Reports of the "Jasper" model of the Xbox 360 have been reported to have been in stores since as early as late September, and now a newer report gives us some better details on what to look for, particularly the output voltage on the power brick.
The Jasper chipset is, essentially, supposed to be better in every way, this including the amount of power it requires. So it seems, any 360 made after October 23, 2008 should have the chipset.
My only question is: why the heck wouldn't this be advertised and on the box? I guess if they did that a lot of unsuspecting customers would have suddenly been suspecting, meaning less sales since launch. Still!
VentureBeat reporter and "renowned Microsoft digger" Dean Takahashi has done a... More »
It has been confirmed that the New Xbox Experience increases the active downloads queue from six entries to a massive fourty.
To quote: Just a quick tidbit for you NXE-loving guys and gals out there. In my eternal thirst to find out more technical information about the NXE, I stumbled across a piece of info you might be interested in. This comes from one of the “Voices” Xbox.com pages:
“Speaking of downloads, the Active Downloads queue has been expanded from six entries to a whopping 40, making it much easier to fill your hard drive with lots of great stuff.”
Most of the article rehashes the normally touted features, but I thought y’all might be interested in something a little more fresh.
It looks like the first Jasper motherboards (which should have the new 65nm GPU) are now out in the wild! To quote: Moddage posted pictures of his new Jasper 360 on our forums and we also received some pictures from The Dude Z. Both are Arcade SKUs made 10-23-2008 Lot #0843X by Team FDOU.
The new power supply (pictured below) is now 150W (25W less than those used with Falcon boards), and the plug has of course been changed so u can't plugin this PSU into an older motherboard.
Other unannounced change... the onboard flash chip has grown from 16MB to 256MB. Microsoft included internal memory storage, so the Arcade SKU now ships without (external) Memory Unit and the new NXE dash will install fully on the flashchip (rather than requiring a HDD or external MU).
But the internal memory can also be used to store gamesave data, XBLA games, videos or whatever ... u can use it asif it was an external MU. As the flash chip is also used for th... More »
We love hard drives. When your home console is strapping a big arsed HDD you don't have to leave Alex Kidd on overnight, you don't have to remember sixty-two digit save passwords, and you no longer have to mourn the death of an 8 MB memory card as if it was a family member.
Make no mistake fellow gamers, hard drives rock. Even still, if you had have told us in 2005 that three years later we'd be complaining about 'only having’ 20 gigs of space for our Xbox 360, we would have built a time machine to travel forwards in time to knee ourselves in the groin.
But times they do a-change, especially when you're talking storage. HDD sizes always increase at a frantic rate, and their prices can change just as quick. Just ask one of your PC gaming buddies - you know, the bloke you stay friends with because he has sixteen terabytes of porn - he'll set you straight on the virtues of having HDD space to spare.
Now that the DLC era is fully upon us, it’s be... More »
So imagine this: You're a huge gamer who bought the Xbox 360 on day one. You stood in line for over 20 hours in the pouring rain, just for Microsoft's newest console. Pretty hardcore, right? It gets better.
Imagine now, with me, that over the course of the past several years, you've played games on your 360 nearly every chance you got. You've racked up a huge gamerscore, only to have it all taken away one day without ANY warning.
This is story of SlapStic reader "JackTheWhack." Jack, whose real name is Jack Barbosa, not only had a huge gamerscore; he had more than any other person in the entire state of New Jersey: 121,250, in fact.
He achieved this impressive score through renting via Gamefly for games that he was only mildly interested in, while he purchased many games that he thought could give him more lasting enjoyment. Obviously, with a score that high, he WAS a MASSIVE 360 fan.
Console modder RDC has set out to make a slot-loading Xbox 360 by modifying an iMac DVD drive. He says its now functional and has provided a video of it.
To quote: Well, I figured I'd see how far I can get on this thing and have been wanting to take a stab at it for awhile but didn't feel like trashing a perfectly good slot loader drive to see if I could.
Then I remembered I had this little gem just sitting around doing nothing at all, figured I may as well use it for something besides dumpster filler..
Courtesy of Microsoft's Major Nelson (linked above) today:
Looking for a way to tell those in your life that you want an Xbox 360 for the Holilday? Xbox.com has posted their Holiday Value Finder Guide.
Scroll down and hit the Start Convincing button to answer some questions (Mad Libs style) and the website will kick out a personalized PDF (pictured below is a sample) that you can sent to that special someone in your life to let them know what is on your list this season.
Microsoft announced today it will start offering Community Games in new regions, thus allowing more developers around the world to distribute their titles on the new Xbox Live Community Games Channel and potentially share in the profits from their creations.
Below is the press release with the announcement.
Press Release: Microsoft Opens the Flood Gates of Community Game Development in New Regions
Following the highly-anticipated launch of the Community Games channel as part of the New Xbox Experience on Nov. 19, Microsoft today announced that it will open up the service to even more developers around the world to create their own games for Xbox 360 and share them with millions.
Beginning on Dec. 15, independent, student and hobbyist developers in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand will have the opportunity to distribute their titles on the new Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel and potentially share in the profits from their crea... More »
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