The Big X prototype at GDC

[John117]

Hi guys,
someone knows if the prototype of GDC is in the private collection of some lovers of Xbox?


Thanks


P.S. I'm looking info on GDC 2000 (Xbox conference)

 

[Arcadia]

It's at the Microsoft visitor center:

Whatever happened to the Xbox’s original prototype?

It’s in Microsoft’s Visitor Center

www.polygon.com

 

[John117]

It's at the Microsoft visitor center:

Whatever happened to the Xbox’s original prototype?

It’s in Microsoft’s Visitor Center

www.polygon.com

No, I mean if this prototype is in the collection of some private.

 

[FamilyGuy]

No, I mean if this prototype is in the collection of some private.

It seems like it's not, as it's at the Microsoft visitor center.

I doubt they made more than one of those? I might be wrong though.

 

[Trimesh]

It seems like it's not, as it's at the Microsoft visitor center.

I doubt they made more than one of those? I might be wrong though.

I was told there were 3 of them but only ever one that was completely assembled and functional - that's the one with the fan bolted on the back of the case - the most obvious sign is that the cosmetic models have a fan grill in the center of the rear panel and the working one had a large external fan bolted there. Apparently it still tended to overheat, but would run for long enough that you could demo it.

I don't know if the one in the MS visitor center is the hero version or one of the space models.

 

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

I was told there were 3 of them but only ever one that was completely assembled and functional - that's the one with the fan bolted on the back of the case - the most obvious sign is that the cosmetic models have a fan grill in the center of the rear panel and the working one had a large external fan bolted there.

That article says there were several of them. I wonder how they managed to fit the Xbox hardware inside of such an oddly-shaped case.

 

[Trimesh]

That article says there were several of them. I wonder how they managed to fit the Xbox hardware inside of such an oddly-shaped case.

It wasn't actually the X-box hardware - it was basically a Micro-ATX system with the various bits of the system put wherever they would fit inside the X. That's the main reason the cooling was bad - the fan was centrally located and the parts were in the arms of the X where there was very little airflow. It was apparently quite noisy since they needed lots of pressure to get any airflow in the case at all.

 

[Arcadia]

No, I mean if this prototype is in the collection of some private.

You asked what happened to the one used at GDC 2000, and the exact one is at the Microsoft visitor's center.

Now, if you're asking what happened to the two or three others ones that were made at the same time, I don't know. But if I was to guess I'd bet one of them is in Ed Fries's office...