A group of Xbox case modders from Xbox-Scene set out to design and build a case that delivered on the failed promises of a high level case called “XDeck” The XDeck was a case that would house extra hard drives or DVD drive, integrate a DVD dongle and allow switching between devices. All XDeck ever delivered was a few concept images done in photoshop.
In January of 2003 some “team” proposed that they were going to build the ultimate Xbox modder’s accessory. A device that would manage multiple hard drives and enclose them all into a OEM looking case as well. They talked a big show for months and eventually released “concept images” which were clearly just Photoshoped pictures of an Xbox. After not delivering any solid evidence that they had actually developed what they said they had, or even had any groundwork laid out to produce said product they actually had the audacity to start collecting donations and pre-orders from people. Of course like all good scams once they had milked as many donations and pre-orders as they could they vanished off of the face of the earth.
To prove that the ingenuity of “the scene” was just as good if not better than these schmucks; in May of 2004 HSDEMONZ from Xbox-Scene decided to round up some of the best case modders in the forums to succeed where the XDeck had failed, this group was aptly named ProjectDeck.
I was not originally a member of the team but shortly after things had started moving I expressed interest in the project to Palmore, the current project leader, who invited me to join the team. I’m a very opinionated person, coupled with the fact that I’m blunt verbose and slightly abrasive, as a result I often find myself getting put in leadership positions. In some cases it’s nice but a lot of times it’s a job I don’t really want. It didn’t take long before I ended up as project leader.
I don’t remember the exact sequence of events but we had devised a large questionnaire to find out what the Xbox-Scene population wanted in a case. A member by the name of DeAdGuy created a survey for us and it worked out great. Having the support of Xbox-Scene in the hay day of Xbox 1 modding produced thousands of members providing us with feedback. In addition to questions we had added a few photoshopped images of layouts that people could vote on which ones they liked the best.
We took the feedback to heart and produced some 3D concept images and started working on a prototype.
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