Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

[Misty]

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I hear there is a patch for the XBox 360 that updates the list of original XBox games that can be played on it. But I cannot find the download anywhere on XBox Live. I have Silver account, so I don't know if that limits the access I have to certain things.

Do you know where I can find such a patch? Or am I looking in the wrong place? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much in advance!

[Goufunaki]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

You can either download it from xbox.com and burn it to a CD and place that in the 360, OR you could simply insert an original xbox game into the 360 and it will download an update automatically.

Although most of my stuff isn't compatible yet.

[Misty]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

Great, thanks! Do you think it's possible that all XBox games will share compatibility with the 360 at some point?

When Peter Moore was part of Microsoft, he downplayed any possibility of that happening and even went so far as dismiss the idea of backwards-compatibility as fleeting, which worried me.

Not that I'm going to get EVERY XBox game in existence--there might be some interesting ones that won't play on 360 that I want to get.

[Goufunaki]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

I would hope so, but since they are working on one game at a time, it'll take forever, not to mention one of my favorites in particular was recalled and forgotten by Microsoft so chances of it being compatible are none.

Kakuto Chojin. Any fan of Tobal would appreciate this rare game, even though its content is pretty minimal.

[kamekaze77]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

Knowing Microsoft, they will probably charge you 100$ for the unit to make all games compatable, then insert a virus into your system, and charge you 300$ to get it removed. Then charge you 550$ just for the heck of it. THEN you will get a malfunctioning piece of junk, which you fix for 20$, but hey, gotta make it even so they better charge you another 130$.
total=1000$ Oh, and you'll have to wait 3 years for them to come out with the software.
Not that Microsoft is ALL bad... They did come up with the xbox in the first place. And I AM using vista, which is microsoft made soooo they are okay sometimes...

[Goufunaki]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

thank god kamekaze77 was here to tell us!
It's bad enough they replace busted Xboxes for free under the warranty.

[kamekaze77]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

Hey it's true. If exagerated a bit. UNDER WARRENTY and the warrenty probably costed 100$ in the first place. Gloom there is no possible way to tell online but...was that sarcasim?

[Goufunaki]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

I have Silver account, so I don't know if that limits the access I have to certain things.

I just now noticed this part. You still show up as having Gold to me.

[Valkysas]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

kamekaze, your anti-MS ranting has no place in this topic. it is not relevant to the question Misty asked, and it's just disrupting the topic.

if you want to flame a game company, do it in a topic dedicated to it, and make sure that it's not complete BS like what you just spouted. intelligent complaints only. mindless flaming is not tolerated here.

[John Mora]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

Misty, you could just look at the backwards-compatibility list to see if any of the games you really, really want aren't in there.

[thetruecoolness]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

kamekaze, your anti-MS ranting has no place in this topic. it is not relevant to the question Misty asked, and it's just disrupting the topic.

if you want to flame a game company, do it in a topic dedicated to it, and make sure that it's not complete BS like what you just spouted. intelligent complaints only. mindless flaming is not tolerated here.

Well for a more on topic rant (though I gotta watch myself now as the company I work for is backed by Microsoft ) Microsoft doesn't seem to be big on backwards compatibility in general, as a lot of MS Office documents will typically not work in even the previous version. Then there was the whole Win2000 computers cannot see XP computers on a network and vice versa which was really stupid as they're on the same kernel. However MS has gotten better, as they now have a free download for Office to ensure compatibility with the newer formats, so there is some hope.

Of course another point to consider is emulation is never going to be perfect, and as hardware gets even more complex it's going to stray even further from that. So will every game eventually work on the 360, highly doubtful, will most, maybe. See for MS it's not cost effective for them to bother with backwards compatibility if not enough people make active complaints against it (really it hurts them a bit as a new user might buy both the original and a 360 because of this reason as most consumers are too used to having to do this). But even if they wanted to emulation is a very complicated process, and the only way to ensure a particular game will work is to test that game extensively (basically have to retest the whole game, like a developer does before release to make absolutely sure it will work).

So in conclusion, I wouldn't bet on any non popular game getting compatibility because not enough people are going to complain for MS to feel it worth a patch for that game. As for MS they've actually gotten better in some areas, but backwards compatibility is still not out of the box for them these days (though the .NET framework is changing a lot of that, hurray for Virtual Machines and abstraction).

Also, what Mora said, that's your best course of action.

[goldgecko4]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

I'll admit, they really do have the cream of the crop on the BC list. I only own two XBOX games, Fable: LC and Sonic Mega Collection, and both work without a hitch. BUT, all of my XBOX faves, including KOTOR 1 and 2, Jade Empire, Thief, and Riddick all have a home on the 360. It makes me happy on the insides.

[Jeroak Nelave]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

Actually, there are still quite a few of the great games that are not backwards compatible. They finally made Mech Assault 2 backwards compatible, but what about the original? Also, why no Odworld Strangers Wrath?

[thetruecoolness]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

Actually, there are still quite a few of the great games that are not backwards compatible. They finally made Mech Assault 2 backwards compatible, but what about the original? Also, why no Odworld Strangers Wrath?

Well I think another problem is that most games are highly optimized and so are taking full advantage of the hardware and it's specific instuction set. So because these instruction sets are by and large not standardized (and today very large), it takes a long time to try to map them to the new instruction set, and it's possible that it may not be possible to completely emulate the desired instuction so a work around would need to be established (this goes for both the CPU and GPU). Honestly emulation seems to be a crap shoot most of the time, unless you take PlayStations old approach of just putting the whole old system in the new one (though as they found out this is very costly). Of course I never got into Computer Engineering, but I know it's a lot harder to fix compatibility issues in hardware than software, given hardware is not as easily changed and reconfigurable.

[Valkysas]

Re: Uh....quick, dumb question (360 Related)

Sony's god-awful with the software emulation of the PAL region PS3. hope they get their act together by the time the US systems switch to software emulation.