Topic: Got a used Xbox 360 Jasper model. What games should I download?

[Phil]

I have:

TMNT: The Arcade Game
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Tooie
Castlevania: SotN
Bomberman Live
Uno
TMNT: Re-Shelled
Castle Crashers
Ms. Pac-Man
Sonic the Hedgehog
Shadow Complex
Undertow

And I'm wanting to download Perfect Dark.
What else do you recommend?

[Khushrenada]

I've never had or played an Xbox 360 but I know a popular title I heard a lot of Xbox players talking about and having which was something called Red Ring of Death so you may want to give that one a shot. 

[Phil]

I played that, and a game called "Lots of Typos." You might have played the latter. It's especially played by people on smart devices.

[Khushrenada]

Never heard of it.

[Phil]

THQ sold it when they were liquidating their assets during their bankruptcy. The name was changed to something else when Nordic Games picked it up. Can't remember the new name, though.

[NWR_insanolord]

Definitely get Super Meat Boy. Also Geometry Wars 2 and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX.

[ShyGuy]

Jasper?

Get Left4Dead 1/2 and Alan Wake unless you have a PC. Actually, Alan Wake is maybe if it's cheap.

[pokepal148]

I played that, and a game called "Lots of Typos." You might have played the latter. It's especially played by people on smart devices.

I love that one. My favorite new feature is the one where it occasionally removes the last letter of whatever you're typing when you put a period dow.

[MagicCow64]

Shadow Complex and Super Meat Boy were the only two arcade games I downloaded that I thought were actually good. Super Meat Boy is, I think, one of the only truly excellent platformers made outside of Nintendo's wheelhouse.

[azeke]

If you're up for the challenge, you can download Ninja Gaiden Black on 360 for 10$

If you liked Castle Crashers check out Scott Pilgrim and Double Dragon Neon.

[broodwars]

Some recommendations from my own library. Bear in mind I'm only recommending exclusives, as some games I would recommend (like Dust: An Elysian Tale) are also available on PS4 or PS3:

Alan Wake - IMO, probably the best 360 exclusive. Great atmosphere, good storytelling, and the combat subverts your expectations and makes you continually change your tactics RE4-style.

Condemned: Criminal Origins - AMAZING atmosphere and possibly the best implementation of melee combat in a 1st person game. No, it's NOT a shooter. At all. It's a psychological horror game.

Splinter Cell Conviction - I'm not a Splinter Cell fan, but I loved the flexibility of that game's design, allowing you to shift in & out of stealth while making you continually feel like a badass.

Space Invaders Extreme - Yes, I know this game's on the 3DS, but the 360 has console exclusivity. Fantastic spin on Space Invaders.

Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Movie of the Game - Silly title aside, this is a surprisingly well-made movie game.

Battleblock Theater - This trailer really does sum why to buy this game:

Mark of the Ninja - The best stealth game ever made, IMO. Fantastic interface that makes situations easy to read and even easier to execute (pun not intended).

Tales of Vesperia - An absolutely gorgeous Tales game with what many fans consider possibly the best protagonist the series has ever seen in Yuri.

[Mop it up]

Looks like I'm also now a late member of the Xbox club, as my older brother gave me his old Xbox 360 now that he's all-in with Xbox One. I figured bumping this topic would be a good place to put this.

First off, I'll get to the few questions I have:
-What's the best way to clean the system?
-Are there any common issues that would be easy for me to fix?
-Does opening up the system require any specialized tools?
-Is there any real way to reduce the risk of the Red Ring of Death?

He said he isn't sure if the system works anymore since he hasn't used it himself in a while, being used by his kids instead. I can tell, because it's really gummed up and needs a good cleaning. I haven't tried it yet to see if it works, or what may be wrong with it if it doesn't.

I am pretty sure the system is one of the original models, as it has a separate Wi-Fi adapter and only a 60 GB hard drive attached. I think that means it's also a ticking time bomb for the Red Ring of Death to happen.

I got three controllers with it, but only one has a battery cover. Is there a place to purchase replacements? I also noticed that the controllers take two AA batteries. I thought these things had rechargeable batteries, or is that a later model? Or is there a separate battery pack to buy?

Also, wow, this AC adapter is huge...

[BranDonk Kong]

What is the 12v power rating (right by where the AC adapter plugs in) - 16.5A, 14.2A, or 12.1A? If it's 12.1A, then you don't need to worry about the RRoD. If it's 14.2A, you're more likely to get E74 (though it's essentially the  same thing), but it will fail eventually. If it's 16.5A, then you'll get the RRoD for sure at some point. You *need* any special tools (though they do exist) to open it - a small flathead screwdriver can pop all the clips, and a T10 screw driver will take the screws out that hold the top on. Just search YouTube there will be tons of guides. There's actually a cool trick for opening it without any tools, you basically just rip it in half, from the front to back (I'm sure you can find a video)...but you do need the T10 for actually fully opening it.

[Mop it up]

I just checked and it's 14.2A. So that's bad, but not as bad? Any steps to reduce the risk?

Also, got any cleaning tips? The discs are pretty dirty too, if anyone knows how to clean those.

[BranDonk Kong]

It means you have. Falcon motherboard. It's still most likely to die at some point...your mileage may very. It's the hot/cold cycle that kills them, honestly keeping it on *all the time* is probably the best thing to prevent failure, but that's still dumb and your electric bill would go up a lot. Just enjoy it is the best advice - if it dies, another one is like $40 these days. The hard drive can be swapped to another console, but you need to be signed in to XBL iif you do that (until you do a system transfer).

[Order.RSS]

Didn't Treasure release Radiant Silvergun to the Xbox 360 download arcade? If so, that'd be a no-brainer (at least for me). It's supposed to be one of the best shmups they ever did, which for Treasure really says something haha.

[Mop it up]

I tried the system and it seems to work, so I s'pose I don't need to open it to clean it. I didn't realise it was so complicated to open. I'll just be careful to not spill fluid into any holes or seams as I wipe off the gunk.

The only issue I noticed is that the disc tray has trouble closing. Sometimes it'll pop back open, and sometimes the system thinks it's still open when it's closed. I tried wiggling it a bit and that got it to close and be recognised. It might have some sticky stuff on it too, but I may be able to clean that without opening the system itself.

It's a bit of a bummer that changing the Xbox Live name costs money. I guess I'll just have to stick with his account name...

[Mop it up]

Okay, so now that I'm trying to put a disc in, I can't get the disc tray to close. I press the button and it closes up, but then it makes a whirring noise for a couple of seconds and opens back up. Any ideas?

[pokepal148]

Get a ps3

[BranDonk Kong]

Could be many things. Bad laser, bad drive motor, just dirt, etc. I'd be happy to take a look if you sent it to me.

[Mop it up]

One more question: In terms of heat dispersing, it is better to position the system horizontally or vertically? Or does it not matter?

Since the system was pretty gunky, I figured it was likely some dirt or something that was preventing the disc drive from closing, so I took a cotton swap dipped in surgical spirit and stabbed it into the slot, scrubbing anything I could reach. This got the drive to close! But then... it had the opposite problem, and wouldn't open up, now stuck closed. I tried to pry it open and have probably bent the front of the drive a bit, but it wouldn't pop out. Eventually, I slammed my fist onto the top of the system as it was trying to open, and in a Fonz sort of moment, this worked to get it to open back up!

Deciding maybe I should stop fumbling around on my own with this thing, I looked up some information and guides. After seeing what the inside looked like and how the mechanism worked, I noticed that two of the gears and a belt could be reached without opening up the system. So I concentrated on cleaning those with a surgical spirit-dipped cotton swab. Once waiting to make sure it was dry, I closed the drive, and so far it seems to be back to working properly! Though, at some point a small piece of metal and a couple screws fell out of the drive, so I hope that isn't an important piece...

Finally, after twelve long years, I can at last play the Burger King games!

[BranDonk Kong]

Horizontal is arguably better, but I'm sure the position plays a minimal role in the lifespan. I used to do crazy mods like make the DVD-ROM external and replace the GPU heatsink with a CPU heatsink, and mod the fan shroud. If you don't mind a kind of ugly looking console, with a pretty loud fan, that should make it last forever. However, you can just buy nearly any newer console and it won't die.

[Mop it up]

I found out that the system was repaired once before, and the label on the rear of the console reads "2009-6-12 :Service Date." With any luck, the usual problems have been fixed and it will last for a decent time longer.

Oh, I never did mention the games I received. All of them are disc-only:

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
Bioshock
Cars: Mater National Championships
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Dragon Age: Origins
Dirt 2
DooM 3 (Xbox)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Fallout 3
Forza 4
Gears of War 2
Gears of War 3
Guitar Hero II: Legends of Rock
Guitar Hero World Tour
Halo 3
Halo 4 (disc 2 only)
Halo Wars
Kameo: Elements of Power
Kinect Sports
Kung Fu Panda
Left for Dead 2
Lego Batman 2
Lego Indiana Jones
Lego Star Wars III
Madden 07 (Xbox)
Madden 10
Pure
Resident Evil 5
Skylanders Trap Team
WWF Smackdown vs Raw 2011

And I already had these three sealed games:
Big Bumpin'
Pocket Bike Racer
Sneak King

Here is the digital content on the system:

Castle Crashers
Diner Dash
From Dust
Game Room
Halo Waypoint
Halo Reach
Hexic HD
I AM Alive
Mega Man 10
Peggle
Plants vs Zombies
South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!
Streets of Rage 2
The Walking Dead
Trials HD
Video Kinect
Walking Dead Season 2
Worms
Worms 2
Zombie Apocalypse

[Order.RSS]

Damn that's quite a list! Which ones are you excited to try out? Forza 4, Worms 2 and Streets of Rage 2 are the ones that jump out to me immediately. Iirc that Banjo-Kazooie game was decently received as well, kind of a Lego/Minecraft type of thing with vehicle racing right?

[BranDonk Kong]

The bad news is, that repair date doesn't mean it will last any longer than normal. They don't actually fix the inherent issue, they just repair the damage. Not trying to bring you down, just don't want you to get your expectations set too high.

[Mop it up]

Damn that's quite a list! Which ones are you excited to try out?

I was serious when I said I was looking forward to playing the Burger King games! I've now played all three of them, they're surprisingly decent games. In fact I dare say Sneak King is the best stealth game ever created.

After that, I've started up Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts, a game which any old Nintendo enthusiast would likely be curious about. It seems to be more about figuring out the right sort of vehicle to complete various challenges rather than racing, which is a good thing. I think it could be a good game in itself, but it does feel like a strange choice to have used Banjo-Kazooie for this idea.

When I'm done with that game, I'll probably check out Kameo next, I'm mildly curious about that as well. I'll also check out DooM 3 since I never had much chance to try it before. Beyond that, there's nothing in particular which jumps out at me. There's a reason I never had an Xbox 360 before, hee hee.

[MagicCow64]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy%27s_Ghost_Recon_Advanced_Warfighter

This is an early 360 game that I randomly got with my first foray with the console, and I surprisingly liked it quite a bit. It doesn't play like the later Clancy games and has an actual focus on broader tactics, directing support units and airstrikes and such.

[Mop it up]

Slightly more than a year later and now the disc drive has stopped working completely, refusing to open no matter what, not even the eject method with a pin in the eject hole. I decided to take the risk and pry the thing open, and inside the disc drive, I noticed there's a crack on the plastic piece which slides left and right, lifting the disc spindle into place to spin the disc. However, I'm not sure if this is actually the cause of the problem, as the disc tray will close fine if I turn on the system with it already open. There also appears to be some damage on the bottom of the tray, and so I don't think it's bumping the plastic slider into place. This then causes things to become misaligned and it can't open again.

Unfortunately, replacing a disc drive isn't so easy since they each have a special key which matches the system it's from, so to replace a drive the circuit board from the old drive needs to be installed into the new drive, which requires a bit of soldering.

But I'm not sure I need that anyway, since the laser and the spindle and such still work fine. Is it possible to just get a disc tray on its own? Or would I still need to buy an entire drive and rip out the disc tray from it? Can the gears be replaced? The slider piece I talked about looks like it could just pop out if I'm careful, but I'm not sure if the other gears can come off (though they may not need to as they don't appear to be damaged, but I can't know for sure with the rest of the assembly not working).

I s'pose it's a long shot, but does anyone here know anything about this?

[Stratos]

Good luck fixing it!

I hardly use mine, but once you get it fixed I'd be down to try out some multiplayer games.

[Mop it up]

I don't have very many multiplayer games. In the mean time, I have Perfect Dark and Halo Reach as digital if you have those. Hopefully Games With Gold offers some co-op games at some point soon...

[Stratos]

I don't have either, but I have been meaning to buy it. Probably as good of a time as there ever will be.

[Mop it up]

Success! I fixed it! Drives are cheap enough that I just bought a replacement and took parts out of it, and so I replaced the disc tray and gave the insides a good cleaning, plus applied some ceramic grease to the moving parts to keep things moving smoothly. Using the replacement as a reference, I also noticed some metal pins were out of line, so I bent them back into shape.

It will probably get messed up again after some use due to the wear it's sustained, but perhaps with this knowledge I can realign it a few more times.