With an old Xbox 360 and Kinect hooked up, you eat up two power ports, and with a wireless adapter, are left with only one available USB port on the front for connecting controllers and USB storage. If you’ve still got a Microsoft HD DVD player kicking around and connected, things could theoretically be getting very crowded with daisy chained USB devices. It’s a bit disappointing there isn’t a hub involved somewhere here like what Microsoft did with the ill-fated HD DVD player (which included a notch and USB port on the back for the displaced wireless adapter), but perhaps bandwidth considerations over the USB hub contributed. It’s an unaesthetic solution that’s an unfortunate consequence of the old Xbox 360 simply not being designed for all these accessories.
If you’re using a setup like this, you’re going to need to run a cable from the wireless card - using the extension cable- all the way around to the front of the box and into one of the front USB ports.
I have an original Xbox 360 Pro from launch date, and also happen to use the Xbox dual band 802.11N adapter to connect wirelessly. Remember that unlike the Xbox 360 S, the older Xbox 360 has just one USB port on the rear, and two in the front. For that, you get a power supply cable which breaks off into a Y connector - one end is orange tipped and connects to the cable coming out of the Kinect, the other goes into your original-gen Xbox 360.īut wait, what about that odd-looking grey cable? The rest of the cables are for if you’re connecting the Kinect to an older generation Xbox 360. The cable physically looks like USB, but the connector inside is visibly different besides the obvious shape difference. If you’ve got an Xbox 360 S, this is the only cable you need to use Kinect. This cable is keyed differently than a normal USB cable and allows the Kinect to draw power from the console itself instead of requiring a standalone power supply. Inside the box is the Kinect sensor itself, Kinect Adventures, and a suite of cables.įirst up is an orange-tipped USB-like cable with a special connector for connecting the Kinect to the Xbox 360 S. The Kinect is securely seated in a foam recessed area. There’s an unboxing gallery below in case you want to see for yourself.
On the box, Microsoft stipulates that you need at least 6’ of free space in front of the sensor to play, which seems a bit optimistic as I’ll show later.
Packaging for the standalone Kinect package matches the style of the Xbox 360 S packaging - it’s a lot of green and purple. We purchased a retail kit on launch date, which comes with the sensor itself, cables, some paperwork, and Kinect Adventures.
The result is that there’s only one thing to purchase to add Kinect to an existing Xbox 360 install - the $149.99 Kinect sensor itself. Instead of relying on handheld controllers and motion targets, the Kinect uses a purely optical solution which we’ll get to in a bit. We’ve spent nearly a month playing with Kinect and are finally ready to release our impressions.įirst off, the Kinect is fundamentally different from Sony and Nintendo’s offerings.
It’s taken the greater part of four years (and one name change) for the software giant’s answer to make it to market, but Kinect is finally out and ready for mass consumption. Flash forward to late 2010, and Microsoft and Sony both have readied their response to the Wii - the Microsoft Kinect and Sony Move, respectively. The motion-controlled Wii has enjoyed a nice long run being the sole platform for motion-assisted gaming. Nintendo was first to the block in 2006 with 3D motion-controlled user interfaces, leveraging a unique combination of IR sensors and 6-axis MEMS accelerometers in a handheld remote. For better or worse, new user interface is all the rage right now in the console gaming scene.