The All-Metal XBOX Prototype in magazines

[shenmueman]

Hey everyone!

I'm new here and an looking for some assistance.  Does anyone happen to know of any magazines that showcase and discuss the all-metal XBOX prototype that Microsoft debuted at the March 2000 Gamers Development Conference (GDC)?  I looked at a few of the big name magazine (EGM, GamePro etc.) issues from around that time period and didn't find anything.  I'm actually working on a video about the prototype itself and wanted to get some primary sources of the time to showcase in the video.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards

[shenmueman]

Bump

[JHD]

Did this announcement get any coverage outside of the video game community? I wonder if more general news magazines (e.g. Time) or business magazines (e.g. Business Week) may have provided some coverage, especially if there was a formal press release. If you have a specific date than the search will not be too onerous. 

 

The issue is going to be that the photos (if any) will probably be small. It is also unlikely that you will find paper copies of these magazines as opposed to microfilm or microfiche. This will degrade the quality further. Alas, it may be the only thing now available. 

 

There was an image published in Time magazine in about 1995 that I really wanted a copy of.  The original was quite dark and on microfilm it was just a large black blot with no details. No local library retained the print magazines, but a friend who was something of a hoarder had a copy.   

[Areala]

On 7/5/2025 at 2:09 PM, shenmueman said:

Hey everyone!

I'm new here and an looking for some assistance.  Does anyone happen to know of any magazines that showcase and discuss the all-metal XBOX prototype that Microsoft debuted at the March 2000 Gamers Development Conference (GDC)?  I looked at a few of the big name magazine (EGM, GamePro etc.) issues from around that time period and didn't find anything.  I'm actually working on a video about the prototype itself and wanted to get some primary sources of the time to showcase in the video.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards

Sorry, been doing some research the past couple days and I think I've got some stuff you could use. Lead time on magazines from the early 2000s was typically 4-6 weeks, and issues were often dated a month later than when they were released. Thus, if something happened in March of a given year, you'd want to start looking at the May issues (which would have probably been released in mid-April) for coverage of that thing happening, and such is the case with the aluminum-block Xbox prototype unveiled at GDC.

NextGen issue 65 from May of 2000 covers the Xbox prototype on pages 7 and 8, including a photograph of the unit itself.

EGM covered the 2000 GDC's Xbox news as well in issue 130. Sadly, it doesn't feature any images of the aluminum monster, but they do showcase a few screenshots from the demo footage, and break down the potential specs of the machine, on page 36 (right across from a lovely photo of Angelina Jolie on page 37, who was in talks to play Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider film).

GamePro was a little late to the party, covering the GDC reveal in issue 141, which has a June cover date. You can find it on page 32, with a single picture that features the aluminum Xbox prototype, right beside Bill Gates's hand.

Short-lived magazine PC Accelerator even notched up a paragraph of coverage of the Xbox event in their penultimate issue. Look to the News Briefs on page 95. Then you can turn to page 22 and snicker at how badly they all wanted to play Halo before Microsoft bought Bungie and made the game a console-exclusive. But, alas, PCA went defunct with issue 22 so we never got to enjoy their bitter, bitter tears...

Although despite having covered it in the previous issue, they did spare some column inches in issue 22, on page 63, to go a bit more in-depth, along with a shot of one of the demo images.

That should do well to get you started, and once the video is done, make sure you drop a link to it here so we can all watch it!

*huggles*
Areala