Reddit User turns an old Xbox Dev Kit into a gaming rig

[Clownman]

This is fairly new but after hearing about it, I feel it's worth sharing. Basically people are already chewing this guy out despite him claiming that when he checked it, There was nothing on it. I'll refrain from posting my thoughts but gamers alike seem to be pretty pissed for a pretty valid reason.

[Rachael]

Even for ultra-rare items, the owner is well within their rights to do what they want with it. It's not up to everyone else to decide that, and to be honest some of the responses I read in there were pretty childish.

It may be unfortunate, but that's just the way it is.

It might be better to have such a thing in a museum, sure - but nitpicking over someone's actions like that is pretty asinine, really.

[NeuralStunner]

To be fair, look at the subreddit name. If that doesn't scream "toxic elitism" I don't know what else to say.

[Kinsie]

What a waste.

[Fisk]

So he did what he wanted with his own hardware that he owned. Okay.

[Rachael]

I don't say that I condone what he did. But the reaction he got for it was far worse than any perceived crime he committed. It's really telling how horrible people can be when there's an entire internet buffer space between them and the person they are trying to gang up on.

[Kinsie]

"Someone called him names, so he was completely justified in using this original Shakespeare manuscript as bog roll. You guys just don't understand!"

[4thcharacter]

Well, that subreddit is horrible and is usually a butt of a joke sometimes in some other places.

[Clownman]

Alright, May as well spill my 2 cents just because. My thoughts are essentially the same as Eruanna's, It is unfortunate but the person technically has the right to do what he wants considering he owned it. Sure, It's not completely out of the ordinary for one to possibly think something like "Hmm.. Those old Dolphin Dev kits look so cool! But I want to play my actual games on it!"

Not saying I completely condone what he did either though as the way he showed the former entrails just lying on his carpet claiming he was "not planning on selling" any of the hardware which I can see, came off like a taunt to plenty of people as it was massively down voted and had a negative score of about -15.

"This could have had the original Alpha for Halo 1 you dipshit!"
COULD HAVE, Not could have FOR SURE. There were around 50 original Xbox Dev Kits known to exist, Unless we knew this guy's father (who is presumably the previous owner of the kit) worked for Microsoft or some crap, I don't see it being that likely.

[NeuralStunner]

It's more likely that decommissioned hardware wouldn't have anything useful on it. Hard to believe a major corporation wouldn't follow basic data security. (But then again, Sony...)

The hardware would be more relevant, but what would it provide that an actual Xbox wouldn't? From what I understand of emulation efforts, understanding of the hardware isn't the problem. There's the classic issue of virtualizing everything in a way that runs at reasonable speed. But mostly, the problem seems to be that there's few people interested in actually working on it.

[Rachael]

I actually tend to believe NeuralStunner is right.

The best emulator is right in about 70-80% of living rooms already: or at least, put off into their garages.

Plus, it's already possible to turn a home XBox One into a dev kit of its own, and costs a reasonably minimal fee (it's actually cheaper than buying a new game). Would it not be possible then, to create a program that explores the data structures and API's available from within that? Can't XBox One play at least some old XBox games decently for backwards compatibility?

Basically, the people in that reddit thread are throwing a shit fit over nothing and in the process making themselves into real douche bags.

[scalliano]

Agreed. If you really wanted to program for OG Xbox, softmodding a retail console is piss-easy. Did it myself not that long ago.

That said, as a preservationst, I do find it kind of sad that such a rare piece of hardware has been cannibalised in such a manner.

[Rachael]

True it is sad - but there's nothing we can do about it. It got into that guy's hands one way or another, and that's where it is now.

[leileilol]

Because picking up a nearly-capable dolled up Compaq Deskpro SFF with a FX5200 128-bit PCI isn't as cool.

not surprised entitled "beta" kids are raging over it though lol

[Freaklore1]

Here's something similar that happened not too long ago, (feat.Pat the Nes Punk)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3hRZ1dQzHA&t=373s