The Wacky World of Rare Xboxes

Well, it’s another console variations list. This time for the OG Xbox. Yeah. That’s, what the video’s about.
Twitter: / whimsuty
Soundcloud: / user-503704039
Patreon: / theknowledgehub
Footage Credits:
Adam Koralik
NeoGamer - The Video Game Archive
LGR
rodsormen1
Gamester81
MetalJesusRocks
IGN
GoTeamScotch
SPECTRE AIR
Panzer Dragoon Legacy
IndianVideoGameCollector
OGXbox dotCOM
Xbox On
Pshyched Plays PS2
CGR Publishing

[@Elemtree]

A Mountain Dew OG Xbox has got to be one of the most American things I’ve ever heard

[@KanawhaCountyWX]

Delivered by the pallet from the back of a Ford f-750 truck with heavy metal music blasting

[@ToxicAtom]

idk about American but more just raw GAMING energy. Nothing says "GAMER" like black and lime green OG xbox with mountain dew branding, like all it needs is RGB and doritos and it's basically the pinnacle of the gaming meme

[@MrBioniclefan1]

I agree with you

[@Web720]

Nah its most GAMER and XBOX thing.

[@tylerprince9494]

I'm surprised they haven't tried again.

[@jamestarrou3685]

a friend of mine bought an xbox from Best Buy with a warranty. When it did break and he went to claim the warranty they had no original xbox in stock, just the limited edition Halo Xbox so they gave him that.

[@Juan_deep]

Cap

[@drizzlesyettst1448]

why is that worth money i hit one

[@imadrifter]

I declare cap

[@User-ge7ni]

Proof?

[@ninosmall6843]

I own the crystal blue "Canada exclusive" original Xbox that I bought for $35 from a guy that worked at THQ and it had a bunch of those "do not distribute" demo games that publishers give out to the media before a game releases.

[@willissudweeks1050]

Sweet

[@Mrmoonman64]

awesome!

[@user-fe8rh9rg7j]

rad

[@SAZERU]

nice

[@anthony64924]

Leak the iso files

[@InterstellarStarSailor]

I'm happy to report that Whimsu is officially one of the few people who actually acknowledged Viva Piñata in 2022

[@jerryb.9896]

There isn’t a day that goes by I don’t fondly remember playing Viva Piñata as a kid

[@moshikong3961]

Arlo as well.

[@wolfnation100]

i genuinely wanted that game so badly as a kid, but got the party game instead. not bad but it's not the same thing

[@derekholden2550]

I was 17 I think when that came out, and I adored it. Long live Viva Piñata

[@InterstellarStarSailor]

@@wolfnation100 Yeah i grew up with Party Animals and it wasn't until a year ago that I finally got to play the original through Rare Replay

[@FelipeJaquez]

Thank you Tyler for making these videos on stuff that nobody besides like 10 people including myself find interesting

[@Avi2Nyan]

The other 7 subscribers don't particularly enjoy the content of his videos but they like watching them anyway

[@aaronsound]

Yea i really dig these. thanks

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

Indeed.

[@amberhide04]

to be honest, everything he makes is really interesting, doesn't matter the subject

[@rustyrocks69]

I think these kind of videos are going to hit people close to 30 and above just nicely 😆

[@ComicalRealm]

“It ain’t Xbox if it doesn’t have halo” -Bill Nye the Science Guy 2021 I think

[@sylvie7868]

8:04 Just wanna chime in, those consoles weren't 'given' to EA employees. They were sold to EA at wholesale price, afterwhich EA allowed their employees to PURCHASE for $100 over MSRP, and only during the 2001 Holiday Season. Unsold units were then sent back to Microsoft, who then had them destroyed. Same story for the "Launch Team" units which were sold to Microsoft employees. Not sure about the other partner units, though.

[@RiderLeangle2]

Sold to EA for wholesale and EA sells them to employees over MSRP, in hindsight... this doesn't seem surprising... After seeing the microtransaction hell they've become just hearing that is just "Yeah... that's the most EA thing I've heard"

[@TheEdZachary]

@@RiderLeangle2 Yeah it really is very EA, I'm kinda surprised they didn't make their employees pay them for the right to buy the xbox off them.

[@imadrifter]

Fuck EA

[@nrlatty22]

Good to hear. I've been trying to find info on this one forever! Got one about 6 years ago.

[@Mantis_Toboggan_TrashMan]

I grew up with the original Xbox so it's nice to see videos like this. I swear people act as if the og xbox never existed.

[@KnucklesWTD]

@@michaele1654 it’s mostly GameCube games that cost a ridiculous amount PS2 games are pretty reasonable imo

[@PaddyBoyBKLYN]

The OG Xbox was some of my fondest video game memories in the Xbox line up. It was soo ahead of its time, thats why i sold my PS2 to get it. 4 controller ports for split screen, Xbox Live, online multiplayer PVP was Awesome! The PS1 was an amazing experience, but Xbox blew the PS2 out of the water, and i never looked back to Sony since.

[@chadking8767]

@@KnucklesWTD try and buy any of the silent hill, fatal frame or siren games on ps2. 80-200$

[@KnucklesWTD]

@@chadking8767 some niche games expensive but you can still get classics like jak and daxter and god of war for like 10-15 bucks. Pretty much all of Nintendo’s GameCube games are nearly full price and the Pokémon ones sell for above double full price

[@xaytana]

I've always like the translucent plastic aesthetic, but I feel like the 2000's is when the aesthetic started tapering off. The original Xbox is the perfect example of why. The aesthetic was cool because it would also show off all of the internals, back before everything was shielded or enclosed in yet another box. The original Xbox is mostly just a case wrapped in a plastic shell. The translucent plastic doesn't look terrible, but it also doesn't show off any of the internals, and I feel like the translucent aesthetic loses a lot of it's charm because of this. I understand why it's this way, I just wish there was something more to the change in aesthetic instead of just a box encased in plastic. Though the transition into the decal era was amazing; and the eventual transition into color options was also amazing, though this exists more on the controller side of things. I do think the modern translucent aesthetic can be expanded upon, but that's hardly ever seen outside of custom work, so sadly the aesthetic is mostly dead outside of retro uses; there's also the afterglow expansion on the aesthetic, but I personally don't care for random LEDs under translucent plastic, maybe something could be done with EL wire, newer methods of LED filament, better diffusion and/or light piping, etc., but you also don't see that happening at all.

[@userPrehistoricman]

That's why I removed the upper shield from my crystal xbox and also got my dad to cut out a slice of the DVD drive so that you could see the disc spinning.

[@TibbyII]

@@userPrehistoricman can we see it?

[@apaceofchange94]

@@userPrehistoricmanI saw your video about the 1.6 ram upgrade. Added it to todays video queue. Pretty cool to run into you here

[@jimthompson5844]

I have the Forza Motorsport 6 Xbox one, it does a rev when it starts and came with the game. I would give it 4.5 stars

[@Ikcatcher]

I need more videos of special consoles, I find them very intriguing for some reason. It’s like a another level of gamer flexing

[@Juanguar]

I used to have a crystal edition It was the most beautiful console I’ve ever owned

[@TwinCityShredder]

I never though I'd see them again, but in 1999 I plastic molded all of the clear green executive XBOX's, there was 25 of them. There is actually a few more, because I bought some XBOX's and changed over the cases, and sold them as executive XBOX's. YOLO!

[@charlemagnebrown]

The original Xbox is still my favorite console. The X shaped one at the end looks sick.

[@Run187]

Aye. I would very much like to own it. Wonder how much I would have to pay. Probably like 90 billion dollars 😁..

[@expendableindigo9639]

@@Run187 Considering most of them didn't work I don't know if you would :p

[@supahas3821]

honestly I’m loving this series, your research combined with your laid back commentary really drive it. would love to see more

[@CocoHutzpah]

I miss the clear plastic cases consoles and controllers used to do.

[@owgirl]

I have an Xbox that was signed by some pro beach volleyball players. So. A fancy base Xbox. Oop.

[@brokeboyjohnn]

Been sticking with you since knowledge hub, glad you’ve finally come to your own, really enjoying the new content tyler !

[@noob-zx4cv]

I currently own a Japanese Halo 2 Limited Edition Xbox. Bought it half a year ago, and it only costed around 70 dollars at most. It even came with a modchip as well. So yeah, even with those low production numbers, they dont mean shit when demand is also low.

[@SupremeOracle]

Hold on to that

[@KnucklesWTD]

You got lucky or the person didn’t know what they were selling

[@noob-zx4cv]

@@KnucklesWTD it's most likely the latter, since South East Asia wasnt exactly a great market for Xbox before the 360 happened. It was AAAAAALLL PS2s for everyone here.

[@leumasecir9369]

Sometimes I forget Tyler and Cody are different people

[@sugarperez6933]

The Xbox Dev kit addition is forever the holy grail to me 🙌. Literally the foundation and history in one box

[@noneed4me2n7]

I have a few modded to 128mb ram. Basically they’re setup as coinops machines. Even scored a trusty 1ghz modded board. So much good stuff can be done with these consoles.

[@DFX2KX]

don't you have to unsolder and replace surface mount RAM chips to upgrade the Xbox? I seem to remember that being a requirement, hence never modding mine.

[@noneed4me2n7]

@@DFX2KX no on the 1.0 - 1.4 it’s just a straight solder and a few trace connections and your good. I know there’s still guys on eBay who’ll do it for like 80 to 100 but usually you have to send it off. Sometimes you can score one already modded. Helps with certain arcade titles. Especially the Outrun arcade version and other titles based off that motherboard. The name escapes me. Keep wanting to say Churros or something close to it. Edit: Chihiro just thought of it. Japanese arcade machine that used an upgraded Xbox mobo. There is some lightgun games, outrun 2 a gundam game and others, though only a few have been ported to play on the OG Xbox.

[@RastaMouse1234]

I bought a Xbox crystal from a second hand store last week for $70 and it turns out it is the limited edition model with the jewel also , I’d say that’s a good price

[@maccamachine]

sureeeee

[@col.nugget1524]

Keep it up Tyler. Your videos are my favorite by far.

[@mc-xx4tn]

can’t even begin to describe how interesting I find these videos. Thank you Tyler!

[@jan-Juta]

One of my favorites is the dev kit version, not only a unique external but it's got more ram in it which is interesting.

[@DFX2KX]

having more RAM then the production unit does make some sense, as it's meant to run In-Development code, which was just as often an unoptimized dumpster-fire as it is today. The only difference is that Early Access didn't exist back then. It'd go on like that until riiiiiight up before they went to Gold (printed the master discs), when they'd go and get things optimized to run well. Also, as I understand it, it is possible to expand the RAM on some motherboard versions of the Xbox, but involves soldering new chips on.... Not easy to do.

[@ChodeMaster]

@@DFX2KX yea no shit man.

[@KennyFrierson]

Microsoft really tried to get that Japanese market. If only they knew.

[@RamenLewdle]

It’s gotten a little better with the Series and “started” okay back with the 360 but man, they could buy every dev in the western world and they still wouldn’t penetrate that market to Nintendo levels ever.

[@Asterra2]

It was never going to happen. Nintendo's president mocked Bill Gates for trying to make a console at all. Well, they were both wrong-the Xbox failed in Japan because of reliable nationalistic priorities on the part of both consumers and devs, which continues to this day, and the Xbox / Xbox 360 succeeded in the biggest market in the world and essentially forced Nintendo to leave the core gaming market. The upside of that is that every new Nintendo game can be played in 4K60+AA because their target platforms use ten-year-old hardware that is extremely easy to emulate at full speed.

[@AlanMartinez-ev8vl]

Playstation user give pedo vibes

[@katuroo]

I have the Mt Dew one, it was cheap on eBay, but I didn't know how rare it was at the time, I just wanted something different

[@mikehawk3268]

Bro i found one at the flea market couple years ago i shat my dicc when i saw it i knew exactly what it was bought it for 100 bucks lol now there like 400+

[@MitchZro]

Dude idk why the hell I like your content so much but it’s seriously some of the best on KZbin. Thank you.

[@rdavisct1986]

"Big enough to crush a small child , strong enough to shed no tears in the process" lmfao i love this guy .

[@random13627]

this is a great video, as a kid who just had the og seeing all these really rare variants are insane!

[@GeminiS...]

I can't wait to see the next console you do. The videos are great dude

[@evilaesthetic]

The Ice blue XBOX was also gifted in a promotional package deal from Bell Canada if you got internet hooked up back then, as well not sure if you received it only by switching internet providers to them or had an initial internet deal set up, heard the console referred to as the Bell XBOX lots here in Canada. Cheers!

[@alterra9774]

My dad had a red solid “x” and red clear chassis xbox he got from his friend who worked in the department when my dad moved away. Never knew what happened to it other than ive never seen one like it or recognized before and its gone for all I know

[@KWRidge]

Between the videos and the music. You're my new favourite Tyler

[@derekgrissom2171]

It's 6 am and I came across this love your vids bro definitely had to sub

[@geoffreygriffin3015]

A friend of mine had a dad that worked for Pepsi. When we were young, I traded a box full of miscellaneous Playstation 1 games and firecrackers/bottle rockets. In turn, he gave me a green hulk edition xbox. It got trashed a long time ago, because I knew nothing about it. :(

[@Gamingwithdad206]

Ahhhh kinda miss that orange Xbox , the new owner still has it somewhere .Nice video thanks for sharing

[@ArtyoumPlays]

My crystal edition (they had some in canada) came with fable 1 and crimson skies: High Road to revenge. Parents got me Halo 2 and rented games for me all the time. Nobody ever helped me fix "nat type: restricted" issues that prevented me from playing online, so that was terrible. But the OG Xbox had so many singleplayer titles in so many genres, that I never ran out of things to play

[@xoHeretic]

Honestly I love all these different variations.. thanks for the video

[@whatwhatyep]

What I'd give to get my hands on just one of those special editions. I have a crystal but here in the UK I've never seen another variation other than the base black n green.

[@SUPERFunStick]

I think the most enigmatic, interesting thing about the big metal X Xbox from 1999 gdc event is the controller. I've seen the Xbox a million times but that pre Duke design has never been talked about that much and it looks awesome on every level and perfect for my monster hands and it's silver!! I really want to hold it and press its buttons more than I can express with words. If I could hunt it down it would complete me and I could die happy.

[@DFX2KX]

honestly it looked more ergonomic then the Duke turned out to be, too.

[@formulafrequency6324]

I just dug my OG Halo Edition xbox out of the garage after not using it since since the 360 came out. It still works even tho it had some mold on it. I'm impressed!

[@Jessikapus]

Just here to make sure you give hello kitty Xbox 5/5

[@AlexanderPallares]

I've been waiting for translucent colorful plastic to make a come back. It still hasn't happened.

[@DFX2KX]

you do see it in 'retro' handhelds from China (Ambernic has some, as do some others, ODroid Go has a clear option you can dye, ect). That's about it, though.

[@jimmywoo7875]

An old friend of mine had a Numberd Green xbox and and Transparent orange. Back in early 2000s (2000-2004)

[@firepeaman2440]

The Mountain Dew Xbox is like my favorite thing ever. I will get my hands on one someday.

[@sdmods619]

Reminds me of the XCM cases I used to stock and install. I wish I kept some of them. Had matching X3CP panels too.

[@Frostbite534]

So much nostalgia tied into this. Thanks for the video

[@thebasedrealist2263]

Took me way too long to realise xobx wasn't Japanese for Xbox and it was just upside down. Thanks for the quality Bossman

[@technorunner1]

I have some pretty rare Xbox consoles. I have one sealed in the box still. I almost bought a Clear blue, and a skeleton and I didn't. I regret not buying them because they still have their boxes and one of them was still mostly in it's packaging.

[@birchytcg53]

Nice vid ...I won a premium crystal version from a video rental store back in the day pretty sick

[@MikeDep]

Imagine how crusty that body pillow would be if you bought a used Kasumi edition Xbox

[@DFX2KX]

She'd stand on her own at least? ewwwww

[@michaelballard1505]

8:44 “signed by Bill Gates” Photo is clearly JEFF BEZOS!!! Hahaha, awesome video please keep them coming. Good content!

[@widg3tswidgets416]

Lol. Love the fun you had with the scoring.

[@ToadyEN]

I’d give the hello Kitty version 10 ⭐️

[@lilraider20]

Great video man 👍 I would love to see sequel for the Xbox 360s varieties

[@aubreylore7134]

Please do all of these mentioned series variants! Love these videos

[@kahlerwhale9839]

I saw the Mountain Dew exclusive in person at a vintage video game shop the other day. Looked sweet in person

[@otodusobliquus3836]

One of the more common ones which I think you may have missed is the translucent light blue halo edition. From what I've seen, its a fair bit less common than the translucent green. That's about it. Other than that, the only other one you missed was the extremely rare variant that's missing the entire top shell, covered in rust, leaking battery acid, and doesn't work. Its so rare that I've only seen one in existence at my local township's metal recycling bin.

[@markray2769]

Glad I got to watch the noodle video on the Mountain Dew Xbox by both Tyler and noodle in the same week

[@zeliph]

My dad end up getting a review or beta OG Xbox (or something) that has half red ring an half green ring when turning it on. I don't know if that's considered rare or not.

[@GiSWiG]

Cool to know that my Halo XBOX is one of 200,000, got it for maybe $30 at nearby reuse shop (they keep electronics from going to a landfill). Not exactly rare but it is my main, TSOP modded and I set the lights to orange by default. It looks good with orange, Microsoft should have made it that way. It is currently hooked up to my 4K TV with HDMI adapter.

[@thenoid5131]

I worked for the HIN “Hot Import Nights” car show and we had 6 green branded NAMCO we used them so people could play Ridge Racer.

[@justimagine2403]

I was day one Xbox purchaser. First in line at Game Stop. It was all awesome as it should have been. That startup sound, the breakaway cables, everything. I have moved so far beyond Xbox now... it is in a box in my basement begging to be played. Sad. Right next to my Playstation 1, Ps2 slim, 3DO, Macintosh II, Colecovision, Gameboy SP, PSP, 3 PS3's, 4 PS4's, Xbox 360 Elite. and a Seaburg 45rpm jukebox. Zero nostalgia to fire them up.

[@adamz01h]

I have a launch ed Xbox. happy you covered it.

[@stuartleckie]

I have an Ice Blue (Canadian) a Halo, and a crystal. Great looking systems.

[@udaaz]

I think it speaks to the quality of your content that I’m a PlayStation guy and have never owned an Xbox and I really enjoyed this video.

[@Quietruck]

Loved your review. It mad me new subscriber.

[@kloroformd]

A buddy of mine that doesn't play games was given a mt dew Xbox for free in exchange for firewood from a little old lady that got it just because free. It was sealed. I should ask if he has it still...

[@mittensfastpaw]

Would love most of these to be in a museum.

[@iMatterhorn7]

YES! We need like a gaming museum with All the variations of consoles (or as much as they can get), game discs/ cartridges, game cases, and game guides on display for gaming over the years Plus a ROB from the NES on display

[@mittensfastpaw]

@@iMatterhorn7 I've wanted this forever but I'm poor. So no chance of starting one.

[@bobsap1723]

I got my first OG Xbox Christmas of 2003 with Kotor being the first game . Was awesome .

[@H4Xcashmoney]

Im writing this while shaking of anger. I had the MSN one as a kid. The moment he said MSN a faint bell ringed in my head, and when he said it was sold in norway it comfirmed it. I think i last left it with a friend who hastly had to move out but ill try to reach out to current tenant

[@InfoDump]

Can’t wait for the ps1 video lol

[@kcolley42]

9:40 …one of the cleanest edits I’ve seen in a while. Shame Jared Leto. Good work my friend.

[@shaneshouse2918]

Credits song is from his SoundCloud, "SoundtrackA2".

[@MAVJ]

I've always wanted a themed console, but I get consoles so earlier in their life cycle my collection just consists of the boring launch versions.

[@Matumama157]

There is also a special edition Tony Hawk Underground 2 Xbox that was apart of real life skateboarding and THUG 1 gameplay contest in which winner won an custom Xbox, marching controller and skateboard deck with the Xbox even signed by Tony Hawk himself

[@Clay3613]

I almost bought that damn orange Xbox at a pawn shop in the early 2010s, the store and myself didn't know how rare it was! Might've been one of the green ones, my memory could be failing me.

[@gabrielmendonca1698]

The Bill Gates joke had me losing my shit laughing hahaha 8:42

[@bontonne]

Oh wow, didn't expect to see my buddy Emilio and his orange Xbox but here we are lol

[@blaked7532]

I remember the day i bought the crystal edition. i walked into the game store with a massive box of in-demand ps1&ps2 games (mostly RPGs) and they were all in emaculate condition and all had their manuals and the girl behind the counter just said "wow! games!" ....... I had enough value for the xbox, 2 more regular controllers and the FPS master pistol grip controller and steel battalion and a few other games. She took about a half an hour to check them all.

[@MxchiefMaykr]

I have a proper Limited Edition crystal, and it's impossible to find an accurate value online for it, as everyone on ebay etc selling a generic crystal edition calls it a "Limited Edition" one. Going by the serial number, I think it's safe to estimate that roughly 10,000 were produced. They were sold through New Zealand as well as Australia, I believe through either EB Games or Gamesman in 2004-2005. Thankfully they were the 1.6 generation, so they were produced after the worst of the capacitor plague, but were known for the disc drives being poorly installed and dropping out of place slightly. The controllers also came with the special gem, rather than the standard clear/silver version, and it had some really awesome games from the "just before the 360" era on the demo disc. One real downside to the transparent cases is how badly they show any dust trapped inside, but I think they still have such a vibe that it's worth it and wish we got more fully clear cases for stuff nowadays!

[@imadrifter]

Ok

[@myucussman]

You earned this sub. Well done!

[@Rainbowxjapan]

In high school i used to customize those crystal and halo xboxs with LEDs for almost a 100 dollars a pop, Plain xboxs would get a car paint job and a custom jewel. god i made so much as a kid.

[@alastairparker9517]

Just a correction. They produced 1000 pure white units, not 5000. They also had the number etched into the shell. Great video!

[@OGFritoHaze]

"I've already changed my mind about half of these" is the best line in this whole video lolololol

[@professor_oakenshield]

I put an 8 ball belt buckle in the spot with the x when I modded mine. 1 of a kind baby.

[@red-man7017]

0:31 Didn't the S controller eventually become the standard controller for the system, replacing the duke?

[@warrenlouw1610]

You've just earned yourself one more loyal subscriber.

[@bungieborris9111]

Holy shit classic game room footage. It's been a long ass time since I saw that.

[@shonenjumpmagneto]

*The Dead Or Alive Kasumi-Chan X-Box* is my favorite, that body pillow sold it for me.

[@Limitlesschris]

Man ive been waiting to see a video with the mountain dew xbox i have 😁😁

[@hadamana]

what's that bangin ass mario paint music at the end of the video?

[@mrdeathbreath]

Can we get a video on rare Xbox 360's,Xbox one,and playstation 1,2,3,4? This video,and the game cube video is amazing. You have my sub🤙

[@nim2648]

Pretty underrated creator, enjoyed the video

[@JubbLaRacing]

The White and the orange look amazing!

[@novainfinity487]

A fellow gravity rush fan. You my friend have earned a loyal sub

[@MegaManNeo]

The GDC XBOX prototype still kicks butt.

[@R32Danny]

I almost bought the Canadian Ice blue. Local guy had one for sale for 500 Cad. it was part of a bell Canada internet sign up bonus. I already have the Crystal and transparent Green, OG xbox