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Microsoft Updates Xbox 360 Back Compat Again

Posted by Zonk on from the everything-old-is-new-again dept.

liquidzero4 writes "Earlier this week, Microsoft patched in another of their regular backwards compatibility updates. This one is fairly important; not only does it add a number of titles to the official back-compat list but several of the new old games are fairly popular. The likes of Panzer Dragoon ORTA, Jet Set Radio Future, Mercenaries, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Soul Calibur 2, and Star Wars Republic Commando are sure to make some 360 owners happy."

5 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Re:the true depth of microsoft's incompetence? by seebs · · Score: 2, Informative

    So far as I know, they build replacement PPC binaries for specific games. There's no general-purpose Xbox emulator; just specific code to run specific titles.

    --
    My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
  2. Soul Calibur 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Soul Calibur 2? The 360's been able to play that for a while. I brought to my friend's house to play on his 360 several months ago and it worked flawlessly.

  3. Because Microsoft didn't own the Xbox IP by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    its absolutely incomprehensible that they can't design a proper emulator for a game system they themselves released. This happened because Microsoft did not own unrestricted rights to the trade secrets, patents, and copyrights involved in the original Xbox platform. This hindered Microsoft's ability to shrink the process of the Xbox hardware, which in turn limited the room for Xbox price cuts. Microsoft did not make the same mistake with the Xbox 360.
  4. Re:the true depth of microsoft's incompetence? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I don't think that's true. When people have questioned "why did you add support for ??" The response has usually been "It was a side effect of adding support for a different title. They were so similar, that the emulation just happened to support them both."

  5. Re:the true depth of microsoft's incompetence? by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actual PS2s (new ones) can't play all PS2 games. They dropped some compatibility to be able to drop the price... ...which seems 1000x better than what Microsoft had to do. (Kill the original Xbox ASAP so they would stop losing money on it.)