Xbox Backwards Compatibilty Explained

[BoxsterS]

I guess a good indication of Xbox 360s ability to software emulate XBOX can be seen with MAC software for windows emulation. Basically you are using a PowerPC architechture to emulate an intel architechture, I think today at best you can run windows at the speed of maybe a P3 500, so P3 700 Mhz of XBOX should be easily achievable with the XBOX 360 CPU, but you also gotta emulate the GPU ontop of that so my guess is that at best the XBOX 360 would be barely able to fully software emulate XBOX. If you threw in some hardware then it should be no problem, but I do not think that MS will be able to implement anything on a hardware level for Nvida emulation or Nvida would sue. SO my guess is this, XBOX CPU emulation would be a combo of hardware and software, the XBOX GPU would be only software.

No it's not a good indication. The Xbox 360 has a PowerPC chip with 3 CPU cores, each running at 3.2 Ghz, which you neglected to take into condsideration. Are you telling my a 3 core CPU would have trouble emulating a 700 Mhz Intel CPU? As for the GPU issue, I think I've already explained the procedure that will be used.

[toalan]

I am gonna take the 3 cores with a grain of salt. I have no experience with anything that has more than 1 core, AMD or intel has yet to release a real dual core processor to the masses yet. But I agree that on paper the XBOX 360 will have the ability to emulate a P3 700. My only experience with anything a resembles more than 1 core is hyperthreading and it really was not all that it was hyped up to be. 3 cores could mean alot of things, maybe not all 3 cores are equal.

I am sure MS implemented a directx like API for graphics but since it never had to deal with compatability with other GPUs maybe they cut some corners and let the developers direct access to the hardware for some things. I mean abstraction is nice and all if you are looking for consistentcy across many platforms but when you only have 1 target platform maybe consistency gives way to practicality.

If the XBOX was so Directx compliant and therefore as easy to develop for as a PC title, it begs the question why only a few PC titles are ported over to XBOX, the one thing xbox lacks is quality RPGs something that PCs seem to have an abundance of. If you look at a game like DOOM3 which was released by ID for PC, it took ID like 8 months to release the xbox version and even then they had to get another developer to do the work.

[Nacster]

An article from gamesradar states that the XBOX 360 may not play all Xbox games and that the full compatability issue is in doubt..Below I have copied and pasted the article and included the actual Link below:

[23/05/05 12:33]
Full backwards compatibility in doubt

While Microsoft has said that Xbox 360 will be capable of playing 'top' titles for the original Xbox, the next-gen machine may not be fully backwards compatible, it has emerged.

"At launch, Xbox 360 will be backwards compatible with the top Xbox games," wrote Xbox Live boss Larry Hryb on his blog recently.

However, Hryb doesn't go as far as to say that all Xbox games will work on Xbox 360, saying only that this is Microsoft's "goal".

"Our goal is to have every Xbox game work on Xbox 360. You will not need to purchase a new 'version' - your original games will work on Xbox 360."

The problem seems to be that Xbox 360 will run an Xbox emulator as opposed to running Xbox games off embedded hardware, which means that some games could catch out the emulator - and hence wouldn't work.

We'll bring you further details and clarification on this as soon as we have it.


http://gamesradar.msn.co.uk/news/def...sectionid=1586

[JayPatel]

From TeamXBOX

Now that it's been announced at E3, I can finally reveal that the Xbox 360 feature I work on is... Xbox backwards compatibility!

With those words, Michael Brundage, a software engineer at Microsoft, kicked off this week’s update on his blog, finally revealing his latest assignment at the Xbox division. He first discusses the project and explains why it is so special:

Xbox backwards compatibility is a unique project in so many ways, and I feel very fortunate to get to work on it. I'm sure it will be the hardest technical challenge of my career -- I can't imagine what could possibly top it in terms of sheer technical difficulty.

Then Brundage explains why the project represents such a challenge from a technical perspective:

For example, some people observe the CPU and GPU architectures are utterly different between the Xbox 360 and the Xbox, and then speculate about the difficulties those differences pose for emulation. Without really understanding anything that's involved, they're already convinced that backwards compatibility is a difficult task.

Lastly, Brundage paints a more detailed picture of what it will take to make backward compatibility a reality:

Finallly, there are a very few people who understand both Xbox systems inside and out to an expert level of detail that I'm not about to go into here. They perform more sophisticated calculations using the Art of Software Engineering, but ultimately reach the same conclusions as those not skilled in the Art: Backwards compatibility is impossible. One such skeptic interviewed me for my current job, and pointedly asked during the interview how I planned to handle the project's certain future cancellation. And yet, here it is. It's magic!

This is part of what makes working at Microsoft so much fun -- the opportunity to work on magical projects and do the impossible. It's a lot of hard work, of course, but the challenge makes it fun.

We'll have more on Xbox backward compatibility as it becomes available.

[_pOtEnZa_]

with nintendoi announcing free dl for the nes, snes and n64 system and sony announcing it will play games from ps2 and ps1 i dont know how microsoft, witch released there xbox the last of the 3 and now coming out the quicket cant even make their machine compatible, that just plain sucks, i guess ill use it as a dvd player lol

[Nacster]

An interesting article on the MICROSOFT compatability issues and Pricing for the Xbox 360:

http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.as...d=9761&filter=