I recently picked up an Xbox Live beta starter kit. It appears to be slightly different from the one with the orange memory card and special zipper case. Inside the box was this strange communicator adapter for the controller. It appears to be a beta or prototype version, or at least different from the final retail version. I was hoping someone here may know more about it. Google doesn't seem to know too much about it. All of the documentation that came with the kit has images of the retail communicator. The communicator fits very nicely on top of a duke controller. It looks a bit silly on top of the S controller.
Attached with the duke, it kinda looks like a "mini one eye Bat robot". Haha just imagining abit further, so forgive my remarks~
That's a lot slimmer than the released version- the one that was marketed was taller, more like a trapezoid. I like this design a lot more. Slimmer, has a kinda cool look to it. If you get the chance, post a picture of it plugged into a type S controller, I'd like to see how it looks.
It's actually a bit larger than the retail communicator, the huge duke controller is making it appear tiny. I powered the communicator up. I really like the larger mute button, but the lights are quite dim. It doesn't really show in the image but in dim ambient light the green color is really green, very much "xbox" green.
Ah- that's why i thought it was smaller. They must've designed this for the Duke, then never released it when the type S came out. Makes sense. Thanks for the shots of the connector. I really like that shade of green, but like you said it seems dim. Probably meant to be seen in a dark gaming room, because at the time probably only the dedicated gamers bought these.
I know this is an old thread but I just bought an old magazine and this is in it. It is called the "Game Commander" and it was manufactured by Microsoft and it says the release date was 2002. Doesn't say much else though. EDIT: Magazine is from December 2001 so the release was just speculation I suppose.
Interesting. Which magazine is that? I found references calling it the "Xbox Communicator" in April of 2002. Both at IGN (http://www.ign.com/articles/2002/04/22/its-alive-alive) and in OXM (http://dl.oxmonline.com/IssueArchive/OXM_2002_04-web.pdf). It seems like by August of 2002 they were using the retail communicator in advertising. (http://dl.oxmonline.com/IssueArchive/OXM_2002_08-web.pdf)
It was from Electronic Gaming Magazine #149. It was a few months before the links you posted so the name was probably changed. It is just a small mention of it, saying how cool it will be to insult people during online gaming. Haha.
These were promoted along side the smaller US version during the EUR Xbox Live launch in March 2003. So I think it was the first retail design that was later redesigned smaller to fit the S controller. I have bigger images but tiff's aren't allowed to be uploaded. Edit: Welcome to the Xbox Live resource DVD
