Back in Black?

'Cause I'm back! Yes, I'm back!
Well, I'm back! Yes, I'm back!
Well, I'm baaack, baaack...
Well, I'm back in black,
Yes, I'm back in black!"

As it appears to be the next move from Microsoft and the Xbox 360. Yes its not official and it's still just a rumor, but it's getting harder and harder to....

'Stop (Stop) spreading those rumors around...'

I'm not about to just go into song after song here, but in my quest for all things Xbox 360 and what will be coming around soon. Sources claim that a new Xbox all in black is being to show up as a SKU and the details claim it to have HDMI and a very nice size 120 Gig HD. One can only expect this will also have the ultra quiet Benq DVD player and I'm crossing my fingers, the cooler 65 nm processor and the end of the 3 red rings of death.

To help with adding fuel to the fire here, a black HD DVD player was spotted doing the rounds, apparently sent to all the developers that produced the hardware, as a way of saying thank you. The original source was from a blog on the MSDN pages and was latter removed, but not before the photo was snatched. After all, if your going to buy the 360 in Black, your going to want your accessories to match now, Right?

The price tag is slightly higher than what I was planning to spend, but I also find it hard to spend at the current price, knowing something better is Knocking at the door... No I said I wouldn't do another song here.

It's also rumored that the core system could be at the end of the road here and that the current models could see a price drop and become the lower priced core. The new all in Black model could be sold as an Entertainment package to fit in with the future launch of Microsoft's IPTV and allow people to take advantage of the extra HD space to store Movies & TV shows. If the rumors are true, we could see something happen as early as May 1st. I just have to hold off till then and at least hope that something comes up by the Fall release of Halo 3.

The Xbox 360 is born

Microsoft released the Xbox 360 in November 2005 and something began to stir inside me. The white console from Microsoft looked like a slim line PC and was a straight game console. Not only did I start to take a little more notice in some of the new games, I began to hear about the online gaming abilities. It appeared that the Xbox and gaming from Microsoft was hear to stay.

I still had other interests and gaming was more of a casual thing to me. On the same note, I didn't know anyone that had one and I still wanted to spend my time with the family and just didn't see getting one. This would appear to be a wise move on my part as a year passed for this console; a lot can happen in a year.

A co-worker decided to pick up an Xbox 360 and was ready to say goodbye to the Play Stations and Sony for good. I had tried to get him into PC games and he tried to get me into the Play Station. With the delays on the Play Station 3, he finally made the switch and began singing the praises of Microsoft and the Xbox 360. The work place was infected at this point and would begin to spred like crazy

I began to research the Xbox 360 around the end of 2006 and I started to learn all I could about them. Another co-worker picked up one and then another and at this point I was sold myself from what I began to learn. It was shortly around the end of the year that I heard about some upgrades that might becoming down the pipe from Microsoft. I also tried a demo of MotoGP 06 at Best Buy and it was not a question of if I would make a switch from the PC, as much as a question of when I would purchase the Xbox 360.

Microsoft looks beyond Windows

Microsoft has always looked through Windows and wanted to be apart of other things. For a software company that helped launch the Computer World as we know today, they did not stop with just the OS and soon created other Software titles or acquired other companies for themselves. But its been the beyond Windows products that has been really interesting over the years and why a Software Company chose this route.

One of the first out of the box products that I owned from Microsoft was the Timex Datalink watch. A digital watch that would send your contacts and calendar information from Microsoft Outlook, via the Monitor to your watch. It was by all means one of the first PDA devices. I just held the watch towards the screen, hit the synch button and watch the monitor spaz away as it sent my information to the watch.

Another product they came out with was a Cordless Phone and answering system. This is about the point I started to shake my head. I can't figure out why they wanted to get into the telephone business. Sure it sounded like a cool idea for us and we could use it along with our Computer, but something told me to stay away from this all together. I think it had a hefty price tag at the time as well. The phone did not take off and slowly went away with in a year or so.

That brings me to the launch of the Xbox system in November 2001 and I found myself shaking my head once again. What are they thinking here? Sony has such a huge market share, why would Microsoft even look at jumping into this? They already have people using computers with their OS and the PC games are doing really well on Windows. What possible motive could they have for trying to get into the Console business? Could this be another Phone deal that would fall apart in a year?
The Xbox in my mind did not look appealing at all and it had only one title that appeared to draw my attention. Why would I even think to leave my PC games for a new console just to play Halo? I was still an online PC gamer for the most part and I really thought this would not last. I also had other priorities, being a first time Dad and I slowly began to see my time playing games drift away from me. As my daughter began to get older, I didn't even want to play the games in front of her and let her see some of the action of those games. I also reached a point where I just stopped upgrading or buying the new PC games. The gamer in me had finally gone to sleep over the next 5 years all together.

Online PC Games Rock!

So about the Spring of 1995, I was lucky enough to build my first PC and thanks to a friend, began beta testing Windows 95. It was at this time that I got my very first PC game and being the huge Star Wars fan that I am, I quickly picked up a copy of Dark Forces. Doom was the popular game of choice at the time, but this was clearly the Star Wars fans answer to a first person shooter game.

A few years later, another very popular game called Quake II was launched and a number of my friends had started playing this game. It was really cool to login from home and play online against your buddies or even meet new gamers. And with the start of high speed connections, it would only improve online game play. We also would lug our huge PCs & Monitors over to each others houses from time to time for a LAN Party and night of gaming.

I soon got into an RPG called Diablo II and played this for the longest. This 3rd person game reminded me of a cross between Dungeons & Dragons and Gauntlet. The game is clearly more violent than the very tame game of Gauntlet and I enjoyed playing this online. Most of my friends only played the 1st person shooters though, so Diablo was only a change of pace from the shooter games.

We soon moved on from Quake II to the newer games like SiN, Quake III, and even Half-Life as far as the 1st person shooter games go. The LAN parties drifted away over time and I don't see much of those friends. Many years later, I was lucky to meet someone through my wife and was invited to try out a new game called Call of Duty. Meeting him at his place of work and using their Networked machines was really cool. The first person shooter was set in WWII and a lot of fun, clearly these games have evolved over the past years.

My PC is a lot older now and I'm not able to play the cooler games like Call Of Duty. I'm pretty much in need of a new computer at this stage, but I'm also having to rethink this whole online gaming option and if a PC is really the way to go. I remember when Xbox first came out and said to myself, "This will never fly... a new console with only 1 cool game and a handful of others... what are they thinking?" If I only knew what I know now today. The sleeping gamer will awaken.

The Birth of Video Game Rentals

Somewhere around the mid to late 80's the Nintendo NES system made its way into the household and the Atari was now left behind. PONG must have had a smile on his face to finally see some company and a chance to say, "How's it feel?"

Super Mario & Duck Hunt was the standard game that came along with the NES System. A new craze was beginning to take place and Video Rental Stores jumped on board with the ability to rent games to its members.

For the most part we only purchased a few games and elected drop a few dollars for a few days of rented game play, then we just returne the game for another selection. About this time we had found a game for rent called Tecmo Bowl, a really cool Football game for its time.

Tecmo Super Bowl was released around the early 90's and my brother had full claim to the NES and it went with him when he moved out. I really liked playing the game, so around the mid 90's I purchased my own NES game system and a copy of Tecmo Super Bowl. The Super Nintendo was already out and prices had dropped on the original NES, besides I was stuck playing the games I loved. I also purchased a few other games for the NES, but I really gave the NES a work out from playing season after season, with the Oakland Raiders... Go, Bo Jackson, GO... Touch Down!!!

About this time a really good friend of mine purchased the Sega Genesis as a gift for me. I have to say that was a really great gift and the game Sonic the Hedgehog was now released in the home. I purchased a few additional games for the Sega and enjoyed that system too.

For awhile I'd switch back and forth between the NES and Sega. It all depended on the game I wanted to play at that time.

The gaming world was about to change in multiple ways again and Sony was about to release a new console and take a huge market share chunk for itself. The NES still remained an overall favorite of mine, but the gamer in me was about to change towards a new platform once again.

It's all in color

Sales of the Atari 2600 skyrocketed during the Holiday season of 1980 as families rushed out to by game units in order to play the hottest new games. The color game system was now in full force for the home and the poor, old, Black & White Pong system was left standing all alone.

The Atari 2600 came out with Combat, a series of War type games where you shot your enemies tank, blasting them away with all your might. The funny part of the game was allowing you to roll off one side of the screen towards the other or if your lucky blast your target back and near your side for the next shot. It also came with Jets to fight and battle ships. The very simple block shapes provided hours upon hours of war game enjoyment.

Space Invaders placed the Atari firmly in the home, allowing you to move your laser gunner around and blast these Invaders out of the sky. Sadly for the invaders they adobted to fight in straight lines, like the early British and moved back and forth as they prepared to land, speeding up as they drew closer to Earth. With luck and perhaps and nice hole between one of your floating walls, you might squeeze off a round taking out the Invader or a bonus ship flying by.

The 2600 also allowed you to change out games with other games through the use of small cartridges. You could bring your games over to friends and swap them if you like. The system came with a Joystick and a simple red button & a paddle wheel with another simple button.
Many years have passed and the nostalgia of these old games now lives on. You can now find a collection of these games all hidden inside a simple Joystick controller that with batteries and an RCA connection, will allow you to play some of these games again. I only wish it came with Combat.