Xbox/Startup Screens

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Credits

Captures by
SubparMario63

Editions by
IAmJefferson, mr3urious, McDonald's1, and Kbcars123456

Video captures courtesy of
JustAnyone, Natino64, The Archiving b0B, Komrade Dubbers, fatpat268, Rookie Raceway and Broken Saw

1st Logo (April 2001)

Visuals: On a black background, there is a large green, pointy X facing towards the screen, Below it is "XBOX", also in green, which then shines and two lines make it black and turns green again. After the animation ends, "XBOX" cuts out and the green X fades out.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: None.

Availability: Only seen on early prototype Xbox dashboards. This startup is known as "ani.bin", with no leftovers of it in the Xbox code. The next startup is known as "ani2.bin" in the code.

2nd Logo (November 15, 2001-August 2005)

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Visuals: A green blob forms in a green and black machine. It keeps moving and moving until a green light flashes and engulfs the blob. Then, everything zooms out and the same green X as before is seen. Below it is "XBOX" in the same color and font as the previous logo as it coasts in from the bottom, and a few seconds later, the 1987-2012 Microsoft logo appears on the bottom or the dashboard appears.

Variants:

• Apparently, in late development, the logo was originally going to respond to button inputs of A, B, X, Y, Black, White, and the left stick. These inputs would control animation speed, fog, shadows, camera position, intensity of the blob, and shields. In the final build of the kernel, the library for handling controller input is not loaded on boot, so this code (and therefore the interactivity) is unused.
• In later prototype Xbox dashboards, a section of shields spin around the blob, the animation is slightly slower and the 1987-2012 Microsoft logo appears late and is in green.
• A still version is seen when you load up a game from the Xbox Dashboard, or eject a disc during gameplay. A white version is seen when you play an Xbox game on an Xbox 360.
• When playing an Xbox game on an Xbox One or an Xbox Series X or S, the Microsoft logo is removed, presumably because they changed their logo since then. Also, the entire logo is in 60fps (original consoles have the logo start at 30fps, switching to 60fps when the logo is being revealed).

Technique: CGI rendered in real-time. A CGI render for the still version.

Audio: Some deep synth bass notes with thunderclaps, followed by a high-pitched synthesized tune. It was composed by Brian Schmidt, who is known for composing music for pinball and video games.

Audio Variant: The still version is silent.

Availability: It appears as the start-up on all models of the original Xbox console, which can be found for cheap on many auction sites or thrift stores (such as Goodwill or The Salvation Army). It also appears when playing an Xbox game on an Xbox One or Xbox Series console. The "shields" variants only appears in later prototype Xbox dashboards.

Legacy: This is a very nostalgic logo among gamers.

3rd Logo (Error variant) (November 15, 2001-August 12, 2008)

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Visuals: An exploding green flash with green dots is shown, with the dots forming a green bubble circle. It zooms in when bacteria-like objects appear, and then a green flash zooms in the Xbox logo without the "X". It shines exactly like in the first logo, and after a few seconds, it explodes. After that, it displays this in Arial on a black background:

This is an Xbox game disc.

Please put it in your Xbox to start playing.

French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese translations appear below.

Technique: CGI by REZN8.

Audio: An edited version of the ending of "Sunshower" by Secret Hate, with a rising synthesizer once the Xbox logo zooms in, and an explosion sound.

Availability: It can be seen if an original Xbox game is inserted into any DVD/Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player (or any PC or gaming system that plays DVDs or Blu-rays, like the PS2/PS3 and the Xbox 360/Xbox One with non-backwards compatible games, for example). It can also be seen if an original Xbox game is heavily scratched and is read as a DVD video by the Xbox itself, causing this animation to play out if the DVD Playback Kit is in the console.

4th Logo (Xbox LIVE variant) (August 16, 2002-May 11, 2010)

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Visuals: It begins with a black background, and then an orange light shines brightly with several streaks. After this, a green neon hexagonal grid appears as the camera zooms out. Eventually, it zooms out enough to reveal the "X" logo along with the "XBOX" text. The camera pans and rotates until the XBOX logo is seen from the top, and center. During the camera motion, the light is revealed to be coming from the letter "I" in "LIVE", and the letters "L", "V", and "E" slide in from the sides and light up orange. The "I" continues to shine from the top.

Variant: On the prototype of Crash vs. Spyro Racing, a different version was seen. The orange light and the streaks are seen moving from left to right as the camera rotates. The green grid pulsates in time with the sounds. Then, many orange triangular prisms come together and form the "XBOX LIVE" logo, while the camera zooms out. The "LIVE" text glows, and then the light on top of the "I" also glows brighter.

Technique: CGI by REZN8.

Audio: Various whooshes with a short synth theme. The variant uses the sounds from the 2nd logo with additional sound effects.

Availability: It can be seen if "Xbox LIVE" is selected on the dashboard version "4920". Also seen on various Xbox LIVE promos, and whenever an Xbox Live Arcade disc is launched.