Xbox emulators

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Revision as of 04:51, 10 July 2016 by Cleaner (talk | contribs) (expanded the word devs and made instances of Nvidia match case)
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The Xbox console and controller

The Xbox is a 6th generation console produced by Microsoft in 2001. Known originally as the DirectXbox, this console is notable for essentially being a PC, as a result of using components from both Intel and Nvidia, as well as being x86-based. It is the most powerful console from the 6th Generation.

Emulators

PC
Name Operating System(s) Latest Version Active Recommended
Cxbx Windows Git
XQEMU Windows, Linux, OS X Git
Dxbx Windows 0.5
Xenoborg Windows r19
Xeon Windows 1.0
Consoles
Name Operating System(s) Latest Version Active Recommended
Xbox 360 Xbox 360 Patch based

Comparisons

  • Cxbx can boot around 61 games, with around a dozen in a playable state (List)
  • XQEMU is an LLE emulator which is gradually advancing. As of now, it can emulate the BIOS and many games at very slow speeds.
  • 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 first stage (or right after you select the difficulty on modern versions of Windows.)

Consoles

  • The Xbox 360 is backwards compatible, but it is not fully accurate. While some games work off the bat, many need patches downloaded to play properly. This requires one's Xbox 360 to have system storage. Even then there are still issues with many games from graphical glitches and slowdown to errors that can make gameplay impossible.

Emulation issues

Due to a lack of interest, or in some case very toxic behavior or potential legal threats towards developers, the Xbox emulation scene has remained dormant until recently.

There is a high barrier to entry for the effort involved: emulating a complex (and partially undocumented) x86 CPU from scratch, undocumented Nvidia graphical and sound components (the Nouveau project for Linux may be of help, but the GeForce architecture is notoriously complicated), and obscure BIOS for each hardware revision posing problems with many things, including video rendering (More). Progress is beginning to pick up, though.