Join John, Rich and Alex for a lighthearted look at the original reveal for Xbox 360 way back at E3 2005. How does the presentation stand up today and how does it compare to the infamous Sony PS3 conference?
Omg ikr? I used the normal composite cable and I heard how an HDMI would make it better. I didn't really buy that since I thought what could a cable half the size do that mine can't do already? I remember booting up after putting in the HDMI and right after, the xbox logo looked smalled but was much sharper and everything was scaled well to a 1080p TV. Good times.
I remember the first game I played in HD on the 360 was Skyrim, and I remember being blown away at how crisp the text looked on the loading screen hahaha
I got the VGA cable. I swear that thing took away all the jaggies. I used to test HDMI vs the VGA and VGA was more crisp but HDMI had more color detail. I bought a flat screen in 2006 while stationed in Germany that supported it.
When this released I was working at the offices of Sony TV in Toronto and we had that HD CRT TV and one coworker had the 360 and we connected it with component cables. It was the first time I saw HD gaming. Game was perfect dark. I still remember how amazing it looked and how I was just mind blown at the quality
I remember waiting second in line at Walmart for 11 hours to get one of these. They cut off everyone after 50 people as that was their stock. Walmart fed us pizza and Dr Pepper. Amazed that we were getting a 20gig hard drive and how impossible it seemed to fill it. Good times!!
As I said, 50 units were available and they were turning people away. We just didn’t have enough to go around where I lived at the time. Same with the PS3. I waited on that a few years however. But if you didn’t wait in line or camp the night before you didn’t get one for quite awhile. Maybe a month or so.
This is definitely one of those OG nerdy channels on YT and I love it. There's so many videogame channels that don't actually know anything about how videogames actually work
25 now. Was 11 when 360 was announced. Never been so hyped in my life, even to this day. Of course any enthusiasm about life dies really quickly as you grow. I remember the day I got one I felt like I was in a dream. It was unbelievable. Don't think there will ever be a console so advanced for its time as the 360 was. Got the red ring in 2008, send it in for 100 bucks to get it fixed and the issue was back in about a month. It's still laying in my closet in its original packaging. Every time I look at it I'm reminded of childhood and tear up a bit.
I was also about 13 or so and had to sent my console back about 3 or 4 times because of that red ring… I remember unboxing the console Microsoft sent me and it instantly had problems. Very annoying and it was like a month to send and get back it felt like..
@@XgamerdaveX they held off on making you pay for a service they gave for free til 2018 yet they say Nintendo should be embarrassed. Bit confusing. Pc master race anyway, no extra payments for stuff that should be free.
This was awesome. I remember they pushed the vertical standing capabilities of the 360 so hard and my very first 360 playthrough (Halo 3), the disc drive carved out the edge of the disc and ruined it halfway through the playthrough. No more vertical standing after that.
that was a issue with first 360 models, i think there was even a class suit about it and they gave replacement games and systems for people who had that issue
Another easy way to destroy your disks, even with a newer slim Xbox 360, was moving it around or tilting it at all with a disc running. Would immediately grind up the surface the of disk and ruin your game. R.I.P. my friends copy of Black Ops II
The Xbox 360 had a 3.2 GHz xenon cpu, 500 MHz ati xenos GPU and 500 mb of unified ram with 10mb of sdram for 2xmsaa and 48 unified shader pipeline, an absolute beast in its time and unbelievable to think it ran old gen version graphically demanding games such as GTA 5, Far Cry 4, MGS 5, rise of tomb raider and many more.
Evil Morty indeed but most of the time multiplats shined on 360 running at 720p 30fps whereas ps3 struggled a little to keep that 720p mark like in case of RDR 698p, on the other hand ps3 shined in exclusives Last of us and Uncharted 2 blow the 360 away !
Evil Morty The cell processor had 6 individual ppu that each one of them had to be programed individually to take full power of the CPU which many devs didn't bother to do so from 2006 to 2009 complex games ran somewhat bad, it wasn't until uncharted 2 that showed the true power of the hardware, yet multiplats still looked and ran better on 360 except for really minor cases.
Tchitchouan Inouane Naughty Dog is the best. The Last of Us 2 looks head and shoulders better than any upcoming game and my mind is blown when I think that the first Last of Us ran on a 2006 hardware. That game still holds up really well when compared to the current AAA games.
SoulCalibur 2 Had Link on Gamecube, Heihachi on PS2, and Spawn on Xbox. SoulCalibur 3 was PS2 exclusive and had no guest character. SoulCalibur 4 had Vader On PS3 and Yoda on 360, and Starkiller on both, Yoda and Vader were made available as DLC on both platforms.
Aside from RRoD the 360 was such a damn good console. Staying up late playing Oblivion, Mass Effect, GoW etc will always be in back of my head making me feel super nostalgic, guess I gotta start building that collection back up.
Lmfao. I went through 3 of these sorry ass systems. And countless hours on the phone with Microshit. Never again will I give them money. I was honestly shocked when they released the xboxone. I figured after the 360 they would pull out of gaming
@Ioannis Stf yeah I really dont understand why people defend the 360. The only reason it stayed afloat is because Microsoft can take the hit. If this had been Sega it would be all over
Haven't even watched this yet, but I KNOW I am going to love every single _second_ of it. *Please continue to do these for all major video game console releases.* There's just something about the history of consoles that's inexplicably, intoxicatingly interesting. I love revisiting these happy and exciting times in my past, of course, but more than that, I now find it even more compelling to learn about the tech that went into these, the R&D, the competition, the risk, the reward....it's like an unbelievably high-stakes sport. I can't get enough!
19:26 "I just can't stop thinking about raytracing these days man" As weird as it may seem now, that comment one day will sound just as dated as this old 2005 trailer xD
Lmfao golden years??? This was the worst console. I'll never understand fan boys. I went through 3 of these and countless hours on the phone with Microshit 'support'
@@noobdebusca1757 right? I'll never get why people continued to support this awful company. I was shocked when they released the xbox1. I figured they'd stop after the 360. I went through 3 of those awful consoles
I remember the excitement surrounding the Xbox 360 back in high school. I wonder if kids today feel that same excitement for current/upcoming consoles?
Shoot I remember the graphical leap from NES to SNES.. Remastered original Mario bros all stars was the biggest jaw drop for me at the time. But going into the era of 3D gaming for the first time with N64.. something sadly I'll never excperie again. Even the jump to HD wasn't enough to capture that amazingly enough. Glad I grew up in the 90s/early 2000s.
@Caffeinated Critic pc is same thing. The revolution in graphics is just over. Last time I was blown away was the dreamcast and currently only VR does that.
@@drunkensailor112 Yes, I just played Resident Evil 7 on PSVR, and that gave me the same sense of amazement that the old console launches used to. It's getting rarer thanks to the plateauing of graphical power.
The Xbox 360 era was something truly special. Many a cherished memories to be had -- I absolutely loved it. Even when I learned of the fact that Microsoft had set aside 1.5 billion for the Red Ring Of Death malfunctions, which happened to both of my consoles and an E74 error on the newer models. Damn, thinking back now, the RROD would have most certainly severely crippled any other company. Yet the legacy still lives on, that's some testament of the brand, alright, especially, in the eyes of the consumers.
The Xbox 360 was a cultural phenomenon, you weren’t cool growing up if you didn’t have one, it influenced television and film and it was the first time we had online play for the masses. I remember how exciting it was to play online with your friends and how new it felt.
The caves in Oblivion use parallax occlusion mapping on Xbox 360. I remember, because it was the first time I'd ever seen it. I didn't know what I was looking at, but it was mesmerising.
17 years of age when this came out. Me and my friends were at that sweet point in your life when you can finally afford to buy ya own console! (After saving money working part time jobs). So much hype going into it. And they were very low in stock here in the uk. But me and my buddies lined up at midnight at Tesco’s and managed to snag one each. Great days. Until I got home and played perfect dark zero 😆
After the electricity went out and came back in 2011, my console got rrod for a few minutes. I just unplugged and replugged hoping it will be fixed and surprisingly it did.
mine died in 2007. then i bought another one in 2008. that one died in 2013. but by then i already had another one i bought in 2010, that still works and will probably last for a long time still (it's the black angular remodel one)
Bro same my parents keep saying sell it I say nah the 360 awesome stuff right there hopefully the Microsoft bounces back next Gen and I'm speaking as a Playstation fan
@Mega Drive They Kinnect was garbage and just Microsoft's attempt at the Wii market. Fast forward to today and the Kinnect is completely DEAD, while the PS Move is still being used and sold for VR. So what was a "fail" again?
@DigitalFoundry John mentions the final fantasy tech demo at 1:12:40 , this was Project Rapture, it was used as an early development phase for the original Final Fantasy XIV (now A Realm Reborn). My guess was that was how they wanted to render city hubs at larger detail than FFXI, and FFXIV being very inspired by XI at first makes it make more sense.
Great trip down memory lane guys. I love the og xbox and early 360 days. Xbox original was the first console I bought with my own money so its still one of my favorite consoles. I remember watching this video live back in the day. 360 was so great when it dropped. Oblivion ruled my life along with NFS most wanted , kameo and perfect dark. If only the current xbox team shared the passion the early team had. So many great ip's lost to time. EDIT: The blades were awesome.
Klumsy Kameleon yep definitely, and the way sony is going at it. This gen is most likely going to be the just like the ps2 to ps3 upgrade. Sony is just being greedy right now and they seem to be forgetting that history likes to repeat itself..
You should know that the Xbox actually have Windows build in. You can choose either pc or Xbox. Without windows forget it. Impossible. So Xbox still has exclusive together with pc.
@@ireallyreallyreallylikethisimg I don't really care what happens, but if it ends up like PS3 Sony will be dead. Playstation is what's keeping them alive. And from how it looks Xbox will have the better hardware and it already has the best online port. All they need are exclusives.
Oblivion was the reason for buying a 360 I remember trading all my PS2 games along with the PS2 just to play it. Then I received the dreadful red ring of death. Where's my red ring of death squad?!
this brings me back lol. rented gears of war from the blockbuster and i immediately bought it after my time was up. i was hooked. kinda makes me feel like a junkie fondly remembering their first hit
41:15 Great moment, at the time, a real tidal wave, with Blue Dragon! Kameo, Lost Odyssey, Gears, PGR and Blue Dragon, this crazy console as soon as it's announced!
The Xbox 360 was the only console that supported literally every resolution besides 4k. This machine also scaled extremely well on literally everything it was plugged into being a plasma, PC LCD or CRT monitor or HD TV. I miss those days.
34:40 Jumps straight into the most obviously stuntman replaced scene of all time. Thanks MS. And seriously... I get more excited watching this than anything from a recent E3. There's something visionary about this that's completely lacking in gaming today. Everything has been done before, and it's all about monetisation and cynicism.
I love my Xbox 360. I brought the Slim version way back in 2011. Even though I game nowadays mostly on my PC. I come back now and then to play Halo or Gears of War.
Its too bad the skit that was omitted in this video is the one that truly started the Terraflop wars. Such an important moment in history that needs to be preserved.
@@ChristianVezina nostalgia is a hell of a drug. I even see people say the 360’s controller was better than the Xbox One’s, and I’m like, with that D-Pad? The play and charge kit? The proprietary headset jack? The 360 had a better library, but the One certainly had better hardware.
Went through at least a half dozen 360 consoles thanks to the infamous "Red Ring Of Death" before MS refined the engineering of the console with the Falcon Chipset design and then came out with the subsequent slim 360 that I still possess to this day. Those were dark days 15 years ago!
The Xbox 360 was one of the best thought out consoles ever created. The Scaler chip allowed you to literally plug in any monitor/screen on the planet and it looked great. Also, system link/ split screen kept many games playable even today. Compare those features to this generation from both Sony and MS. System link is literally non existent in most titles as well as split screen. At least MS Xbox One can utilize 720p, 1080p, 1440p and 4k and controller batteries can more easily be changed on the fly...literally in 10 seconds. Great video, like my PS3, but absolutely love the Xbox 360.
I remember the launch of the Xbox 360. I wanted one so bad but every store was out of stock and I mean every store. The stock drought lasted for what seemed like an eternity. I played Call of Duty 2 at Future Shop (Canada, RIP Future Shop) on a 720p Samsung HDTV and I was absolutely amazed at the graphics and how crisp it was. I couldn’t believe it and I had to have one. However due to it being out of stock everywhere for what seemed like forever, I got a 720p TV for Christmas 2005 instead and then for Christmas 2006 I got an Xbox 360. So many memories playing Call of Duty 2, Gears of War 1, Rainbow Six Vegas, Halo 3 and of course lots more.
Timeshift totally works on a windows 10 machine. I had it running with 4k DSR and reshade. Godsdamned ambient occulsion too. Fire your tech guy and hire me.
you can actually see the consoles becoming more similar with each generation / iteration. PS2 / Xbox = Sony/Toshiba emotion engine vs intel + nvidia PS3 / 360 = IBM/Sony Cell + nvidia vs IBM PowerPC + ATI PS4 / Xbone = AMD jaguar APU GDDR5 vs AMD jaguar APU DDR3 PS4 PRO / XboneX = AMD jaguar APU vs AMD jaguar APU PS5 / Xbox4 = AMD Ryzen + Navi APU vs AMD Ryzen + Navi APU ??? thats what seems to be in the cards at-least.
I was 16 working at Walmart when this and the ps3 and Wii launched and I remember the long line ups outside after work. I saved up enough to buy a 360 that year good times
These games still look effin great to me. Diminishing returns and all that... And experience, immersion wise, and just general wow-factor, nothing this gen have come even close to the peaks from last gen for me. New Vegas, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Burnout Paradise, RDR and even something as GTA4, are untouched. Yes, games look better these days, but they feel increasingly like they were design by a committee with only marketability and revenues in mind, and they all have this blandness and formulaic feel to them that I absolutely cannot stand. Hopefully, the increase in CPU power next gen will actually give us some generational leaps in other eras than just the surface... but then again, we're still dealing with the same greedy-ass companies...
you can expect a three-fold increase in cpu processing power compared to the pro/x for the next gen, and four times for the base consoles. i expect the next consoles to get a 3-ish ghz ryzen 16 threaded octacore as opposed to a 1.6~1.75ghz pseudo-octa with half the IPC of a ryzen.
Seeing Call of Duty 2 running at 60fps, looking as good as it did. Sold me the 360. This after my old ati 9700 pro barely did 30-40fps at lower settings.
Great video guys, would love to see an DF Retro insight into the PS2 game "S.L.A.I.: Steel Lancer Arena International", I didn't play it at the time of release and I'd never heard of it or encountered in here in the UK back then. But it's incredibly advanced for the hardware, online fast paced deathmatch/team deathmatch gameplay, with a whole online hub space with potential for hundreds of players, massive customisation of mechs, and great graphics/mechanics for the time.
How nostalgic ! @John: About the interjection you showed near the end of the video, you may already know but it's actually called "Project Rapture". Project Rapture was an engine developped internally for SE next MMO to replace FFXI and reusing old assets from it, it ultimately became Final Fantasy XIV 1.0
Where did it all go wrong? This was brilliant marketing, Xbox gave us the best generation ever because of this. Here’s hoping they can do the same again this time around.
Fun fact: Early Xbox developer kits were Apple Power Mac G5 computers and some of the early games shown on show-floors were running on Apple Mac G5's under the desks. This was because Apple at the time used the PowerPC architecture - which the Xbox 360 adopted - the endianness (what way bytes go for 16, 32, 64 bit numbers) are reversed on PPC architecture by default (big endian) compared to x86 (little endian). It was around this era that Apple switched to Intel x86, Steve Jobs with Gates made a remark how they're moving away from PPC just as Microsoft moves to it for Xbox.
On the topic of why they showed some games with single frames that looked choppy...even though true, as a gamer back than i and probably most people didnt notice that. We were just blown by the graphics, great marketing. Back than only the Pros would comment on frame rate. It just wasnt much of a topic as it is now since the graphical advancements were much bigger back then. Today we just expect it has to be either 60fps or 4k to blow us away.
The music in the background is reminding me of Rotterdam Nation from Ridge Racer. Man the 360 was such a good console. I wasn't interested until I played Dead Rising. Then I NEEDED one. Sadly couldn't read a damned word in game on my small CRT screen. Love this series of videos.
14:48 "yeahh.. the certain aspects of the physics haven't aged particularly well" - Richard Leadbetter on X360 boob physics Quite an astute observation my good sir! I like your taste!
The 360 was so ahead of it’s time. It was the last console I bought in store. Comp USA. I was a senior in high school and I tripped balls on shrooms while playing Prey. Dead Rising was so amazing and still is.
Microsoft bring back the PGR series, seriously. I know the studio is no longer but I'm sure there is a studio out there. I recon Playground could do it.
@@KUPOkinz Exactly the PGR games had that perfect balance of handling, it just felt great. Forza for me has seriously gone down hill since 4, it just doesn't resemble a simulation any more. I miss the PGR days on Xbox live.
@@MrSquifler Open world racing games don't appeal to me so no thanks, plus it's Forza physics again, so all cars feel like breeze blocks and feel like your driving in jam
@@MrSquifler Mainly yes, cars feel completely dumbed down, Forza does not interest me, for Sims I use PC and rFactor2. I just want a crazy arcade racer again with awesome visuals and fun physics in the vein of the PGR games that you can just chill online with a pad on the sofa
In terms of 360 vs PS3 at this era, there's a neat little rumour that Microsoft went to IBM and asked "what processor are you making for Sony's PS3?" and IBM showed the Cell architecture - Microsoft said "Yes please we'll have a better version of that, but without the 'Stream Processing Unit' nonsense".