YouTuber James Channel set himself quite a challenge: to transmogrify the “biggest, heaviest, power-hungry console anybody had ever seen” into a handheld. However, as you can see from the video below (h/t PC Gamer), his quest was a success. It might not be the most elegant conversion we’ve seen, with the cut-up and pared-down console largely held together using duct tape and hot glue, but it is a sight to behold. The bare DVD, spinning at ~10,000RPM, that sits central to the design, adds a bit of a danger-thrill to the retro gaming experience, too.
The video starts with James grabbing an original Xbox from his shelves stuffed full of iconic consoles in various states of disrepair. But the chosen black and green box from Microsoft isn’t ready to be converted, just yet. It has a number of faults that need repairing while it is in its native state, before the hacksaw and hot glue-driven modding begins. Starting with a known working sample will simplify any troubleshooting further down the line.
Once repaired, the original Xbox is cut down with a view to portability by James, who tosses unwanted components and shards of case to the floor. This isn’t going to be a mod that solely relies on the original Xbox, though. James also pillages an old iPod portable video dock for screen and speakers, replaces the "huge heavy" 3.5-inch HDD with a Compact Flash drive solution, and saws Xbox controllers in half to flank the central screen/console area.
James gave up on this project for three weeks, but reenergized, returned to it to complete the job. A hurdle that had stubbornly stood in the way of a success was overcome when he discovers that seven out of eight Xbox drives he bought as donors for this project were DOA... After putting this bad luck in the used components lottery (and a miss-crimped IDE connector) in the rearview mirror, the admitted "portable monstrosity" can come to life.
The last part of the video shows James enjoying a Halo gaming test on the handheld Xbox. We witness the device has a battery life of just 9m 40s when playing a game. That’s a result which makes the Steam Deck and other modern PC gaming handhelds seem like long distance runners.
Of course, for a modern portable Xbox branded handheld, we now also have the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X, which have just gone up for pre-order.
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