Slashdot Mirror
Next-Gen Xbox To Lack Backwards Compatibility?
An anonymous reader writes "Biz news site Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Microsoft's Xbox 2 won't be backward compatible with games for the current Xbox, and quoting 'sources close to Microsoft's senior Xbox executives' explaining some of the thinking behind the decision. All very cloak and dagger, although I guess whoever told them would probably be in line for a firing if they found out... So, is Microsoft right or wrong on this one? Have any Slashdot readers ever actually used the backwards compatibility on their PlayStation 2?"
I think I've played more PS1 games on my PS2 than normal PS2 games.
Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
We probably have a 50/50 mix of PS1/PS2 games. The old ones were left-overs from the long since dead PS1. My son regulary pulls out some of the old RPG games (and PS1 memory card). Still running just fine and now on the 2'nd PS2!
Backward compatability was and still is a huge selling point for the Playstation 2.
-- Rick
Believe it when you see it in the stores or are holding an official MS press release. Until then, this is all speculation.
They won't run XBox 1 games of the new XBox, but the dev kits for the new XBox run off a modded windows NT kernel that runs off a G5
No man, it's a different CPU endian since they're going PPC instead of Intel for XB2. They'd need to emulate an x86 CPU to get the XB1 game bytecode to run on the XB2. That's fine for normal proggies but for graphics instensive, CPU optimized code like games, it would take a hell of a lot of CPU horse power to make the games enjoyable under an emulator.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
SMS: First gen.
Genesis: Not backward compatible.
Actually, there was an adapter that you could buy to make the Genesis backwards compatible. It isn't exactly the same thing as out of the box backwards compatibility, but I don't recall the adapter being very expensive.
I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person that I'm preaching to.
But the third one is the most popular series of "consoles" of all time and the grandaddy of all backwards-compatibility: the Game Boy. The GBA and the GB Player for the GameCube can play almost all Game Boy games going back to 1989. Pretty impressive, and a huge selling point, IMHO. I think Sony is modeling their console plans on Nintendo's handheld strategy - and it works. I play PS1 and PS2 games on my PS2 regularly. Now if Nintendo can follow that course for the GC's successor...
To get back to the Xbox, however: I believe that Xbox Next will be fundamentally flawed if it does not allow backwards-compatibility. I don't currently own an Xbox, but if there were a few games I had to have on a Xbox Next, I might buy one of those if I could pick up the three or four Xbox games I want. However, if I can't go backwards... then there is nothing that could compel me to buy either the Xbox or the Xbox Next... except for Shenmue III (if it ever happens).
They don't even share endianess
Actually, any PowerPC chip can run in big-endian or little-endian. The reason is, back in the PReP days (then CHRP), PPC was supposed to be The Chip to use for All Operating Systems, as AIX, Solaris, NT, Apple's Copland, and most importantly, Taligent, were supposed to be able to run all on one computer (one box). Ah, those were the days. Computing was expected to have a very different future.
Pre-G5, PPC chips had instructions to convert between big and little endian data or something, or maybe address different endian data. This is why Virtual PC for G5s doesn't exist yet; G5s are missing endian-related instructions that are used by current versions of VPC.
Moderators should have to take a reading comprehension test.
Other Consoles that were backwards compatible in some form or another:
...
Genesis (played Master System games, with attachment that cost as much as a master system)
Game Boy Pocket/Color/Advance
Game Gear (played Master System games, with cheap attachment)
Nomad (played Genesis games)
N64 (played SNES / NES games, with 3rd party attachment)
Turbo Duo (Played normal TurboGraphix 16 and CD games)
Turbo Express Portable (played normal TG16 games)
It doesn't look like there have been enough backwards-compatible systems to say whether or not it is a blessing or a curse to system sales. It is true that the backwards compatibility of the Genesis saddled it with using the Z80 as a sound processor, which created that trademark Genesis thuddy, explody sound. Backwards compatibility in the PS2 added greatly to the complexity of programming for it, but it looks like it was the right move for the system. The Game Boy has always been helped by backwards compatibility, though the great simplicity of the system makes this less of a chore. As few people (on these shores) had a Turbo Graphix or a Sega Master System, the benefits of backwards compatibility on the Genesis and the Duo was minimal.
The moral of the story seems to be if you have a successful system, make it backwards compatible. Is the XBox successful enough to warrant that tradeoff?
The ______ Agenda