Xbox 360 backwards compatibility is crap

Gaming — 05 December 2005

I love backwards compatibility in consoles. It allows me to sell my old console (for next to nothing — thanks Julie!). It allows me to clear up clutter in my already crowded TV stand. And most importantly, it gives my new console some games for me to play when I grow weary of the launch titles.

So I was happy to hear the XBox 360 was going to support XBox games. Some of them (read Halo) would supposedly even run better and in high definition!

However, I’ve been trying to play through Fable, a Microsoft Game Studios game. Sure this game never lived up to its potential, but it’s damn fun.

You would think Microsoft’s new system, which is supposedly 8 times as powerful as the original could run one of Microsoft’s biggest titles on the old XBox. However, Fable runs mediocre at best on the XBox 360.

The game is extremely choppy and has locked up on me several times. In the 5+ hours I played it on my old XBox, I never encountered one lockup. This time around, several.

I guess when you switch architectures from the x86 to PowerPC, you can never hope for true backwards compatibility. I was just hoping that emulation would work on this powerhouse of a machine. Owell, I’ll take the crappy lockups and overall choppiness over playing most of the Xbox 360 launch titles.

Until Fable 2 comes out for the XBox 360, just make sure you save often and keep your XBox well ventilated!

About Author

Christen Costa

Grew up back East, got sick of the cold and headed West. Since I was small I have been pushing buttons - both electronic and human. With an insatiable need for tech I thought "why not start a blog focusing on technology, and use my dislikes and likes to post on gadgets."

Anonymous

You’re right, the 360 is a total POS!!! You should sell it straight away.. I’ll give you like $50 for it right now.
http://www.blogger.com/profile/12310067 Eric

Hah, how about $1000 and we got a deal. Actually if you read my other posts, I love the XBox 360! I just think this backwards comptability was hacked in.
Anonymous

MS has planned to release patches for games to run under the emulation. I am sure its low on their priority list. I don’t agree with that if it is the case as I fell it should have been done already, however it is MS and you know how they are.

My point.. they will probably have a patch for it some time in the net 6-12 months. (I hope)
http://www.blogger.com/profile/3714408 SuperRob

“I just think this backwards comptability was hacked in.”

Actually, by definition, it was hacked in. It’s really rather miraculous that they got it working at all.
http://www.blogger.com/profile/12310067 Eric

Technically, since it’s emulation and not true backwards compatability, you’re right, it is a hack. I suppose I should have learned something with this Computer Engineering degree.
Anonymous

The backwards compatibility requires XBOX Live GOLD in order to download a patch for each Original XBOX Game…look before you leap children!

~number76~
Anonymous

You can view the official xbox 360 backwards compatibility list here
Anonymous

“The backwards compatibility requires XBOX Live GOLD in order to download a patch for each Original XBOX Game…look before you leap children!”

Not true see here for all your options
http://www.blogger.com/profile/4908837 hackand

PPC to x86 emulation has always been crappy. The one that did it best was Connectix with VPC, that was still very crappy, in fact, it couldn’t emulate video hardware, so you couldn’t run 3D games on it. Heck, you could barely run Windows on it. So MS bought Connectix probably to implement the emulation technology from VPC into the Xbox 360 and developed video hardware emulation _themselves_, so, it is to expect that any game for the Xbox will run like sh*t on the 360 due to the extremely crappy emulation.
http://geoffers.uni.cc/ Geoffrey Sneddon

Hell, it isn’t even emulation. They’re manually porting each game to PPC, and then recompiling them.
http://www.blogger.com/profile/12310067 Eric

“The backwards compatibility requires XBOX Live GOLD in order to download a patch for each Original XBOX Game…look before you leap children!”

Cute. Actually I have XBox Live and have kept the thing patched.
Anonymous

wha? that doesn’t make sense. You should be able to play your OLD games (not ported) on the Xboz 360.
Anonymous

I liked the gameplay on fable but thougth it was buggy on the original XBOX as well. Darker scenes always revealed a funky mosaic pattern laid lightly over the graphics.
Anonymous

Thing is, its not just the old games that crash. My mate had props with Project Gotham 3 and Perfect dark Zero. Eventually, his GFX card/chipset died. So that was replaced and now PGR3 runs BUT perfect Dark Zero still keeps crashing.

Thats after downloading ALL the patches for the games and the OS.

As for NEEDING Xboxlive Gold. I think you’ll find PATCHES are available with limited Xboxlive membership. It’s extra levels and cars and characters and stuff like that that required higher membership. Reguardless… why should you need ANY memebership? FFS you’ve paid for the latest consol. You’ve paid for the game. and NOW you have to pay for the patches or the right to download them?

The gaming industry is changing people… and not in a nice way :(
http://xbox360 brandon

I thaught that you could play regular xbox games on xbox 360 but you either have to buy the disk or donload it. I thaught you could just put the xbox game in and play it sucks :(
cody

dude, thats why i liked the PS2 better you could play PS1 games on it without anything but the game and the system why couldent MS do that?
Steven

What many fail to realise is the fact that the Xbox 360 is only the second of Microsofts gaming consoles. Therefore many of the game consoles features are still in their infancy and will be developed and released in the form of patches through Xbox Live.
CARLOS MENCIA

WHAT STEVEN FAILS TO REALIZE IS THE 360 IS THEIR SECOND CONSOLE AND THEY ARE NOT IN INFANCY… IT IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL COMPANIES IN THE WORLD WITH SOME OF THE BRIGHTEST MINDS… WHY COULDN’T THEY DO IT…
INCLUDE AN ORIGINAL XBOX OPERATING SYSTEM ON A ROM CHIP OR EVEN IN THE HARD DRIVE… IT IS A SOFTWARE THING…
WETHER X86 OR POWERPC.. IT IS A SOFTWARE PROBLEM..
WINDOWS CAN BE MADE TO RUN ON A POWERPC WITH WINDOWS GAMES SO CAN XBOX OPERATING SYSTEM..
IT WAS RUSHED TO MARKET AND A BIG MISTAKE…
NOW TO AVOID FILLING UP 12GB USEABLE SPACE WITH 2-4GB OF SOFTWARE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN PUT ON A ROM CHIP FOR UNDER $50. WE ARE STUCK DOWNLOADING PATCHES ONE AT A TIME… WITH 6 MONTHS WAIT IN BETWEEN TO ADD A FEW GAMES IN EACH UPDATE…
IT COULD HAVE BEEN SOLVED MUCH SOONER AND WITH LESS WORK. THEY WANTED MONEY NOW… AND THE JUMPSTART SO THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO PLAY CATCHUP AGAIN..
IT WOULD BE SIMPLE… EXPECIALLY FOR THEM…

ALSO THE PS2 WAS SONYS SECOND CONSOLE AND BACKWARDS COMPATABILTIY WAS NEAR FLAWLESS…
OH RIGHT “INFANCY”… SONY’S HAD MORE YEARS MAKING CONSOLES…?
WHATEVER THAT’S HORSE SHIT…
PLAYSTATION LAUNCH December 3, 1994
PS2 LAUNCH MARCH 4 2000
= JUST OVER 5 YEARS…
XBOX LAUNCH NOV 15 2001
XBOX 360 LAUNCH NOV 22 2005
= 4 YEARS…
NOT A HUGE DIFFERENCE…
BESIDE TECHNOLOGY WAS BETTER FOR THEM AND SHOULD HAVE HAD VAST ACHEIVEMENTS MUCH FASTER BY THEN…
SHUT UP YOU KNOW NOTHING…
FUCKING MORON
labrat

Calm down Carlos Mencia.

Easy Tiger!
shaun

any way of downloaing a patch for the chronicels of riddick so i can play on my 360???
w0ot

maybe u guys should stop complaining and be thankful for what u have.
travis

can anyone send me the url to download the backward compatibility software. i need to put it on a cd
travis

can anyone send me the url to download the backward compatibility software. i need to put it on a cd
my email is dhspitcher10@hotmail.com
Patrick

Backward compatible games aren’t that much chop anyway. They look a little weird and sound awful. (Forza sounds abysmal). The games I have that are suported, got tried once and then put away. For good. Besides they feel cheap and old compared to what is available now. Anyway that’s just my opinion.
El Moncho

Pee Pee.

What it comes down to is this…you should get what you pay for. MS is all about that, do not doubt it!!!!!
Matthew

What I fail to understand is how Microsoft claims to support “top selling” game titles from the original Xbox. Explain to me then why Barbie Horse Adventures is a supported backwards compatible game, while games like X-Men Legends 1 and 2, NBA Live 2005, and NHL 2K5 are still unplayable on the 360? I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that any of those games sold a thousand to one more copies than Barbie Horse Adventure did. Unless a lot of you secretly bought that game for some bizarre reason?
Eric

I remember reading once that the problem Microsoft ran into with backwards compatibility is that they had other companies design hardware parts for the XBox. When it came time to for the 360, they didn’t own the rights to put they necessary hardware into the system for backwards compatibility.
smacca

so were do u get the backward compatibility download from?
MickeyMontana

Has anyone else attempted to burn the Backwards Compatible software to a disc and when they put it in their XBOX360 it sad that it is a Mixed Data disc and it would not read.
Navarone

What you have to remember is the fact that the xbox & 360 have different OS’s so compatibility can be difficult.
anonymous

Anyone have link I can download the stuff to burn to disc to upgrade my 360 to run Fable? I cant find it anywhere
Savage

It says I require a HardDrive to play games, I dont have an arcade, how come it wont just accept a normal xbox disc instead apparently I have to buy some shitty rip off the wii points card to download this game, download it, burn it to a disc then just pray that it still doesnt require a harddrive; the console has just been updated. Theyre just fucking greedy lazy bastards and it pisses me off.
Womby72

can u get the original fable on 360