Two Xbox 360s of mine, a 'phat' Zephyr next to a 'slim' Trinity, placed side-by-side for contemplation purposes.
Congratulations on reaching the end of the article!
I think this writing has shown us again that you don't need an expensive technology to conquer the new generation. Don't get me wrong, I still consider Cell a great invention that brought many technical advancements to the consumer market, but I perceive its capabilities differed drastically compared to the rest of the chips in the PS3. By contrast, the Xbox 360 presented a more harmonious mix where all components could work together to unlock each other's potential. In any case, every console carries its unique set of strengths and weaknesses. That's why I like writing about all of them.
By the way, to gather materials for this study, I ended up hoarding an absurd amount of models, mainly because I needed to find consoles with specific operating versions installed (as they could not be downgraded). This later became a hit-or-miss challenge and, to make matters worse, my old one broke just before I started this site. Anyhow, in the end, I found myself surrounded by:
- An unused Xenon from 2005 that the owner was afraid to open the box. To my surprise, it's running
2.0.1888(too relic-like for me to fiddle with), so I had to let it be... - A Zephyr model that the previous owner sent for repair, but by the time Microsoft shipped it back, the owner had already bought another one. It's got an NXE system installed.
- A Jasper from a store clear-out that never got used as well, it's running NXE too.
- A Falcon with RGH 1.2. I bought it to attempt to downgrade it to a Blades-era system, which turned out to be impossible without proper tools. Fortunately, thanks to the software provided by Octal's Console Shop, it's now straightforward to do so.
- My old Trinity that I had since I was a teenager. Unfortunately, it got cursed with the Red Lights of Death and I couldn't manage to repair it. Luckily, after RGH 3.0 came out, I bought a cheap spare Trinity, applied RGH and transplanted the internal Flash unit to recover my old profile and saves. All of the game screenshots in this article come from this model.
With the write-up now finished, I'm glad I can finally put this search to rest. As a side note, this is the last article of the 7th generation saga!
So, regarding my next steps, I'm considering returning to the 90s era to pay tribute to historical consoles that slipped my mind, or maybe do some more work on the site... we'll see!
Until next time!
Rodrigo