4 - Computer Systems in Daily Life (XBOX)

“In 1998, four engineers from Microsoft's DirectX team, Kevin Bachus, Seamus Blackley, Ted Hase and DirectX team leader Otto Berkes, disassembled some Dell laptop computers to construct a prototype Microsoft Windows-based video game console.” This “Windows-based console” was the Xbox.

Released in November of 2001 in North America (also released in Japan on February 22nd and Australia and Europe on March 14th of 2002), the Xbox was Microsoft’s Golden Ticket into the commerce of gaming consoles. It directly competed with Sony to this day, starting with the Playstation 2. It also contended with the Dreamcast and the Gamecube. What gave it an advantage over the other consoles was online broadband connectivity using Ethernet. Players were able to download content and play with others (as well as communicate with them in real time).

Personally, I am an Xbox gamer. I have played on the original xbox since its release. It’s what truly got me into gaming, besides the Gamecube. I was a young gamer, and I dove headfirst into multiplayer. I played classics such as Halo, Battlefield, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. These games guided me through life, especially KOTOR. But I digress…we’re here to discuss the computer systems of this electronic computational apparatus of yore.

In the quote that introduced this blog post, it stated that the four engineers of Microsoft’s DirectX team took apart Dell laptop computers and built the Original Xbox. To clarify, DirectX is “a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms.” It’s where Microsoft keeps what runs their stuff. And interestingly enough, the X in ‘DirectX’ is where the name of the Xbox came from. Originally, it was to be called the “DirectX Box,” but Xbox was more popular in focus groups and polls. And I, personally, am very glad that it was called the Xbox. It would have been shortened soon enough if it hadn’t. Again, I digress…

This device pretty much brought on widespread gaming. Over the years, the Xbox has seen software and hardware upgrades. The original Xbox was part of the sixth generation of gaming. Now we are in the eighth generation with the Xbox One, which severely fell behind under Sony’s PS4 and Wii U. What happens when too much changes too quickly? People get angry and stay with the older system or switch to the competition. And it saddens me to hear that Xbox 360 (7th generation) will be weeded out by 2016, and I (along with every other xbox gamer) will be forced to make the transition to Xbox One.

"Xbox (console)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_(console)>.
"DirectX." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX>.