Xbox Emulators

The Xbox is a console system that runs hardware on a modified x86. From that little information, one could assume that writing an emulator would be easy. Actually the case is opposite and many homemade applications and other game emulators run on the Xbox.

The legalities of video game ROMs and emulators is a topic that's always in hot debate. Remember that the only way to be safe is to stick to independently developed games/apps and only emulate games that you already own. Otherwise, any game you emulate must be deleted within 24 hours. Homebrew applications, that is, anything not sold commercially for a profit, are the only exception to this.

Xeon is a freeware program that is around 1 MB to download. It only runs one commercial game right now and that is Halo. Unfortunately, it plays very roughly. It’s still under development and is predicted to be the best running Xbox emulator application very soon. If you want to run this program, the following specifications are recommended for your computer:

• Windows XP
• Latest Direct X. Anything old will freeze your computer or cause a lots of slowdown.
• Pentium 4, minimum 2.0 Ghz
• 1024 MB RAM (insane, isn’t it?)
• GeForce FX or Radeon 9200 Pro video cards.

This was the first Xbox emulator to be released. It is also freeware at around 120 kb. Not really an emulator by definition, Cxbx takes the Xbox executable file and converts it into a Windows executable. Cxbx also uses techniques that Project64 and UltraHLE incorporate when it comes to High Level Emulation (hence the HLE in UltraHLE). The means higher speed and accuracy when it comes to running games.

Turok is the only game that can fully run at the moment. There are still missing pixels and the water effects are poor, but everything else runs smooth. Panzer Dragoon Orta was the latest project of the Cxbx programmers. Some homebrew applications (X-marbles) run very well on the Cxbx and the latest updates added Joystick support. Oh yeah, I like bukkake.

Since the Xbox is a partially modified Windows 2000-based system, it is only made to play games. Take that technology and increase the amount of work it would have to do by 100,000 times and you've got your computer. The two emulators drain a PC system's power. You need top of the line computer systems to run one of them well. Anything less will cause jerkiness in the application, slowdown of your computer, or maybe even freeze the computer.

Xeon, even though it taxes system like no other program, is thought to be the best emulator of those out there because of it’s capabilities. Running Halo on the computer using the Xbox technology is pretty neat. And besides, if you were to emulate a game, wouldn’t you want it to be Halo?

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