Xbox Live concept inspired by Atari 2600? We think so

This is something a very few people might have thought of before. But this may well be a possibility. After all we all know that MS is very good at making other people's ideas their very own and then goes on to do a very good job on it. I mentioned about this on Nov 22 writing on Bill Gates and his comments on the launch of Xbox 360.

Now there is an interesting article by Gaming Steve that compares the 'collection' of achievements added to your Xbox Live gamer profile in the form of cool icons for the world to see.

MS's concept seems original, however, Steve disagrees and we can't agree more with his disagreement here. He points out a strikingly similar concept that was started by Atari 2600 some about 23 years back rewarding the achievements of the gamers!

He writes; 'Back in the "gaming stone age" (AKA the year 1982) Activision offered free cloth patches if you achieved a high score in any one of their games. Users were instructed to photograph their TV with the high score showing and mail it in and then Activision would send back a patch. Quite a bit of work in order to receive a piece of colored fabric, but it does mark the very first true "achievement" system for video games. In total there were 43 patches for 33 different games and the patch designs were quite varied and pretty damn cool.'

I am putting the cool pictures of his sweat shirt with the patches that Steve earned. Enjoy and don't forget to check his full post here in Gaming Steve.

actpatch 1

actpatch2

actpatch 3

Thanks a lot friend!

Source & Images : Gaming Steve