Many (many) years ago I started life as a computer games programmer. In those days life was very simple, choices were between your screen resolution, the number of colours you were going to make use of, and the amount of available RAM you needed.

It wasn't a case of how much money it would take to develop and whether you could get the skilled manpower, it was all about whether you had enough free time between exams ...

What we would have given then for CPU's with clock speeds greater than 2MHz ...

We've now upped the clock speed by a factor of 1000 and added dedicated accelerated 3D graphics processing and virtually unlimited amounts of memory and storage space, not to mention a massive marketplace and billions of pounds worth of associated income. With all this resource you would think today's gaming giants would be able to get it "right", yes?

Well, "no" ...

The Evil Empire

Now I must admit that although I'm about as anti-M$ as you can get, I do own an XBox and have done for a number of years. (albeit it's now deceased) Not because I'm a M$ fan, but simply because I think that the games and graphics coming out for the XBox are the best available, and I'm a great fan of the best.

Halo for example is a fantastic game and Halo 2 is even better.

One of the on-line best pre-Halo games was "Mech Assault", which I played on-line for a long time, and would play again today given half a chance. We awaited the delivery of "Mech Assault 2" with baited breath, only to be disappointed. I don't know of any on-line MA gamers who really rate MA2 compared to MA or indeed the expectation of MA2. The second incarnation had much better graphics, lots of new features and game play, but just didn't work in terms of on-line play. Everyone I played on-line with migrated to Halo 2.

So, why not go back to MA? Well I did for a little while, although it was fairly quiet as people seemed to have "moved on" to Halo. Then my XBox expired.

Why is it called "Hard" ware ?

I have a theory .. because it's so "hard" to get it right, or is that just a M$ thing?

First there was the XBox-online pack which turned up with the crappiest headset you've ever seen with a non-standard connector which isn't all that easy to duplicate from generic stocks. Guess what, it broke almost immediately and was designed to be irreparable. Never mind, M$ then sent me another one Free! Great, that one lasted two weeks!

Solution: buy the rainbox six-three on-line box set which comes with their own headset design, I still have that one and it's still in one piece. So, games designers make better headsets than console designers .. odd eh?!

Then one day I get a new power supply for my XBox arrive in the post. It's got a huge external power filter on it the size of a brick. Apparently there had been some sort of problem with the normal cable, not sure if it was allowing power spikes or whether it was over-heating and bursting into flames, but this seemed to be over-kill. Just to put things into context, the XBox is a 750MHz pentium with an 10G hard drive, it's not rocket science, or not so's you'd notice.

Ear defenders

My real complaint - the noise. I originally purchased the box with a plug-in and remote so I could use it as a DVD player. Now if you're playing a game, there is an argument for not being too bothered about how noisy the hardware is (albeit not a good one) , however if you're watching a DVD, you don't expect the whir of loud fans and a noise disk drive in the background. I gave up almost immediately on the DVD idea - simply not fit for purpose.

So overall, the console worked, the games were great, but the hardware implementation in general was complete and utter rubbish.

The end is nigh!

Then of course the console died, over a period of about a month, extremely ungracefully.

First it started crashing in games, then it did some slow motion action, then it did a phase of stopping in Halo 2 just long enough for someone to slice me with an energy sword, then it simply refused to load anything.

So, two choices;

• Buy a new XBox
• Buy an XBox 360

Well .. not being a great one for hanging around on old technology, I eventually decided to move to an XBox 360, what the hell eh? what can go wrong, AND they will obviously have fixed all the old problems.

Yeah, right, let's not forget this is M$ we're talking about.

Brave new world

So, we unpack the new box, all shiney with the choice of standing it on it's base or on it's side, wireless handset, inclusive (more robust) wireless headset .. all looking good. Quick trundle back to the games shop to pick up a cable so I can plug it into my telly (!) and on goes the power!

Aaarrrrhrhrh!

It's louder than the XBox! Ok, this can't be right .. the next hour involved moving the unit around , standing it on different edges, different surfaces, sitting books on top of it. Nope, it really is loud and there's nothing to be done.

Oh well, to the games .. let's have a quick run round the track on Project Gotham 2 .. Oh dear. Project Gotham gets to the race launch and the screen goes black - I guess PG2 is one of the few games that doesn't run on the 360! .. bugger. Oh well, let's try MA .. Ahh! that too!

Panic sets in. Halo 2 .. finally a game that still works!

Ok, let's try Gears of War (that came with the box) looks good.

Power to the people

Hmm .. my handset has stopped glowing, that's odd. A little experimentation later we trundle off to the corner shop to buy some more batteries for the cordless handset, a little bemused that the batteries only lasted three days - never mind, these Duracel's will last a bit longer.

5 days and £5 later we trundle down to the games shop to buy some re-chargable batteries and a recharger cable.

Sorted .. well .. you'd think?!

The recharge cable only works off the XBox's USB connection, oh well, let's move all the chairs around so I can sit close enough to charge the batteries and play. Hmm, too close, never mind, we'll charge it overnight .. Oh, but that means that I need to leave the XBox on to charge the batteries, so 'now' I'll not hear the TV and later I'll be kept awake .. Ahhhh!

Origin of the species

In the beginning, IBM made the PC.

The PC was "ok", but it was an initial design with many flaws and a high price tag.

Then Japan made a clone, it was a much better design and it was much cheaper.

The PC was born.

Then M$ made the XBox.

The games console was "ok" but it was an initial design with many flaws and a high price tag.

... Anyone spot a hole in the market for our friends on the far East ?