The Original Xbox Debug Kit - How console games were developed in 2001 

You sound exactly like Techyescity!

Don't get too upset about those PS4 debug consoles being sold, they need to be online constantly in order to work, and you to do that you also need an account/license key. So they're giant paperweights without them.

Incredibly well done video, man! Really enjoyed watching this, not a ton of OG Xbox XDK related videos out there.

Sadly modern debug/dev consoles use limited lifespan activation keys that need to be renewed periodically, so if you get hold of one it'll turn into a brick when the key expires.

Some of the designs for these development kits actually look better then the console themselves.

I remember around then in like 01-02 when i was like 8 my friends dad had one of those green xbox's, i thought it was cool and asked where he got it. He said it was used for making games and he showed me this zombie game he said he worked on at his job. He let us play it and I had a lot of fun with it, later i found out it was stubbs the zombie

3:47 There are 4 additional 16MB Chips. There are 4 memory sockets on the underside of the Xbox, two of which are populated on a retail console.

Excellent video brother! Man, all these Xbox videos is making me want to pick one up again and check out some of the original games and emulation stuffs.

That was cool. I'd love to see a MVG coded megademo!

Reminds me of my Atari and Sega Genesis dev days, glad to see that homebrew is an art not lost!

Just recently discovered you. Love your videos! Even without fully understandiing, this is super interesting.

Awesome video! I have never heard anyone talk about dev kits beyond just mentioning them. It was especially nice to see one in action.

Really digging this channel, great stuff.

"the Nintendo NES" Goes good with ATM machines.

Really loving the Xbox content you're putting out. Would be great to see something involving a 360 XDK.

That was very informative! I like these kinds of videos, keep up the good work!

No clue how you don't have more subs, your videos are great, in depth, and informative, subbed and notifications on! Also, how much was your debug kit Xbox?

Interesting stuff, thanks for the upload man

Terrific stuff. More technical videos please!

Awesome video with great demonstrations in it. This deserves more views

Awesome video, I love the special dev hardware. Thank you for the detailed explanations of how games were made for these older console. Would love to see more content of you writing code and running it on the debug Xbox.

The fact that you are a talented developer makes me like the channel even more. It’s not a pure game related channel... you are adding the technique to it which makes it entertaining. Keep it up!

I am really liking all of these original Xbox videos. I think the console doesnt get nearly the amount of attention it deserves. Was a real passion project and it shows from the hardware to the games.

Another awesome vid. Keep 'em coming!

I just realized I have a debug version sitting in my basement. I thought it was a Halo edition, because of the skin. Lo and behold it’s the holy grail. To think I almost didn’t want it.

Dude these videos are freaking fantastic! I just got into modding my xbox, and its so exciting! Theres just so much to see and do and learn, I'm loving it!

Really interesting stuff, it's wonderful that some of these Dev/Debug kits get saved from destruction, it's great to see how games were coded and some of the more exotic software and hardware that was used. Really nicely done video, especially loved that you actually wrote and demoed some code running!

I learned a lot about tech and computers thanks to RU-vidrs like you and the 8 but guy. Keep up the good work, I love your videos.

Excellent insights! Thanks for sharing this!

You should have more subs mate! Awsome, quality content!

Great video, very informative!

Loved this, thanks MVG

Really glad i found your channel. It's really helpful and interesting

Keep more videos like this coming! OG Xbox dev stuff is great.

I always wondered how the xdk worked! Great unique content (as always).

Great job mate! Would love to see some more debug/dev kit content -- GREAT STUFF! SUBBED!

Some of the first games I worked on were for the Xbox. Typically we led Dev on PS2 then ported across. I guess a lot of people will not realize the amount of development that studios put in their tools. A good toolset would let you port a game fairly painlessly; nothing like the cross platform engines of today of course. Now it's almost too easy to cross platform your game. Sadly means their not as efficient but we're dealing with much closer hardware these days.

5:34 1249 fps is not enough.

Fascinating, thanks for the informative vid.

Great video and it was good to see the dev Xbox

So cool. I like how transparent green the unit and its controllers.

Awesome video! Keep on going.

As someone who when I was younger loved seeing behind the scenes of development and how it came together, and now aspiring to be a developer now. This video is awesome! I always knew about the kits but back then, it was one of those rare and legendary things, at least to a child. When one of your buddies was like “yeaup I got a modded Xbox console” or seeing and hearing about them through rumors. So seeing this breakdown of how it was done is awesome to child me AND current me :) thank you!

I just love learning about the story of consoles and their development process.

Top video again love the endings , quality.

Awesome video!! I am rebuilding a Halo LE Xbox and had it sitting on the back burner. This has inspired me to drag it back out and finish it and this is what I will turn it in to. I also have a standard Xbox here with 500gb HDD that I am turning into a Linux media server for the lounge room. I love the machine and that fact that you could kill someone with it just by dropping it on their head, is kind of a bonus!

Quality video as usual mate 🖒

I'm so glad this video randomly appeared in my home list on my phone. This was interesting as hell! XDKs always interested me, but I haven't heard talk of one in yearssss

sooo intresting...thank you for this upload

Very informative Thank you

Fire video man, for a small channel you outdid yourself :)

I used a dev/debug FW on my modded Xbox Way back in the day to make screenshots for my reviews that i wrote :)

I loaded up GTA San Andreas and the load up tune lined up perfectly with your intro so I thought the people were rolling dice in your intro

Iv had a interest in retro gaming videos on RU-vid since 2007. I have recently started to learn HTML, i don't know if its that with my love of retro gaming but yourtube has recommended a few of your videos to me now, along with a the damn python programming advert. I am Hooked on your channel now.

Fantástico! Sempre tive essa curiosidade. Parabéns pelo vídeo!

Very interesting video!

Nice video man i don't see a lot of people actually use their debug / dev kits just show them off so nice work also getting the xdk launcher on a soft modded xbox is travel as well out there somewhere there is a modded version of the launcher that runs just like a game the same way that a lot of custom xbox dashboards run

I picked up one of these a while back, I've been wanting to learn about making homebrew and see how hard it would be to make a game for the xbox.

This brings back so many memories

There was a trend about ten years ago to add the extra 64MB of RAM to the Xbox. It wasn't much use to commercial games obviously, but some emulators did take advantage of it (as I think you mentioned). It could be interesting to do an XDK mod on a spare Xbox though. I'm fairly sure the same QFP style SDRAM chips can still be bought cheaply on AliExpress etc., and not too hard to solder. I've never really done any "proper" game coding, only dabbled with some C# on the X360. I'm not a fan of C#. lol C / C++ still seems pretty much de-facto for this type of stuff. I could never quite understand the point of learning the new quirks of C# tbh. Although, I'm sure that the better C coders would find it easy enough. Looks like the OG Xbog XDK mainly used C, which is great. ;)

Man, this is nostalgia. I used to remember testing using these boxes when I worked for EA QA back a while ago. =/

Awesome video, subbed. Thx

I know I'm late to this party, but thumbs up for a great video! My favourite part was seeing your _for x_ loop inside your _for y_ loop. It grinds my gears when when I see then the other way around.

I'd say Microsoft could wipe the data on Xbox 360 dev kits and sell them to highest bidder for extra dough and less pollution from shredded electronics going into landfills. I mean, all they care about is money, so why not do that instead of tossing them into shredder and wasting money and polluting the Earth? That's counterintuitive. People are *eager* to buy those rare things!

To be honest..... I was very lazer focused on this episode. The original XBOX is my first and favorite console of all time. Hearing that I could turn my retail XBOX into a debug kit makes me jump for joy. I like the idea of possibility porting some of my game projects to the xbox and giving it new life. The ram might be an issue but it be over come. Keep the videos coming.

Nice vid, really interesting

Great video, never knew that the dev kits were so close to retail hardware! Have you released the port of Postal shown in this video? This is the first time I've seen something done with the source code kindly released by RWS!

Liked how you touched on the halo modding part a bit. I had a modded Xbox with the debug bios running (did not flash it tho) and I was able to make changes or “poke” in real time with halo 2. Made modding so much easier and felt kinda official doing it that way.

I really enjoyed this video.

Glad to see an expert with a dev kit is around on youtube and shows what to do. Do you by chance have links for the visual studio and the additional needed software to connect to a dev kit? I recently was lucky enough to get my hands on an original xbox dev kit and would like to run some custom software and do some game development on it with a windows XP virtual machine.

Brilliant!!! I keep meaning to upgrade the RAM on one of my XBOXs. Will get around to it one day! Nice collectors piece that system you have , and nice colour too! I need to find a Halo XBOX I think lol

0:46 Thanks for telling me where the dirt is

Greta video. Nifty dev environment, clean simple, effective. Original xbox was a industry changer, fantastic piece of kit

4:55 "This is different than a retail IP address an XBOX would normally have"or is it? An IP is an IP! Whether it exposes a different port that leads to different services is a different thing. Terminology matters

I worked for a major games publisher in the LA area back in the day and we tested games using these green Xboxes. The video output was sent through a VTR to record the play and document bugs. These consoles were checked out to play testers at the beginning of a shift and checked back in and locked in a not-so-secure metal cabinet (like you'd find in any office) at the end of a shift.

great video !!!!

Great video! How did you get your hands on this thing?

uhh i remember those demos from cxbx era. i wonder if anyone will ever pick up that project again and push it forward great video

Another awesome video, MVG! Thanks. One question if I may, what sort of voodoo magic are you using to eliminate the flicker / refresh interval when you record a CRT (Commodore 1702 in this case)?

Epic outtakes at the end 🥊🥊😁😁

Ive got a few 360 XDKs lying around. Wonderous hardware.

I didn't even know this type of game making stuff existed, I gotta found more videos about this.

I would love to see some guides on low-level programming to optimize a game specifically for the original XBOX.

Would like to see more videos covering xbox homebrew thats out there.

Got keyed up by that Ninja Gaiden music, worked perfectly with Panzer Dragoon Orta

Great video buddy.. love this shit... wonder how much theses dev consoles go for.

United Fronts also did development on ModNation Racers, a racing game for the PS3

Oh.. the intro music... right in the nostalgia.

I've been waiting for someone 5o code something for the og Xbox! Can you make a tutorial on how to code something for this machine? It would be wonderful and I'm pretty sure alot of people would love to see how its done

Just picked one up. No idea how to do any of the stuff but will try

Great video! Which virtual machine did you use to run Windows XP on?

wow that was really interesting. thanks. I Love the tune that starts at 8:43. Is it on your Soundcloud page? Which song exactly? its so damn catchy! edit: ...Nevermind i found it "Untitled Amiga" thanks anyway :)

That Red Dead revolver music tho

This was super interesting

3:45 aren't it 4 more modules (2 on the top and back) = 8x16 on debug and 4x16 on retail.

OMG FABLE THE LOST CHAPTERS 0:46

If the logic boards are the same, it might be possible to source those RAM chips and upgrade a retail unit to 128MB.

have you considered making a how to guide on the og dev kit??

Wow excellent music!

Last video you said in a comment, "It would be cool to hook it [the Xbox] up with a more modern power supply". I'd be VERY interested in a video tutorial for this, as power consumption is the only reason I haven't replaced my Rπ with my Xbox.