Nick, Julian, and Esteban explore the notable games and lasting impact of the Xbox.

The Homebrew Impact
 

While the Xbox never achieved a market position in its lifetime that even came close to approaching that of the PlayStation 2, many of its features absolutely drove the direction of the industry for the coming generation. I speak specifically about the onboard storage and Ethernet port, two features that have become staples of modern systems. It's almost incomprehensible to imagine a system today without the ability to store game saves, downloadable content (DLC), and other profile information right on the system itself. The Xbox was the first console to marry a couple of the popular PC standbys to the home console market.

At the time of its release, the Xbox opened a whole new world up for players. Users could load music onto their hard drive by ripping CDs, and in many games, play that music during gameplay. It was the first bridge that connected the operating system of the device to the games, showcasing a new dimension of functionality that was never before possible.

Of course, when used in conjunction with the Ethernet port, the Xbox acted as the first DLC-capable system, giving publishers the ability to expand console games like a PC. Both the hard drive and Ethernet port features were put into place as a means to accommodate Xbox Live, which as we all know now, is a wildly popular service that's nearly required to get the most from the Xbox's successor, the Xbox 360.

However, this fusion of PC-to-console also opened up a new world to the homebrew and mod communities. The Dreamcast had previously held the crown for king of homebrew, but the Xbox made it easier and better than ever with both its hard drive and Ethernet capabilities. It wasn't long after release of the system that the homebrew scene figured out how to use the game Splinter Cell to gain access to the boot loader, and partition the hard drive to include Linux. While the mod unfortunately aided the piracy scene, it did some great things for those who chose to mod their systems as well.

Xbox Media Center (XBMC) still stands as one of the best media playing programs available. Given that you could easily attach your Xbox to a network, it connected your television to one of the best media hubs available: your PC. Music and movies were easily and seamlessly streamed from one device to another. This functionality had a profound impact on my life, allowing me to access my entire digitized library of content from my couch. Of course, this functionality has also made its way to the Xbox 360, potentially as a reaction to the popularity of XBMC.

Games could also be backed up to the hard drive, making your favorites easily and constantly accessible. Again, we see this ability present in an official capacity on the Xbox 360. These ripped game images could also be offloaded to your PC via FTP, so that you could digitally store all of your games on hard drives with a bit more storage space. Heck, those who were really ambitious could replace the system's internal hard drive with something larger to further streamline all of the system's functions.

The homebrew scene also provided yet another amazingly effective tool to modders that has also made its way to consoles, though not on the Xbox 360. Online gaming for non-Xbox Live games also became available thanks to XLink Kai. Want to play Halo: Combat Evolved online? Sure thing. Boot up XLink, connect to a friend, and hop on over to the System Link feature of the game. This remote server will be detected as a fellow Xbox, and you'll both be on your way to playing across the much larger network of the Internet. PSP owners will know this feature as Adhoc Party, which allows you to use your PS3 in the same capacity that XLink Kai used your PC.

There's no question that the Xbox and mod scene has helped drive the future of gaming. Without its introduction, who knows what types of systems would exist today. One thing is for sure: its introduction has improved gaming in a very significant way.