Need advice-upgrading a barebones XBOX 360 exclusively for TPA

[novacainetongue]

First time poster, looked for a similar thread but to no avail...

I've never been a bigtime gamer. In fact, the only reason I have a XBOX 360 at all is that I won one from McDonalds during their Monopoly game a few years back. It sat in my closet for a year or two and after a recent move I decided to pull it out and hook it up. Went to gamestop and picked up a few titles that are now gathering dust. I then saw a promo for Pinball FX2 and I was intruiged to say the least. I dropped a ton of tokens in the my favorite pins when I was growing up, and it took me back. After a quick search on the web I found a review of the PHOF and I was stoked!!! Here were some of the games I grew up with. Damn, I really wanted to play Gorgar, Firepower, Black Knight, and Pinbot again so I bought the disc and it hasn't left my XBOX since.

Now that that ramble is out of the way, here is my question. The XBOX 360 I have is the barebones no hard drive, no wifi version. I'm sure I can hook up the XBOX via cable to download TPA and the DLCs that are on the way. What, in your opinion, would be the best option for saving them? Just buy an internal hard drive for my XBOX or is there a better way to go? I'm not real familar with how large these games are, so if someone can give me an idea as to how much memory I'd need to save a collection of tables I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance for your help putting my pinball console together.

-nova

 

[Ark Malmeida]

If you won it a few years back I would assume that you have one of the original models. You have a few choices for storage. You could pick up a hard drive for it (for as little as around $20 or so off of eBay). They have 20GB, 60GB, 120GB, 250GB and even 320GB models. You could probably get away with a 20GB drive, but keep in mind that quite a bit of space is reserved for system use (You generally get around 12GB to use on the 20GB model) so I might grab a 60GB one if the price is comparable. Your other option for storage is to use a usb stick/thumb drive. The limit per drive is 16GB, but you could have two in at once (in the front USB ports) which would give you 32GB of storage which should be good for a while. I guess it all comes down to price/preference there.

As far as internet connectivity goes, you could definitely just connect the XBox directly to a modem/router. That's what I do with mine. Otherwise you'd need to get a wi-fi adapter for it (the official one is quite pricy, but I've heard there are other non-official solutions that are cheaper). I would recommend the non-wifi option if you can manage it - both to save money and to have the most reliable connection. Of course, like you said, you would only need to hook to the internet for the purposes of downloading the app and table add-ons (when they're available), but it's nice to have the leaderboard functionality, which you won't get without being connected.

 

[novacainetongue]

Thanks Ark...I have the XBOX 360 Arcade with all of its amazing 256MB of storage!!! Microsoft probably just gave those to MickeyD's for their promotion. Can't complain, though. It sounds like a minor investment will be all it takes to hold a number of tables.

 

[Richard B]

If all you want is TPA, you can easily get away with a 20 GB hard drive.

 

[Fungi]

I've got a 20gb drive I can sell you. It's been in storage ever since I got a 60gb. $15 and I'll ship for free if you're in the US.

Wait, what version is it? Is it the black "slim" version?

 

[Jeff Strong]

20 GB should be plenty. Thats a really good offer from Fungi

 

[bavelb]

Can also just plug in a thumbdrive.

 

[AshleyAshes]

If you ONLY want to play The Pinball Arcade, a USB thumb drive is really the only thing you need. It'll be more than enough storage to suit your needs and be dirt cheap.

 

[mmmagnetic]

By the way, nice Centaur avatar

 

[novacainetongue]

Hello everyone,

I was out of town helping out at blues festival and am now just catching up. Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'll go with the thumbdrive just for portability sake. It'll be cool to pop in a little pinball when I'm visiting the nephews and nieces. Got to convert them into fans!!!

Thanks for the offer, Fungi...If I decide to add the hard drive I'll hit you up.

Nice ID on the avatar, mmmagnetic...If Farsight ever announces Centaur I'd be on cloud 9!!!

-nova

 

[bavelb]

Hello everyone,

I was out of town helping out at blues festival and am now just catching up. Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'll go with the thumbdrive just for portability sake. It'll be cool to pop in a little pinball when I'm visiting the nephews and nieces. Got to convert them into fans!!!

Thanks for the offer, Fungi...If I decide to add the hard drive I'll hit you up.

Nice ID on the avatar, mmmagnetic...If Farsight ever announces Centaur I'd be on cloud 9!!!

-nova

This will only work if you import your live-profile on their xbox's I think and boot it up on that profile, or you will only boot it as a demoversion, as the game is tied to you console and/or your Profile. And dont transfer the license to the other console while doing so.

 

[novacainetongue]

Thanks for the heads up, bavelb. I'll read up on it and see what I need to do once I get to that stage.

-nova

 

[Ark Malmeida]

This will only work if you import your live-profile on their xbox's I think and boot it up on that profile, or you will only boot it as a demoversion, as the game is tied to you console and/or your Profile. And dont transfer the license to the other console while doing so.

He could also just move his profile onto the memory stick when he plans on going to visit. I do it all of the time. Some people that play on different XBoxes on a regular basis actually keep their profile on the memory stick at all times so the just have to move the stick from console to console instead of dealing with downloading the profile.