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Xbox Emulator Plays Retail Game

Ryan M. Pamplin writes "The critically acclaimed Xbox Emulator, CXBX, has made its way into Xbox history. Caustik has announced that "Turok Evolution" is now playable at real-time speed with comparable graphics to the Xbox while utilizing nearly the same graphics hardware found within the Xbox itself. The development of CXBX will continue to advance at rapid pace. Expect many additional titles to become playable upon the release of the next binary in the near future. A DivX video, binary, and GPL'ed source is available at the website."

13 of 379 comments (clear)

  1. Piracy concerns by Space+cowboy · · Score: 4, Interesting


    With the games possibly (depending on how good the emulator gets..) now having a far wider audience, there'll be a far larger demand for P2P downloads. I wonder if the MS anti-piracy protection will be up to the job - it certainly seems pretty simple to run games on 'modded' xboxes - I wonder if they've been depending on the fact that the games are designed for the console only to protect them from rampant copying...

    And I bet that new releases will have to pass an internal 'breaks the emulator' test before they're let out into the wild (it'll only mean the emulator has to cope with the differences, of course...)

    Simon.

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
    1. Re:Piracy concerns by lazuli42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I thought I remembered Microsoft having plans to make streamed games available via XBox Live. Also, Yahoo has some type of games service where you can download and 'rent' the game.

      If the future of video games is streaming then piracy of this sort will only be a temporary problem. When you get your games on demand things will change significantly.

      In fact, you could almost still have an install disk with 99% of the game's resources on it and only stream watermarked and timestamped libraries once the game gets ready to execute.

      --

      "There's companies that are just so cool that you just can't even deal with it," - Bill Gates, about Google

    2. Re:Piracy concerns by WNight · · Score: 4, Interesting

      God you're an idiot. Sorry for the flame, but your post just screams it. You just don't see the problem with the way the world would be if we all played along like the sheep you think we should be.

      Just because a way of reading a disk may violate a law that your country may have does not mean that a whole activity is illegal.

      As far as the law in my jurisdiction is concerned, that disk is just a collection of copyrighted ones and zeros. I can do anything to it that doesn't involve another copy, except in such a way as is required to use the product.

      Note though that the game company doesn't get to dictate the use, the courts do. Microsoft may say that the intended use it for an XBox only but the courts have struck down similar product-tying restrictions for a long time. Ford isn't allowed to require you to use Ford tires, or tie your warranty to your using Ford tires. And while Ford could encrypt the radio's output signal so only Ford radios worked with the stock speakers, they couldn't stop anyone else from reverse engineering the encryption, and producing a radio that would work with Ford's 'protected' speakers.

      I'm sure this pissed off Microsoft, and Ford, but really, why should we care? We pay them a fair price (they set it, we choose to agree) to purchase a product. Why should they get control over future use of that product just because it comes on a CD instead of being a tangible product like a chair? Why is there this assumption that a piece of paper in the box that you don't get to see until a legal sale is finalized is some kind of binding contract?

      Fuck man, open your eyes!

    3. Re:Piracy concerns by daveashcroft · · Score: 0, Interesting

      In your jurisdiction yes, but you americans have to realise that there is a world with different laws outside your borders. And besides what you have been led to believe as you grew up, the USA is not necessarily the greatest (and thus most "correct") country in the world.

      [end of firefighter anti-flame]

  2. And surely... by Tuxedo+Jack · · Score: 4, Interesting

    MS is going to pull the DMCA on this as soon as we get done with their server.

    Talk about misery loving company.

    --

    Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
  3. It would be cool if it did by daveodukeo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Run on the xbox itself.... it could serve as a nice piece of game backup software - you could back up your games and play with the back up copy using the emulator on your box!

  4. Re:Microsoft's gonna be mad! by WormholeFiend · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If Microsoft actually released an approved Xbox emulator, it could have a win-win situation...

    Sure, there would be some piracy, but I think there's still a big market for Xbox games and PC users who dont want consoles.

  5. Re:Piracy concerns and other lawsuits.... by August_zero · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Really though if you think about it, they are doing microsoft a favor. MS loses a lot of money on every x-box sale. If people can buy the games without having to buy the system MS still makes money from the game sales and doesn't have to offset the $100 or so they lose per unit.

    Of course a lot of people that use this, will be using it in order to also copy and download x-box titles without paying for them. It's that group of idiots that give the entire emulation scene a really bad name.

    --
    On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
  6. Why didn't Microsoft do this themselves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Why didn't microsoft do this themselves, they keep saying that the money comes from games, not hardware, where they lose money on each unit sold. Also, we know that the hardware inside the Xbox is essentially a PC, dumbed down. If they sell a cheap emulator, they can reap money from games sold, plus they could have the copy-protection built in. This project can circumvent that. MS really dropped the ball here.

  7. Re:Microsoft's gonna be mad! by WormholeFiend · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Because with Xbox games, the same game can be sold to two different kind of people:
    The PC owner, and
    The Console owner.

    Whereas at the moment, no PC owner will buy an Xbox game if he doesnt also own a console.

    One development cost for two different platforms = huge savings.

  8. Re:Halo by gl4ss · · Score: 2, Interesting

    actually I'm waiting for it..

    because the fuckers left coop out of the pc version.

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  9. XBox Architecture? by Inhibit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You mean reverse engineer Pentium 4 and GeForce support... wait a minute.. that doesn't sound right :).

    It's actually running (as you stated) X86 architecture hardware, so reverse engineering a compatability layer for the hardware is, erm, not really an issue. Unless you're using a Power5 chip, I suppose.

    --
    You're reading Slashdot. Of course you like Linux and pc hardware
  10. How to feel good about buying an Xbox by vikool · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One Xbox costs Microsoft about four hundred dollars to build. This does not include marketing, development and other business costs. Currently, you can go to any store and buy an Xbox for about two hundred dollars. So, if you go buy an Xbox, its somewhat equivalent to stealing two hundred dollars from Microsoft.