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Microsoft Clarifies Backward Compatibility Stance
kukyfrope writes "Peter Moore, Head of Interactive Entertainment at Microsoft, has clarified previous comments about gamers not being concerned with backward compatibility on the Xbox 360, claiming his words were 'misconstrued' and reiterating Microsoft's goal to make every Xbox game backward compatible. 'It's quite simply not that we don't care about backward compat[ibility]. Boy, do we care about backward compat[ibility]... We're going to get darn close to that stated goal of every title done,' Moore promised."
I hope they're working on some universal code that will support a bunch of games with one release. This nickel-dime approach will have them finished with the library in about 2037.
Meantime, tons of popular XBox games (Platinum Hits) aren't supported on the 360. As far as native games go, if I don't want to have a chick fight, drive, or play a sport, I don't have much reason to turn on my 360 at all.
Either one would please me: extensive backwards compatibility or a worthwhile native library. Right now the 360 offers neither. I just hope one or the other happens before I get bored with Burnout.
I don't need large brains to have a good time.
All my old Xbox games should be playable on the Xbox 360 by 2015..... maybe
That, and large parts of the classic Xbox architecture are patented by NVIDIA, which is unwilling to license them to Microsoft for use in an ATI based console at any price short of 51 percent of market cap. Besides, do you see working PS2, GameCube, or Xbox emulators on modern PCs? Emulation generally needs a gap of two console generations to work well, outside of special cases that can be high-level-emulated. Microsoft's goal in Xbox-on-360 emulation is to make each game such a special case.
I mean, the most important game on the list has backwards compatibility already.
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Major Nelson's interview of Peter Moore said that they were essentially looking to provide more updates in the next week, and that two of the new titles for backCompat would be Lego Star Wars and Doom 3. There will be about 20 titles in this update.
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Is the snes really comparable to an Xbox? The super nintendo had very limited hardware and it still took a good while for a decent emulator to come along. We're 15 years out of the release of the SNES now and there are still some things that the best emulators don't do (see Wikipedia on Snes9x). The Xbox is more complex and the games work in quirky ways that make a catch-all solution impossible. That's why you hear about Sony considering putting actual PS2 hardware in the PS3 rather than going the emulation route...
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wtf? mame developers and such are not pirates. Gotta love those tar brushes. You stocked up on feathers?
The mere fact that games are being handled on a case by case basis implies that it is a re-engineering of the original code to produce a new port of the game.
Similar to the Linux ports of Doom and stuff (port the engine, use the graphics from the original disc)
liqbase
So, to clarify the clarification...
What he meant was that they weren't worried about BC.
What people thought he meant was that they don't care about BC.
If it ain't broke, it needs more features!
Besides, do you see working PS2, GameCube, or Xbox emulators on modern PCs?
Yes.
The compatability isn't there, but unlike Microsoft, unofficial emulator developers don't have specs and have to reverse engineer things. The speed is there though. Your generation generalization is really not a factor this time, since processor speeds grew by a signifigantly higher factor than they did during any previous console generation.
I think you would probably be surprised how few special cases Microsoft has in their Xbox emulator. Xbox just isn't that powerful or complex by today's standards, and the 360 is really well suited to emulating it. The troubles they are having with emulation right now are probably because they took a bunch of high-level shortcuts to get the product done quickly, and now they are busy replacing that code with general purpose code that accuratly provides low level emulation.
spoken like someone who doesn't own a 360. If you read up on the whole BC thing, you'll find that most games ARE special cases, which is why the emulation list is 200 some games long whereas the list of xbox titles is closer to the 600-800 title range...
In fairness, the core of the SNES has been well emulated for years; the problem's long been with the various support chips that came on the game cartridges themselves. At least with the Xbox you know what hardware's in there and that the games aren't being supplied with different hardware to emulate.
But barbie horse adventures and kabuki warriors are backwards compatible! It's true!