XBOX gift: No care!

mick.fr

My 6 years old son has been whining for the last 12 months to get an XBOX.
So I bought him an XBOX 3 weeks ago.
He played like 20mn with it, and has not been playing with it since. I tried to encourage him, but he does not seem to care anymore.

So I was thiking, if I do not use it as a gaming station, what can I use it for? DVD player ok, I do not need that.

I remember a while back some people installed Linux on it, is it something I can do? I was thinking of using it as a DHCP/DNS/...server maybe?

Do you guys have some ideas/links to do that?


Cheers

m83

Well that'l learn ya.

Why not play it yourself?

seanybiker

Hmm linux sounds like fun. Ima do that meself.

mick.fr

m83 wrote: »

Well that'l learn ya.

Why not play it yourself?

Well I prefer to stick to my UT 2004 on my PC :-)

And plus, I am pretty disapointed by the number of games available. Many of them are pretty violent, not really for a 6 years old kid. There is some fair enough, but I was expecting more titles to be available, with some educational games too. Wii sound a lot more fun apparently, maybe I should have bought that instead...

kensutz

If it's the 360 you have, you can't put linux on it

Maddzy

I'm assuming its the 360 you got, as an original XBox for an xmas gift would be pretty stingy[EDIT: just relised it wasn't for xmas], even for a 6 year old. As far as I know the 360 won't like being a DNS server very much. If I were you I'd use it as a media center for under the TV. An external USB harddrive to store your movies, or network it to your PC. Personally I use mine for both a media center and gaming machine and it does both very well. Until it went RRoD...

Shiminay

With all due respect, did you not think to research this before spending a wad of cash on a console? It's not meant to be a kids console, that's what the Wii is for. It's a grown-up's toy hence the mature content of the games.

It's the PS3 that you can run Linux on btw.

Sounds to me like you made a very ill informed purchase.

Get an external HDD and load it with HD WMVs or HD MP4s


Quality is amazing on a HD tv of course.

Overature

6 year old kids dont need XBOXs there kids for peat sake

Nevyn

What games did you get him for it ?
Between halo 3, viva pinjata and fable 2 it's hard to get my two away from it
and they are 10 and 8.

mick.fr

Kharn wrote: »

With all due respect, did you not think to research this before spending a wad of cash on a console? It's not meant to be a kids console, that's what the Wii is for. It's a grown-up's toy hence the mature content of the games.

It's the PS3 that you can run Linux on btw.

Sounds to me like you made a very ill informed purchase.

150 quids for a X360 with a 20GB hard drive is not a wad of cash.
Now with all the Microsoft marketing I was expecting some more exicting games.

Makaveli

There are plenty of exciting games, just not for a 6 year old.

Shiminay

mick.fr wrote: »

150 quids for a X360 with a 20GB hard drive is not a wad of cash.
Now with all the Microsoft marketing I was expecting some more exicting games.

Well there's a whole internet out there with reviews, previews, recommendations etc and you didn't think to spend an hour or two reading it?

mick.fr

Thaedydal wrote: »

What games did you get him for it ?
Between halo 3, viva pinjata and fable 2 it's hard to get my two away from it
and they are 10 and 8.

Bought him Avatar, Viva pinjata and Pro Streets.
Pro streets is nice but very annoying, most of the stuffs you have to connect online...So when windows pops up with connection, the son is lost...

mick.fr

Kharn wrote: »

Well there's a whole internet out there with reviews, previews, recommendations etc and you didn't think to spend an hour or two reading it?

Mate I appreciate your comments but I did not come here to get bashed by your comments, I make purchases with my own money and please however I want.

What am I asking here is how can I use the console to do something else.
Cheers

mick.fr

Do you guys know if I can copy .AVI files on the drive and play them directly on the console?

Shiminay

You can copy AVI files across. It also has a handy "find a PC running Media Player on the LAN and stream it's library" feature which is great if your PC (and music/video library) are in another place and you've all LAN'd up in the house.

I really wasn't trying to have a go sir, just curious as to why you're confused about what the console does and it's suitability for a child that young?

mick.fr

Kharn wrote: »

You can copy AVI files across. It also has a handy "find a PC running Media Player on the LAN and stream it's library" feature which is great if your PC (and music/video library) are in another place and you've all LAN'd up in the house.

I really wasn't trying to have a go sir, just curious as to why you're confused about what the console does and it's suitability for a child that young?

Well I suppose I was a victime of the marketing stuffs, many of my friends have a 360 plus all the ads on TV etc. So I did not ask myself too many questions...

Anyway moving forward, I found this:
http://tversity.com/

This is a streaming solution for XBOX, it installs on a PC then you can connect the XBOX to it. Seems to be better than having a Windows Media Center?
I will give it a try, and will probably host it on my VMWARE ESXi server.


Anone ever tried this or is using it? It has great reviews apparently.

Kinetic^

What games did you get him? Is it hooked up to Xbox Live?

mick.fr

Kinetic^ wrote: »

What games did you get him? Is it hooked up to Xbox Live?

I posted the game names on the previous page. Also no it is not on Live, is it worth the subscription?

Nevyn

/shrug

Kids don't magically learn to play games by themselves.
When mine were that age I didnt' expect them to be able to play a game for more then a half hour unless I was also playing with them.

Yeah mine grew up with a playstation and the eldest was making spyro the dragon flame and head butt things by the time he was 4 but for the most part when they are younger then 8 they want a parent tp play with them.

Viva pinata is a fairly sophisticated strat game tbh, it's like expecting a 6 year old to play the sims, Viva pinata party animals is what you want to get him, it had lots of race games and other short fun inventive mini games in it and is 4 player so that you can also play with him from time to time.

And yes it is possible to put the xbox360 on the home network and transfer media files on to it to watch in the sitting room, that could be done with the basic xbox.

Clover

My kids love playing the Lego and crash bandicoot type games on the 360 , try picking one of them up in the sales .

mick.fr

Thaedydal wrote: »

/shrug

Kids don't magically learn to play games by themselves.
When mine were that age I didnt' expect them to be able to play a game for more then a half hour unless I was also playing with them.

Yeah mine grew up with a playstation and the eldest was making spyro the dragon flame and head butt things by the time he was 4 but for the most part when they are younger then 8 they want a parent tp play with them.

Viva pinata is a fairly sophisticated strat game tbh, it's like expecting a 6 year old to play the sims, Viva pinata party animals is what you want to get him, it had lots of race games and other short fun inventive mini games in it and is 4 player so that you can also play with him from time to time.

And yes it is possible to put the xbox360 on the home network and transfer media files on to it to watch in the sitting room, that could be done with the basic xbox.

My son has no problem playing with games, he has been playing on my PC since he was 4 and is taking out lots of kids 12+ years old online at UT 2004 or Age of Empire/Mythology for example, he is very good and bloody quick. He knows how to browse internet for lego and other kids websites and manage his favourite etc.
So manageability is not a problem, I suppose he does not like the look and feel of the console or something.

Anyway I am down the road of media streaming now...

mick.fr

Clover wrote: »

My kids love playing the Lego and crash bandicoot type games on the 360 , try picking one of them up in the sales .

Yeah ok why not thanks for the hint mate

Shiminay

TVersity is meant to be good alright, I don't use it as my 360 is next to my PC and TV (the joys of living in a bed-sit )

A live gold subscription is useful, but I'd recommend it more for yourself than your son for the usual "kids aren't always 100% safe from bad guys on the internet" routine. I've never looked into it's kid-safe filtering.

I mean, it's a great console, I'm delighted with mine and you should be with yours

Nevyn

mick.fr wrote: »

My son has no problem playing with games, he has been playing on my PC since he was 4 and is taking out lots of kids 12+ years old online at UT 2004 or Age of Empire/Mythology for example, he is very good and bloody quick. He knows how to browse internet for lego and other kids websites and manage his favourite etc.
So manageability is not a problem, I suppose he does not like the look and feel of the console or something.

Anyway I am down the road of media streaming now...

Ah that could be that right there, mine have their own pcs as well but move
from pc to console with a fair amount of ease as they have been brought up with both.

I still struggle at times with the 360 controller I have a few really good games that I really have to get stuck into more but it's just not as instinctive for me as keyboard and mouse and yet I can still sit on my arse until it goes numb playing the atari. /shrug. Still got to learn cos mass effect ain't gonna finish it's self.

Still we did play all of the starwars lego games repeatedly and got all the gold blocks looking forward to
playing the shít out of Indy and Bats lego too.

mick.fr

Thaedydal wrote: »

Ah that could be that right there, mine have their own pcs as well but move
from pc to console with a fair amount of ease as they have been brought up with both.

I still struggle at times with the 360 controller I have a few really good games that I really have to get stuck into more but it's just not as instinctive for me as keyboard and mouse and yet I can still sit on my arse until it goes numb playing the atari. /shrug. Still got to learn cos mass effect ain't gonna finish it's self.

Still we did play all of the starwars lego games repeatedly and got all the gold blocks looking forward to
playing the shít out of Indy and Bats lego too.

I'll give a try with the lego alright, he loves building lego.
Thanks

Maddzy

TVersity is quite good and I'd recommend it. Its a bit of a pain to set up though, at least I found it a pain. You can also use Windows Media Player 11 to stream media using its Library Sharing feature. This is easier to maintain then TVersity but some video formats such as divx need you to download a codec from XBox Live, and some formats such as .mkv won't work at all. TVersity however will convert them on the fly for you.

mick.fr

Maddzy wrote: »

TVersity is quite good and I'd recommend it. Its a bit of a pain to set up though, at least I found it a pain. You can also use Windows Media Player 11 to stream media using its Library Sharing feature. This is easier to maintain then TVersity but some video formats such as divx need you to download a codec from XBox Live, and some formats such as .mkv won't work at all. TVersity however will convert them on the fly for you.

Thanks for the feedback. I think it will be more appropriate than Media Player since I am playing lots of different video format.

Not The Real Scarecrow

I find it just as handy using either a usb or an external hard drive to play avis and other media.Found the streaming to be a bit of a pain at times.
You should try rock band or a similar game for your kid on the xbox.My nephews love it...so do I.They love the new lego batman as well.They got the wii last yearand tired of it fairly quickly, was just another gimmick.Reckon your child will probably come back to playing the xbox in time.

DeVore

Kids who are confused simply move on (search on Sesame Street for some fascinating psychology studies on the topic). Also, if you are playing the PC... I think he'll probably want to do what his hero is doing...
You might want to find a topic he likes (cars? disney? etc) and share the experience with him.

Try playing Catan with him too, you can both play one account (its like a board game) and while its simple enough its also deep enough to keep playing. Or a repetitive game like Bejeweled to grow his logical thought processes etc.

Anyway, he might not be into it now but who knows in a few months time or when his best mate gets one or or or ...

DeV.

calex71

even big kids love the lego games , was addicted to lego batman for a few weeks myself.

Dont forget OP that there are many demos that you can download if your console is connected to the internet so the wee lad can try them out before you splash out. And also keep in mind you can trade the games in once he's bored of them.

Also a lot of the arcade games that you can download are fairly simplistic too

flyswatter

How about the new Banjo Kazooie? That's meant to be good and would be suitable for a 6 year old.