Backwards Compatibility and Xbox360 HDD - The Issue

[Justin Buser]

1UP have a very interesting article on the backwards compatibility issue, and whether you will indeed need a hard-drive to play original Xbox games. With all the drama surronding this lately, it really makes you wonder why did Microsoft bother with the US$299 core package? Sure it means they can say "You can buy an Xbox360 for $299...", but is all this hassle really worth US$100? No. Lets hope they prove us wrong though and have some brilliant plan!

A lot of us have been wondering about the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility issue. Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 will be partially backwards compatible. What does that mean? Today we spoke with an industry source who shed some light on the subject.

One of the rumors floating around is that backwards compatibility will only work with a hard drive, which would have left Core systems out in the cold. As it turns out, that's only partially true. In many cases, the hard drive will indeed be necessary because you'll need an Xbox emulator file to sit on the hard drive (it's still unconfirmed whether this emulator comes pre-shipped on 360 hard drives but it is highly likely the case) and make your Xbox games 360-friendly. However, our understanding is that this isn't perfectly foolproof, and that it may not work in every single case.

What's especially interesting, though, is that select premium Xbox titles in the present and future are getting special treatment. We've learned that Microsoft is inviting some developers to make their current Xbox titles backwards compatible for both 360 SKUs -- that the games themselves will contain the Xbox 360 emulation code on them. In fact, certain Xbox titles already contain the code to boot up under emulation on the Xbox 360. Teams from Microsoft are helping developers with the project.

But resources are limited, so only triple A titles will get this kind of attention, and only products coming out in the window after the Xbox 360 announcement. Which ones? We have some hints, but nothing we can officially talk about yet. But don't worry, we're on the case.

Source: 1Up

[daniel.isaac.h]

Ok, I've been researching this for quite some time. I am very familiar with the source code of Xbox (1). I mod xboxes and such. There are a few differences in emulation. Primarily because every game is run off of the main .xbe (xbox executable). Just as in the original PS1. Anyways, what I am saying is that many games will share similiar (if not identical) emulation. Say Microsoft announces that the top 15 games will be supported. More than likely there will be a multiplying factor of about 4-10x... Microsoft themselves will not announce that since the games may not be 100% flawless. So keep your xbox 1 games folks! Microsoft will deffinately release emulation support upgrades asap. My sources say (different distributors whom have direct contact with Microsoft) we will (with a hard drive) have 97% emulation support by Spring 2006.

[Jeet]

What else besides Halo is going to be backwards compatible?

[daniel.isaac.h]

Ha! I'd imagine anything, everything Electronic Arts. Probably top RPG's. Maybe a Tom Clancy game or two...

[pApA SmerF01]

it all just depends on how much the developers want the game to be bc.

it's not that easy to emulate to a completely different architecture. the nVidia and ATI gpus are nothing alike, and need i say the same thing for the cpu's as well.

with time, patience, and a considerable knowledge of the hardware itself, we should see maybe 80% of the games playable on the 360 by next winter. that is, if everything goes as planned.

[citizen X]

Originally Posted by pApA SmerF01

it all just depends on how much the developers want the game to be bc.

it's not that easy to emulate to a completely different architecture. the nVidia and ATI gpus are nothing alike, and need i say the same thing for the cpu's as well.

with time, patience, and a considerable knowledge of the hardware itself, we should see maybe 80% of the games playable on the 360 by next winter. that is, if everything goes as planned.

yeah, that is if everything goes as planned

[pApA SmerF01]

Originally Posted by citizen X

yeah, that is if everything goes as planned

i think we're probably looking at spring 2006 for that number of xbox games to be compatible.

yeah, i agree with your , but who knows? maybe they'll actually keep on schedule for once!