# New Xbox 360



## thebiggedbig (May 10, 2005)

Well, I've read today about the new specs of the Xbox 360.  They seem rather...unbelievable.  In particular, the CPU specs.  A custom-designed IBM PowerPC-based CPU sporting 3 symmetrical cores, each running at 3.2 GHz.  Hard to believe for you?  Everything aside, does it seem logical for any company to release a game system that has more power than even some workstations?  To me...no.  I dunno...  3.2 GHz seems like quite a bit.  Even the Pentium 4 is around that area now for most desktops.  I can't use IBM's search engine...but I have never heard about a tri-core CPU...from anyone.  POWER6 Family or something?  I didn't even now tri-core existed; I thought dual core was the highest they have gotten...and that was just released too.  So...what do you think about it all?  I think it seems odd that  anyone would release a gaming platform more powerful than most desktop.  What do you think?


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## Lt Major Burns (May 10, 2005)

hmm i don't know... what are your sources?


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## thebiggedbig (May 10, 2005)

Try here.  It has the most information.


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## Reality (May 11, 2005)

Well, here is a picture of the console.


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## Lt Major Burns (May 11, 2005)

it seems to me like they're doing what sony did 4 years ago with the ps2 - offerring a front room, set top box that does most things well... but not one thing really well... plus it looks like they got a new pad, when the old pad is currently perfection, IMO


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## Lt Major Burns (May 11, 2005)

just read the spec. sounds like figures pulled out of the air to sound good. think about it - ibm are having a hard enough time gettin PPC to 3ghz, and intel/amd are not much far ahead with the x86.  plus they're only just starting to dabble with dual cores, although quad cores have been mentioned.

it doesn't seem feasable, or cheap in any way, for that type of proccessing power in time for christams. especially not in a sub-$500 machine


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## Viro (May 11, 2005)

You forget that the Xbox doesn't need to have all the features of a personal computer. It could be a simplified version of the PPC 970 chip. Who knows? It is possible.

All consoles are sold at a loss. Console manufacturers hope to make it up by game sales.


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## riccbhard (May 11, 2005)

Hmm... Xbox... Microsoft....


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## delsoljb32 (May 13, 2005)

interesting, saw the story on cnn.com about it, i wonder if it will have the same hacker following as the first. i find it interesting that people take a microsuck box and put linux onto it!  very amusing. it will be interesting to see what they can do with this one, since it has more features than the last.


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## Reality (May 13, 2005)

Well here it is guys. The Xbox's 360 power.






This game is Perfect Dark Zero and is being made by Rare. They use to belong till Nintendo, then they sold them to M$ for several million dollars ($15mil comes to mind if I recall correctly). Rare here has been making this game for about 6 years (among 2-3 other games), and was a pretty hyped 360 launch title till these screens were released.    Sony calls the Xbox 360 a "Xbox v1.5". Maybe they are right.


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## delsoljb32 (May 13, 2005)

heheh, wow, you can almost hear the dull roar of the 'ooohs' and 'aaahhs' coming from the console community.  i don't own a console, and probably don't anticipate getting one anytime soon. (actually, i misspoke, I have a sega genesis that i got from a friend) The evolution of the console gaming industry has always intrigued me. My family started us going with it back with the atari. My dad actually tried to charge our friends a quarter who were coming over to play the games.  It all ended with the sega CD add-on to the genesis. after that i sort of lost interest/time to play them. heck, i can't even find time these days for WoW, which I recently got into. I still hold to the idea that there HAS to be a way to play console games (new ones- PS2, XBucks, etc) on a computer (preferrably a mac  )since you can turn the consoles into a PC. There HAS to be a way. Someone please work on it! haha. Some of the titles look intriguing, but Im not ploping more money down on a cosole that will be obsolete  shortly thereafter.


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## Mikuro (May 13, 2005)

Am I the only one who is completely unimpressed by that screen shot? It looks pretty much the same as the current generation to me. *shrug*

delsolbj: Only the Xbox can be made into a real PC, because it's made up of normal PC parts. I don't think anyone can get Windows or OS X running on a PS2 or GameCube.

That said, there are emulators. I could play PlayStation 1 games just fine on my old 450MHz iMac. I haven't tried any OS X PlayStation emulators, but there ought to be one out there that works. The current consoles are just too powerful to emulate, though. I mean, you can't even play 10-year-old Windows games in Virtual PC, so getting Xbox games to run at full speed would be quite a challenge.


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## Reality (May 13, 2005)

Mikuro said:
			
		

> Am I the only one who is completely unimpressed by that screen shot? It looks pretty much the same as the current generation to me. *shrug*



No your not. A number of us are very unimpressed after hearing so much hype on the "powerful" 360. Here is a site that shows all 4 screen shots of this title. http://www.1up.com/do/slideshow?pager.offset=2&p=&g=&tr=&mt=0&cId=3138147 I never played Halo, but I hear people talking that this isn't even better graphically then that. Also, this was the only game playable at M4's big MTV show and it run barely at 20 frames per second. Sounds to me M$ is really pushing it to get games ready.


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## delsoljb32 (May 13, 2005)

yeah, unimpressed. if not interpreted this way, my previous post was meant to be sarcastic with the 'ooohs' and 'aaahhs', hahah. i didnt know PS2 couldnt be hacked, i thought it could. ah well


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## JetwingX (May 13, 2005)

Mikuro, Sony actually sells a Linux package (Hard drive, keyboard, Mouse, and OS) for the PS 2

What i would like to see is someone installing OS X on the Xbox 360 (if that happens, i might actually buy one)


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## Reality (May 14, 2005)

The 360 can run some pretty nifty looking games in it's defense though. I think everyone is getting use to seeing such nice graphics though. So at this point it's not really eye candy. 






Ready for the funny story of the day? This game and all the others shown are really not running on the 360 at all. Everything M$ showed to be Xbox2 games, are software really running on Powermac G5's. *"We purchased a number of Apple G5's because very specific hardware components of the G5 allow developers to emulate some of the technology behind future Xbox products and services," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. "This is an interim development tool that will be replaced with a more powerful and comprehensive solution later."* So during this big unveiling of the console, everything they showed software wise couldn't/wasn't even running on it. http://news.com.com/Xbox+360+demos+running+on+Macs/2100-1043_3-5706658.html?tag=nefd.top


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## adambyte (May 14, 2005)

A game with good graphics and no gameplay is like a girl with good looks but no brain... pretty to stare at, at first, but boring after a while.

Which is why Halo remains the best game, yet. Great gameplay. I play it on the lowest graphic settings (except for particles, 'cause you need to see the route the bullet took from other users, so you can hunt those bastards down if they miss you). And I love it.


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## Lt Major Burns (May 14, 2005)

i have seen some nice screen shots for 360, bbut i'm aware that i hated it when sony said their PlayStation2 would be a home entertainment all-in-one box. because now, the graphics are crap. the 360 will lag (graphically) behind the other next-gen eventaully, like the ps2 and the dreamcast before it. the first xbox was a bloody powerhouse. that was it's selling point.  people still don't like the xbox, the only reson they do buy it is because it's so much more powerful than the rivals.


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## Mat (May 14, 2005)

> looks like they got a new pad, when the old pad is currently perfection, IMO


Sorry mate, I'm going to have to disagree.  The XBox controller has to be the worst I've ever used. It is far too big, the buttons have a rounded surace which pokes into your fingers.  I personally can't stand it, I'd rather use the original NES controller.  I feel the Nintendo 64 had the best controller ergonomocally and Playstation has the best controller for button placement.

At least they shaved around 10kg off the original XBox, it looks like that one only needs 5 square feet to house it.


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## Lt Major Burns (May 14, 2005)

do you mean the original controller, or the s-controller? i think the s-pad is the definitive design at the moment for 3d games, it is very well designed.  the two you mentioned were good examples of design concepts of working around 3d games, but the s-pad has succeeded.


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## RGrphc2 (May 14, 2005)

Has anyone else noticed the Lightgray/white like the Mac Mini or iMac???


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## tintoy (May 14, 2005)

Xbox 360 demos running on Macs

the word XBOX = if u need e*Xtra Bold* & *Optimum* hardware to e*Xcel* your demo, 
get a Mac G5. 

http://news.com.com/Xbox+360+demos+running+on+Macs/2100-1043_3-5706658.html?tag=nefd.top


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