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So you want to play Xbox games on the Xbox 360 huh? Well read this first
Last week I broke out my Xbox one games and tried playing them in my new Xbox 360. It said that my Xbox emulator software was at version 1.0 and I kid you not the only games that actually worked that I tried was Halo and Halo 2 . So I went online and downloaded an update to the Xbox emulator ( I don't have Xbox Live yet ), burned it to a CD and updated the software. It was pretty easy to do and it added support for several of my Xbox one games.
The Xbox one is a very very complex piece of hardware and Microsoft was not able to make a one size fits all emulation platform that would work on all games flawlessly. Emulating a piece of advanced hardware is notoriously difficult to pull off and the way that previous backwards compatible game systems handled playing older games is to have support for the older hardware in the physical design of the newer hardware. The Atari 5200, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, and the PS2 all have actual hard ware support of the previous consoles that they are compatible with. The Xbox 360 has no technological architecture lineage from the Xbox one. The Xbox one had a custom X86 CISC Pentium 3 CPU made by Intel while the Xbox 360 has a multi-core RISC PowerPC CPU based on the G5 chip. The original Xbox had a nVidia GPU based on the GeForce 3 with support for lots of custom Nvidia shaders and the Xbox 360 has a custom super powerful ATI made processor. The memory design and a hardware layout is completely different. Microsoft may have had some of the same people on the Xbox 360 team that worked on the Xbox one but they started with a clean slate technologically and there is absolutely no hardware chips that would help the Xbox one software work on the Xbox 360.
It is my personal belief that there is credible evidence to the theory that backwards compatibility was not an intended feature when the Xbox 360 was first started since it is not supported in anyway by the hardware. Now even if Microsoft could make an chip perfect emulator for the Xbox it would be so technically demanding that it would not even run on the 360. That being said the 360 is a monster with CPU power and memory to spare. The emulator that they made is more a virtual clone than a chip by chip emulation of the original Xbox. It works for some games but there is some significant short cuts and Microsoft had to license software from Nvidia in order to translate a lot of the hardware specific graphic commands made by each game to the ATI based 360 graphic hardware. A good way of thinking about Xbox emulation on the 360 is to think of it as a third party clone of an existing console. At least the Generation NEX is able to play + 96% of all my existing NES games but than again Dead or Alive 3 is a bit more complex than Super Mario Bros. 3.
When they add a game to be emulated the have to make a custom software profile for the emulator in order for the game to work.
I guess it is sort of like how arcade ROMS support for MAME need to be coded into the emulator and it sounds pretty tough since they don't have access to third party game source code so they don't exactly know the demands the game is going to make to the custom emulator. Granted now Microsoft owns Virtual PC so I know they have a x86 emulator for Power PC chips but it is way more complex than just a single CPU. There is a list of supported original Xbox games on the 360 and there have been some updates adding more in recent days but a vast majority of my Xbox one games can't be played on the 360.
It looks like they put their focus on getting the more popular 3d shooters and action games working over 2d games so If I want to play Metal Slug 3 or Samurai Showdown V I'll have to do it on my old Xbox. They made a direct attempt to support popular games and some games do look good when played back at a higher resolution on the 360.
Just about all the Xbox one games that do work on my 360 come across with some image distortion from my VGA cable and a sphere will look a bit vertically stretched. I tried all the hard ware setting but they only one that worked was to crank the resolution down to 640x480 but then I would look almost exactly the same as the original Xbox. This is a bit strange considering the different resolution use the same aspect ratio. Some people in Halo 2 looked like they had a slight banana head on my TV.
Now the real pisser is that there is no way to transfer existing save files from the Xbox one to the 360. This is a deliberate move since some hackers figured out how to get unauthorized code to work on the Xbox one via a corrupted saved game file. Microsoft did not want to open the 360 up the a similar exploit so they collectively shafted existing gamers by forcing you to start from scratch in the game if you want play it on the 360. I have several games that would work great on the 360 but I have some significant time and effort invested in the save files on my Xbox one especially since I will be playing the games on the same LCD TV and sound system just at the resolution that they were originally intended to be played at. It would have been awesome if you could hook the two Xboxen with a Ethernet cable and imported all you old saved games from one hard drive to another. Oh yeah. The Xbox backwards compatibility feature requires you to have a hard drive on your Xbox.
I really consider this more a marketing feature for the Xbox than something that I plan on using in my day to day gaming. It is a completely idea to sell you Xbox one, keep all your games and expect to play them all on your new 360. I have relegated my first Xbox to underneath my table and it now lives on the floor next to all the power cords but I still need it for about 60% of my Xbox one games.
I think that Sony is into a world of pain if they attempt to run PS2 games on the PS3 via using pure emulation of complex hardware through software. They only way they can pull it off is by putting the chips from the PSTwo into the PS3. If they don't there is going to be a MASSIVE uproar by gamers when they figure out that the dozen PS2 games they have don't exactly work on their brand new $600 PS3 when they are so used to having PSOne games work flawlessly on the PS2.
I would improve Xbox backwards compatibility by :
1.Adding more 2d games to the list. They can't be that graphically complex.
2.Add a saved game transfer system so you could import saved games off an old Xbox. While you are at it a music import feature would be killer so you could rescue the tracks off the old Xbox HD without having to rip a CD again. I got rid of all my music CDs so I am stuck playing my music off my iPod.
3.Save different resolution settings so Xbox one games would automatically playback at a favorable resolution
4.Make a Xbox one to USB adapter so you could use existing driving wheels, light guns and arcade sticks when playing Xbox games on the 360.
Now despite all the bitching this is perfect for gamers that have never owned an Xbox one and want some additional cheap games to play on their Xbox 360. There is only a handful of good 360 games worth buying and a long list of Xbox one games that you can get pretty cheaply at any good used game store. But print out a list of the games that are supported and bring it with you to the store because if you stick an unsupported Xbox one game in it will give you an error message and not even make an attempt to run it in the emulator.
Games of mine that did work :
Halo
Halo 2
Metal of Honor : Allied Assault
Metal of Honor : Rising Sun
Fable : The Lost Chapters (Some sound glitches but still good)
Starwars : Battlefront 2
Starwars : Battlefront
Half-Life 2
Dead or Alive 3
Grand Theft Auto 3
Crimson Skies
And the games that did not work:
Blinx the Time Sweeper
Blinx the Time Sweeper 2
Tenchu Return from Darkness
Jet Set Radio Future
Shenmue 2
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Crazy Taxi 3
Dead or Alive Ultimate
Destroy All Humans
Metal Slug 3
SNK Vs Capcom SVC Chaos
Starwars Republic Commando
Starwars The Clone Wars
Samurai Showdown V
Project Gotham Racing 2
Sega GT 2002
Jake at August 31, 2006 
Games
Comments
Instead of having music take up space on your xbox hd, you can stream it from your computer using software on xbox.com. Its pretty dope.
Posted by: JasonF at August 31, 2006 8:14 PM
But you either need a windows PC, a Mac with 360 connect software, an ethernet cord connecting the two or a hundred buck wifi adaptor for the 360. I am just going to stick with my iPod.
Posted by: Jacob Metcalf ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.8bitjoystick.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 31, 2006 10:14 PM
Hey Jake, you CAN transfer gamesaves to your 360 from your Xbox1. It takes some third party hardware from Datel that lets you transfer your Xbox 360 gamesaves to your PC, an the original Xbox version.
http://us.codejunkies.com/news_reviews.asp?c=US&cr=USD&cs=$&r=0&l=1&p=10&i=9014&s=8
There you go.
Posted by: shotgunsteve at September 1, 2006 2:22 AM
Oh yeah good point, I neglected the fact that you had to download the update and burn it to cd meaning that your 360 isn't hooked up to the internet. You should hook it up to live once though and use it to download some demos, I swear I've played demos of stuff more then actual games.
Posted by: JasonF at September 1, 2006 1:53 PM
Check out this article Jake:
http://games.kikizo.com/news/200605/155_p2.asp
Posted by: Boyd at September 1, 2006 2:51 PM
My buddy told me that when he played Halo 1 in his 360, he saw some cut scenes that he never saw on the xbox 1. Did you notice any of that going on?
Excellent article by the way.
Posted by: Shawn L at September 1, 2006 5:47 PM
Halo 1 was made years before the 360 was even on the drawing board. I have not heard of extra stuff on Halo 1 on the 360.
I need to get DSL at my new place and then I will be down with Xbox Live so very much.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at September 5, 2006 1:34 PM
I will simply throw a tantrum if my beloved Street Fighter Aniversary Edition refuses to load up on my xbox 360 when I buy one next month.
Has anyone tried this title yet?
Posted by: dondonkat at October 6, 2006 3:18 PM
None of the Street Fighter games for Xbox 1 work on the 360. I am sorry to tell you but if your Xbox 1 games is not on the list it simply will not work in the 360.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm
Posted by: Jacob Metcalf at October 6, 2006 3:52 PM
so does anyone know if soul calibur 2 will work as well?
Posted by: stripes at November 3, 2006 2:14 PM
Soul Calibur 2 for Xbox is not on the list and it will not work as of now.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm
Posted by: Jacob Metcalf at November 3, 2006 2:35 PM
Soul calibur 2 works now on the 360.
I know it does because I tried it already.
so enjoy
Posted by: Kanevel at January 8, 2007 10:43 AM
I WANT TO USE IT FOR STORING GAMES ON MY PC
Posted by: micheal at May 6, 2007 12:32 PM
Just thought I would let you know that I have an X360 and a PS3 and have tryed old games on BOTH systems...So far ALL the old games have played on the PS3 WITHOUT having to upload any new software. I can't say the same for my X360.
Posted by: Tim at September 20, 2007 7:43 AM
So... I heard of burning "updates" onto a disk then installing them onto the 360 so that more than 5 of the 298347 xbox 1 games I own will work, instead of paying to download them from ripoff live, not to mention upgrading my HDD to accomodate the never ending list of titles that just DON'T WORK.
~Frustratedly yours~
Dan the Mad Gamer
Posted by: D3a6n0 at November 25, 2007 3:48 PM
