Difference between pages "Nintendo Switch emulators" and "Xbox emulators"

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{{Infobox console
 
{{Infobox console
−
|title = Nintendo Switch
+
|title = Xbox
−
|image = nintendo-switch.png
+
|logo = Xbox-and-Controller-S.png
−
|image2 = switchdocked.png
+
|developer = [[:Microsoft]]
−
|imagecaption = The Switch in its two forms, portable (above) and docked (below).
+
|type = [[:Category:Home consoles|Home video game console]]
−
|developer = [[:Nintendo]]
+
|generation = [[:Category:Sixth-generation video game consoles|Sixth generation]]
−
|type = [[:Category:Hybrid consoles|Hybrid video game console]]
+
|release = 2001
−
|generation = [[:Category:Eighth-generation video game consoles|Eighth generation]]
+
|discontinued = 2009
−
|release = 2017
+
|successor = [[Xbox 360 emulators|Xbox 360]]
−
|predecessor = [[Wii U emulators|Wii U]]
 
 
|emulated = {{✓}}
 
|emulated = {{✓}}
 
}}
 
}}
  
−
The '''[[wikipedia:Nintendo Switch|Nintendo Switch]]''' is an eighth-generation hybrid gaming console released by Nintendo on March 3, 2017 and retailed for {{Inflation|USD|299.99|2017}}. During its development, the Switch was known as the NX (short for NeXt or Nintendo "Cross") and was widely speculated up until its announcement. Aside from specialized components unique to the console, the hardware is more or less off-the-shelf, being built around a semi-custom variant of Nvidia's Tegra X1 system-on-a-chip which was also used on a number of [[Android emulators|Android devices]]. The Switch contains 4 ARM Cortex-A57 CPUs and 4 ARM Cortex-A53 CPUs running at 1.020 GHz with 4GB of RAM and a proprietary GPU codenamed GM20B.
+
The '''[[wikipedia:Xbox (console)|Xbox]]''' is a sixth-generation console released by Microsoft on November 15, 2001. Known as the DirectXbox during development, it is notable for the specs having similarities to a PC, namely as a result of using familiar components around the [[wikipedia:x86|x86]] architecture. It had a custom Pentium III CPU at 733 MHz with 64 MB of RAM, and a custom Nvidia GPU codenamed NV2A at 233 MHz. The Xbox was often said to be the most powerful console from the sixth generation, and Sega later designed the '''[https://segaretro.org/Sega_Chihiro Chihiro arcade system]''' with the same components. It retailed at {{inflation|USD|299.99|2001}}.
  
−
While Nintendo intended to step up the security of the console, vulnerabilities were still found early on that allowed tons of system files to be dumped, including dumps of games in the form of romfs.istorage archives, an exefs folder, and license files. These game dumps eventually got shared online by scene groups except for their licenses but were missing important files to run and even if they had been completed, there were no custom homebrew apps let alone solutions to load unofficial game dumps for the system. A number of prominent hacking teams (starting with shuffle2 and fail0verflow in collaboration) all came across a new exploit independently of each other that allowed complete control over the system, later officially recognized by Nvidia as CVE-2018-6242.
+
The Xbox was a modest seller, and helped create a brand for Microsoft that would give [[Xbox 360 emulators|its successor]] a stronger market share in the west; despite Microsoft's best efforts the original Xbox and succeeding consoles from the company have never gained a foothold in Japan for various reasons.<ref name="Censored_Gaming">{{cite web|url=https://youtu.be/DmCHJmi_st4|title=Why The Xbox Failed In Japan|publisher=Youtube|accessdate=2018-07-25|date=2018-07-16}}</ref> It had a number of advantages over other sixth-gen consoles at the time; it was the only console to include a hard disk,<ref group=N>The [[PlayStation 2 emulators|PlayStation 2]] also had a hard disk accessory, but the Xbox had it built-in on all models. Consoles in the seventh generation and onward began to include internal storage in varying forms.</ref> meaning it was the first to be able to rip CDs, and it was the first and only console of the lineup to include a unified online service called Xbox Live,<ref group=N>The [[Sega Dreamcast emulators|Dreamcast]] had Sega Net in North America and Dreamarena in Europe, but Xbox Live was the same for all regions.</ref> prompting Sony to create the [[Wikipedia:PlayStation Network|PlayStation Network]] the next generation.
  
−
A "debugging emulator" for the Nintendo Switch, CageTheUnicorn (now [https://github.com/reswitched/Mephisto Mephisto]), popped up not long after the first components were dumped. It was designed to emulate sysmodules with "no support for graphics, sound, input, or any kind of even remotely performant processing [...] by design". A couple of months later, members of both the [[Citra]] and [[Dolphin]] teams announced the release of [[yuzu|their own emulator written in c++]], which was capable of booting some homebrew applications; within a couple of weeks yet another emulator named [[Ryujinx]], written in c# by developer gdkchan, was released showing successful booting of commercial Switch games Puyo Puyo Tetris and Sonic Mania.
+
Early in its lifespan, the Xbox had [[wikipedia:Xbox modding|an unusually active modding scene]] compared to the other consoles (often vindicated by the incredibly short warranty). Upon the first jailbreak by [[wikipedia:Andrew Huang (hacker)|Andrew Huang]], the scene ultimately delivered no comprehensive emulation until the mid-2010s,<ref group=N>The Xbox would have been too difficult to emulate at the time anyway as its specs often rivaled that of consumer PCs, and it was alleged that many developers received legal threats from Microsoft to dissuade them from trying.</ref> where developers have continued to have issues owing to the fact that, alongside the poorly documented hardware, many of the Xbox's games either came from Windows or were then released for Windows afterward (though it does retain a few exclusives). However, the Xbox emulation scene has been resurging with two emulators at the forefront since mid-2017. Its developers continue to say there's no competition between them, as they're both open-source and have different goals and methods.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/8ymp6n/cxbxreloaded_just_hit_v01/e2ckmpl/ JayFoxRox's statement] (representing XQEMU). Reddit (2018-07-14).</ref><ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/6mwizs/cxbx_running_xbox_dashboard_4817_with_audio/dk7jnif/ SoullessSentinel's statement] (representing Cxbx-Reloaded). Reddit (2017-07-13).</ref>
  
 
==Emulators==
 
==Emulators==
 +
:'''Note:''' [http://xboxdevwiki.net/Emulators xboxdevwiki's own list of emulators] contain over 20 different emulator projects, most of which were abandoned not long after they started. Only about 2 or 4 emulators have been making progress.
 
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
 
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
 
! scope="col"|Name
 
! scope="col"|Name
 
! scope="col"|Platform(s)
 
! scope="col"|Platform(s)
 
! scope="col"|Latest Version
 
! scope="col"|Latest Version
 +
! scope="col"|Chihiro
 
! scope="col"|<abbr title="Free/Libre and Open-Source Software">FLOSS</abbr>
 
! scope="col"|<abbr title="Free/Libre and Open-Source Software">FLOSS</abbr>
 
! scope="col"|Active
 
! scope="col"|Active
 
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]
 
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]
 
|-
 
|-
−
! colspan="6"|PC / x86
+
! scope="col" colspan="7"|PC / x86
 
|-
 
|-
−
|[[yuzu]]
+
|[[xemu]]
−
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux}}
+
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS}}
−
|[https://yuzu-emu.org/downloads/ Nightly]
+
|[https://github.com/mborgerson/xemu/releases {{XemuVer}}]
 +
|{{~}} <small>(WIP)</small>
 +
|{{✓}}
 +
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 +
|-
 +
|[[Cxbx-Reloaded]]
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
 +
|[https://cxbx-reloaded.co.uk/download git]
 +
|{{~}} <small>(WIP)</small>
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 +
|{{~}}
 
|-
 
|-
−
|[[Ryujinx]]
+
|[[XQEMU]]
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS}}
−
|[https://ryujinx.org/#/Build Nightly]
+
|[https://github.com/xqemu/xqemu git]
 +
|{{~}} <small>(WIP)</small>
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 +
|{{✗}}
 +
|{{✗}}
 +
|-
 +
|[[StrikeBox]]
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux}}
 +
|[https://github.com/StrikerX3/StrikeBox git]
 +
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 +
|{{✗}}
 +
|{{✗}}
 +
|-
 +
|[[Cxbx]]
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
 +
|[https://github.com/Echelon9/cxbx-shogun git]
 +
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 +
|{{✗}}
 +
|{{✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
−
|NSEmu
+
|[http://dxbx-emu.com/ Dxbx]
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
−
|[https://github.com/RKX1209/nsemu Git]
+
|[http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxbx/files/dxbx/ 0.5]
 +
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
−
|Mephisto
+
|[http://xenoborg-emu.blogspot.com/ Xenoborg]
−
|align=left|{{Icon|Linux|macOS}}
+
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
−
|[https://github.com/reswitched/Mephisto/releases v1.2.1], [https://github.com/reswitched/Mephisto Git]
+
|r19
 +
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
−
|CageTheUnicorn
+
|Xeon
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
 +
|[http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/xbox/xeon.html 1.0]
 +
|{{✗}}
 +
|{{✗}}
 +
|{{✗}}
 +
|{{✗}}
 +
|-
 +
|[[MAME]]
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|FreeBSD}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|FreeBSD}}
−
|[https://github.com/reswitched/CageTheUnicorn Git]
+
|[http://www.mamedev.org/release.html {{MAMEVer}}]
 +
|{{~}}
 +
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
−
|{{✗}}
 
 
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
−
!colspan="10"|Mobile / ARM
+
! scope="col" colspan="7"|Consoles
 
|-
 
|-
−
|[https://eggns.wordpress.com Egg NS]
+
|[[FU|Fusion]]
−
|align=left|{{Icon|Android}}
+
|align=left|{{Icon|360}}
−
|[https://drive.google.com/u/0/uc?id=15jYpgxZZKcstAqxZYg5_znDiXS41Shep&export=download 1.0.6]
+
|1.7
 +
|{{✗}}
 +
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 +
|-
 +
|[[Fission]]
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|XB1|SXS}}
 +
|Patch based
 +
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
 
|{{✗}}
−
|-
 
−
|[https://github.com/skyline-emu/skyline Skyline]
 
−
|align=left|{{Icon|Android}}
 
−
|[https://github.com/skyline-emu/skyline/releases 0.3]
 
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
|{{✓}}
−
|{{✗}}
 
 
|}
 
|}
  
−
;[[yuzu]] <small class="plainlinks" style="font-weight:normal;">([https://yuzu-emu.org/game compatibility])</small>
+
===Comparisons===
−
:An open-source emulator made by many of [[Citra]]'s developers. As it is a hard fork of Citra it shares many of its traits, namely cross-platform support and the use of OpenGL (though unlike Citra it also supports Vulkan). Many 2D games now render graphics properly and at good speeds; many 3D games are playable. This emulator currently offers early access builds to $5/month [[Emulators on Patreon|Patreon]] subscribers which allows them to utilize new features prior to their eventual release on the mainline build. One of yuzu's notable features is its disk-based shader cache for OpenGL, negating the need to compile shaders on the fly on every boot. uses leaked sdks
+
Since May 2017, serious strides have been happening in the Xbox emulation scene with Cxbx-Reloaded and XQEMU making major progress. Cxbx-Reloaded went in-game for ''Jet Set Radio Future'' with a somewhat decent framerate.<ref name="Bahax Emulation">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_5dIUPs0_I|title=Cxbx Reloaded - JSRF(Semi-Playable/35~60 FPS)|publisher=Youtube|accessdate=2018-05-11|date=2017-05-10}}</ref> Many more original Xbox games have been able to get in-game and, in some cases, at decent speeds on XQEMU.<ref name="Reddit">{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/6c93rg/xqemu_more_games_ingame/dhuakqc/|title=XQEMU - more games ingame|publisher=Reddit|accessdate=2017-06-11|date=2017-05-23}}</ref><ref name="JGG_3">{{cite web|url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J20hlsOUFq0 |title=XQEMU Xbox Emulator - MechAssault Ingame! |publisher=Youtube|accessdate=2018-06-23|date=2018-06-22}}</ref>
 +
 
 +
====PC====
 +
;[[xemu]]: A low-level emulator by Matt Borgerson continuing much of the work done on [[XQEMU]]. Focuses on stability, performance, and ease of use. 600+ games are reported playable, See the [https://xemu.app official game compatibility list].
 +
;[[Cxbx-Reloaded]]:A fork of [[Cxbx]] that's been having a good development momentum since mid-2016. It's built for x86_64 machines and includes a ton of improvements to its [[High/Low_level_emulation|HLE]] kernel, some from code originating in Dxbx and other related forks. While it has HLE support for the GPU and other parts (eg. audio) to make many games run fast, [https://github.com/Cxbx-Reloaded/Cxbx-Reloaded/pull/1018 XQEMU's LLE implementation was introduced] in April 2018 and is expected to help even further. 150+ games are playable and 450+ games ingame. See [https://github.com/Cxbx-Reloaded/game-compatibility/issues this compatibility list] for more information.
 +
;[[XQEMU]]: A low-level emulator based on [[QEMU]]. It can emulate the BIOS and many games at very slow speeds but is sometimes faster than Cxbx with acceptable graphics. Audio has not been tested but has been assumed to be emulated, just not forwarded to the audio hardware for some reason. See [http://xboxdevwiki.net/XQEMU this compatibility list] that was taken from John GodGames' 2015 list, and [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sVtQ9SNPathKAMCqfYtvJQP0bs0UeLzP9otPHvZDMwE/htmlview#gid=709879345 this Google spreadsheet].
 +
;[[StrikeBox]]: Beginning low-level emulator that just initializes an x86 system and runs whatever is in the ROM. Not much works for this currently. It was uploaded to GitHub on [https://github.com/StrikerX3/OpenXBOX/commit/16013a6529eec37e997cd0ad1d5495cb83456014 Dec 5, 2017] by mborgerson, a well-known XQEMU contributor who in early 2018 is still focused on streamlining XQEMU's QEMU codebase. So expect more progress from XQEMU than StrikeBox in the meantime.
 +
;[[Cxbx]]: One of the first Xbox emulators, started as an ahead-of-time compiler for Xbox executables. Can boot around 56 games, with around a dozen in an already playable state. See [http://shogun3d-cxbx.blogspot.com/2009/11/cxbx-compatibility-list-updated.html this compatibility list].
 +
:;Dxbx: A port of Cxbx to Delphi, expanded with a redesigned symbol detection engine, and many rendering improvements, a new pixel shader converter, etc.
 +
;Xeon: Can emulate Halo CE to the point where the first stage is semi-playable. The walls and ground are pitch black, and the game crashes after you complete the first stage or right after you select the difficulty on modern versions of Windows.
 +
;[[MAME]]: Existing x86 emulation in MAME has given way to an <code>xbox</code> driver... that they've marked overall as <span style="color:darkred">not working</span> and sound as unimplemented (graphics are OK though).
 +
 
 +
====Consoles====
 +
;[[FU|Fusion]]:The internal name for backwards compatibility on the [[Xbox 360 emulators|Xbox 360]]. It supports [[wikipedia:List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_with_Xbox_360|a specific list of games]] that, while some work right off the bat, may need additional patches to play properly. It also requires your console to have system storage. Some games still have issues with graphical glitches and slowdowns to errors that can make standard gameplay basically impossible. There is more information and references/video(s) about this BC support [http://xboxdevwiki.net/Xbox_360_Backward_Compatibility#References_and_links here].
 +
;[[Fission]]:The internal name for backward compatibility on the [[Xbox One emulators|Xbox One]] and [[Xbox Series X and Series S|Xbox Series X/S]]. With [[wikipedia:List_of_backward_compatible_games_for_Xbox_One#List_of_compatible_titles_from_Xbox|a smaller amount of supported games]], likely due to issues surrounding licensing,<ref group=N>Which can be a number of reasons, including but not limited to developers and publishers going defunct, movie and toy tie-in licenses for branded content expiring, and music royalties.</ref> it allows the ones that do work to run at twice the Original Xbox's standard resolution (480p) on both Xbox One (S) and Xbox Series S consoles (up to 960p), and more than quadruple on Xbox One X and Xbox Series X consoles (up to 2160p).
 +
 
 +
==Emulation issues==
 +
[[File:Xbox_looking-good.png|thumb|250px|The pratfalls of Xbox emulation]]
 +
The Xbox is infamous in the emulation scene for being the worst case of false advertising. For the projects currently available and active there's a high barrier to entry for the effort involved, and it's the same reason why consoles using off-the-shelf hardware (or reused hardware) are easier to emulate. To users, being "basically a PC" and "x86-based" is a selling point despite that not being the case as the Xbox has a number of proprietary elements that are nothing like standard PC hardware (like the eighth-gen "x86-based" consoles). Many aspects of the Xbox's architecture aren't openly documented, making it a major pain to have to figure it all out.<ref name="ngemu">{{cite web|url=http://ngemu.com/threads/why-is-xbox-emulation-premature.132032/|title=Why is XBOX emulation premature?|publisher=ngemu|accessdate=2017-05-22|date=2010-02-15}}</ref><ref name="Microsoft1">{{cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xbf3tbeh(v=vs.140).aspx|title=/LTCG (Link-time Code Generation)|publisher=Microsoft|accessdate=2017-05-22}}</ref><ref name="Microsoft2">{{cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb985904.aspx|title=Under The Hood: Link-time Code Generation|publisher=Microsoft|accessdate=2017-05-22}}</ref><ref name="FrameRater">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97mQcus7wFI|title=Xbox Emulation: The History & Roadblocks | A Documentary by FrameRater|publisher=Youtube|accessdate=2018-03-13|date=2018-03-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/6dl94y/why_is_there_a_lack_of_original_xbox_emulation/|title=Why is there a lack of Original Xbox emulation?|publisher=Reddit|accessdate=2017-06-11|date=2017-05-29}}</ref> For example the APU, one of two sound processors on the [http://xboxdevwiki.net/MCPX MCPX southbridge chip] of the Xbox chipset, is [https://github.com/JayFoxRox/xqemu-espes/pull/24 incredibly powerful and uses complex processing steps] that are difficult to figure out using clean-room reverse engineering.
  
−
;[[Ryujinx]] <small class="plainlinks" style="font-weight:normal;">([https://github.com/Ryujinx/Ryujinx-Games-List/issues compatibility])</small>
+
The good news is the efforts currently underway are starting to see real effects. While it's true that Cxbx-Reloaded will have the upper hand with a primarily HLE-based approach on Windows, XQEMU will have the advantage of going by the book. XQEMU also has the potential to tap into hardware acceleration that Cxbx-Reloaded would have to write a kernel mode driver for, and SoullessSentinel wrote "''I don't think our users would like the idea of disabling security features such as driver signature enforcement and installing an untrusted kernel driver just for an emulator.''"<ref name=accel>[https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/6a958p/cxbx_reloaded_xbox_emulator_panzer_dragoon_orta/dhetzrd/ Cxbx-Reloaded (Xbox Emulator) - Panzer Dragoon Orta (In-Game)]. Reddit (2017-05-10).</ref>
−
:An open-source emulator that's programmed in C#. Most 2D games are now booting and running at comfortable speeds and many 3D games are playable. It also supports resolution upscaling to 4K and beyond; custom upscaling/downscaling ratios are supported. Ryujinx now has a disk-based shader cache. Unlike yuzu, Ryujinx does not offer packaged early access builds; however work-in-progress features can still be tested by using Appveyor builds or building locally from unmerged pull requests. Separately, Ryujinx has released a closed source LDN-enabled preview build supporting local wireless multiplayer across the internet, as well as LAN mode compatibility on local networks with Switch consoles on supported games.
+
<!-- The Nouveau project for Linux may be of help figuring out the GeForce hardware in the Xbox{{Cite}} -->
  
−
;Skyline
+
==Chihiro==
−
:An open-source [[Compatibility layers|compatibility layer]] for ARMv8 [[Android]] devices. For the sake of convenience, the team bills the app as an emulator, but it functionally works like [[Wine]], running almost all of the original code on bare metal except for what interfaces with the rest of the system. At the moment Skyline does not have any graphical output, but some games do boot with audio only.
+
The Chihiro arcade system was produced by Sega in 2003. It consists of an Xbox motherboard (with double the RAM as with devkits) with additional boards for handling arcade I/O (Sega JVS standard). As the inner workings of the Xbox are better understood, Chihiro emulation support and accuracy will improve.
  
−
;Egg NS
+
==Resources==
−
:Claimed the first spot in getting games running on Android. 81 titles are purported to work, and the rest are either not working or assumed to fail. There is significant controversy surrounding this emulator for the following reasons: the current version lacks any onscreen buttons and instead requires users to purchase a specific controller; it expects to run on a high-end device within the ballpark of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855/855+/865/865+; it was discovered to have violated GPLv2 licensing requirements by using code from yuzu in a disallowed manner. Made by the Chinese illegal market.
+
*[http://xboxdevwiki.net/ XboxDevWiki], for Xbox hardware documentation
 +
*[https://discordapp.com/invite/26Xjx23 Xbox Emulation Discord server] (For general and development discussions on OG Xbox emulation, especially for Cxbx-Reloaded, but also XQEMU, StrikeBox, and any legacy emulators.)
  
−
==See also==
+
==Notes==
−
* [[Emulators on Switch]]
+
<references group=N />
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
−
<references />
+
{{reflist}}
−
 
−
{{Nintendo}}
 
  
 
[[Category:Consoles]]
 
[[Category:Consoles]]
−
[[Category:Handheld consoles]]
 
 
[[Category:Home consoles]]
 
[[Category:Home consoles]]
−
[[Category:Hybrid consoles]]
+
[[Category:Microsoft consoles]]
−
[[Category:Eighth-generation video game consoles]]
+
[[Category:Xbox emulators|*]]
−
[[Category:Nintendo consoles]]
+
[[Category:Sixth-generation video game consoles]]
−
[[Category:Nintendo Switch emulators|*]]
 

Revision as of 14:12, 7 August 2021

Xbox
Xbox-and-Controller-S.png
Developer Microsoft
Type Home video game console
Generation Sixth generation
Release date 2001
Discontinued 2009
Successor Xbox 360
Emulated ✓

The Xbox is a sixth-generation console released by Microsoft on November 15, 2001. Known as the DirectXbox during development, it is notable for the specs having similarities to a PC, namely as a result of using familiar components around the x86 architecture. It had a custom Pentium III CPU at 733 MHz with 64 MB of RAM, and a custom Nvidia GPU codenamed NV2A at 233 MHz. The Xbox was often said to be the most powerful console from the sixth generation, and Sega later designed the Chihiro arcade system with the same components. It retailed at $299.99.

The Xbox was a modest seller, and helped create a brand for Microsoft that would give its successor a stronger market share in the west; despite Microsoft's best efforts the original Xbox and succeeding consoles from the company have never gained a foothold in Japan for various reasons.[1] It had a number of advantages over other sixth-gen consoles at the time; it was the only console to include a hard disk,[N 1] meaning it was the first to be able to rip CDs, and it was the first and only console of the lineup to include a unified online service called Xbox Live,[N 2] prompting Sony to create the PlayStation Network the next generation.

Early in its lifespan, the Xbox had an unusually active modding scene compared to the other consoles (often vindicated by the incredibly short warranty). Upon the first jailbreak by Andrew Huang, the scene ultimately delivered no comprehensive emulation until the mid-2010s,[N 3] where developers have continued to have issues owing to the fact that, alongside the poorly documented hardware, many of the Xbox's games either came from Windows or were then released for Windows afterward (though it does retain a few exclusives). However, the Xbox emulation scene has been resurging with two emulators at the forefront since mid-2017. Its developers continue to say there's no competition between them, as they're both open-source and have different goals and methods.[2][3]

Emulators

Note: xboxdevwiki's own list of emulators contain over 20 different emulator projects, most of which were abandoned not long after they started. Only about 2 or 4 emulators have been making progress.
Name Platform(s) Latest Version Chihiro FLOSS Active Recommended
PC / x86
xemu Windows Linux macOS 0.7.120 ~ (WIP) ✓ ✓ ✓
Cxbx-Reloaded Windows git ~ (WIP) ✓ ✓ ~
XQEMU Windows Linux macOS git ~ (WIP) ✓ ✗ ✗
StrikeBox Windows Linux git ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗
Cxbx Windows git ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗
Dxbx Windows 0.5 ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗
Xenoborg Windows r19 ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗
Xeon Windows 1.0 ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
MAME Windows Linux macOS FreeBSD 0.265 ~ ✓ ✓ ✗
Consoles
Fusion Xbox 360 1.7 ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
Fission Xbox One Xbox Series X/S Patch based ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓

Comparisons

Since May 2017, serious strides have been happening in the Xbox emulation scene with Cxbx-Reloaded and XQEMU making major progress. Cxbx-Reloaded went in-game for Jet Set Radio Future with a somewhat decent framerate.[4] Many more original Xbox games have been able to get in-game and, in some cases, at decent speeds on XQEMU.[5][6]

PC

xemu
A low-level emulator by Matt Borgerson continuing much of the work done on XQEMU. Focuses on stability, performance, and ease of use. 600+ games are reported playable, See the official game compatibility list.
Cxbx-Reloaded
A fork of Cxbx that's been having a good development momentum since mid-2016. It's built for x86_64 machines and includes a ton of improvements to its HLE kernel, some from code originating in Dxbx and other related forks. While it has HLE support for the GPU and other parts (eg. audio) to make many games run fast, XQEMU's LLE implementation was introduced in April 2018 and is expected to help even further. 150+ games are playable and 450+ games ingame. See this compatibility list for more information.
XQEMU
A low-level emulator based on QEMU. It can emulate the BIOS and many games at very slow speeds but is sometimes faster than Cxbx with acceptable graphics. Audio has not been tested but has been assumed to be emulated, just not forwarded to the audio hardware for some reason. See this compatibility list that was taken from John GodGames' 2015 list, and this Google spreadsheet.
StrikeBox
Beginning low-level emulator that just initializes an x86 system and runs whatever is in the ROM. Not much works for this currently. It was uploaded to GitHub on Dec 5, 2017 by mborgerson, a well-known XQEMU contributor who in early 2018 is still focused on streamlining XQEMU's QEMU codebase. So expect more progress from XQEMU than StrikeBox in the meantime.
Cxbx
One of the first Xbox emulators, started as an ahead-of-time compiler for Xbox executables. Can boot around 56 games, with around a dozen in an already playable state. See this compatibility list.
Dxbx
A port of Cxbx to Delphi, expanded with a redesigned symbol detection engine, and many rendering improvements, a new pixel shader converter, etc.
Xeon
Can emulate Halo CE to the point where the first stage is semi-playable. The walls and ground are pitch black, and the game crashes after you complete the first stage or right after you select the difficulty on modern versions of Windows.
MAME
Existing x86 emulation in MAME has given way to an xbox driver... that they've marked overall as not working and sound as unimplemented (graphics are OK though).

Consoles

Fusion
The internal name for backwards compatibility on the Xbox 360. It supports a specific list of games that, while some work right off the bat, may need additional patches to play properly. It also requires your console to have system storage. Some games still have issues with graphical glitches and slowdowns to errors that can make standard gameplay basically impossible. There is more information and references/video(s) about this BC support here.
Fission
The internal name for backward compatibility on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. With a smaller amount of supported games, likely due to issues surrounding licensing,[N 4] it allows the ones that do work to run at twice the Original Xbox's standard resolution (480p) on both Xbox One (S) and Xbox Series S consoles (up to 960p), and more than quadruple on Xbox One X and Xbox Series X consoles (up to 2160p).

Emulation issues

The pratfalls of Xbox emulation

The Xbox is infamous in the emulation scene for being the worst case of false advertising. For the projects currently available and active there's a high barrier to entry for the effort involved, and it's the same reason why consoles using off-the-shelf hardware (or reused hardware) are easier to emulate. To users, being "basically a PC" and "x86-based" is a selling point despite that not being the case as the Xbox has a number of proprietary elements that are nothing like standard PC hardware (like the eighth-gen "x86-based" consoles). Many aspects of the Xbox's architecture aren't openly documented, making it a major pain to have to figure it all out.[7][8][9][10][11] For example the APU, one of two sound processors on the MCPX southbridge chip of the Xbox chipset, is incredibly powerful and uses complex processing steps that are difficult to figure out using clean-room reverse engineering.

The good news is the efforts currently underway are starting to see real effects. While it's true that Cxbx-Reloaded will have the upper hand with a primarily HLE-based approach on Windows, XQEMU will have the advantage of going by the book. XQEMU also has the potential to tap into hardware acceleration that Cxbx-Reloaded would have to write a kernel mode driver for, and SoullessSentinel wrote "I don't think our users would like the idea of disabling security features such as driver signature enforcement and installing an untrusted kernel driver just for an emulator."[12]

Chihiro

The Chihiro arcade system was produced by Sega in 2003. It consists of an Xbox motherboard (with double the RAM as with devkits) with additional boards for handling arcade I/O (Sega JVS standard). As the inner workings of the Xbox are better understood, Chihiro emulation support and accuracy will improve.

Resources

  • XboxDevWiki, for Xbox hardware documentation
  • Xbox Emulation Discord server (For general and development discussions on OG Xbox emulation, especially for Cxbx-Reloaded, but also XQEMU, StrikeBox, and any legacy emulators.)

Notes

  1. ↑ The PlayStation 2 also had a hard disk accessory, but the Xbox had it built-in on all models. Consoles in the seventh generation and onward began to include internal storage in varying forms.
  2. ↑ The Dreamcast had Sega Net in North America and Dreamarena in Europe, but Xbox Live was the same for all regions.
  3. ↑ The Xbox would have been too difficult to emulate at the time anyway as its specs often rivaled that of consumer PCs, and it was alleged that many developers received legal threats from Microsoft to dissuade them from trying.
  4. ↑ Which can be a number of reasons, including but not limited to developers and publishers going defunct, movie and toy tie-in licenses for branded content expiring, and music royalties.

References

  1. ↑ Why The Xbox Failed In Japan. Youtube (2018-07-16)
  2. ↑ JayFoxRox's statement (representing XQEMU). Reddit (2018-07-14).
  3. ↑ SoullessSentinel's statement (representing Cxbx-Reloaded). Reddit (2017-07-13).
  4. ↑ Cxbx Reloaded - JSRF(Semi-Playable/35~60 FPS). Youtube (2017-05-10)
  5. ↑ XQEMU - more games ingame. Reddit (2017-05-23)
  6. ↑ XQEMU Xbox Emulator - MechAssault Ingame!. Youtube (2018-06-22)
  7. ↑ Why is XBOX emulation premature?. ngemu (2010-02-15)
  8. ↑ /LTCG (Link-time Code Generation). Microsoft
  9. ↑ Under The Hood: Link-time Code Generation. Microsoft
  10. ↑ Xbox Emulation: The History & Roadblocks. Youtube (2018-03-08)
  11. ↑ Why is there a lack of Original Xbox emulation?. Reddit (2017-05-29)
  12. ↑ Cxbx-Reloaded (Xbox Emulator) - Panzer Dragoon Orta (In-Game). Reddit (2017-05-10).
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