Original Xbox Dashboard Finally Inducted Into Smithsonian Musical Instruments Museum

After more than a decade delighting musicians and gamers with its high-quality tunes and easy playability, the dashboard of Microsoft’s original Xbox finally received the recognition it deserves as it got inducted into the Smithsonian Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) earlier this week. During its induction ceremony at the MIM in Phoenix, Arizona historians reflected on the brilliant device and the impact it’s had in the world of music.


“Anyone actually able to hold those giant Xbox controllers could play, that was the beauty of it,” museum curator Dennis Hamill commented in front of a large projector showing a video demonstration the instrument being played, “the way the musician could easily glide between menu items and make the docile tones are something that may never be matched again in its simplicity and grace. We were very fortunate to find one of the few remaining such instruments in the attic of one of the original composer’s mother’s house.”

According to Hamill, the original Xbox dashboard’s museum display will do its best to enlighten future generations of gamers and musicians alike about the smooth notes and legendary songs of the original creators. It will also be very interactive, giving anyone who wishes to try their hand at using the instrument the opportunity to do so. 

During our brief time that we were able to try it out, we were amazed at how easy it all came back to us. Selecting “settings” backing out and then selecting “memory” then sliding up and down the Halo and Brute Force and Half-Life 2 save files worked just as we remember, every note ringing true as though this particular original Xbox dashboard was never played. It was sublime.

Classics such as “Flipping Through Saved Game Files” and “Hitting A and B Really Fast At The Main Screen” were played during the ceremony, which also featured speeches and special performances from several known players of the timeless instrument. Among them was the well-known MasterChief2NiteBitches69 playing his famous set piece “Scrolling Through The Hard Drive Contents To The Beat Of Welcome To The Jungle” - a performance just as moving now as it was when the masterpiece was just an idea in the then twelve-year-old gamer’s mind. 

“It just came to me,” Mr. Bitches69 told us following his performance, tears welling up in his eyes, “Welcome To The Jungle is just a great song and it always got stuck in my head so I ended up scrolling through the contents of my hard drive to the beat and bam - an instant classic was born. I couldn’t have done it without this great instrument, though.” While he has since retired from composing and enjoys a steady line of work at the local Footlocker, MasterCheif2NiteBitches69 says his playing days will always have a special place in his heart and is honored that he and his work will be memorialized in the Musical Instruments Museum.

Microsoft, wondering why no one has bothered to ask them about the disturbing sounds of painful screaming that can faintly be heard in the main menu if no buttons are touched for too long, declined to comment on the induction.