Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming: Xbox 360 backwards compatibility

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Xbox 360 backwards compatibility

UPDATE: A ton of new games have been added or updated on the backwards (frontwards? Did they miss a marketing opportunity?) list on 08.28.2006.

This is huge. The "Emulation Ninjas" are earning their Scooby Snacks.

The full list of backwards compatible titles is available at the link below:

Original Xbox Games Playable on Xbox 360

Updates on 08.28.2006:

Aggressive Inline
Aquaman: Battle of Atlantis
All Star Baseball 2003
All Star Baseball 2005
Burnout 3: Takedown
Catwoman
Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart UPDATED
Counter Strike
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Dead to Rights
Digimon Rumble Arena 2 UPDATED
ESPN Major League Baseball
Fatal Frame 2
Ford vs. Chevy UPDATED
Freaky Flyers
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows
Tom Clancy´s Ghost Recon - Island Thunder
Half Life 2 UPDATED
The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer UPDATED
IndyCar Series 2005
Kabuki Warrior UPDATED
Lego Star Wars II
Links 2004
Magatama UPDATED
Maximum Chase
Mortal Kombat: Deception UPDATED
MTX: Mototrax Featuring Travis Pastrana
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection
MX vs. ATV Unleashed
Outlaw Tennis
Over the Hedge
Sid Meier's Pirates
Richard Burns Rally
Rogue Trooper
Serious Sam
Shincho Mahjong
Smashing Drive
Sneakers UPDATED
Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run
The Legend of Spyro: A Beginning
TAZ: Wanted
True Crime Streets of LA
The Suffering
Trigger Man
Torino Winter Olympics 2006
Vietcong
Wrath Unleashed
X-Men II: Wolverine's Revenge

PREVIOUS: BLACK, Star Wars Battlefront II, and World Soccer Winning Eleven 9 have are now playable on the Xbox 360.

Original Xbox Games Playable on Xbox 360 (Xbox.com)

PREVIOUS: Seven Tom Clancy Xbox titles are now playable on Xbox 360.

"Seven Tom Clancy Xbox Titles Now Playable on Xbox 360" (TeamXbox)

PREVIOUS: Microsoft has finally released the initial list of backwards-compatible titles -- and it's a surprisingly big list (roughly 200 titles).

For those that haven't been keeping up, the "backwards compatibility issue" is born out of Microsoft switching the GPU from nVIDIA in the original Xbox to ATI for the Xbox 360.

This means backwards compatibility has to be done with software emulation, which required Microsoft building the emulator, certifying games, working out the kinks, etc. I've gotta think this is a huge technical feat, so props to the bright bulbs over at Microsoft.

Even cooler? According to Todd Holmdahl (Corporate VP of the Xbox Product Group), "Every original Xbox game will be upscaled to 720p and 1080i, and will take advantage of Xbox 360’s anti-aliasing capabilities, delivering a picture that is clearer and crisper than anything available on Xbox."

Also, Holmdahl said backwards compatible titles will be playable between Xbox and Xbox 360 (though he didn't say if this was just over Xbox Live, or system linked).

And in answer to the question, "How far back into the Xbox game library are you going to go?" he said, "When we say Xbox library, we mean the entire Xbox library. This ranges all the way from our launch in 2001 up to games that haven't even shipped yet." (I cannot wait until Black on Xbox 360.)

Downsides? You will need a hard drive for backwards compatibility (come on, what jokers are getting "Core systems"? Don't buy into Microsoft's bad decision). Also, current-gen Xbox Live Arcade titles won't be compatible on the 360. But the new version looks to be amazing -- with titles like Midway's original Gauntlet and Joust playable over Xbox 360 Live.

The offline emulators for Halo and Halo 2 will be shipped on the Xbox 360 hard drive. Other emulators (and Xbox Live support for the Halo franchise) can be downloaded over Live, downloaded from a PC and burned on a CD, or ordered from Microsoft

The full list of backwards compatible titles is available below:

Original Xbox Games Playable on Xbox 360

The Bungie article about Halo and Halo 2 support on the Xbox 360 is available here:

Bungie Weekly Update: November 11th, 2005

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Xbox 360 backwards compatibility

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