Xbox Live! Development, 'Non-technical' Historical Feature Well love it or hate it you have to admit that Live! has and is a success. ...Where others have tried and failed MS have pulled it off so that the average gamer in the street can set himself up and be online without too much fuss, and know that he has a backbone system thats not likely to 'disappear' over night. I thought I would put a few thing's together to help anyone that's half interested in Development. Basically there was three phases to the implementation in each 'region'. Phase one This was basically the 'closed door' stage of development, where by both hardware and software were tested by Dev House's deving for Live! 1: First off MS converted a small number of green Debug Kit's. The 'conversion' consisted of flashing the onboard ROM with a unique BIOS that is as near to being Retail signed as is feasible, BUT still differing to ensure security. ...In other words TESTTESTTEST....XBE's don't run on 'em and nor do Retail signed games! ...Also there's no XDK dash, the dash used is basically Retail Live! dash intended to work just like a Live! dash should. ...And lastly two stickers are used to cover the words 'Debug Kit' on the front of the green case!!!! One sticker being 'Beta' and the other being 'MS equipment' ...As you can see from the pic above it came with a letter explaining what was in the kit etc. ...The scary thing is that only a VERY small number were ever produced. So far I've only been able to trace 2off NTSC consoles, 1off PAL (U.K) console and 1off NTSC-J console. Not all of them still have the games, which are crucial. 2: A small number of Live! enabled games needed to be developed, thus... The pic below shows the Beta Live! PAL line up: Lamborghini Ghost Recon Mech Assult (yes they really did spell it wrong on the disc!) Whacked! Unreal Championship Re-Volt ...The 3 discs at the top of the pic are NTSC Beta Live! games: NBA 2003 Fever Pitch Capcom Vs SNK Phase two: The 'open door' public Beta program starts. This involved people signing up to get enrolled onto the program. ...All that eligible candidates had to have was an un-modded retail Xbox and a broadband connection. For their troubles the 'first wave' testers got: 1: Beta Starter Disc 1.0, with dash update files and Live! enabled demo's 2: 'Orange' memory unit 3: Head set communicator 4: Set up instructions 5: beta version of NFL Fever 2003 6: ...Updated Beta Starter Disc as the program progressed. ...As the system started to prove okay a move was made to phase 3. Phase Three: In the U.K for example from the 30/11/02 to 14/03/03 (official retail launch) the Live! program went to a 'Consumer Test Drive' phase. This phase Beta tester's didn't get the orange memory card, just the latest Beta starter disc, communicator and setup guide. The Public Launch Well each region had their own dates, if I remember correctly they were: U.S = 15/11/02 Japan = 16/01/03 And of course the U.K = 14/03/03 ...15 million online hours had racked up on the European Beta test program since November! To reward some of the early Beta testers MS sent them this: ...A rather natty looking case that can hold several games and a headset. ...Oh yeh they also sent a reminder that the old Beta disc's would no longer function: The launch party ...Oh and how could I forget how's this for a trophy? (possibly the last in existence) ...This was made, along with other's, and used for promotional work at the official launch parties held in the U.K. (All the other's were destroyed) ...Weighs a hefty 2.5Kg's and nicely engraved Hope you enjoy
nice thanks for taking the time to write all this down. and sweet that trophey.. I've got the can inside with the dvd
Not so much 'free', they got the Beta testing months 'free' plus the year's subscription for the price of signing up, if that makes sense.
Thankyou TDE. ...Well I've had idea's about breaking stuff down into 'mini-features' as I've got a fair amount of stuff that traces thing's from the 'start' to the 'end', looks like it's worth doing from what you guy's say, thanks.
I had an whole bunch of those 'xbx live cans' ... I sold them all exept for one.. here's is an old (and little) picture of mine: I can make aditional picture's but this says it all actually.. the disc is an dvd filled with assets etc
Cheers Wombat, much appreciated, btw if you ever come across another spare can/DVD can you let me know please, ta
Wow great info, thanks for sharing. You should do some more 'mini features', can we get one on dreamcast dev timeline?. Thanks again!.
Don`t have the can`s but have two of the Beta Kits as I was forunate enough to be chosen Bombed out on the Line Of Contact testing though :-(
