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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.
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.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.
- George Orwell
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
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.
- George Orwell
Here
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.
...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..
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
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.)
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
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/
StupidChildren...the reason jesus is crying
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.
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.
Amstrad sold a PC with a MegaDrive (Genesis) built into it.
m puter_1/amstrad_megadrive_computer_1.html
http://assembler.roarvgm.com/Amstrad_megadrive_co
If a square is really a rhombus, why aren't all triangles purple?
Before you pop a blood vessel, that is.
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.)
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10