Xbox

Xbox
Developer: Microsoft Publisher: Microsoft Released in JP: February 22, 2002 Released in US: November 15, 2001 Released in EU: March 14, 2002 This game has unused code. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused models. This game has unused sounds. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prototype article

The Xbox was the console that introduced a new third contender between the Nintendo and Sony console wars following the demise of Sega's Dreamcast, and proved for the first time in two decades that it was possible for an American console to become successful. And all they needed was backing from the biggest software company in the world, a willingness to lose millions upon millions and never really turn a net profit, and launching with one of the most popular and influential games of all-time.

Pfft, see Atari? It's not hard!

Xbox Live, the console's online service, was scheduled to cease operation on April 15, 2010 - but as it turns out, it couldn't shut down until every user who'd connected before said date disconnected, leading to a few determined players leaving their consoles on for nearly a month and playing Halo 2 until their Xboxes died from overheating. The service went down for real on May 11, 2010.

To do: There may be some other differences in the BIOS and menus.

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Prototype Info

Unused Ambient Sounds

To do: If these are unused, rip the audio. "There's to [sic] many" is not an excuse.

Present in the root/Audio/AmbientAudio folder are leftover audio tracks otherwise used in the normal ambiance audio in normal gameplay.

Development Team Easter Eggs

When copying a CD to the Xbox, save the Soundtrack as <<Eggsβox>> including the Beta, greater than and less than symbols. A "Thank You" message starts which is followed by a scrolling list of the Xbox Team members.

If you press a button on the controller or let the message play through to the end -- the Xbox reboots.

(Source: Xbox Dev Wiki)

In May 2021, an anonymous developer from the Xbox team revealed the 2nd Easter egg that went undiscovered all this time, which has a similar activation method.

When copying the soundtrack from a CD, set the title to Timmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! (26 y's) but this time you have to let it finish ripping the soundtrack. Then go back into Settings, and in System Info. This will now display the following developer credits.

(Source: Kotaku)

Early Boot Logo Sequence

Prerelease Xbox development hardware used a different boot animation called "Fireworks" by the community.

Prerelease	Final

The sequence shares similarities with the short video played when inserting an Xbox disc into a DVD Player. It's unknown if the console's sequence was supposed to completely mimic the video.

Prerelease	DVD Player

This sequence was known as "ani.bin" and there are no leftovers of it in the Xbox code. The final logo is known as "ani2.bin" in the code.

(Source: https://www.obscuregamers.com/threads/og-xbox-boot-animation-easter-egg-hunt.1216/)

Shields

A development version of the final bootlogo sequence had "shields" around the "flubber" of the logo. The Microsoft logo was also colored green at this point in time. Mod teams have been able to reenable the "shields" with modchips.

Devkit	Final

Controlling the bootlogo

In late development, the bootlogo would respond to button inputs of A, B, X, Y, Black, White, or the Left Stick. Players were able to control animation speed, fog, the presence of shadows, camera position, intensity of the "flubber" energy, and shields. In the final build of the kernel, the library for handling controller input is not loaded on boot, so this code is unused.

(Source: /r/OriginalXbox)

(Source: source code: private\ntos\ani2\defines.h)

Revisional differences

If the console is running the dashboard version "4920", once you hit "Xbox Live" in the menu, a FMV for the Xbox Live logo will be displayed.