Xbox emulators

From Emulation General Wiki
Revision as of 21:30, 25 June 2015 by 198.91.182.245 (talk)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
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 was the most powerful console released in the 6th generation.

Emulators

PC
Name Operating System(s) Latest Version Active Recommended
Cxbx Windows Git
Dxbx Windows 0.5
Xenoborg Windows r19
XQEMU Windows, Linux, OS X Git
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)
  • 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

  • Xbox 360 is backwards compatible, but it is not 100% like the Wii is with the GameCube. While some work off the bat, some need patches downloaded and 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 devs, the Xbox emulation scene is almost dormant at the moment.

Compounded to this is the high level 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) There's progress nevertheless, but it's very slow.

References