Game console manufacturers lose money on each system sale. they gain it back when the players purchase games. So it would be smart to design a system where kids didnt have to keep buying new systems.

Re:nintendo started that

[drinkypoo]

Maybe the real reason has to do with heat dissipation. If it's sandwitched between a DVD player and a stereo, it could get pretty hot.

I doubt it. Old systems ran cool, and were not all that heat sensitive because they were also slow. New systems have rear ventilation fans.

Re:nintendo started that

[Chris Burke]

No, that's just a myth that Sony and Nintendo allowed Microsoft to believe. Sony may have lost money on early PS2's, but Nintendo never lost money on the Cube.

However they do make most of their cash off of game licenses, so it still doesn't make any sense to encourage destruction of the consoles.

Re:nintendo started that

[Scrameustache]

That sounds like a pretty irrelevant reason for designing a game console in a non-stacking style. You'd think Nintendo would ENCOURAGE kids to put their drinks on their consoles so they'd spill, void the warranty due to liquid damage, and be forced to buy a new one, that'd just be extra cash in their pockets.

By the same logic, they would have made their NES controller as flimsy as the Sega controllers, instead of the quasi-indestructible chunks of plastic that they were.

Not all companies in history have adhered to the "I hope they break it and come back for more" manufacturing mentality. Sometimes, just sometimes, a company will design a quality product made to last.

Re:nintendo started that

[Anonymous Coward]

By the same logic, they would have made their NES controller as flimsy as the Sega controllers, instead of the quasi-indestructible chunks of plastic that they were.

Well, they did - they made the NES console itself "flimsy" and cheap as possible. My Sega consoles are all still going strong, but my NES barely runs. They didn't get that right (outside Japan, anyway) until the top-loader NES and the SNES.

Re:nintendo started that

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a nice thought except for the fact that you can spill almost anything on a Nintendo system, let it dry out and turn it back on again.

Yeah, it works the same, because in either case there's no games for it anyway,

I'll join the "me too" crowd

[DarkEdgeX]

Yes, I wish game consoles were in a standard shape that fit into a home theatre / entertainment center setup as well. I'd be especially happy if manufacturers will ditch top-loading designs (such as the GameCube, SNES, Genesis, and Dreamcast) and instead use tray loading designs (like the PS2 and XBox). With top-loading designs it pretty much means you can't put anything on top (or even near the top) of the unit.

Maybe that fits in well with how the company would like our living rooms to look (just one system, theirs, on the top of everything else), but it's not how reality works.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[thebdj]

I think the only thing anyone has ever said against tray loading designs is they can break, which a top load isn't going to do unless you go about ripping the top off or the spring dies. Also, the top loading giving you access to the lens area and some of the mechanics. While this may not seem good because it allows in dust, it is better for cleaning around the area with the canned air and the like. It should be noted that there have been problems with the PS2 and skipping because of dust/dirt.

While tray loading is good for stackability, the X-Box really didn't have a design that was good for sitting stuff on top of it. I do have my PS2 stacked, on top of the surround receiver, below the real DVD player and cable box. I really need to find a nice rack to hold all the stuff so it looks nicer next to all speakers and TV.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[solive1]

The slim PS2 is also a top-loading console, and that's the only one you can buy in a store now. I believe they changed to this because of all the problems with the tray mechanisms.

The top-loading made more sense IMO with cartridges; instead of opening the door, sliding the cart in, and pushing it down, you just push the cart down in the top. My GameCube is on top of my TV because it's top-loading and doesn't open up in the shelves of my cabinet.

They should move to the tray-loading, or slot-loading a la Revolution.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[DarkEdgeX]

I'd think a top loading design would be more prone to accidents and neglect issues. E.g. - leave it open and dust collects. Or someone walks by and spills something on it. Or the dog slobbers on it. Or your wife/mother decides to spray cleaning solutions nearby.

I mean, sure, you can leave the tray open and it gets broke off, but at least there's not as much chance of dust getting inside or things getting spilled in it.

I do agree though that top-loading is easier to clean in the event of problems. But ugh.. it's just such a pain finding space for them. If they were all the same size and shape as the GameCube though, you could probably fit 3 of them side by side. ;) That'd be great.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[TheKnightWhoSaysNi]

I believe they changed to this because of all the problems with the tray mechanisms.

I think it was cost related. The top loader costs less to make, that's all.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[Anonymous Coward]

"Maybe that fits in well with how the company would like our living rooms to look (just one system, theirs, on the top of everything else), but it's not how reality works."

works fine for me; I prefer the top loading design as it's much easier for me in my living room set up.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[Pienjo]

Commodore had this CDTV thing a few eons ago - but maybe that looked too much like a plain CD player. Either way, it flopped big time.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[KingVance]

Slot loading is hte answer.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[rho]

Know what I'd like? No more "Loading..." screens. Fuck stackability, how about letting me play the damn game promptly?

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people don't realize that the reason Nintendo / SEGA and Sony (with the slimline PS2) went with top loading designs is because you can save an amazing ammount of mony by going top loading rather than by going with a try/slot loading optical disk drive; when the Gamecube was announced it was pointed out that the top loading design of the system saved Nintendo $15 in manufacturing costs, which doesn't sound like much but it was a full 7.5% of the purchase price of the system.

One of the reasons Nintendo is able to produce a very competative product technically at a dramatically lower price is because they constantly are able to save (what seem like) small ammounts on every component that when you add them all up makes a huge difference. Nintendo (it they were so inclined) could probably have included a network adapter and hard-drive into the Gamecube (essentialy making it 'equal' to the XBox), sold it for $250 at launch and been very close to breaking even; Microsoft, on the other hand, was rumored to have lost anywhere between $75-$150 on every XBox mainly because they choose off the shelf PC components (which do not provide much in the way of a bargain).

I'm, personally, not a fan of top loading but you can't fault a company for not trying to loose money on features that are not essential.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[mink]

Do you have stairs in your house?

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[Fred Or Alive]

A tray loading unit would be hard (or probably impossible) to fit into such a small console as well.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[DarkEdgeX]

I hear that. I still hook my SNES and Nintendo 64 from time to time just to remind myself that it didn't used to be this way. If game system designers designed the system right and provided tools for game authors to "optimize" loading of data (think of something like profile-guided optimization, but it keeps track of what data ns necessary when and tries to optimize the layout on disc so it'll load faster when needed), I'd like to think long load times are something that could be avoided.

The thing that would help the most I imagine would be if every system had a hard disk (or very large (4+ GB) and very fast flash memory), then data would be pre-loaded in the background and read from that once gameplay began.

I know they've made some advances on this with newer systems, but it seems like they're just carrying forward faster optical drive speeds and not actually doing a lot of innovation on the system side to cope with it.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[drinkypoo]

Even PC games entirely installed to the hard drive, which is typically much faster than (say) the hard drive available for the PS2 or built into the Xbox, do not load that fast. Even old ones! For instance, when I first played Total Annihilation, it was on a P2-266MHz with 256MB ram and a 7200 RPM UDMA66 drive. Now, I have an Athlon XP 2500+ with 1GB ram and two 7200 RPM drives (both UDMA100) in a RAID0 and I still have to wait for it to load - not near as long, but still. The only games without load time are the ones so simple you can play them on a ROM-based handheld. If you don't want to wait for loading screens, I suggest you go get a GBA SP or DS and STFU :P

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[KingVance]

I am not entirely sure how or why this is relevent..but yes.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[Mancat]

I remember when they were selling these things at Radio Shack, usually as standalone units. Hell it might have been a different product, but it had stuff like an encyclopedia, zoo games, and your other standard fare for when "multimedia" was really a huge deal. It was pretty cool, but I doubt more than a handful bought it.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[mediocubano]

This isn't just a game player issue: I already have this problem with my VCR, and my DVD players. My VCR is about 2/3rds size, and the cheapo DVD player we got for 35 bucks from Sam's is even smaller, like 1/2 size.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[rho]

I'm glad your time is so worthless you feel free to waste it.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[drinkypoo]

How is playing a video game not a waste of time anyway? I mean, it's amusing, but it's hardly the only way to be amused. Many of those ways involve no loading time.

Re:I'll join the "me too" crowd

[mink]

I guess I was being too obscure in my reference.
I must now kill the joke by telling you the terrible secret of space.

Your post said "slot loading is hte answer".

This made me think of an irc hoax (warning, last time I went to something awful from slashdot they were redirecting to gay porn) from something awful about "The Space Robots".

The Laziest Men on Mars made a song about it. After that this swf was created by Jonathon Robinson.

That (the song/swf) is why I asked if you had stairs in your house.

If you have a rack...

[Dracolytch]

If you have a rack, insist on putting all of your gear in that rack, and worry about the stability of items because they're not designed for the rack, why not buy some shelves for your rack?

I know, whining is much cheaper and easier, but this ain't exactly new technology.

I wonder how many ordinary problems would be gone if we just used our energy for solving them, instead of complaining.

~D

Re:If you have a rack...

[JediTrainer]

...why not buy some shelves for your rack?

I think the biggest problem with this is that they still take up an obscene amount of space. Because most of these consoles are top-loading, this means both that you need to have the unit in an area where you can reach the top easily (and grasp the disc/cartridge), and it also means you need quite a bit of vertical space so that you can lift up that disc/cartridge.

If these consoles were designed like stereo components, say where all the controls and game slots were on the front, you'd use up a lot less space and thus could have more stuff crammed in there, because you wouldn't need to have the extra inches of vertical space clear on top of the unit for these tasks..

Re:If you have a rack...

[rAiNsT0rm]

This is basically what I have done. I took a DVD rack that stands about 3-4' tall that is just two sides and slanted forward-sloping shelves with a small lip. I placed each system on it's own shelf and then the space left on each side holds the game cases. Then I put two hooks per shelf on each side which hold the controllers for each system. Total cost, maybe $40. Houses Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, PS1, PS2, GC.

Re:If you have a rack...

[Anonymous Coward]

Because it still looks like you have a pile of shit in your living room?

Excuse me, a pile of shit on a shelf.

Re:If you have a rack...

[patmfitz]

Most Slashdot readers have no experience handling a nice rack.

Re:If you have a rack...

[Comen]

Personaly, I still think it looks like crap, but I will buy one because of the games.
Needless to say I still wish it looked better in my stereo system rack, and I am suprised that microsoft doesnt think of this.
They seemed to have pictured allot of people having this unit vertical, wich to me seems crazy to have in ANY stereo system rack I dont care what if you buy a new shelf or not. And it looks dumb sitting horizonal.
I would think you could still make something that stands out and also compliments existing stereo units.
But I will have to have this ugly thing sitting in my stereo rack anyway, because in the end its the games I want to play that count.
They actually try to sell this unit with it having features of a media center for you home entertainment system, and with it having HDTV support most people I know would have them save thing to says about this unit.
People with nice stereo setups and HDTV's to hookd this 4000 system to and just alittle anal about what the eqipment also looks like in thier setup.
People with a little TV on a stand and thing sitting on the floor probabaly care less.

Re:If you have a rack...

[monthos]

The Xbox and PS2 are front loading however, the only major game system out right now that is toploading is the GameCube, and that system was designed for the younger audience who probably dont have a rack in their living room.

Re:If you have a rack...

[Red Flayer]

"Because most of these consoles are top-loading, this means both that you need to have the unit in an area where you can reach the top easily (and grasp the disc/cartridge), and it also means you need quite a bit of vertical space so that you can lift up that disc/cartridge."

$15 at a hardware store, or $2 at a junkyard, will get you sliders to mount the shelf on, so you don't need as much vertical space -- just slide the shelf out to change the disc/cartridge. This is also very useful when/if you need to fiddle with the connections in the back, and to clean and dust.

Very easy to mount, aligning them properly takes a bit of patience, but well worth it.

Notes: Make sure to leave some vertical clearance space anyway, for airflow.

Re:If you have a rack...

[Neoprofin]

I thought it was funny, apparently the mods don't.

The consumer should have a said on it

[Anonymous Coward]

They should come up with various design in advance and let consumers vote on it. Once the final design is voted for. Design engineers should base on it and make minimal changes to make it work.

I wish they read slashdot more.

Re:The consumer should have a said on it

[Sockatume]

Market research like that lead to the first Xbox and the Duke controller.

*shiver*

Re:The consumer should have a said on it

[jchenx]

I think the problem with the Duke controller is that they did a bunch of usability studies, but ONLY with their target teenage/young-mail demographic. I know a bunch of guys who love the old Duke, because it fits their large hands. But for women or those of smaller stature (particularly those in Japan), it was quite uncomfortable.

Re:The consumer should have a said on it

[kisrael]

When did they start calling it the "Duke" controller? First time I remember hearing it called that was this morning's "what went right/wrong with the xbox" article. Before that it was just the "original controller" aka "oversized monstrosity"

Re:The consumer should have a said on it

[Sockatume]

I'm in the same boat, no idea where the name popped up from, but I think it has the right kind of overblown connotations for the controller.

Re:The consumer should have a said on it

[jchenx]

I have no idea either, actually. A bunch of MS people just called it "Duke", so maybe it was the prototype name?

ooh, ooh, a shiny thing!!

[akadruid]

You're not alone, but you're in a pretty much irrelevant minority. Most people who buy XBoxes/Playstations etc don't have racks. Those who have both racks and consoles mostly don't base their decision to buy on whether it fits - bet you won't.

The half dozen people who will only buy a console if it fits into their rack have a special club where they drink real ale and discuss their plan to take over the world.

No offense :)

Besides if you're that desperate, mod it into your favourite shaped componant casing.

Re:ooh, ooh, a shiny thing!!

[DenDave]

The half dozen people who will only buy a console if it fits into their rack have a special club where they drink real ale and discuss their plan to take over the world.

erh dude, which part of Rule No. 1 did you not understand?
... you do not talk about ...

Re:ooh, ooh, a shiny thing!!

[Quiet_Desperation]

Most people who buy XBoxes/Playstations etc don't have racks.

Yes, gamers are still mostly males.

Re:ooh, ooh, a shiny thing!!

[lubricated]

If a console fit into a rack and another one didn't this would be a huge consideration into which one to buy. Especially since they both probably have a selection of crappy games.

Reviews

[dg13]

I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics. A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.

System reviews to include new "Plays well with others" catagory

Uh?

[Anonymous Coward]

They stack just fine. Cube on top of PS2 on top of Xbox. There's even room left over on top of the PS2 to put memory cards or a controller.

unfair!

[sgt scrub]

Thats not fair. Their design suggestions get posted on slashdot and mine gets converted into this http://www.sawitfirst.co.uk/content/spaceboyxl/

Well, no...

[lpangelrob]

A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.

...and I can expect that from having different-looking systems. But have you considered the space efficiency of a Beowulf cluster of Gamecubes?

Re:Well, no...

[CastrTroy]

Yeah, you could probably do better with a beowulf cluster of Mac Minis. However, the cost savings are something to look at. You can get an old GC for about $70.00 CDN, and that's retail. You could probably get them cheaper buying them from the users. If you could figure out a way to use the GPU for processing, as well as the CPU, you could have yourself a pretty cheap beowulf cluster.

Stacking?

[MaestroSartori]

My TV sits on a unit with fairly low shelves beneath it. My Xbox has a clearance of only a few millimetres, there's no way I can stack anything on it regardless of the shape of the console itself. It's actually frustrating for me to have to pull my GameCube out from the shelf to put disks in due to the size of the shelves! The top-loading PS2 is short enough that it isn't an issue for me, but I don't think 'stackability' is really an important criteria in console design anyway.

Am I in a minority? Is there a console-stacking-scene out there that enjoys stacking consoles on top of each other? :O

Re:Stacking?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, but what if you belong to a society for Putting Things On Top Of Other Things?

Re:Stacking?

[MaestroSartori]

Like these people? :D

Stacking causes overheating

[Junks Jerzey]

Modern consoles (PS2 and up) run *hot*. I've often wondered if the awkward styling is to *prevent* stacking. The cooling systems aren't designed for numerous hot boxes stacked in close quarters.

Re:Stacking causes overheating

[kereira]

Surely you wouldn't be sitting there playing all three at once?

Re:Stacking causes overheating

[Y-Crate]

"Modern consoles (PS2 and up) run *hot*. I've often wondered if the awkward styling is to *prevent* stacking. The cooling systems aren't designed for numerous hot boxes stacked in close quarters."

I know Microsoft came out and said the top of the Xbox 1 was specifically designed to make it difficult for the user to stack anything on top of it for this very reason.

Re:Stacking causes overheating

[amliebsch]

No, but heat rises, and if a console has another powered-down console on top of it, it cannot dissipate heat out the top as efficiently. I think the 360 may have resolved this somewhat by the concave design - if you stack something on top of it, the endpoints become the contact points but the concavity leaves space for air to flow through.

Re:Stacking causes overheating

[poot_rootbeer]

My surround receiver runs pretty damn hot too, but it's as stackable as any other standard home theater device. As long as the device above has feet on it to provide 1/2" or so of clearance, the heat should vent away fine.

All three of the 2006 consoles--Xbox 360, PS3, and Revolution--have been designed to be set on their narrow end, so they take up more vertical space but use a smaller footprint. This would seem to indicate that the designers are taking our space concerns into consideration.

(And if you need to use the space above your PS360lution array--put in a shelf!)

Re:Stacking causes overheating

[Malc]

Should my console go beneath or above my amp? It kicks out a lot of heat too.

Re:Stacking causes overheating

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd love to be in close quarters with numerous hot boxes!

Re:Stacking causes overheating

[Frigid Monkey]

"The cooling systems aren't designed for numerous hot boxes stacked in close quarters."

Man I live for numerous hot boxes stacked in close quarters, In fact I just bought this DVD.......

maybe it's just me...

[toQDuj]

But I still think all of the xbox designs are missing a certain amount of aesthetics. Not to troll here, but I think Apple got it right, as well as NAD (although the green is hideous) and Bang and Olufsen. Those somehow "radiate" the idea of quality, sturdiness and coolness.
Can anyone give an insight as to why this is? Are the maketing people at MS trying to push it too far? or did they intend to make it look like a run-of-the-mill pc?
I for one would hide the xbox in another box or cupboard. It looks cheap. The PS3 design is much better IMHO.

just my 0.02 cents.
B.

Re:maybe it's just me...

[Dogtanian]

But I still think all of the xbox designs are missing a certain amount of aesthetics. Not to troll here, but I think Apple got it right, as well as NAD

So you'd like an XBox that matches your NADs?

I always wanted that too...

Re:maybe it's just me...

[vermox]

just my 0.02 cents

:O two centi-cents! Would that make your opinion cheap or redundant? Thank you, I'll be here all week

Re:maybe it's just me...

[toQDuj]

consider it a micropayment to slashdot :)

B.

Casemodding project...

[Anonymous Coward]

...howto stuff 1 xBox, 1 PS2 and 1 GameCube together in a case from a ProLiant DL580.
The DL580 is a 19" rackoptimized quad Xeon server.
We will use psu's, DVD-drive and fans from the DL580 for the project.

Yes they can!

[nigel_q]

Put the Gamecube on top of your PS2, and put the XBOX in the garbage!

Re:Yes they can!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm in a situation close to that. I have a Gamecube on top of my PS2, but don't have an X-Box. Stacks nicely. I can even put the PS2 controller on top of the PS2,and the GC controller on top of the GC, yay.

Re:Yes they can!

[Anonymous Coward]

Why on earth would you do that? It makes such a nice media player!

Re:Yes they can!

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it what they call a Dutch Lobster ?
--
Don't mod be down, I'm just trying to be funny...

Re:Yes they can!

[gotkube]

Amen brother. I've owned almost every game console released since the NES, including 2 different 3DOs, and I find it oh-so-ironic that the XBox is the first console I've ever owned that crashes on a regular basis. Funny how my 3-4 Year old XBox fails, but my 18-Year-Old NES works flawlessly. For that reason alone, I will not be picking up a 360 later this month. I demand a high level of quality from my game consoles, and we all know Microsoft is ALL about quality.

Slot.

[Vo0k]

Well, there's one more option, slot loading. Definitely most space-efficient, more reliable than tray, position-independent (good for horizontal and vertical CD-ROMs and quite comfortable to that. Unless people stuff junk in the slot. And of course it won't work with 8cm mini-CDs but I doubt that should be a requirement for a game console.

(there's the fourth option, casette loading like in the first CD-ROMs, where you put the CD in a special container which you then insert in the drive, but it sucked so much that let's forget it.)

Re:Slot.

[Masami Eiri]

My old car stereo (Pioneer DEH-3100, I believe) loaded mini-CDs just fine. Haven't tried it with my current one, but it wouldn't surprise me. Now, the weird shapes, like the Yoshi-shaped CDs Nintendo used to sell, yeah, those wouldn't have a snowball's chance of working.

Re:Slot.

[badasscat]

Well, there's one more option, slot loading.

The problem is this is literally not safe with a high-speed drive. This was Sony's stated reason for not going that route with the PS2 (everyone expected them to, originally). The PS2 doesn't even have a very high-speed drive, but imagine a 52X spinner shooting out of a game console's slot - that'd literally be like a buzzsaw heading most likely straight at you. That's not even considering the problem of shattered discs, which does happen in high-speed drives. The shrapnel can exit a slot loader at roughly the same speed as an exploding grenade. (MythBusters tested the effects of this; they found most discs will not break in a drive unless cracked or damaged, but that's hardly an uncommon thing among gamers, who are often teenagers who don't take care of their stuff.)

Obviously you can design a system such that it has safety mechanisms in place, but you can't protect an open slot from escaping shrapnel. You'd have to really over-design a complicated system that has an internal motorized door that really then basically acts the same way as a tray-loader and is no more reliable (and probably less).

The Revolution can probably get away with a slot-loader because it's not going to be using an ultra high-speed drive. Though I don't know how they're going to handle the loading of the smaller GameCube discs (since it's supposedly backward compatible).

Re:Slot.

[adnausium]

Actually there is a fifth option (and likely the one system builders are hoping to move to some time in the future)...NOTHING to insert at all. All games and media purchased and downloaded to the device from the internet. That might cut down on piracy huh? Of course then you couldnt bring your game to your friends machine to play...hmmm. But systems are getting smaller and lighter all the time so im sure by the time this is a reality it wouldnt be that big of a deal to carry the whole machine instead of a few game disks. Or maybe they could devise a way for the owner to take his game to another machine but not have it be a permanent transfer...

Re:Slot.

[drinkypoo]

Obviously you can design a system such that it has safety mechanisms in place, but you can't protect an open slot from escaping shrapnel. You'd have to really over-design a complicated system that has an internal motorized door that really then basically acts the same way as a tray-loader and is no more reliable (and probably less).

I'm not seeing how this is more complicated than a tray loader. Either way the disc is pulled in (by the tray, or by a roller) and then a mechanism clamps the hub down on the hole in the disc so that you can spin it. It would be trivial (really!) to have a little shield move with the locking mechanism, which already typically moves at least 1cm - more than far enough.

Re:Slot.

[KDR_11k]

You could build a brake into the mechanism that would slow the disc to safe speeds before ejecting it.

Re:Slot.

[Fred Or Alive]

I assume by spinner you mean a disc that hasn't been stopped before the being ejected? (Which means your drive is kinda broken, both tray and slot loading drives stop the disc before ejecting them). I kinda doubt that it would be spectacular discs of death. I'd imagine whatever mechanism moves the disk from the drive mechanism back out the slot would probably slow the disc down quite a bit, as it can't exactly be a zero-friction device to grab the disc in the first place. I doubt it would be propelled out of the drive at top speed, it would be no more dangerous than a tray loading drive ejecting a spinning disc (or turning off a tray loading device then opening the tray whilst the disc is spinning).

As for shrapnel from a disc shattering, slot loading drives (at least the one on my PCs) has a barrier that covers the slot when a disc is loaded (to stop you trying to force a second disc in I guess), so that would stop and shrapnel leaving the drive, although I'd guess the drive itself would be a writeoff. I don't think the slot is even in line with the level that the disc is actually played at.

Re:Slot.

[Politburo]

The PS2 doesn't even have a very high-speed drive, but imagine a 52X spinner shooting out of a game console's slot - that'd literally be like a buzzsaw heading most likely straight at you.

No it wouldn't.

From the Idlethumbs interview:

[Bertie]

Jesus Christ, it's David Brent.

"Hayes is visibly excited about the fact that 'his' product will soon be released into the wild. At the end of our interview, I asked him what it's like to work as a designer within a technology-oriented company. He picks up the table cloth between his fingers. "Table cloth right? Microsoft is the table cloth. Everything is influenced by technology. So the brand team has to come up, and understand and integrate the technology. As an industrial designer, I'm only as good as the technology we use. It's kind of the common language that connects everyone. But it also needs to be balanced out."

WHAT THE HELL IS HE ON ABOUT?

Re:From the Idlethumbs interview:

[F_Scentura]

"Table cloth right? Microsoft is the table cloth. Everything is influenced by technology. So the brand team has to come up, and understand and integrate the technology. As an industrial designer, I'm only as good as the technology we use. It's kind of the common language that connects everyone."

Reminds me of I Heart Huckabees :)

Re:From the Idlethumbs interview:

[Xentor]

When asked the same question, without a tablecloth available, he responded... "Well, imagine Microsoft is this glass, and this fork is a trans-ductional mode in the matter curve--"

"Hey, could you get your hands off my fork?"

"Ok, THIS fork--"

"That's the fork I was eating with."

"Ok, this knife then..."

Re:From the Idlethumbs interview:

[springbox]

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." ()

Re:From the Idlethumbs interview:

[destx]

OMGS! Einstein invented Longcat!!

Re:From the Idlethumbs interview:

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it obvious? He's describing the wonders of scientology!

PC/Console Combos

[TheZorch]

There were actually a few PC/Game Console Combo systems. One was a PC/Sega Genesis combo system that was only released in Japan. There was also one for the NES (aka the Famicom in Japan) that let you play NES cartridges, NES games on floppies, and PC games. Again, it was only released in Japan. Seems like the Japanese get all the great stuff and we only get it if we start demanding it. Maybe I should consider moving overseas. Hmmmmm.

Re:PC/Console Combos

[Ashe Tyrael]

I remember at least one shop having the PC/Sega Megadrive combo over here, in Britain, way way back in the mists of time. Never got one, though.

Re:PC/Console Combos

[Anonymous Coward]

One was a PC/Sega Genesis combo system that was only released in Japan.

More likely to have been a PC/Sega Megadrive combo system, since the name Genesis was only used in the USA.

I didn't know there'd been a Japanese combo, either. There was one in the UK - the Amstrad Mega-PC. Half 386 PC, half Sega Megadrive, all flop.

Re:PC/Console Combos

[TheZorch]

From what I remember the specs for the PC-Megadrive Combo weren't really that much to write home about. It was a generic Intel Pentium 166 (not sure if it was MMX or not) with 32MB of RAM, a 1.5 GB hard drive, CD-ROM, generic onboard sound and video, and a floppy drive. It ran Windows 95. Overall, it wasn't much to write home about. I don't know if it did well in Japan anyway considering the fact that Apple holds a much larger marketshare over there than Microsoft does.

Not True At All...

[jpiggot]

There's an easy and great looking "rack storage" solution for my Xbox and PS2, as well as for thousands of other devices...custom rackshelves from Middle Atlantic.

It's basically a rack shelf with a laser cut panel in the front that perfects fits the components (it doesn't work for Game Cube or any other "top loading" system, unless you put those on a sliding rack shelf, which is certainly doable.) I've not only racked my game systems, but everything else...DVD players, DSS, etc. And I've got a neat, clean, "custom fitted" appearance for everything.

Check them out...http://www.middleatlantic.com/

g'day cobber!

[Dogtanian]

They're selling them in Australia too. Not common, but you do see them in sydney shops from time to time.

There would have been more sold in Australia, but there was a hold up; Sony have to modify the Japanese PSXs to meet local standards, and they can't find enough people with the necessary skills to turn things upside-down.

Probably intentional

[CupBeEmpty]

I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics. A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.

I bet that this is actually a calulated move. This way their product is not just some anonymous unit in a rack of stereo equipment. This way it is sitting out by itself in its own area in many cases where visitors etc. look at it and see exactly what you have. My guess is that it is pure and simple advertising. When you think about it very few game consoles have been 'stackable' and almost all of them have a distinctive shape and pattern.

Prevents heat issues

[Anonymous Coward]

Using a design that cannot be stacked is a way to avoid heat related issues by ensuring the unit is never covered up.

Apple's response to Xbox design

[metroplex]

In other news, Apple announced it will introduce an iPod360 with the shape and size of an Xbob360, to make sure users will be able to stack them and interconnect them efficiently.

probably not

[xmodem_and_rommon]

Is there a console-stacking-scene out there that enjoys stacking consoles on top of each other?

probably not, but i intend to start one.

No stacking!

[bigbigbison]

Most of my components say not to stack anything on top of them anyway. They have vents in the top and are a bit warm on top. Of course that doesn't stop me from stacking them, but most manuals do say you shouldn't. See, by making them hard to stack, the game manufacturers are trying to help!

there are a lot of things like this

[argStyopa]

Actually I've been surprised that the whole 'convergence' thing of computers, stereos, DVRs, TVs, etc hasn't resolved a lot of inconsistencies at very basic levels that make integration difficult.

I am not an electrical engineer, but couldn't
- 3 cord, digital video cable
- S-video
- speaker wire
- coaxial antenna cable
- RCA-plug video connectors (VCR-TV)
- USB
all be functionally replaced by
- CAT5e with RJ45 connectors?

I mean, aside from setting on a stack-mount profile for equipment (gad, could you imagine how convenient that would be, that your "built in media niche" in your familyroom would actually fit multiple generations of components?), to be able to cable the whole system with a standard set of cables and a patch panel. It would be wonderful, IMO.

Re:there are a lot of things like this

[fishybell]

all be functionally replaced by
- CAT5e with RJ45 connectors?

No.
Network cable has very high gauge (ie. skinny as hell) wire; bad quality, easy to burn out with high-voltage. It's not shielded very well (compare to a decent Monster cable); really bad quality problems. It's also got the wrong number of wires for just about everything.

To sum up: use the right tool for the job.

Re:there are a lot of things like this

[denobug]

Humm. There are the RJ-45 adaptor solutions of KVM switch, RS-232, and even USB modules. The only thing is that the quality is not going to be perfect, only usable. Most of the solutions are either industrial or Server/Mainframe solutions where dependability is high on priority, not necessary your bandwidth or latency issue.

So say, for example, even if you have a powers socket on a RJ-45/speaker adaptor to drive your speaker, it is still difficult to put put enough resolutions to the signals across even a CAT6 cable to deliver the quality signals you would like to listen to from your speakers. Cat5e won't even make the cut. Previous poster has already mention why.

In addition, Once you have many Cat6 cable, you are back to your original problem: Too many cables to clutter up your cabinet space, only this time you won't even know which cable is for. The only better solutions is to have a "common" bus system, but again there is not a solution exist today that has enough bandwidth to accomodate all kinds of signals and protocols

Re:there are a lot of things like this

[mink]

Funny you use the words "decent" and "monster cable" in succession.
I hear they make some kick ass 802.1b cables, but thy cost a lot.

Re:there are a lot of things like this

[ZiZ]

It's not shielded very well
Actually, standard cat5 is unshielded ("Unshielded Twisted Pair", in fact). That's a problem for some component connections, but not for others. Likewise for 'low gauge' - cat5 cable is certainly capable of running some level of power across it. But, yeah, it's not the panacea some people think it is.

decent Monster cable
Military intelligence. GIANT SHRIMP!

To sum up: use the right tool for the job.
I think grandparent was suggesting that perhaps the 'standard' tools ought to be changed. There's some part of me that agrees - it's rather a rat's nest of cables behind my television - but another part of me is panicing and imagining Joe Sixpack trying to get warranty support after he's plugged his Newfangled High-Voltage Speaker Lead into the Newfangled Low-Voltage Video Input Port, which happen to be matching connectors, and caused his Newfangled HD-TV to turn into a pile of Old-Fashioned Scrap.

Impossible, you say? There was a fairly common barcode-reading device for PCs that plugged into an expansion card having what looked and acted for all the world like a VGA d-shell port, but happened to draw (lots of) power from the system. Plug a monitor into that "vga port", watch the magic smoke come out of the monitor.

Re:there are a lot of things like this

[Fred Or Alive]

In Europe the French came up with a one-for-everything TV connection solution called SCART, as a standard connection between TVs and stuff like VCRs etc. (RGB and composite video input, with a composite video output line, stereo sound, plus some control lines like a "look at me" signal, a widescreen signal etc.) Unline many French standards, this was has actually been adopted by almost all European TVs.

Now it's great, especially as it means most European TVs have RGB input. But it was designed in the early '80s, so newer standards like S-Video and YUV Component effectivley had to be hacked on later, and so you have a problem that TVs may or may not accept certain types of signals over SCART (yukky composite is about the only one you can be certain of, although RGB SCART is the most common version of the connector by far) It also doesn't support HDTV (except the YUV variant?), but that's probably moot as the all-in-one HDMI connector seems to being push for HDTV connections.

Oh, and the SCART connector is posibley the worst connector design ever made.

(Oh, and as most European TVs have SCART, games consoles are naturally ship with composite + stero connectors (RCA jacks) and a cheap adaptor, rather than a full RGB SCART cable, which is extra.)

Re:there are a lot of things like this

[Glendale2x]

In addition, Once you have many Cat6 cable, you are back to your original problem: Too many cables to clutter up your cabinet space, only this time you won't even know which cable is for. The only better solutions is to have a "common" bus system, but again there is not a solution exist today that has enough bandwidth to accomodate all kinds of signals and protocols

My Mitsubishi HDTV has a set of FireWire jacks on it. It's only plugged in to an old Mac which records and plays back HDTV, but FireWire 400 has plenty of bandwidth to handle HD video and DD5.1 audio. One cable; one small cable. Of course, the digital audio comes back out of the TV and into the preamp over a single coax cable. Sadly, there's pretty much nothing out there with FireWire on it. I had a Motorola cable set top box that had it; same deal, one cable and away you go.

Re:there are a lot of things like this

[denobug]

My Mitsubishi HDTV has a set of FireWire jacks on it. It's only plugged in to an old Mac which records and plays back HDTV, but FireWire 400 has plenty of bandwidth to handle HD video and DD5.1 audio. One cable; one small cable. Of course, the digital audio comes back out of the TV and into the preamp over a single coax cable. Sadly, there's pretty much nothing out there with FireWire on it. I had a Motorola cable set top box that had it; same deal, one cable and away you go.

You brought an interesting point. I was stuck with previous poster's comment and totally forget about the Firewire technology and how well they handle instant bandwidth.

I don't know, though how you would daisy-chain them together and still keep the bandwidth in check. Say, starting from your DVD player, fire-wire into a switch, then go from there to the HDTV and speakers while not having to send two sets of the audio signals.

Since I never used one, I don't know how your Motorola cable box works. I'm interested to find out however, how it can handled multiple incoming signals and deliver them to the right place (instead of being a hub, be a try-and-true fire-wire switch). While Firefire really shines in daisy-chained configuration (deliverying data point-to-point only), how well does it fare in the network of centralized structure mix with the daisy-chained output path. When it doesn't have to do much processing it might be fast, but how about when you actually do have to do some basic processing with the data?

Re:there are a lot of things like this

[Anonymous Coward]

You could use cat 5 or 6 cable if everything went digital, but then you'd need processing on the receiving in to decode it. I mean if you can carry 100Mbps over cat 5 using the 802 standards, you can easily push any high def signal over it. You'd just have more expensive components because they'd need hardware to decode that once the signal arrived.

rofl

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only person that started rofl'ing reading "Mirror plsokthxbbyelolroflcopterbbq!"? thats freakin hillarious.

Re:everytenminutes.com

[Sarmis]

And is it just me, or is this "viral" advirtisement getting worse and worse?

At least there have been some occasions where it got disguised as something other then pure spam.

Please, for the sake of us all, mod the parent down.

here's what you (i) do

[real_smiff]

build a classy HTPC in the case of your choice (mine is smaller than anything else (ooh am i going to slashdot them?) in my stack and powerful enough to run N64 emus and possibly later systems), say screw the new games, and play anything from about 1970 to 2000. I'm half serious.

Re:here's what you (i) do

[bhadreshl]

I thought I read "bi-tech.net" as "bi-tch.net". I think i'm going blind...

Phantom

[jlebrech]

They all look like the phantom to me. The white theme n all. i think phantom should sue, as they revealed their design first.

Re:Attention French rioters:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. If you had any brains you'd be burning down police stations and looting electronics stores.

There were prototypes?

[I Like Pudding]

Based on the final product, I thought they had just approved the first "we are futuristic like so much iPod" design to land on their collective desk. I can totally see Woody Allen setting one up besides his Orgasmotron.

I don't get the joke

[fistfullast33l]

the /. eeeevil is so great it can take coralcache down too...

I hope there isn't a "Didn't get the joke" mod. The server probably was decimated before coral could properly cache the page.

Like the MegaDrive PC

[Tryfen]

Amstrad sold a PC with a MegaDrive (Genesis) built into it.

http://assembler.roarvgm.com/Amstrad_megadrive_com puter_1/amstrad_megadrive_computer_1.html

Bastards

[throwed]

Those responsible for the concave design element need to be held accountable, and I hope your winkie burns when you pee!

Sexism in gaming...

[Hamster Lover]

You're not alone, but you're in a pretty much irrelevant minority. Most people who buy XBoxes/Playstations etc don't have racks

Come on, I have a few gamer friends with nice racks.

Re:Sexism in gaming...

[@madeus]

Come on, I have a few gamer friends with nice racks.

Tell me about it, man I really need to cut down on the cakes.

HOW IS THIS NEWS

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, pictures of these prototypes were in Time magazine back when Microsoft unveiled the 360. What's the big deal?

Oh, yeah. For a second I forgot that I was at slashdot, home of micro~1 and apple fanbois.

Raw power has an aethestic all it's own

[Alien54]

I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics. A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.

It doesn't help with the marketing, I imagine. They want each console to be (and LOOK) different than the others, to have its own character. This is not as important for stereo components.

Obviously, they think that there is no possible reason why you would want to buy somebody else's product, and no reason what so ever why they should play nice with others.

Of course a nice rack mount configuration can't be that difficult to dream up. Unless you are a game designer. Because then, the game would have to stand solely on the inherent merits of it's value as a system, not on it's value as eye candy.

I wouldn't mind a fugly rack or stack system, as long as it blew other folks away. Raw power has an aethestic all it's own.

And there is a certain perverse pleasure to having a rackmount gaming system. It says something.

Re:Raw power has an aethestic all it's own

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering that Microsoft is part of the push to get a unified online system so your gamecube buddies can play against you, and Sony's the only one not on board, I'd say that multiple-console ownership is not an issue for Xbox

Slot loading is fine, but not necessary

[Sycraft-fu]

The really imporant thing isn't the specific design, just that it's compatible with what most people have. Well my reciever, DVD player, VCR, cable box, etc are all basically the same. They are about 1 RU wide, have little feet to keep airspace if they are stacked, have controls and (if applicable) media loading on the front, connectors on the rear, nothing on the sides, top or bottom. End result is a nice stack of gear that's easy to access.

So slot, tray, caddy, whatever, doesn't matter, just mark it front loading, and make the case a size and shape such that it stacks well with normal AV gear. I don't want my console sitting on the floor in front of my TV, yet that seems to be what the design mandidates.

Hell even the reciever knows it. It has a whole bunch of inputs on the back of varying types, however there's one front panel input with s-video, composite, 2-channel analogue and optical ins... Just what one would need for almost every console on the market when the reciever was designed.

Re:Slot loading is fine, but not necessary

[Vo0k]

Well, the question was how to make it stackable while durable. Top-loading is not stackable, tray may break off. So thing is about devising a way how to insert media into a stackable thing.

Dude, you really need to chill out.

[Anonymous Coward]

Before you pop a blood vessel, that is.

Obligatory Alien reference

[eggmit]

Reminds me of the failed clones from Alien: Resurrection

http://www.stampede-entertainment.com/monstermaker s/a-alien-8-l.html

Re:"X-Box"

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is parent modded down ? There are several valid points.

Yes!

[dep01]

The Slashdot Community is responsible for yet another server-obliteration.

Re:Yes!

[boot1973]

Kinda makes you proud doesn't it?

Re:Yes!

[dep01]

I shed a little tear, yes. The power of numbers...

Too me, the X360 looks like a white Dell.

[JackAxe]

It looks sometwhat like the Dell GX270.

Re:"X-Box"

[Caspian]

Because Slashdotters are unwilling to accept criticism. I'm sure someone reading my comments is thinking "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar", but the time for "honey" is long past. Every goddamned day, the same bunch of geeks make the same old stupid mistakes, every goddamned day, some "Nazis" like myself point out the mistakes, and every goddamned day the "Nazis" gee modded down as "trolls" or "flamebaiters".

After the first few thousand times, you get sick and tired of "playing nice".

PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN TO FUCKING WRITE.

Mod this up...

[Pii]

Raw power has an aethestic all it's own.

$800 PSX

[Dog135]

who wants to pay $800 (80,000 yen) for one

I would. If it was a PS3. I don't currently have a DVR, but I want one. And I want a PS3 when they come out. (I currently have a PS2) To have a DVR and a game station together, that's really nice. Plus it burns DVDs. $800 is about the price of the individual components.

Re:$800 PSX

[McFadden]

Except it's not a PS3. It's was a vain attempt by Sony to extend the life of the PS2 by combining it with a sub-standard DVR. In the last quarter I think they've sold about 20.

Stackmodel

[desalien]

I prefer stack-model 2 Easy to build a Xbox cluster :-D

Re:"X-Box"

[Anonymous Coward]

every goddamned day the "Nazis" gee modded down

PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN TO FUCKING SPELLCHECK

Re:"X-Box"

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus Christacles! Dno't you konw taht on teh itenrnet you can sepll hwoeevr you wnat to?

Re:"X-Box"

[Anonymous Coward]

You, mister, are a bloody imposter. You are not me... you are some bloody other anonymous coward.

Winamp

[StikyPad]

The designs all look like old WinAmp skins to me: same layout with different color schemes. I'm just surprised there wasn't one design with a chick on it.

Re:Winamp

[UltraAyla]

I agree - they for the most part don't even look like very GOOD winamp skins. It would be pretty cool to have a truly freeform skin on a console though, like in winamp 5

though I guess that's what we have PCs for

also, from the article: "the third picture is close to the final design"
--am I the only one who thinks that the third design is the worst? probably not

Re:Winamp

[Anonymous Coward]

2 words.

Customizable Faceplates.

Re:"X-Box"

[crazyphilman]

Pardon me, Mr. Grammar Nazi, sir, but I couldn't help but notice that your sentence:

"PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN TO FUCKING WRITE"

is missing a word. I believe what you meant to say was:

"SOME PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO FUCKING WRITE"

Although I believe that, too, is a bit churlish. Perhaps you would be better served if you were to say:

"I say, old boy, I do believe that certain undesireables among us have demonstrated a need, I daresay a BURNING need, to learn how to better communicate with their Slashdot bretheren."

You're welcome!

Yes, you are alone.

[Neuroelectronic]

Some of us don't have sterio racks. I certinly don't want my console to be as big as a record player either.