XQEMU
Developer(s) | espes, mborgerson, JayFoxRox and XQEMU Community |
---|---|
Latest version | N/A |
Active | Yes |
Platform(s) | Windows macOS Linux |
Emulates | Xbox, Sega Chihiro (Arcade) |
Website | XQEMU.com |
Source code | GitHub |
XQEMU is a low-level Xbox and Sega Chihiro emulator based off of QEMU, a general-purpose computer emulator and hypervisor. What makes this emulator different from the other attempts at Xbox emulation is the use of low-level emulation, while previous attempts at Xbox emulation used high-level emulation. This comes with its own benefits and downsides in comparison, but it does allow for greater accuracy and greater compatibility down the road.
Downloads
- Official development builds (Windows)
This build focuses on the ongoing 2.x rebase, which will bring XQEMU closer to QEMU's current release (2.12.0). Unofficial builds are also available here.
Frontends
XQEMU does not come with a Xbox specific GUI and needs a separate frontend for GUI features.
- XQEMU-Manager by XQEMU developers (Python script; GUI only)
- XQEMU-Frontend by Voxel9 (Builds available; GUI only)
- XQEMURun by illwieckz (Python script; Command-Line interface only)
Overview
XQEMU is at development stage right now. Quite a lot of games can run on XQEMU, but its focus on game compatibility means there hasn't been much focus on speed, so the games that work are currently slow. A theoretical integration of KVM, HAXM, WHV or other virtualization could also speed up performance.
mborgerson has, since March 24, 2018,[1] begun work on rebasing XQEMU on the latest QEMU tag, "[bringing] many years of performance enhancements to xqemu including support for native virtualization APIs."[2] The rebase branch incorporates over 30,000 commits from QEMU that were never merged over the years. Work continues to reinstate 3D rendering.
Running
- These instructions apply to the 1.x branch of XQEMU. For 2.x instructions, visit xqemu.com.
You'll need a MCP-X boot rom, Xbox 1.0 compatible BIOS, and a HDD image with a dashboard, all in the main XQEMU directory. Then run:
qemu-system-xbox -cpu pentium3 -machine xbox,short_animation,bootrom=mcpx_1.0.bin -m 64 -drive file=xbox_harddisk.qcow2,index=0,media=disk,locked=on -drive index=1,media=cdrom,file=game.iso -bios complex_4627debug.bin -usb -device usb-hub,bus=usb-bus.0,port=3 -device usb-xbox-gamepad,bus=usb-bus.0,port=3.2
Change mcpx_1.0.bin
, complex_4627debug.bin
, and game.iso
to the filenames of the boot rom, BIOS, and game ISO that you're running.
References
- ↑ mborgerson. Add hw/xbox from xqemu. GitHub.
- ↑ README.md. GitHub.
External links
- Upcoming official XQEMU branch re-based on latest QEMU tag
- Old Wiki for developers (JayFoxRox's branch)
- Wiki for Xbox hardware documentation (Contributors from many Xbox related projects including XQEMU and Cxbx-Reloaded)
- Official freenode IRC chat channel
- Official Discord chat channel (For discussions on Xbox emulation development)