XQEMU
| Developer(s) | espes (Project maintainer), mborgerson, JayFoxRox, lufix, wayo |
|---|---|
| Latest version | N/A |
| Active | Yes |
| Platform(s) | Windows Linux macOS |
| 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 (since QEMU itself is a low-level emulator), 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 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
Like QEMU, XQEMU does not come with a GUI and needs a separate frontend wrapper for GUI features.
- XQEMU-Frontend by Voxel9 (Builds available)
- XQEMURun by illwieckz (More advanced but does not compile builds.)
Overview
XQEMU is at a very early stage right now, so much so that they explain "the intended user is a developer who is capable of acquiring the necessary ROM images, and compiling the project from sources."[1] Quite a lot of games can run on XQEMU, but its focus on accuracy means there hasn't been much (if any) focus on speed, so the games that work are very slow. A theoretical integration of KVM could speed up performance, but it would only be usable on Linux.
mborgerson has, since March 24, 2018,[2] begun work on rebasing XQEMU on the latest QEMU tag, "[bringing] many years of performance enhancements to xqemu including support for native virtualization APIs."[3] 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
External links
- Upcoming official XQEMU branch re-based on latest QEMU tag (3D graphics not running yet)
- Wiki for developers (Official branch)
- Wiki for developers (JayFoxRox's branch)
- Wiki for Xbox hardware documentation (JayFoxRox and one admin from CXBX-R's game issues repo, CakeLancelot are among the contributors)
- Official freenode IRC chat channel
- Official Discord chat channel (For discussions on Xbox emulation development)
