Remembering xband...... - superstarshad's Blog

superstarshad's Blog

Remembering xband......

Posted on December 28, 2009 at 12:28 AM.

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The year was 1994 when the xband made its monumental debut to the world of gaming. With a steep 79.99 price tag, the xband allowed gamers for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo to compete with any other gamer in the country!
Gamers would simply place the xband modem into the cartridge slot, put the designated game (game genie style) into the xband, plug the phone line cord into the xband and play against any gamer in the nation!
Xband allowed gamers to use their service for either 4.95 per month for 50 connects or play unlimited for 9.95 per month.
My mom purchased the xband for my 13th birthday. It was the greatest thing in my gaming world. There was nothing more exciting than hearing that zoom noise and seeing the red lights on the modem light up. I just remembered my screen name while blogging....King Kombat! Wow, now that was gaming at its finest.

3 things killed the innovative xband.
1. Lack of a big budget advertising budget
2. The death of the 16 bit era
3. The birth of the Internet

If you ever read Malcolm Gladwell's: Tipping Point. You're fully aware of how things can come together and either lead to success or send said product or person to the abyss. Unfortunately, Catapult's xband was handed the latter.

Let me know your opinion of the xband. Did you have one? Did you ever hear of it. I invite all OS users to google xband and marvel at a product that was truly ahead of its time. Sound off..

Comments

# 1 jyoung @ Dec 28

I remember playing it at a friend's house (he was the only one in my circle whose parents could actually afford the Internet back then) and having a ton of fun, even in spite of the crazy lag.

NBA Jam was our game of choice back then.

The best part of the service was being able to set up an avatar and a "taunt" that would display every time you connected to a new opponent.

This was before the Internet made trash talking a common occurrence in online PC games, so you can imagine the fun we -- as pre-teens -- had with that feature.

# 2 jyoung @ Dec 28

And of course, this was also before the days of content filters, so you can imagine how that made things even more fun.

# 3 superstarshad @ Dec 28

I forgot all about the taunts and bio! It took me about 3 hours to write my bio. Speaking of NBA JAM... I went undefeated as a 13 year old on x-band with that game!

# 4 xband411 @ Jan 22

I too loved Xband. I had it for the SNES. I believe I only made it through one full game of Madden '95. I mostly enjoyed playing Super Mario Kart, with a bit of NBA Jam TE and SSF II on the side. I've got vids up on YouTube of Xband if anyone cares to see them. Just search for 'xband411' and you'll find them.