The original Xbox was announced 19 years ago, share your memories

[Mack]

I didn't get mine till 2002, when I was blown away by Halo: Combat Evolved. It was my main console from that time to 2005. A great system with a load of amazing exclusives like PGR, Ninja Gaiden, Fable, KotOR, Jade Empire and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, just to name a few.

 

[KamenSenshi]

Seeing it and playing nfl fever in Funco land. Always wanted True Fantasy Online or whatever it was gonna be called. It really was like the new Dreamcast with a ton of Sega games going to it. I remember wishing that it got Virtua Fighter 4 like immediately. Had a special edition one but it's gone now, still have Shenmue 2 though lol.

 

[new londo ruins]

first new console my family ever owned (we had been given a ps1 but it didn't see a ton of use). ours came with Midtown Madness 3 and Brute Force, of which i played the absolute crap out of the former.

the og xbox dashboard is forever embedded in my mind, beautiful green abyss

 

[nekkid]

I was 100% a PC gamer, so bought mine because of Halo and PGR, but partly to wind up this kid at school who was a massive PS fanboy and weirdly insecure about Microsoft releasing a games console by showing me pictures of the X dev kit saying how stupid it looked lol.

 

[Thanathorn]

It was mid way through that gen and I had been sharing a PlayStation 2 with my brother. For my birthday my parents decided to get me my own console. Picked up Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Conkers live and reloaded, Blinx and Stubbz the Zombie. It was so awesome having my own console.

 

[DopeyFish]

Getting to speak to the Rock and j allard after the CES reveal was a wild experience

 

[henhowc]

Definitely a weird period for me where I barely played any console games except in the summer due to being in college. Was in the dorms were I had super fast internet compared to what was available as home so I'd go from playing online FPSes to offline LAN Halo when I went home on weekends. Didn't seem to meet too many hardcore gamers in college despite being on that engineering track.

Halo lan parties were the best. 4 dudes per tv per room on what would now be considered tiny TVs. That and Golden Eye on N64 were the days. Online is nice and convenient but its just different these days.

Nostalgia for my college and high school gaming buddies hitting hard haha

 

[Kapryov]

Ripping all my CDs onto the thing so I could change the soundtracks on the GTA games, and DOAX (which was legit fun back then, with a surprisingly detailed playlist editor).

It was my unofficial Dreamcast 1.5, when Sega dropped outa the console business I went straight to Xbox. Had great times playing the Rallisport Challenge games, Buffy, Shenmue 2, all the DOA games, and the Balder's Gate DA series with roommates. I ended up modding the thing a few years later and made it a media hub for a while, and I could install my games on a larger HDD.
I still have the Xbox, but it's dead. I think it was that capacitor thingie, I never knew about it.

Oh yeah, and Bioware was awesome back then. You knew you were in for something special when you saw their logo.

 

[Fat4all]

 

[DopeyFish]

Also the Xbox wasn't announced at CES btw. It was announced in March 2000 iirc at GDC. This was just the hardware reveal with ummm that hammer game with the red headed girl and oddworld and uhh I forgot I could have sworn there was 3 games

Edit: Malice, Oddworld, Tony Hawk 2X and WWE wrestling

 

[doemaaan]

Never owned one, but I do remember it being the subject of many school lunch-time conversations about losing the race against Nintendo and Sony in the beginning of its' life cycle. "hurr hurr how do they think they can stand with Japanese consoles and it's super ugly lol it looks like a train derp" 🙄.

Little did I know, I'd end up consuming myself in Fable and become a regular at my friends house for weekend Halo party sessions...

 

[Adookah]

Never had the OG Xbox, but I was always happy when my cousin from Belgium brought it with him. PGR and Rallisport Challenge were amazing.

 

[Burt]

Saying 'fuck studying' for midterms in high school to play crazy amounts of Halo 2 online with me buds

 

[Humidex]

OG XBOX owner here. And yes, countless hours of student study lost to PGR2 and SSX Tricky...

 

[Raide]

Buying it, taking it to my friends house and then spending hours and hours getting Xbox Live to work. What happened after was years of quality entertainment but also started to make the shift away from splitscreen games of N64 days and into the online world.

Loved Jade Empire, just such a unique and interesting game. Plus the combat was ace. PGR will always be a hit for me.

 

[rude]

I'm still mad.

First Xbox was kind of shit. The only memorable experiences I had were Ninja Gaiden and Conker.

 

[shounenka]

Like everyone else in Japan I thought the Xbox was a joke of a console when it was first revealed and that MS had no business competing with Sony, whose PS2 had buried the Dreamcast and was absolutely dominant at the time, in the console space.

Then I saw screenshots of Crimson Sea (think "Dynasty Warriors" with bugs) by Koei and decided that I absolutely had to have one. Funnily enough I interviewed with Koei for a job shortly afterwards, but that's another story for another time.

In the end, some of my favorite games ever (Halo 1&2 and the Otogi series) were on the console, and I remember the novelty of dropping 20000 yen/bout 200 bucks on the original Tekki/Steel Battalion on release day and setting up that big-ass controller in my apartment. N.U.D.E., in which you use voice chat to "develop" a female android, was also a novel experiment at the time. The first DOA Xtreme was also good for the lulz too

Would buy remastered versions of the Otogi games in an instant.

 

[Raide]

I'm still mad.

First Xbox was kind of shit. The only memorable experiences I had were Ninja Gaiden and Conker.

Click to shrink...

You jerk! I so wanted to be a chef in that world.

 

[oracledragon]

Got mine on launch day with Halo, DOA3, and two Dukes, for what seemed like way too much money. I still have that original launch unit, trucking along, although I did give up both Dukes for S controllers over time. Still have an Xbox Live beta kit somewhere around here as well.

I remember having study groups in college for finals: I'd bring the Xbox to school with some extra controllers. We would take over one of the auditoriums (this was in the evening, 8PM+) after we were done our study session, and play 4 player splitscreen games (mainly Rallisport Challenge) on one of the giant projection screens ;)

 

[liquidtmd]

Picked one up through its run and had an incredible time. I went from owning a PS1 to Dreamcast and then remember being underwhelmed generally by the PS2 - many games on the machine felt washed out to me.

So I picked up an Xbox and had a great time. Many of the PS2 titles I wanted like Silent Hill 2, Tony Hawk's and MGS2 had made their way on it, and there were some amazing console exclusives. It was built like a tank, was reliable as hell and my overall impressions of it were strong enough to make me go 360 in the next gen (with no regrets - I only came back to PlayStation with 4 after the bad Xbone opening conference)

Very fond memories of playing Morrowind and KOTOR

 

[Darknight34]

Getting super excited.. Getting told about halo and Kotor coming out later.. Taking it all to a gaming party.. And then getting made fun of like crazy, because everyone was into smash Bros. The next party with those friends though, it's was a halo Lan party.. Ya.. I became the cool kid.

 

[Nemesis121]

OG Xbox owner went to timesquare launch, still have that system.

 

[Escaflow]

It makes PS2 graphics looks like shit

 

[Jawmuncher]

I remember I hated the xbox at first and what turn me around was playing a Demo Unit of NHL Blitz and scoring a goal with my goalie from half-way across the rink. After that I played Halo and a slew of other titles and it easily became one of my favorite consoles at the time. Being able to have the "best" version of Third Party titles was pretty nice since the difference between PS2 and Xbox power wise was always pretty noticeable.

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

Playing Xbox Live for the first time with my brother after a family friend set it up for us. Our gamertag was XboxHammer (I don't think there were any numbers). Good times playing Halo 2. That was the first time I really got hooked on games. Before then I had just played casually.

 

[finfinfin]

Jet Set Radio Future.

 

[RedRum]

Rainbow Six 3 is where I started online console multiplayer. What a time that was.

 

[CanUKlehead]

Uploading songs from ripped CDs on that once-cavernous hard drive, and playing them on NFL 2K5 or PGR2. I got a PS2 first but Xbox became my go-to for 3rd party games primarily cause of what the hard drive could do.

 

[Iztok]

I skipped that entire console gen, I think I only had a PS2 later on.
Was primarily on PC during that gen.

I have several now and enjoy discovering games on them, I especially like how much better they run than PS2 equivalents.

 

[raketenrolf]

Hated the fact that MS made a console, played Halo on launch day with my cousin (they bought the console) and loved the hell out of it. But I didn't buy one immediately after playing since I was like 13 or so and had no money. Bought it months later.

One of my favorite systems.

 

[Makoto Yuki]

Halo split screen, good times.

 

[Zaki2407]

It priced about $US 1.000 + 3 free games in my country back in 2001.
Got mine in 2002 when the price was back to "normal".

 

[SharpX68K]

20+ years ago (late 1999) we got the first major reports about XBOX.

(EDGE UK)

 

[Gloam]

The Xbox was a Third Strike machine for me, a bit of KOF on there as well. I had a nice Saturn joystick that I was able to use with a convertor. I liked Halo as well but played it way more on PC than on Xbox. The system always felt like an also ran to me.

 

[DoktorAkcel]

Click to shrink...

Ironically, they weren't that far on that controller concept, as Xbox at the development stages used 3DFX Hammerhead controllers

 

[Deleted member 18951]

What a truly incredible box it was with a pretty incredible lineup of first and second party offerings.

 

[Bioshocker]

It's still the only console I've bought day one. It was crazy expensive here in Sweden, 5000SEK at the time which would be more than €500 today. Then came that price drop and we got to choose two free games and an extra controller. I loved it, so many great experiences with that console. It was reliable too, especially compared to its successor.

 

[Inugami]

Gave me Knights of the Old Republic before it got PC ports, and for that reason alone I have super fond memories of it.

 

[Bioshocker]

Uploading songs from ripped CDs on that once-cavernous hard drive, and playing them on NFL 2K5 or PGR2. I got a PS2 first but Xbox became my go-to for 3rd party games primarily cause of what the hard drive could do.

Click to shrink...

Oh, yes. I loved being able to play my own music in PGR2, thought the PS2 was so obsolete because of this.

 

[Pancakes R Us]

Recently bought a crystal Xbox on eBay for the memories again. Still have a few Burnout games and maybe Conker somewhere. Gonna get it modded!

 

[Kill3r7]

Halo. There simply was nothing like it on consoles.

For a college student it was easily the best multimedia player for the money, especially once you got XBMC up and running.

 

[Jiraiya]

It introduced me to the 2k series and forza. I've yet to miss a single entry in either franchise.

I remember thinking forza was amazing because it was my first simulator and another reason i didn't need a PlayStation i couldn't buy. Building my garage based on the region of cars i picked felt personal and the driving was top notch.

Oh...halo was as good as advertised. I don't think id played a fps that controlled that well before. The warthog especially felt great.

 

[hipsterbodega]

I bought the original Xbox the moment it came packed with Jet Set Radio Future and Sega GT for free. It was a good deal! I went to the mall with my then girlfriend, purchased the Xbox, and then we proceeded to go to the stores she wanted to go to.

That Xbox got fucking heavy. And I mentioned something and she said something snarky about how I couldn't even carry video games. She snatched it away from me to prove it wasn't heavy and within minutes, wordlessly thrust it back into my arms. She was kind of an asshole.

Anyway:
Fable
Knights of the Old Republic
Advent Rising
Jet Set Radio Future
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Otogi
Darkwatch
Timesplitters 3
Phantom Dust
Dues Ex: Invisible War
all rule and I enjoyed the original Xbox. It was my third-in-line console after the GameCube and PS2, but it still had a fair number of games I truly liked.

 

[nbnt]

The original Xbox to me was the Shenmue 2, DOA3, and Ninja Gaiden machine. I don't remember playing anything else on it, lol.

 

[HStallion]

Thinking on it I think the original Xbox might be my favorite of the line so far. I just have a lot of great memories of playing games like Strangers Wrath and Otogi for hours on the original at my parents old place. Good times and good memories.

 

[Tpallidum]

So much Project Gotham Reaching 2. Driving with with my own ripped CD music was next level shit. Could never quite get some of those Platinum challenge medals though. Those were tough as hell. I also remember the tango shoes song in the ost also cat and mouse "custom" multiplayer games in the online mode. Amazing game.

 

[Joe White]

I was 100% a PC gamer, so bought mine because of Halo

Click to shrink...

I think it was playing the Silent Cartographer in split-screen and driving Warthog around the beach that managed to convince a me that I actually need a console.

 

[cvxfreak]

It never got an RE game so I've never gone back to it after the 360 launched, but I picked one up at the NA launch. Never liked the design much, but its technical prowess over its competitors was very noticeable and it spearheaded the push toward integrated storage and broadband gaming. Have great memories playing DOA3 and Shenmue II on it.

 

[Legacy]

Halo, Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon is what brought me over to OG Xbox. I remember selling my GameCube to help pay for one. Countless memories of playing coop Halo with my younger brothers and also multiplayer in XIII.

I've been primarily Xbox ever since.

 

[Magoo]

Got one on launch day but didn't get any games, I wasn't really a shooter fan so didn't want Halo and HMV didn't get Project Gotham in. So I played a lot of the Fuzion Frenzy demo I got from the official magazine until I had enough to buy Jet Set Radio Future.

Not long after release they dropped quite a bit off the official price but offered to send a control pad and two games to anyone to purchased it at full price if you sent a form in.

So I went back to HMV for that and got the pad with Halo and Dead or Alive 3.

It ended up being my most used console when I had a PS2 and GameCube too. Loved the RPGs like Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic. Then Splinter Cell and that Rainbow Six that came with a headset where you talked to the game. It was my favourite Microsoft console even now.