Xbox Live Arcade - The Revolution That Almost Didn't Happen

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  • Опубліковано 20 чер 2024
  • Discover the untold story of Xbox Live Arcade's (XBLA) origins on the OG Xbox in 2004, which paved the way for its massive success on the Xbox 360. I dive into the history of how Greg Canessa initially pitched the idea to Microsoft executives, how J Allard saved the project, and its unveiling at E3 2004. Learn about the unique distribution method of XBLA - on disc! - and explore all 27 original games, including hidden gems that never resurfaced. Lastly, I preserve a rare 2004 Xbox Live Arcade disc on the Internet Archive.
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    Relevant Links:
    Archive.org Download: archive.org/details/xbox-live...
    CNN Article: money.cnn.com/2004/10/13/comm...
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    Video Credits:
    Xbox "Life Is Short" Ad: • Xbox - 2002 "Life Is S...
    E3 2004 Microsoft Press Conference: • E3 2004 - Complete Mic...
    Xbox 360 Unveiling MTV: www.youtube.com/watch?v=17WbK...
    Wayne's World Movie Clip: • Wayne's World (9/10) M...
    Hexic HD Clip: • Hexic HD Xbox 360 Game...
    Polar Bowler Clip: • Polar Bowler Classic -...
    Tradewinds Clip: • Tradewinds Classic - R...
    Xbox One Revealed: • Xbox One: Revealed
    Chapters:
    00:00 Intro, Early History & E3 2004 Xbox Live Reveal Announcement
    04:33 How Was OG Xbox Live Arcade Distributed & What Was On The Disc?
    06:11 Demo Of Original Xbox Live Arcade Disc Menu & Launch Title Reviews
    09:26 Downloading & Unlocking OG XBLA Games - Insignia?
    10:47 Demos & Reviews Of Complete Set Of XBLA Downloadable Games
    22:08 Original Xbox Live Arcade Game Pricing - How Much Did They Cost?
    22:40 What Happened To Atari Classics, Tecmo Classics, Hexic, Polar Bowler And Tradewinds?
    23:17 Post-OG Xbox Live Arcade - The Xbox 360 & Xbox One Cancellation
    24:27 Preservation & Download Of OG Xbox Live Arcade Disc & Final Thoughts
    Royalty-Free Music From Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsound.com:
    Cornelio - Feriado
    Lupus Nocte - Micro-aTAC
    Dusty Decks - Grainy Days
    Dusty Decks - Stone Cookies
    Sarah, The Illstrumentalist - It's Up To You (Me)
    Baegel - Sleepy + Hungry
    Outro: Yomoti - Before Chill
    #xbox #gaming #documentary
  • Ігри

КОМЕНТАРІ • 50

  • @ThisIsPete
    @ThisIsPete Рік тому +7

    This is super-cool to see -- I genuinely had no idea XBLA originated on the OG Xbox.
    Interesting to see that the arcade games appear to be ports rather than arcade emulation -- you can tell by things such as Ms Pac-Man's font and Galaxian's screen layout.

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому +1

      Indeed, I guess once they got to the point that they were adding Xbox Live multiplayer and whatnot it was probably just easier to do a full-on port rather than hacking in new functionality.

  • @MoreFunMakingIt
    @MoreFunMakingIt Рік тому +3

    My best OG Xbox memory was one day when my dear old Nan visited. I sat her in front of the TV and placed a Duke controller in her hands and let her loose in Burnout.
    She giggled the whole way through. Not even sure if she used the thumbstick to steer, but she had a hoot!

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому

      No need in Burnout, just boost along the walls and it'll get you pretty far 😅

  • @theTF2sniper
    @theTF2sniper 9 місяців тому +1

    0:53 Imagine this on E3 nowadays....
    I miss this era of gaming

  • @icomputer7
    @icomputer7 Місяць тому

    5:12 Familiar name on the scoreboard there :)
    Had a lot of fun when Insignia was first released to the public, for about a month I ended up spending a few hours a day playing Bejeweled. Good times

  • @ctrlaltrees
    @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому +1

    I've had a correction for the part originally around 4:30 in the video, where I talk about why this was delivered on disc and not as an online update. Turns out what I'd read about available HDD space was wrong. I've used UA-cam's editor to remove that paragraph. I strive for accuracy in my videos and not perpetuating misinformation is important to me, so I'm very glad indeed that I could edit it out cleanly!
    Also: Apparently there were later DVD releases that had a few demos included. I did order a few different versions but this original CD release is the only one that's turned up thus far. That doesn't invalidate anything said in the video of course, so if and when I do get my hands on some other releases I'll be sure to put together a follow-up!

  • @MQsto
    @MQsto Рік тому +2

    Minesweeper - All the excitement of Excel baked in to a game.

  • @TheRetroChannel
    @TheRetroChannel Рік тому +2

    I certainly remember spending many hours playing Zuma on the 360. Had no idea it originated from the OG Xbox, probably because I didn't have one. Great video Rees

  • @LawnieLovesTrek
    @LawnieLovesTrek Рік тому +1

    An excellent and informative video about the console I used to exclusively play Pro Evolution Soccer 4/5 and KOTOR 1/2 on, completely ignoring multiplayer. Now I finally get to see what I missed!

  • @leesmithsworkshop
    @leesmithsworkshop Рік тому +2

    Great video, I never had the original xbox, but I did have the 360 and enjoyed the arcade games.

  • @einokeskitalo3217
    @einokeskitalo3217 Рік тому +1

    Thorough and informative video. With the 3DS and Wii U eShops just closing, I do appreciate this dive into the history of one of the trailblazers of online game distribution services. These services are now a given, but it hasn't been that easy for the companies to get it right. Going through the whole catalog is highly appreciated! These small games are not really what I associate the original Xbox with in my mind!
    I have to say, Gauntlet's and Joust's graphics have been quite tastefully touched up for higher definition in my opinion. The overall shape and colour have not lost their easy to read design, but there's just a touch more detail and it works really well to my eyes. Robotron's new graphics don't work as well as those two!

  • @thepirategamerboy12
    @thepirategamerboy12 Рік тому +1

    Pretty sure the noise at 6:10 is a modified version of the sound when the shark comes out in Shark! Shark! for the Intellivision. Ironically, Feeding Frenzy is a clone of that game too.

  • @EvanBlax
    @EvanBlax Рік тому +4

    Oh yeah, the lockup at the end of Marble Blast stages isn't a problem with your copy of the game, it's a bug in the current version of Insignia's leaderboards system. It cropped up after they did their last leaderboard overhaul. It's recommended to play that game offline for now.

  • @LawnieLovesTrek
    @LawnieLovesTrek Рік тому

    A bank shot is when you bounce the object ball off a cushion in order to land it in the pocket. Usually it's good form to tell your opponent which ball and pocket you plan to pot it into. This can lead to hilarity when you get it completely wrong, like I did.

  • @RetrogradeScene
    @RetrogradeScene Рік тому +3

    Great job! interesting bit of the history you've helped to immortalise.

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому +1

      Thanks! It was a lot of fun to research and put together 😁

  • @ThisIsPete
    @ThisIsPete Рік тому +3

    Also, Mutant Storm got a couple of follow-ups on Xbox 360 which are still available! Definitely worth a look -- haven't played it much myself but I know twin-stick fans rate the series quite highly.

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому

      Oh nice, they somehow passed me by at the time. I really need to dust off my 360 again 😁

  • @FreedSeed
    @FreedSeed Рік тому

    Had a version of this without Ms. Pacman on the cover, the cover looks like the Save Game logo with a black background, the version I had also came with no games.

  • @keiiko
    @keiiko Рік тому +1

    At first I thought that the MVG released new video 😅 anyway, the minesweeper. It's actually pretty easy, the number shows how many mines are around that number. The number might be 1 to 8 or the tile can have no number which means no mines around it. You can easily start with 1s in "corners" as they clearly shows the mine. You should mark that mine and then you can check if around that mine is any other number 1 which points at the marked mine and click around that 1 because you already know the mine position. Similarly you can clear the 2s and 3s in your case in the video, you can guess them because there are exactly that number of uncovered tiles... So there you go :)

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому

      Haha, thanks for the advice! I've been a fan of MVG for years so that's high praise indeed to be compared to him 😁

  • @WhatHoSnorkers
    @WhatHoSnorkers Рік тому +1

    Lovely! Fascinating look, sir.

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому +1

      Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it 😁

  • @KrisGraney
    @KrisGraney Рік тому +2

    Peter Moore, well known Vice President of Worldwide Guns. He got them out again for GTA.

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому +2

      Did he get the other one tattooed? 😅

    • @KrisGraney
      @KrisGraney Рік тому +1

      @@ctrlaltrees yes...

  • @CyPhaSaRin
    @CyPhaSaRin 11 місяців тому

    Great stuff with the XBLA orig titles, the 360 ones were easy enough to find last week, but the ORIG titles i couldn't really make sense of.
    Bit like the Demo Discs and Kiosk discs, thought for a moment i might be covered with the xb demos collection, but they only have 360 stuff, there were over 60 demo discs for xb counting the hybrid ones that worked for 360 too, shame they don't have any of that, because the places that you can source it have it completely messed up with file names and such.
    i know of a mega with the UK ones, the US ones that are out seem pretty sorted.. its once you start to talk German, EU, AU or NZ versions that its messy and i need to find a place that has made sense of all the mag/demo regional releases. Know of any place that does have it all and sorted?

  • @ctrlaltrees
    @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому +3

    I've been informed that Hexic HD wasn't preinstalled on the Xbox 360 Core because... Well, it didn't have any kind of storage. But nobody actually bought those, did they? 😉

    • @OGX_Harcroft
      @OGX_Harcroft Рік тому +1

      I have a complete price list in CAD. Also your version of the disc is the CD version, which was mostly padding. There is a DVD version released all over the world in different covers, with different silk screens but an identical disc. It includes 12 demos and no Ms. Pac Man. Those 12 demos were also released on over a dozen OXM discs, on the Forza/XBLA combo disc, and bundled with Project Gotham Racing 2 too. OXM50 from North America contained an additional 5 for 17 demos.

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому

      Thanks for the info! I ordered a few different versions but I'm still waiting for the others to arrive. If and when I get my hands on the DVD version I'll release a followup video looking at that too. 🙂

    • @KrisGraney
      @KrisGraney Рік тому +1

      I did

  • @destronlaserwave9566
    @destronlaserwave9566 Рік тому

    22:43 I wanna guess the reason the games got canceled was probably because of two reasons. With the Xbox 360 launching a year later, they probably wanted to wait to release some of their titles there. And the other was probably because Tecmo and Atari had collections available on the console, so they probably didn't want to create a verison of a game people can find elsewhere in a bundle. But, that's what I think.

  • @ChaseMC215
    @ChaseMC215 Рік тому +1

    I always wondered why HexicHD was called HexicHD.

  • @kalkuttadrop6371
    @kalkuttadrop6371 7 місяців тому +1

    Just got the disc with Ms Pac Man. Anything else I can get today?

  • @SLMUNIVERSE
    @SLMUNIVERSE Місяць тому

    I used to spend hours playing guardian on my original Xbox

  • @flightsimgamerdarth94
    @flightsimgamerdarth94 7 місяців тому

    Guardian by Superluminal is My Favorite the Top 1

  • @shadowspike74
    @shadowspike74 4 місяці тому

    Ah... so now I know you go by quack on insignia. You beat us all in bejeweled. 😂

  • @bruce_just_
    @bruce_just_ Рік тому +2

    XBLA 2004 link on the internet archive has gone.. anyone prepared to reupload it somewhere else?

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому +1

      Apologies for that, the link got messed up. It's now been updated: archive.org/details/xbox-live-arcade-2004-iso-untouched
      I also got my hands on the DVD release with the inluded 5 demos, I'll be uploading that today.

    • @bruce_just_
      @bruce_just_ Рік тому

      @@ctrlaltrees All good :) thanks for the update!

  • @EvanBlax
    @EvanBlax Рік тому +1

    4:30 That's actually not true at all. The 500MB Shell partition on the Xbox has more than enough room for the xboxdash, the xonlinedash, and both XBLA's 55MB xbe and also the entirety of Xbox Video Chat's 85MBs (if they removed the music, which makes up the bulk of that game). They totally could have delivered both of these features in dashupdates/downloads if they made a successor to the 5960 dashboard to handle it. Much like how adding the xodash (Xbox Live and network settings) itself was an update to systems that were manufactured before Xbox Live was a thing.
    They probably didn't do it because of logistical reasons. The suits probably didn't see much gain in it. Hell, Xbox Video Chat never left Japan because it was a commercial failure.

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому

      Interesting, thanks for the info. I've seen this perpetuated online in a few places but evidently it isn't true. I'll make a note for a future update. I guess online updates didn't really make sense as most consoles would never be connected to Live, so their effort was better spent elsewhere.

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому

      Update: I've now removed the offending paragraph using UA-cam's editor. Should take a few hours to update and become visible to all. Thanks once again, I strive for accuracy in my videos so information like this is very useful.

  • @CyPhaSaRin
    @CyPhaSaRin 11 місяців тому

    legend, you know what for. :)

  • @Dosgamert
    @Dosgamert Рік тому +4

    Hexic, Alexey Pajitnov's worst game.

  • @IntoTheVerticalBlank
    @IntoTheVerticalBlank Рік тому +2

    20 Years ago E3 was so cringe! =)

    • @ctrlaltrees
      @ctrlaltrees  Рік тому +1

      I ran a gaming website at the time, the whole scene was cringe 😅

  • @Zalkova
    @Zalkova 4 місяці тому

    The beginning of the end for physical games.