Xbox Backwards Compatibilty Explained

Hardware issues will prevent use of existing games..Apparently according to the article it sounds like the new Xbox 360 will not technically be backwards compatible:

http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=8741

Don't particularly trust that site, but their logic makes sense.

I figured that Microsoft would put out an emulator of some sort, or just put a "Oops, sorry" kind of warning with the console. I guess putting in a stripped down nVidia GPU is too pricey...

Which is too bad.
Halo 2 all accelerated probably wouldn't do that weird rendering draw thing in the cinematics.

Backwards compatibility.. every gamers dream, every manufacturer's nightmare.

NVIDIA > ATI wrapper is too difficult i think to have 100% compatibility... meh... I'll be using XBOX1 for sometime anyway. I've played through maybe 1/3 of my games

That backwards compatibility is garbage... You have to get new games that a recompiled. Yeah, like 2 copies of Halo 2 are going to do me any good. They might as well rerelease it with enhanced graphics.

Originally Posted by snapcracklepop

That backwards compatibility is garbage... You have to get new games that a recompiled. Yeah, like 2 copies of Halo 2 are going to do me any good. They might as well rerelease it with enhanced graphics.

No, you do not need to recompile your Xbox games

Ok, lets stop this right now. There is some serious wrong information floating around, so I need to clear this up. I grabbed my favorite PR dudes, and they are saying what I was telling a few of you in email:

Were not sure where this came from, and is incorrect. At launch, Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with the top Xbox games. Our goal is to have every Xbox game work on Xbox 360. You will NOT need to purchase a new version  your original games will work on Xbox 360.

http://majornelson.com/

Originally Posted by jerryhussain

No, you do not need to recompile your Xbox games

Ok, lets stop this right now. There is some serious wrong information floating around, so I need to clear this up. I grabbed my favorite PR dudes, and they are saying what I was telling a few of you in email:

Were not sure where this came from, and is incorrect. At launch, Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with the top Xbox games. Our goal is to have every Xbox game work on Xbox 360. You will NOT need to purchase a new version  your original games will work on Xbox 360.

http://majornelson.com/

Your source seems extreamly bias to say the least...

Originally Posted by snapcracklepop

Your source seems extreamly bias to say the least...

Biased or not, GameSpot squashed the "recompiling" rumor in their latest rumor control. GamesIndustry.biz has been spreading many such rumors lately.

Originally Posted by jerryhussain

Biased or not, GameSpot squashed the "recompiling" rumor in their latest rumor control. GamesIndustry.biz has been spreading many such rumors lately.

source?

Originally Posted by snapcracklepop

source?

http://gamespot.com/news/2005/05/20/news_6126204.html

Look how Gamespot takes repeated shots at GamesIndustry.biz for spreading these false rumors.

major nelson works for xbox.com...

Microsoft, themselves, said that Xbox 360 would be backward compatible for a large majority of the games during their press conference. The suggestion that games needed to be recompiled is just plain silly and the inherent ignorance of this statement says a lot for the person that first mentioned this and the people that continue to propagate it. The emulation will likely be software or a combination of hardware and software. Any Nvidia specific operations will be processed by an ATI wrapper.

The Xbox 360 and ATI GPU can easily emulate an Xbox via software emulation alone. The reason why Microsoft didn't promise 100% backwards compatibility is because some developers deviated form the Xbox best practices development guidelines and they know this. If Xbox games are bypassing Xbox API's and hitting the hardware directly, then compatibility is the responsibility of the developer, not Microsoft.

I would think that Nvida would put up a stink if their GPU would be emulated in the new XBOX 360. I can see that if you are doing it via software then maybe technically MS can avoid a lawsuit, but either way Nvida will put up a stink.

I do not know if XBOX 360 has the Horse Power to run xbox games without any special recompilation or patch, unless microsoft initially designed the xbox 360 with compatability in mind.

I guess a good indication of Xbox 360s ability to software emulate XBOX can be seen with MAC software for windows emulation. Basically you are using a PowerPC architechture to emulate an intel architechture, I think today at best you can run windows at the speed of maybe a P3 500, so P3 700 Mhz of XBOX should be easily achievable with the XBOX 360 CPU, but you also gotta emulate the GPU ontop of that so my guess is that at best the XBOX 360 would be barely able to fully software emulate XBOX. If you threw in some hardware then it should be no problem, but I do not think that MS will be able to implement anything on a hardware level for Nvida emulation or Nvida would sue. SO my guess is this, XBOX CPU emulation would be a combo of hardware and software, the XBOX GPU would be only software.

Originally Posted by toalan

I would think that Nvida would put up a stink if their GPU would be emulated in the new XBOX 360. I can see that if you are doing it via software then maybe technically MS can avoid a lawsuit, but either way Nvida will put up a stink.

I do not know if XBOX 360 has the Horse Power to run xbox games without any special recompilation or patch, unless microsoft initially designed the xbox 360 with compatability in mind.

Who said anything about emulating the Nvidia GPU? Xbox games use directX to render graphics. All calls to the directX API will now be handled by the ATI GPU that will perform that exact same function - this is called abstraction and as long as you use the API your dependency on the type of hardware used becomes irrelevant. Do PC games developed using the directX API (and what PC game isn't nowadays) care about whether you have an Nvidia or ATI graphics card? Of course not, as long as your graphics card and drivers support the directX specification than the game should run fine.

The problem with this Xbox backward compatibility issue is that we have people, who know nothing about software engineering or development, trying to fathom how it's going to work. They should stick to what they do best and review console games and not try and figure out how their games work.