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| Posted By | Discussion Topic: Wish My Car's Dashboard Was This Cool | ||||
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| smex182 | posted on 06-05-2001 @ 2:12 PM |    | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Oct. 00  | Taken From: State of the Xbox Vol. 4 Visit this Website If you saw any of the video clips from E3, you may have noticed a lot of 3D interface that featured game clips, navigation through tunnels, music playing, and more. It looks like someone took a green pill from Morpheus. I had several people ask me, "Is that part of a game, just marketing promo stuff, or part of Xbox itself?" Well, part of Xbox itself provided the inspiration for a lot of those videos, and I wanted to take this week's volume of State of the Xbox to introduce the Xbox Dashboard, and fill you in on what it's all about! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "With Xbox, we took the same approach to this as we have with all other aspects of the system: powerful, elegant, fast, and no compromises!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyone who has owned a game console knows that they have built-in support for changing settings (like language, audio, and video) and managing saved games. Of course Xbox has to have this support...after all we not only have Xbox Memory Units, but also work with High-Definition TV and advanced audio like Dolby® Surround Sound. With Xbox, we took the same approach to this as we have with all other aspects of the system: powerful, elegant, fast, and no compromises! The result is the Xbox Dashboard, the brainchild of three incredibly talented guys -- Victor Blanco, Brad Christian, and Jim Helm. These three guys have been working since the very beginning of the Xbox project to design and build an interface which does everything you expect a game console to do, plus a few surprises that you're going to find extremely cool. You'll encounter the Xbox Dashboard whenever you turn your Xbox on without a game in the drive (if a game is in the drive, you'll be playing the game immediately). At the highest level, it lets you do three things: manage memory (saved games on the Xbox Memory Units and Hard Drive), create custom soundtracks, and adjust the audio/visual settings to your eyes and ears. The first thing you'll see is the main menu, with those three choices:  Xbox is designed to work well with all TV systems, but features advanced output options that you've read about in past columns here. Yes, we have to test on everything from ancient black-and-white 13" beater TVs to 70" HDTVs with Dolby® Surround Sound (we make the new guy test the beater). In addition to those audio/visual settings, the Xbox Dashboard give you a quick & easy place set the language, time, and date should you need to. Parents can even choose to limit the amount of violence or other mature content which can be played on the Xbox here. But we won't tell any parents about that, will we? After all, it's our Xbox, not theirs!  While settings and saved-gave management were a baseline for what the Dashboard had to accomplish, these guys got to have some real fun in exploiting the more advanced capabilities that Xbox has to offer. For example, the Xbox Hard Disk offers games the ability to do some amazingly cool things. A couple weeks ago I mentioned that many Xbox games will use custom soundtracks that players can create and then listen to in the games they play. The Xbox Dashboard helps make this possible by giving gamers a place to create these soundtracks from their own CDs. You'll be able to bring the tracks that you want to hear to Xbox, organize them in a soundtrack, and then tell games which soundtrack you want to hear while you play. Below we see a custom soundtrack being played back in the Xbox Dashboard itself...  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You're a hardcore gamer, so we figured you wanted a hardcore experience for those few times when you aren't in a game..." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You'll notice that the entire experience is rich and 3D, as you'd expect from Xbox. It also centers around games! Since you'll be able to keep thousands of saved games on the Xbox Hard Disk, we've made sure that finding the title and saved game you want is easy and fast. Every game you play will be listed, and the saved games for that title will be organized simply under the title itself. Moving games to a Xbox Memory Unit, deleting, an copying can be done from this area of the Xbox Dashboard (shown here with some sample files from the Xbox Development Kit)...  This gives you just a snapshot of what the experience of the Xbox Dashboard will be like. A CD player - complete with real-time spectrum analyzer - will let you play CDs and soundtracks. With the optional DVD Movie Playback Kit, the Xbox Dashboard will also play DVD movies. You're a hardcore gamer, so we figured you wanted a hardcore experience for those few times when you aren't in a game. That's what we're giving you with the Xbox Dashboard. And you know, spilling the beans about these formerly-guarded features of Xbox is kind of fun. Come back next week and I'll see what else I can blast out without tripping the alarms! Jeff Henshaw Executive Producer, XDK | ||||
| skitchr4u G.O.O.F.B.A.H.G.S. Xtreme Skiing Assualt Force | posted on 06-06-2001 @ 11:50 AM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Dec. 00 | Now when does this total home entertainment system come on the market? I have PS2, and will be buying the XBOX when it comes on the market, cause 2 tv sets means needing 2 high quality gaming systems...well, 4 systems (2 on each set)... | ||||
| smex182 | posted on 06-06-2001 @ 4:13 PM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Oct. 00 | skitchr4u, Here is that info you were asking about. LOS ANGELES - May 16, 2001 - Microsoft Corp. today announced the North American launch details of its highly anticipated Microsoft® Xbox video game system and demonstrated its unmatched commitment to delivering the best video game experiences. Starting Nov. 8, 2001, Xbox consoles will be available for purchase at retail outlets throughout North America for an estimated retail price of $299* (U.S.). Microsoft made it clear, through demonstrations of its new and exclusive games for Xbox - such as "Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee" and "Halo" from Microsoft, "Dead or Alive 3" from Tecmo, "NASCAR Heat" from INFOGRAMES Inc., and "Mad Dash" from Eidos Interactive - that Xbox games will blur the lines between fantasy and reality. "On Nov. 8, Xbox will hit the market and redefine how people think about and play video games," said Robbie Bach, chief Xbox officer at Microsoft. "Xbox is going to change video games the way MTV changed music. Your games are never going to be the same." Microsoft detailed its North American launch plans at a press conference in advance of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2001, one of the world's largest annual games industry trade shows. | ||||
| allyourbasearebelongtous | posted on 06-07-2001 @ 4:07 PM | | |||
| Hanger-On Registered: Apr. 01 | quote: MTV plays music? Personally, The X-Box is nothing more than a stripped computer. There is nothing it can do that a desktop computer can't do better. Having a kick ass graphics processor inside makes no sense, because the output is to a TV, which has worse resolution than a computer monitor. I'm not saying the XBox won't be nice, but since you will never be able to upgrade it, and it will be using a skimmed down version of Win2K, anything it will be able to do, and computer will be better. allyourbasearebelongtous  | ||||
| skitchr4u G.O.O.F.B.A.H.G.S. Xtreme Skiing Assualt Force | posted on 06-08-2001 @ 9:59 AM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Dec. 00 | Thanks Smex. Now I have to go drop off some $ at my local toysrus so I can reserve my copy today! And has anyone noticed that this is the same day the Nintendo is putting out their new gamecube? That isn't normal for them to do that! Can't wait!!! | ||||
| imapervert I want my two dollars! | posted on 06-08-2001 @ 8:01 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Jan. 01 | Dop you guys think there will be the same madness this year with X box as they was last year with the PS2? I was thinking about reserving a few systems now, so I can sell them on E Bay a few weeks from Xmas. Get Xbox for Xmas. Good idea, Bad idea? | ||||
| skitchr4u G.O.O.F.B.A.H.G.S. Xtreme Skiing Assualt Force | posted on 06-11-2001 @ 9:59 AM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Dec. 00 | I am already on the list for xbox and gamecube...I have a connection at a toysrus warehouse, and thats how I got my ps2 without a hassle. I can't wait, but am not sure about the buying in bulk. with the company in the usa, not sure how much of a problem they will have getting the out to the masses on time. plus, they are making more systems than sony did, from what i heard anyway. | ||||
| George Peterson | posted on 06-11-2001 @ 5:54 PM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Oct. 00 | This is from a few months ago. Maybe someone cares... Pathintosh, a PowerBook G3 mounted in a Nissan Pathfinder's dashboard. My head hurts. I'm a full-time pistol-packin' skull-crackin' Windows-dissin' baby-kissin' Mac user.  Official Byram Hills High School Canceller of Appointments "Can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding" - T.M.B.G. | ||||
Displaying 1-8 of 8 messages in this thread. |