I bit the bullet and spent some points on Joust the other night. This game seems a lot harder than it used to be. My record on my atari system, way back when, was something like level 263. I can't even make it to wave 10 on the 360.

There were at least 263 levels?

But that was the Atari version, which I'm sure was not as advanced as the arcade version, which the XBox 360 most assuredly is.

Chris

Question about Xbox Live:

I'm in my 2nd week of the free 1 trial month of Xbox Live Gold. I also purchased the Xbox Live Gold 12-month starter kit. If I input the 12-month code today, will it be effective starting today, or will it begin after the remainder of my 1 month free trial is used up?

When I did a similar thing a year or so ago, it was effective immediately, which cost me a few months. I'd wait until near the end of your free trial.

I got an email today from microsoft about getting a xbox live diamond card. Anyone else going to get one of these?

Yes, but I had already signed up a couple of weeks ago. I think I posted an earlier story about it in this thread.

Chris

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060114/...oft_xbox36o_dc

600,000 Xbox 360 game units sold in US: group Fri Jan 13, 8:31 PM ET


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) has sold 600,000 of its new Xbox 360 video game consoles in the United States since its November launch, an analyst for market researcher NPD Group said on Friday.

The Xbox 360 debuted to much fanfare on November 22 in North America. Since then it has been in short supply. Analysts, video game publishers and retailers have said shipments during the key holiday season fell short of expectations.

Microsoft said in a statement that its challenge has been to meet consumer demand for the Xbox 360. The company, which did not comment on the NPD numbers, said its manufacturing facilities are running at full capacity and that a third manufacturer will come online next month.

Microsoft last week confirmed its target of selling between 4.5 million and 5.5 million Xbox 360 consoles during the current business year, which ends June 30, 2006. It said in its statement on Friday that it will provide information on its Xbox 360 business during its quarterly financial report later this month.

Sony Corp. (6758.T), the world's biggest video game console maker, and Nintendo Co. Ltd (7974.OS) are preparing to ship their next-generation machines in 2006.

The NPD Group measures nearly two-thirds of retail sales in the United States and makes projections for the remainder of the year.

Microsoft shares closed up 5 cents to $27.19 on the Nasdaq.


Chris

How to you turn off friend notification when you are watching a DVD on the xbox 360?

sign out?

Go into the settings tab (which you can access from the regular blade that appears when you're in game). You can turn on/off friend notifications and/or sound, but it is not limited to just a DVD, but all notifications. (Even if you're in a game)

this might be this floating around here somewhere, but has anyone else played the first halo or crimson skies high road to revenge on their 360? i found it crappy that they only showed up in 4:3. WTF!!!

Really? Two years ago when I first signed up, they added it to the end of my trial...

So today I go to clean the apartment a bit and I figured I would listen to some music. I fire up the 360 and go try to stream some music from my PC and it won't recognize my PC. I've been trying to fix the problem for hours and nothing is working. Windows Media Connect isn't even registering that a 360 is hooked up now. I have no clue what the hell is going on.

That sucks. I use a spare external HD that I had lying around for all my music & photos. Works like a charm. No buggy software to worry about.

I'd love to use my Creative Zen Extra Jukebox for my music but it never recognizes it when i plug it in.

Same. Last I checked, the Xtra was on the list of compatiable players, but it doesn't work. Damn Microsoft!


For me, if I am at home, it doesn't really matter, as I just mirror my entire music collection on my Computer and my Xtra.

After almost 5 hours or tinkering and phone tag with XBOX CS it seems I'll have to send my system away. I really don't see what the heck the problem could be.

The one CS person I spoke to gave me this whole page of this to try. These included removing the .NET Framework crap from my PC and then reinstalling them and updating them. That seems to help Windows Media Connect see that my 360 was hooked up but then Windows did some automatic update and downloaded some .NET Hotfix crap and once again Media Connect was worthless. I had to delete everything ALL over again. Media Connect can see my 360 as long as I don't install that automatic Hotfix shit.

But then on the other hand I haven't gotten anywhere with my 360. I go the Media blade and then select Music. When I click on Computer it'll tell me to go to xbox.com/pcsetup and continue once I've installed that. But even then when I click on Continue it searches for a PC and comes up empty handed.

I went from XBOX CS who then directed to Microsoft CS who then felt I had had to call Dell since Windows came installed on my PC. It seemed like I just kept getting farther away from the problem.

They finally said I had to send my system in and I fought with the lady about sending in the HDD, I told her that after all this I wasn't about to lose my game saves in addition to losing my entire afternoon and evening.

I really doubt that any of this will get fixed. It might be a PC issue and it might be a 360 issue but I honestly think they are as clueless as I am.

Maybe it works that way for a trial. I was trying to add a 1-year subscription to an existing 1-year subscription that had about 4 months left. I lost those 4 months upon doing so.

I would not send in my 360 for this problem, but that's just me. I doubt there is anything wrong with it. Sounds like either a software firewall on your PC is preventing the 360 from seeing WMC, or you are having some other networking problems.

We tried most everything.

We turned the firewall off and then back on. We turn off the anti-virus software and then turned it back on again. I followed the huge step by step guide to try and get it going.

I'm open to suggestions or information. I'm going to try and have my buddy bring his 360 home when he comes back from school this weekend. That way I can try to file share and test out Windows Media Connect before I send it away.

Any want a to buy a 360 that works fine except for the inability to stream music? And I'm being serious!

Edited To Add:
I just wanted to say that the problem has to be with the .NEt stuff. I ran a program that is supposed to clean out the program entirely and it couldn't do the job. I have no idea what that .NET stuff even does but I know on my computer it blocks the 360. I'm sure I could reformat and maybe get things going again but since I have no clue what caused this I can never be sure this problem won't just pop back up again. I'm giving my semi-broke friend first dibs on my system but I'm not going to trust him unless I see cash in advance.

You'd probably be better served finding someone with a laptop with Media Connect, etc installed and putting it on your network and seeing if it sees the 360 and can connect. As you stated, your issue is most assuredly on the PC end rather than on the 360 end of things.

On XBL I was able to add subscription code cards to an existing subscription full year subscription without losing any time. Not sure why it would have done that to you...

Well, you could always just get an external HD and hook it up to your 360.

As for LIVE subscriptions. I had a PAID sub then I added a 12-month card and they actually credited my credit card with the two months remaining. I think I just added another 12 month card and it extended it this time....

Hmm, this was a few months shy of 1-year after my beta Live account began running as a regular 1-year one. Either something changed since then or it was due to the fact that I used a code from another starter kit I had picked up on clearance at Target because it included another headset + 1 year for half the price of just a year. Who knows. I am over it at this point.

The .NET framework is basically a set of runtimes for applications written in the new Microsoft .NET-based programming languages such as C# and VB.NET. Windows Media Connect is probably written in a .NET language and, thus, requires the framework. In no way should it cause the problems you are having. Are you sure you disabled all firewalls on your PC, including the built-in Windows Firewall?

You are choosing "Music" on the 360 rather than "Media Center," right?