The X-Box: An Emulator's Dream Platform?

Fros1y asks: "Okay, it seems like Microsoft may well make a big splash in the console market when they unroll the X-Box. With all the emulators out there, why wouldn't Microsoft expand their box's ability? If they took the new Playstation emulator and ported it for the system, they could tap a large market right off the bat. Roll in some cute NES and SNES emulators and they'd have an interesting system. Being Microsoft and all, they might even want to reverse engineer or license N64 and PSX systems. I guess there might be problems with ROM loading and such, but I'd bet that Microsoft could use their clout to license older games and put them onto a network pay system. Why wouldn't Microsoft want to pursue this kind of market strategy? Or have they already and I'm just out of the loop?" A nice thought, but Microsoft would have to play extremely nice with a lot of people to pull this one off. Thoughts?

Comments

Re:Why not the Dreamcast?

[slim]

The Dreamcast is certainly not free to develop for in any official sense. That's not to say it can't be done: details at this site. Basically, someone at Sega messed up, making it possible to burn a bootable CDR for Dreamcast. Bleem for Dreamcast took advantage of this: their product is not endorsed by Sega. Yes: MAME on Dreamcast is now (surely) a possibility.

Nobody (outside X-box product development) knows whether X-Box will be hackable in this way, but I think it's pretty safe to say they'll be sticking to the standard console business model of "if you want to develop for our console, pay us $$$ for the licenced devkit".

That's not to say that all emulators are "underground" or require illegally copied ROMs. Sega paid Steve Snake for his KGEN Genesis emulator for DOS, and packaged it together with the ROMS they own and a front-end, as a Sonic the Hedgehog collection for the PC. Sega are currently running a service called "Dream Library", where Dreamcast users can download legally licenced ROMS to play on Genesis, Master System and PC Engine emulators running on Dreamcast.
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Re:haha

[The_Messenger]

I hate to say it, but the troll is right. This site may claim to not give a shit about Microsoft, but jumps at the chance to post anything concerning them. You seem to do a fair job with other subjects, but when it comes to Microsoft, you're just an online tabloid. You'll openly attack Microsoft one day, and ruminate over their vaporware console the next. What's the deal? And why do I feel that the Rob "I can't watch Quicktime movies because I never use Windows, except for all of my games" Malda will be one of the first to own one?

If you don't care about Microsoft, don't talk about them at all. You think this is the only place on the Internet to go whine about them? Please. And so you say, "Well we can't ignore them. They're an unfortunate reality in the business world, and so to ignore them would be unrealistic." Yeah, almost as unrealistic as discussing the "possibility" (snicker) of GNU/Linux taking the desktop from Windows?

This site was better when no one was under the illusion that it's either a political force or a real news outlet.

Slashdot openly proclaims its hostility with that [mildly amusung, I'll admit] Borg icon. And all pro-Microsoft posters are flamed into oblivion. I see more anti-MS FUD in one day here than I've ever seen anti-Linux FUD in Redmond. And yet we still have those that would say, "It's news for nerds, not just news for Linux users." And then we see stories about the X-box and Windows-only games.

The FUD is going to be this movement's downfall. There's enough wrong with Microsoft; who needs to make stuff up? But every day I see more and more of this childish anti-"Windoze" attitude. When did it become so trendy to constantly talk about how much Microsoft sucks? When you installed your l337 Red Hat 6.2 distro? And why do I know that 99% of those poseurs could't even begin to discuss the technical merits of UNIX and NT kernels? But I digress. The childish attitude prompts people to say things like, "Oh, well I'm sorry, but I cannot possibly [do something on a computer] because I use Linux . <snobbish, elitist sneer>" Is that kind of attitude going to help us? No. The average luser sees that and thinks, "This guy uses some crazy, fringe OS. Apparently this OS can't do anything Windows can. And its users are mean and talk down to people." The fact that Malda, who usually rises above that crap, did this exact same thing in a story post a few days ago seems to be an omen. (Come on, Rob, you're as elite as it gets. You don't need do act that way. You should be encouraging the same mature activism that you applaud Maddog for, instead of perpetuating the snobbish-yet-amazingly-ignorant-5cr1p7-k1dd13 act. If you're willing to waste hours playing games on that Windows box, you should be willing to turn it on to see a video clip for a story post. For the amount of cash you get to run this site, you'd better be fucking willing to.)

In today's world, each and every Linux user on this site is a spokesman for our cause. Maturity and a realistic attitude, combined with a real knowledge of what makes Linux the best choice in some situations, is the only hope we have to take any real market share away from the "dreaded" Microsoft.

LOL, this is what happens when you start a rant at four in the morning. G'night.

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