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Xbox2 With Virtual PC For Backwards Compatibility
An anonymous reader writes "The next Xbox may use Virtual PC for backwards compatibility for original Xbox games. According to reports from Geek.com's Apple insider section the reason for the delay of Virtual PC 7 is because Microsoft has given it exclusively to the Xbox team. The reason hinted at: Xbox will include an IBM PowerPC 970, and current Xbox game developers are shipped G5 PowerMac."
As opposed to MAME, this emulator wouldn't need to be cycle-accurate, and all library calls can be intercepted and run natively (including the actual rendering).
The question is not how cheap the actual processor is, but how expensive it would be to integrate it into the system. PS2 does a huge hackjob of this with the PS1 processor, and it's much, much simpler than xbox.
Based on what I've seen, there's not only a size limit, there's a time limit.
First time I played Ninja Gaiden, it took a long time to load the first level; pre-caching all sorts of crap. After that, level loads are zip zip zip.
After not playing the game for several months, the first time I popped it back in...same dealie. Long load time on the first load, then zip zip zip.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
actually, the way it works, from what i've been told: the xbox loads game files onto the hd when needed, and caches them there. it saves caches for three seperate games, and when you play a fourth game, it wipes the oldest cache in favor of the newest one. (quick way to test this: when you play dead or alive 3, the first time you run it, it displays a terms of use agreement. you only see this the first time: subsequent plays don't display it again. however, if you play 3 other games, and then put doa3 in, it will display the terms agreement again (because its 'installing' again.)