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Week of May 20, 2007
Video Interview with Nick Baker: Xbox 360 Architecture
>> Channel9's "Going Deep" show interviewed Nick Baker about the Xbox 360 Architecture:
[QUOTE]
What is the XBox 360, exactly? How do you go about designing and building a game console that meets the high standards of today's gamers and handles the computational pressures of today's highly realistic games (think real time physics computation, incredibly rich graphics, etc)? Did you know the XBox 360 team saw into the multi-core future before most anybody else?
Well, who better to talk to about all of this (and more) than Nick Baker. Nick is a hardware engineer and Director who leads the team that thought up the XBox 360 hardware architecture. It's an impressive piece of machinery. In fact, Nick recently won the Outstanding Technical Leadership award for the effort. Here, Nick takes us through the design history and some of the implementation details of the XBox 360. What were some of the design trade-offs? How different is the XBox 360 that you can buy today from what you, Nick and his team were initially thinking?
It's a very interesting story.
We get pretty geeky here, so be prepared to learn a thing or two about game console hardware architecture, the future of XBox 360 as it relates to multi-core, game programming language evolution in the multi-core, and more.
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Download/Stream video interview: channel9.msdn.com (FYI: MS owned blog)
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Microsoft drops ERP of Xbox 360 Steering Wheel for Forza2
>> From the press release:
[QUOTE]
Microsoft Game Studios today announced that "Forza Motorsport® 2" will speed onto U.S. retail shelves Tuesday, May 29, and that the estimated retail price (ERP) of the Xbox 360™ Wireless Racing Wheel has been lowered to $129.99 in the U.S.
Tuned and developed with the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel, "Forza Motorsport 2" supports true force feedback, setting a new precedent for realism in the racing simulation genre that will have gamers feeling every bump in the road and every jolt of acceleration as they take the corners on 12 of the most renowned tracks on the globe. With the game running at an astounding 60 frames per second, authentic simulation physics, and rumble functionality with the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, "Forza Motorsport 2" offers incredible realism and depth for a complete racing experience in gaming.
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Read the whole press release: here
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
GamesIndustry.biz: Microsoft Needs to Act Now on Hardware Failures
>> From GamesIndustry.biz' Newsletter:
[QUOTE]
There is another problem which Microsoft faces at the moment - one which the company has shown even less sign of understanding, or addressing. It is the problem of hardware reliability and customer service, an area in which the Xbox 360 has a track record that is nothing short of utterly appalling - and an area which Microsoft absolutely must address, or risk handing the goodwill of the market back to its rivals.
This problem hasn't gone away; in fact, from a consumer point of view, Microsoft appears to have done precisely nothing to address it. While the attention of the media may have turned to scrutiny of Sony's failings, the vast numbers of Xbox 360 owners who have been let down first by Microsoft's shoddy manufacturing, and subsequently by the company's arrogant and unfair policies with regard to customer service, have increased. Their voices are contributing to a groundswell of unrest and negative buzz which will hurt Microsoft very badly indeed if it is not addressed.
To hardcore gamers, consoles are "special case" items; they are early adopters, generally have a large disposable income, and are willing to accept all manner of problems and flaws in order to enjoy the games they want to play. However, they are a small - if vocal - market. To everyone else, to the vast ocean of consumers to whom Microsoft must now appeal, if the PlayStation brand is to be unseated, a console is just another piece of consumer electronics, and it is subject to the same standards you would expect from your DVD player, your digital camera or your toaster.
You wouldn't buy a specific DVD player, no matter how nice the feature-set, if a friend had told you that he bought one last year and had to return it to the manufacturer three times.
Right now, those horror stories are proliferating; the word of mouth about Xbox 360 is that the games are great, but the hardware is a nightmare. If Microsoft is serious about reaching an audience with Xbox 360 which is bigger than the 20 million units achieved by Xbox, then that simply isn't good enough. It's time for Redmond to stop burying its head in the sand over this problem, and start coming up with solutions - before its unhappy customers become one of Sony's best assets.
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Full Story: gamesindustry.biz
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
CNet's 5 Best Console Controllers of all Time: Xbox360 1st
>> From crave.cnet.co.uk:
[QUOTE]
Gamers love banging on about how good their favourite console is, but there's one thing and one thing alone that makes a good game system great, and that's a brilliant controller.
But what are the best controllers ever? Here's our utterly unscientific, totally subjective top five -- feel free to heartily disagree in comments below.
#05 Atari 2600
#04 Super Nintendo Entertainment System
#03 Nintendo 64
#02 PlayStation 2
#01 Microsoft Xbox 360
It's not terribly pretty -- it's beige, for a start -- but the Xbox 360's pad is a winner on several counts. For starters, it was the first wireless pad to come as standard. Its comfy, solid design offers dual analogue joysticks and two analogue trigger buttons underneath.
There's also a built-in jack for connecting a headset, so you can hear and talk to your n00b opponents.
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Full Story: crave.cnet.co.uk
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Report: Microsoft Wants Nintendo Land
>> From next-gen.biz:
[QUOTE]
Microsoft is bidding on a vacant lot currently owned by Nintendo in Redmond, Wash., the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.
A Nintendo exec told the paper that Microsoft is just one of the bidders that is interested in the 27-acre piece of empty land. Microsoft and Nintendo of America's headquarters are located in Redmond.
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Full Story: next-gen.biz
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Analysts: Halo 3 to push Xbox business into the black
>> From gamespot.com:
[QUOTE]
There's no question that Halo 3 is going to be big. Several weeks ago, a rumor surfaced that GameStop had already collected an outlandish 4 million preorders for the game. Today, a quartet of Goldman-Sachs analysts released their own projections for the game's September 25 launch, with numbers nearly as gaudy.
While Halo 3 is releasing right at the end of Microsoft's first fiscal 2008 quarter (which runs from July through September), Goldman-Sach's industry watchers are expecting the game to contribute about $170 million in revenue for the quarter, with more than 4.2 million copies shipped into the retail channel. That's nearly one copy for every three Xbox 360s in the world, going by the analysts' projections of an installed user base of 13.2 million by September.
Perhaps more significant than the sales figures that Goldman-Sachs expects Halo 3 to put up is the analysts' expectation that by the end of its first week of release, the game will have driven Microsoft's Xbox division to its first profitable quarter ever.
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Full Story: gamespot.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
New Content on XNA Creators: New Mini Game, Tutorials, Samples
>> From XNA Team Blog (FYI: MS owned blog):
[QUOTE]
We've got more great content available on http://creators.xna.com this month, including a new mini game, new tutorials, and new samples to keep you busy throughout the month of June. If there's specific content you're interested in, be sure to leave feedback on our blog as your suggestions help us build better content. Enjoy the new additions!
Mini Game
* Catapult: Catapult is a complete XNA Game Studio Express minigame. The project comes ready to compile and run, and it's easy to customize with a little bit of C# programming. You are free to use the source code as the basis for your own XNA Game Studio Express game projects, and to share your work with others.
The goal in Catapult is to launch a pumpkin from your catapult as far as you can. You do this by moving the catapult towards the log and launching the pumpkin. If you wait too long, the catapult will smash into the log and you will have to try again. The all-time high score is kept in the upper-left corner.
Video Tutorial
* (Available Next Week 05/28/07 - 06/01/07 ) Video Tutorial 4: Make a Game in 60 Minutes
Tutorials
* Collision Series 1: 2D Rectangle Collision
* Collision Series 2: 2D Per-Pixel Collision
Samples
* Shader Series 2: Colors and Textures
* Particle Series 2: 3D GPU Particles with Point Sprites
* Color Replacement
* Content Pipeline Importer: Custom Mesh Format
* Picking
* Aiming
* 3rd-Person Chase Camera
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Full Story: XNA Team Blog
Official Site: http://creators.xna.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
InFeCtuS Programmer 0.0.3.4.D and Infectus Tool 1.1
>> New tools for the versatile multi-platform dev. InFeCtuS modchip (that can read/flash/patch the NAND of Xbox360, PS3 and Wii) have been released.
* Infectus Programmer v0.0.3.4.D
What's new/fixed (since v0.0.3.3):
- Note: Remember to update the Actel Firmwares to the last version
Infectus :
- Fixed a "bastard" problem in wizard
- Hidden the commands write/erase when xbox flash is selected
- Fixed a problem in memory size for SST-39SF020A
- Fixed Flash ID Detector (cause problem on wizard and first connection)
- Changed gui interface. If the flash isn't recognized all the commands are hidden.
- Add Double Nand Flash controller
- Fixed a delay on HY27US08281A reading
- Update the reseller list
- Flash Support for: SAMSUNG K9F1208U0B XBOX 360 DEV - NOT TESTED
Loader:
- Compatibility fix for NAND Flash and Double NAND Flash
Firmware:
- NAND Flash
- Double NAND Flash controller ( PS3 )
* Infectus Tool v1.1 (check badblocks from any NANDDump, also an option to display a logfile with all badblocks)
What's new/fixed (since v1.0):
- Easier to use for noobs ;-)
Official Site: www.infectus.biz
Download: Programmer 0.0.3.4.D | Tool v1.1
Thanks to Hitman43 for the news/links.
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Hybrid Innovations MSC (Motion Sensitive Controller) Board
>> Looks like we'll get a 4th commercial 'Tilt addon' for the Xbox 360 controller. After the Talismoon tiltBoard (made with Adam Thole), GreenGiant's Xilt and Team Xtender's XCM BesTilt, Hybrid Innovations informed us they are working on the MSC (Motion Sensitive Controller) Board (tentative name).
'Tilt addons' essentially replaces the left analog stick of the Xbox 360 controller to allow the user to controller the item or character in the game with actual motion (a bit like the Wii Controller and Sixaxis).
Here's the list of features we got from them:
* 3 levels of sensitivity (we realize, depending what game, some actions need to be more fluent than others, i/e: playing a racing or flying game). The levels of sensitivity are Low-Medium-High. Sensitivity can be controlled externally by pressing a sequence of buttons on the controller. We chose the LB and RB (L1 & R1) buttons to dictate this function (why? - these are the buttons least used in games).
-In order to get into the sensitivity choosing mode, one must simply hold the R1 button and then switch through the different modes by hitting the L1 button (hit L1 once for medium level, twice to go to high level). To reset it to the lowest level, one must hold the R1 button for 5 seconds without touching L1.
* Ability to turn the chip on and off - this is done by pressing the L1 & R1 buttons simultaneously for 5 second. There is no external switch needed.
* Low Wire count - just 9 wires!
* Surface mountable - completely fits inside the controller without any modification to the plastic enclosure.
* Practicality - although there is a version that enables USB support, we have noticed in our research that this is not practical. One would always have to open the back cover to access the PCB, this is where the USB Connector is located thus making the board inconvenient. In addition, with the different levels of sensitivity present on our design, it eliminates the strain the user would have to go to by messing around the degrees of motion themselves.
* CHEAP - we promise to deliver the LOWEST price from any of our competitors, currently the estimated retail price is $29.99. We also include a tool to open the xBox 360 controller in every package - NONE of the competitors offer this.
* MSC Board is not limited to the xBox 360 - however, the pre-installed code is specifically for the xBox 360 controller. Upon a dealer's request, we can slightly edit the code to add motion sensitive control to almost any device that has an analog output!
Official Site: soon - not online yet (by Hybrid Innovations)
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Kevin Bachus Talks About The Legacy Of The Original Xbox
>> From mercurynews.com:
[QUOTE]
Here's a guest essay by Kevin Bachus, co-creator of the original Xbox and one of a handful of guys who got Microsoft serious about the console business.
When we came up with the notion to build a game console at Microsoft, the idea was considered by most people -- both inside and outside the company - to be preposterous. Go back and read the early articles and web postings. "Port-box," the die-hard gamers called it, certain that there would be no original, compelling games for the system that dared to take on Sony and Nintendo. And certainly we'd never get the huge Japanese game publishers' on board, they proclaimed. Indeed, most gamers who'd never even seen Xbox, but for whatever reason harbored fear and resentment of Microsoft, loudly predicted nightmare scenarios populated by "blue screens", driver conflicts and installer bugs. I'd swear that as late as the night before we launched most of the gaming world expected to see a Start Menu when they fired up the box.
And the early criticism from inside Microsoft was almost as deafening.
But what few people got at first was that our hopes for Xbox really did come from a simple, pure place: we wanted to build the console we'd always dreamed of developing games for ourselves. Powerful, easy to program, tricked out with mature, capable tools we'd grown up using in the PC gaming world. But a console at its heart -- always a console. For us, Xbox wasn't about taking market share from Sony or piling up even more buckets of money for Microsoft (although we always knew the money would come). We wanted to win over the hearts and minds of developers -- and by winning over the developers, we knew we could win over the hearts and minds of gamers by enabling truly wonderful new games to be conceived.
And sure enough, one by one, they came. First a few, then dozens, and then an army.
Considering the amazing pace of technology advances, our very first thoughts on Xbox included the somewhat misguided notion that we might upgrade the system every TWO years. Now wouldn't that have been disruptive!
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Full Story: mercurynews.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
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(Wednesday 23 May 2007 12:21 EST) - (Category: Xbox_Xbox360) - (Posted by::
)
Survey Reveals Wii60 Effect, Console Popularity
>> From gamasutra.com:
[QUOTE]
Gamasutra has obtained data from analyst firm Frank N. Magid Associates originally compiled for the MI6 marketing conference, and detailing some fascinating survey data on Wii/Xbox 360 purchasers buying a second console, as well as overall consumer purchasing enthusiasm for next-gen consoles.
When surveying Xbox 360 owners, 52% are neutral or more likely to buy a PlayStation 3 because of their first purchase, and a much larger 66% are neutral or more likely to buy a Wii because they now own an Xbox 360.
In fact, in this last case, 19% of the Xbox 360 owners say that they are somewhat or much more likely to own Nintendo's next-gen console because of their ownership of the Xbox 360, by far the highest of those surveyed.
For next-gen consoles, the Xbox 360 led in terms of respondents either owning the console or more concretely intending to get one, with 10% already owning an Xbox 360, 5% saying they will definitely pick one up, and 3% saying they will probably get one - for a total of 18%. However, 11% of those replying said they had a 50/50 chance of picking one up, and 54% say they definitely would not.
The PlayStation 3 performed weakest in the owning, definitely buying, and probably buying categories, with 4%/5%/5% for a total of 14%, but 13% of those replying said they had an even chance of buying Sony's hardware, and 54% said they would definitely not - the same number as Xbox 360.
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Full Story: gamasutra.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Connect360 v3.1 patches video problems
>> NullRiver released a new version of Connect360(info), it's a tool to stream your music, images and videos from your Mac OSX to your Xbox 360 console.
The release doesn't include the changelog for v3.1, but xbox360fanboy has the details on the new release:
[QUOTE]
Connect360 v3.1, which fixes some issues had with streaming video after the Spring Update. According to Alex Lovett of Nullriver, there was a rounding error on a floating point number that was inadvertently causing the wrong data to be output at random intervals. Either way, it's been addressed in the update and any of you who have been having issues with video streaming should have smooth sailing.
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Official Site: http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/connect360
Download: here
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Xbox360 LIVE Bans Info and iXtreme Online FW WIP
>> Here are some details about the Xbox360 LIVE bans I got directly and indirectly from GaryOPA, Commodore4eva (C4E), Iriez and others. Of course don't take any of this info as 100% confirmed, noone knows exactly based on what data MS is banning ... it's just an analysis of what they think is happening and what MS might/can be checking.
C4E thinks MS is probably detecting and banning consoles from LIVE by tracking usage of backups via timing of the challenge response (c/r) on the drive over the last few weeks or months. A modified FW will reply much faster to the the Challenges requests (stored in a table) than an original firmware (seek on drive). They probably do this test more than once and can ban you if you're above a certain average.
FuzzyLogic also found that microsoft is sometimes doing additional checks on discs: PFI/DMI (so images without these sectors (or if using an old FWs without support for PFI/DMI) can probably be detected easily), drive inquiry (reads ascii string from drive), and capacity (reports capacity of disc) are requested. Strange thing here is MS requests 0x8000 bytes for PFI and DMI, while it should normally be 0x0800 bytes. TheSpecialist pointed out that the remaining 0x7800 bytes contains the relocated SS and PFI on burned discs ... which would make it very easy to detect backups for MS. C4E however told us this would not work on TS drives as its cut off to 0800 even if more data is asked, it's unconfirmed how modified HLG FWs drives respond to this atm.
The "read capacity check" will also work as detection on HLG because, unlike the newest TS FWs, it doesn't have true 'stealth media' yet, these drives are reporting back the burned disc based size of PFI instead of the correct PFI.
Apparently there's also an issue with SS (Security Sector) extracted from Hitachi-LG, some necessary data is screwed ... which means that probably only the Toshiba-Samsung / Kreon setup has been extracting correct SS.
Another thing they are probably detecting (but probably not using yet to decide to ban or not) and log/flag is if you ever booted your Xbox360 with DVD SATA cable not connected to your Xbox360 (E64). Many people did this to power their drive when they wanted to flash it (power connected to 360, SATA to PC). So it's highly suggested to use an external power to flash next time.
It's also possible MS also bans based on stuff like bad credit card info for your country, running a NTSC machine with euro-address/credit card (or inverse), having out-of-region (arcade) games and demos on your HDD, unofficial 360 HDD, internet downloaded gamesaves etc. There's no clear view on all this yet.
For now, C4E believes Microsoft is not detecting modified FWs or detecting FW changes/updates. Using a special FW they did not detect any debug commands sent to the drive by MS (they went through the dash/kernel updates with the special FW as well and did not detect any debug commands there either). So they think either:
A/ MS is not doing any FW detection right now, and only previously (maybe on request of MS servers while playing on LIVE?), or
B/ MS is banning based only on the timings of the drive, ss/pfi/dmi checks, capacity, drive inquiry and c/r verification.
We also got information C4E is working on an "iXtreme Online" FW for Toshiba-Samsung drives, a Hitachi-LG version and maybe even BenQ version might follow later.
The new FW will have less features than the current Xtreme FWs: no single-layer (DVD5) support, no ripping of games (0800 mode), but more features to safely play from burned discs (emulate the exact speed and timings of the original games) and prevent booting from un-safe discs (without PFI and DMI or bad SS - so discs not passing the 'Stealth Check' (using Xbox Backup Creator(info) for example) are not going to boot on the new firmware), or images that aren't exact dumps of the original.
There's no official ETA (maybe this weekend though for TS drives), and of course no guarantee MS will never ban you based on new checks (that's the risk it takes if you want to be part of the modding community ;)) The HLG FW will take a bit longer as it'll require true 'Stealth media' etc added.
This new FW will of course be made mostly for new consoles being modded, because even if you're not banned from LIVE yet there's no way to know if MS already has info/logs on your console ID regarding timings or other stuff so even changing to this new firmware in the near future may not stop that console ID from being banned in the next wave of MS bans.
If your console is not banned yet, it's highly suggested you don't boot any burned discs, originals should be ok, even when offline (MS might be storing results of some checks in flash), until the release of the new FW.
If your console is already banned this will of course not help you ... just enjoy the offline playing on that console for now (with some games you could try using 3rd party networks like XLink Kai(info)) and maybe some day a new exploit will allow you to do more with that console.
To end with ... X-Scene's obvious tip of the month: don't buy 2nd hand Xbox360 consoles ;)
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Rockstar Games announces Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition
>> From the press release:
[QUOTE]
Rockstar Games is proud to announce that Grand Theft Auto IV will be available as a special edition on October 16 in North America and October 19 in Europe, the same day as the regular edition of Grand Theft Auto IV.
The Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition will be presented in a customized Grand Theft Auto metal safety deposit box. The box will contain:
* Grand Theft Auto IV on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system or the PLAYSTATION3 computer entertainment system, both with special packaging
* The Grand Theft Auto IV Art Book, featuring never-before-seen production artwork from Grand Theft Auto IV
* Selected soundtrack CD from Grand Theft Auto IV, featuring new material from top artists, only available on this release
* An exclusive Rockstar keychain for the safety deposit box keys
* Completing the collection is a limited edition Rockstar duffel bag
All of the items have been created with the utmost attention to detail to create a unique Grand Theft Auto IV experience for any fan of the series. The Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition is available for pre-orders today and will retail for $89.99 in North America.
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Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
GamingNexus Xbox360 Chatpad Hands On
>> From gamingnexus.com:
[QUOTE]
Last night Dan and I attended the GamerScoreBlog community event in Chicago. Besides getting the chance to check out some of Microsoft's upcoming titles we got the chance to check out Microsoft's new Chatpad add-on.
While the unit we got to check out last night was not the final version that will ship later this summer, it is a pretty close approximation of what will be shipped to stores. The ChatPad snaps snugly onto the bottom of the controller. It's a pretty tight fit so you don't have to worry about accidentally knocking it off during gameplay. The unit isn't really that heavy and doesn't really impact the weight or balance of the Xbox 360 controller. I think this is something that a lot of people will snap on and leave on.
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Full Story: gamingnexus.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
XboxMediaCenter (XBMC) 2007-05-20 SVN rev9030 build - T3CH
>> T3CH released a new SVN compile (rev9030) of XboxMediaCenter(info) for Xbox1.
This T3CH-compile is a complete snapshot of what is in SVN at the time the build was compiled, with just a few small additions.
Special Notes and Noteworthy/XML/Script changes:
* AMT has been updated to tagged 0.97.5 (not pre- like before).
* Alright, so my page has moved to http://t3ch.yi.se. Long story short, the xil.us domainowner lost it due to an old mailbox he couldn't access.
* I'm including the XBMC Win32 PC environment.exe that is meant for skinners & python developers, read more about the concept here. It was built using Microsoft DirectX Summer 2004 SDK.
* I've tweaked the win32 run_me_first.bat so it runs and then unmounts the virtual drives when you exit.
For the full changelog (all added/fixed/changed/updated stuff) since the 2007-05-14 SVN Rev8943 build click here.
Keep in mind this is a SVN snapshot of the current development tree. It's not an official (stable) point release. Use only if you know what you are doing.
Official XBMC Site: www.xboxmediacenter.com (manual and FAQ)
Official T3CH Site: http://t3ch.yi.se (release RSS feed)
Download Binaries: n/a (built with XDK) | Download SourceCode: here
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
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