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Mark Plays... Live Arcade on the Original Xbox
I recently acquired a second hand NTSC (American) original xbox from an American collegue and it had some original Xbox Live Arcade games on it. The Xbox Live service in Europe (the Netherlands) on the original xbox never was huge compared to the 360 xblox live implementation.
The live Arcade games that this US xbox came with are amazingly similar to the games found on the xbox 360 service. The whole user experience is similar. Perhaps these games were widely used and purchased in the US and other parts of the world but they are pretty rare on this side of the Pond and Japan.
So here is a compilation of original xbox live arcade games running on an original xbox. I wasn't able to log into the Live system due to the fact that my current Live account doesn't support the original xbox and my friends login has long since expired. The games and the acquired keys are still on the harddrive so I have access to the full games. So all the video is from off-line games.
Comments
Nah, it was very under the radar here as well. XBLA only took off in its 360 form. The original Xbox version was towards the end of its life and was not well publicized. It was certainly the prototype though (much like the Xbox Live service itself) and gave Microsoft a nice headstart with their online service, which was obvious in comparison to what Sony and Nintendo came out with initially for their systems.
Books!
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Some interesting footage there, but in no way demonstrates the full capabilities of the XBOX.
For the record, I had an XBOX for about 6 months. I played it for less than a week (probably 2 days, in fact), before it sat there gathering dust. I finally gave it away to some guy who bought a "mod chip" for it. Who knows what he did with it afterwards.....
I'm curious about your frequent insults of "Western" shooters in the video. Those "Western" shooters looked pretty cool to me. They certainly looked more playable than the "screen-full-of-bullets" shooters you seem to favor. :-)
What is a "Western" shooter, anyway? Those games you demonstrated looked like clear descendants of Space Invaders, Galaga, and Xevious, all Japanese shooters. ;-)
Actually, this has got me thinking. Before the arrival of the "first person shooter" genre, was any Western shooter really that influential? (this month's Vintage Games "Defender" chapter notwithstanding).
Anyhow, cool video. It's good to see a wide variety of games on one platform in one video.
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I'm curious about your frequent insults of "Western" shooters in the video. Those "Western" shooters looked pretty cool to me. They certainly looked more playable than the "screen-full-of-bullets" shooters you seem to favor. :-)
What is a "Western" shooter, anyway? Those games you demonstrated looked like clear descendants of Space Invaders, Galaga, and Xevious, all Japanese shooters. ;-)
Actually, this has got me thinking. Before the arrival of the "first person shooter" genre, was any Western shooter really that influential? (this month's Vintage Games "Defender" chapter notwithstanding).
Anyhow, cool video. It's good to see a wide variety of games on one platform in one video.
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
Thanks for the comments Rob. I am tired so this response / paragraph may be a little choppy...
To come back to my frequent 'mweh Western Shooter' remarks in the video. It is not that I don't like any Western shooter. It's just that the games I've shown are typical Western shooters with simple sideways movements and scarce bullets and the patterns have a robot-like mechanical feel. An extreme of the genre that I am not particularly fond of. Western shooters like Galaga / Galaxians, Gyruss are much more appealing to me than the Space Invaders-type of game.
The typical Japanese shooter may be 'the bullet hell game' to you, but to me it is something different as the bullet hell game is another extreme I am not particularly fond of although I do experience a brief sense of thrill and accomplishment whenever I survive more than 5 seconds on screen with such games. They are also boring to me.
The typical Asian/Japanese shooter for me is a game that has an organic feel to the movements of the opponents (aliens) instead of that cluncky Space Invader thing. There are also many Western shooters which adhere to this.
So what do I mean by good Japanese Shooters? Non-bullet hell games like these:
M.U.S.H.A
Aleste / Super Aleste
Dangerous Seed
Powerstrike 1 & 2 - gamegear versions noticeably different
Raiden I & II -
Gradius, Nemesis series - Nes, C64, MSX, Arcade, Gameboy, psx versions noticeably different and unique
Parodius - as above
Salamander - as above
Gunnac - many similarities to the Aleste games
Dodonpachi - although the latter may be a little bullet hell - like
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
It was fun to watch you enjoy some of the original Xbox LIVE Arcade games. Not many people know that Xbox LIVE Arcade was available before Xbox 360! I was part of the original team that produced the disc and games, and I remember it well. It was an exciting time, and an exciting product. Still, not many people ended up acquiring the necessary disc, since it was only available from Microsoft (after a $5 shipping and handling fee) and sometimes through magazines like OXM. ($5 wasn't a bad price for the launcher and Ms. Pac-Man though!)
Anyway, I would say that even though it didn't get into many hands, it was a good "experiment" because it's part of what allowed MS to justify the business and build XBLA into the Xbox 360 Dashboard. It's been pretty successful, since, opening the door for widespread digital download on the console. You'll notice that some of the games we're working on today are a tad more complex than some of these games that preceded them, but it's still the same business in many ways. I love it.
One tidbit that you may find interesting is that most of the games sold for the original Xbox LIVE Arcade were sold at USD $20, which is a contrast to nowadays, where the average has been $5-$10 or $10-$15.
Cheers!
Thanks for checking in, Chad. Indeed, I think part of the success of Xbox Live Arcade on the 360 and iTunes for the iPod/iPhone are the relatively cheap pricepoints in comparison to boxed products. That's something that ebooks are still struggling with, in that you often save little to nothing versus a paper book. Once the main ebook players - Sony and Amazon - "get" it (and naturally the publishers "get" it too), that situation should change as well. It's been proven I think without doubt that if you offer good product at a low, low price, people WILL buy it.
Books!
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
It was fun to watch you enjoy some of the original Xbox LIVE Arcade games. Not many people know that Xbox LIVE Arcade was available before Xbox 360! I was part of the original team that produced the disc and games, and I remember it well. It was an exciting time, and an exciting product. Still, not many people ended up acquiring the necessary disc, since it was only available from Microsoft (after a $5 shipping and handling fee) and sometimes through magazines like OXM. ($5 wasn't a bad price for the launcher and Ms. Pac-Man though!)
Anyway, I would say that even though it didn't get into many hands, it was a good "experiment" because it's part of what allowed MS to justify the business and build XBLA into the Xbox 360 Dashboard. It's been pretty successful, since, opening the door for widespread digital download on the console. You'll notice that some of the games we're working on today are a tad more complex than some of these games that preceded them, but it's still the same business in many ways. I love it.
One tidbit that you may find interesting is that most of the games sold for the original Xbox LIVE Arcade were sold at USD $20, which is a contrast to nowadays, where the average has been $5-$10 or $10-$15.
Cheers!
Chad!... wow a reply from one of the original Live developers. I am honored!
The fact that Microsoft really stuck to it's plans concerning Xbox Live when they brought out the Xbox 360 shows the commitment Microsoft has to bringing people a solid online gaming experience. I believe it is the best solid online gaming experience out there with Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii lagging behind.
Thanks for all the other comments as well folks. I am tempted to show some of the other games in a sequel if people are interested as most of the games I've shown have 360 counterparts in some way.
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl