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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

The Original Xbox launched in 2001 and it brought a few innovations never seen before to the video game console industry. The first would be a built-in hard drive that was not an optional add-on, rather it was a core component of the Xbox hardware. But did the hard drive provide any benefit other than large storage capacity for save games and custom soundtracks? In today's episode we take a closer look at the Xbox hard drive feature and how developers took advantage of it in different ways. Was it really necessary in the end? You decide and let me know in the comments.

Timestamps:

00:00 - 01:40 - Introduction
01:41 - 03:47 - The Xbox Hard Drive and its purpose.
03:48 - 05:23 - Save Games / Custom Soundtracks
05:24 - 07:21 - Developer benefits - Fast Loading
07:22 - 09:23 - Halo 2 caching and Doom 3 Texture Steaming
09:24 - 10:11 - Morrowind and the Hard Drive
10:48 - 12:28 - How the homebrew community adopted the Hard Drive
12:29 - 14:13 - The Xbox 360 took a step back
14:14 - 15:19 - Conclusion/Outro

 

[Games Bookstore]

For the benefit of modding your xbox and playing games off the hard drive.

 

[IDKFA]

I used it to create my own custom radio station in GTA. Worth it just for that.

 

[poppabk]

I'm guessing the PC guys designing it put it in because they just couldn't imagine not having one.

 

[Esppiral]

I'm guessing the PC guys designing it put it in because they just couldn't imagine not having one.

What a stupid take....

 

[SportsFan581]

For myself and most users, not much other than being a giant memory card. You had to get into the home-brew scene with customized OS and all that to really use it. Though I know that it was used to download content on live connected games.

 

[drganon]

I used it to create my own custom radio station in GTA. Worth it just for that.

I did the same, but also for tony hawk 2x.

 

[nkarafo]

I remember the caching thing getting on my nerves. Some games would cache the first time you load them, having an abnormally long initial loading time. That's OK, it's normal i guess and after that the game loads normally even if you restart it completely. But if you decide to play a different game, the cache gets deleted and when you want to play the previous game again, it has to re-cache.

 

[DAHGAMING]

I loaded mine up with G-Unit tracks to bust while playing Project Gotham.

 

[Bond007]

Was awesome for music
And i recall the pure joy of realizing i didnt need to buy a memory card. Loved me some Halo and Project Gotham

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

I used it to put the entire Neo Geo, SNES, Genesis and TG-16 library on it while stationed at CRC in Uijeongbu, South Korea.
There was a dude right off post modding Xbox’s back ‘03…… and it still boots up.

 

[MayauMiao]

My OG Xbox is such an incredible console after modding it and fitted a 1TB with HDD, still works till now. All the games and none of the pain swapping discs and worry about DVD laser failure.

 

[poppabk]

What a stupid take....

Im not saying it was a bad decision, just that it seems it wasn't essential for the original Xbox to have a hard drive. It feels like they didn't have a definitive plan for it, just that it would be useful to have and they would figure it out as they went along.

 

[Humdinger]

I remember using it mostly for custom music, which I still miss. It had storage functions as well, of course.

 

[SHA]

I acknowledge that tech but man, those games are unplayable today.

 

[existensmaximum]

Not needing to mess around with memory cards was awesome.

 

[Isa]

Seriously memory storage was huge compared to memory card limitations, and I constantly used mine for ripping my cd's over for games. So many supported it too. Custom intros, fights outro's and more for the WWE games was incredible, my friends and I'd would create our characters and run them through campaigns building up alliances or enemies and it was so personal lol. I also surprised a ton of people with unique music they'd never been exposed to before. Or just for relaxing.

 

[AJUMP23]

Custom soundtrack. I loved playing football games and having U2 blast on custom soundtrack.

 

[REDRZA MWS]

Built in hard drive AND first console ever with built in Ethernet port. MS was ahead of its time and now with the latest showcase and more on the way I’m extract my series x and pc will get more use.

All I want from Sony is SOCOM. Even if it’s online only nonSP.

 

[jasondefaoite]

XBMP

 

[Bry0]

Im not saying it was a bad decision, just that it seems it wasn't essential for the original Xbox to have a hard drive. It feels like they didn't have a definitive plan for it, just that it would be useful to have and they would figure it out as they went along.

it has an hdd for the same reason it launched with an Ethernet port. They had a plan.

On another note, it absolutely is the best older console to have around because of this. The modding scene for it is nuts. I have a 512gb ssd in mine now with 100+ games on it. I had to recap most of it and replace the dvd drive pcb but she’s still running.

 

[64bitmodels]

I used it to create my own custom radio station in GTA. Worth it just for that.

I wonder if you can do this with modern GTA, or PC versions of the 6th gen games. I'd like to have my own custom radio station!

 

[cireza]

Can't believe they managed to drop the hard-drive with one SKU of the 360. Such a dumb decision. OG Xbox still the best Xbox !

 

[Black_Stride]

Other than not needing a memory card, I honestly thought it was jsut so I could have Custom Soundtracks.

^Make this Backwards compatible you dogs!!!!

 

[AngelMuffin]

I'm guessing the PC guys designing it put it in because they just couldn't imagine not having one.

 

[Black_Stride]

I wonder if you can do this with modern GTA, or PC versions of the 6th gen games. I'd like to have my own custom radio station!

You can.
The Radio station is called Self Radio.
Same as all the older GTAs you just need to copy your music to the User Music folder.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Im not saying it was a bad decision, just that it seems it wasn't essential for the original Xbox to have a hard drive. It feels like they didn't have a definitive plan for it, just that it would be useful to have and they would figure it out as they went along.

There’s a pretty good chance they planned to have digital download games be a part of that generation. Lots of things come later than planned, and MS launched 360 early essentially so some of what was planned for OG Xbox like XBLA may have just pushed to that generation (ironically with hard drive being optional.)

 

[MarkMe2525]

NFL 2k5 allowed for conditional in-game highlights, using the ability to rip music to the HDD. Everytime I would record a sack, a snippet from "Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit would play through the stadiums sound system accompanied by camera shots that I selected beforehand. I appreciated the creativity of the feature.

 

[Drew1440]

There’s a pretty good chance they planned to have digital download games be a part of that generation. Lots of things come later than planned, and MS launched 360 early essentially so some of what was planned for OG Xbox like XBLA may have just pushed to that generation (ironically with hard drive being optional.)

They did release Live arcade games for the OG Xbox, you can no longer download them unless you have a modded Xbox.

The HDD was the best thing Microsoft did with the Xbox, saving games without the need for a memory unit and being able to rip music to it. With softmodding you could rip your games to the HDD for faster loading (like HD Loader on the PS2) I put a 300GB Maxtor drive in mine, then eventually upgraded it to 2TB.

The problem was it being the most expensive component of the console, which is why the 360 made it optional which quickly became an issue post the NXE update, since it's dashboard had to be stored on the HDD or memory unit.

 

[bender]

The custom soundtrack implementation on PGR2 was great as it just made your playlists a radio station. That took developer effort whereas with the 360, it was a system level option but that never felt as tightly integrated.

 

[IntentionalPun]

They did release Live arcade games for the OG Xbox, you can no longer download them unless you have a modded Xbox.

Ah yeah that’s right.

 

[35cent]

I loved playing Tony Hawk's 4 while listening to the 8 mile soundtrack and other albums at the time.

 

[IDKFA]

I wonder if you can do this with modern GTA, or PC versions of the 6th gen games. I'd like to have my own custom radio station!

Apparently you can on PC.

Self Radio: Creating Your Own Custom Radio Station in GTAV PC - Rockstar Games

Just one of the many cool new features in Grand Theft Auto V for PC is Self Radio, which will allow you to cruise around Los Santos to the sounds of your very own customized radio station. With just a few simple adjustments to the in-game audio...

www.rockstargames.com

 

[IAmRei]

You can.
The Radio station is called Self Radio.
Same as all the older GTAs you just need to copy your music to the User Music folder.

I always use that feat. And somehow, i often fooled people who visit me, and they shocked , that GTA has "local musician" back in the days. Thats way back before 2010s, and most people here doesnt even know if GTA has self radio back then.

 

[lmimmfn]

Have to admit, I was sharing a house with several mates, one bought an xbox and we all laughed at the huge size.

We had my PS2 as the communal console but the grass textures on the xbox were amazing, and there was a rally game that looked stunning.

Great machine, just looked crap and controller was too big also.

 

[kiphalfton]

How many GB is the stock hard drive? I want to say 20GB, but I can't remember. I'm tempted to buy another used Xbox off marketplace and mod it.

 

[Esca]

I know that at least dead or alive 2 I think that had extra costumes on a demo disc in Xbox magazine that that downloaded to your hd. It's biggest use was make custom soundtracks with your own music

 

[Sleepwalker]

I Loved the OG xbox, remember a friend of my dad filled it up with emulators and games for me, truly mindblowing at the time.

 

[MattVT]

NFL 2k5 allowed for conditional in-game highlights, using the ability to rip music to the HDD. Everytime I would record a sack, a snippet from "Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit would play through the stadiums sound system accompanied by camera shots that I selected beforehand. I appreciated the creativity of the feature.

So glad to see you say this. To make my kid brother laugh, I set it so the Hyrule Overworld Theme from Ocarina of Time would play pre-game and the Bolero of Fire would play every first down. Good memories!

 

[ManaByte]

Blinx

 

[Sushi_Combo]

I don't think I ever ran into storage issues, even with ripping so many CD's.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[marquimvfs]

How many GB is the stock hard drive? I want to say 20GB, but I can't remember. I'm tempted to buy another used Xbox off marketplace and mod it.

8GB for the vanilla, Halo special edition had an 40GB HDD.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Xbox was the first console that took worries about save space away. Now this is normal, you save in dozens of games without thinking, But before Xbox, and even during that gen with PS2, DC and GC, you always had to juggle between saves, get extra memorycards, and buy those things in the first place.

You could rip audio cd's too. Though it did make my OS slower when it was loaded with audio tracks.

 

[Alan Wake]

I remember using it mostly for custom music, which I still miss. It had storage functions as well, of course.

Leaving the memory cards behind on the scrap heap of history was such a relief for me. I also used it for custom music, playing my own music in PGR2 was amazing at the time.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

NSA spyware

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I wonder if you can do this with modern GTA, or PC versions of the 6th gen games. I'd like to have my own custom radio station!

Why not? I had radio station mods for CP2077 (synthwave!)

 

[RagnarokIV]

Is was used for downloading extra maps for the Splinter Cell games (back when Splinter Cell was good).