News Microsoft: Backwards compatibility is backwards

I can't speak for XBOX emulators since the last console I've owned was a Super Nintendo(and for handhelds a GBA), but I do have SNES, NES and Gameboy/GB Advance emulators and run some of those games from time to time on my PC. Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Fire Emblem, and Advance Wars series being the most run. As for older PC games, I finally managed to download a recompiled executable of Lords of the Realm II that would allow me to run it on Windows 7. The only game I haven't spent enough time finding a workaround for is EVO 2 4x4. For that, I just fire up my Vista rig.

So backwards compatibility is important to some folks, especially since my NES ultimately died about 15 years ago. SNES still worked last time I hooked it up, but it's in a box somewhere packed away. If I had an XBOX that RROD'd on me, I would definitely prefer that the new XBOX be able to play my older games.

EDIT @yslen: Heroes of Might and Magic III was awesome. Around Christmas time last year I picked up a nice Steam bundle for HMMV + expansions and HMMVI along with Clash of Heroes.

 

I've never understand why people take issue with this. As has already been stated, if you have a large collection of previous-gen games then you will own the previous-gen console to play them on...so play them on it :/

In other news, the MP3 player I bought doesn't play vinyl. Crazy huh?

 

Fixed that for you.

I think it would be possible to emulate a 360 on a high end PC rig. Given that we have motherboards that will take dual hex core CPUs with multiple CUDA compatible graphics cards installed I don't believe the barrier is technical.

But...

The hardware required is way too high end. The time to work out the kinks too long. The profit not there. The brains needed to get it working too interested in more serious endeavours. The risks of having certain titles a little glitchy (no doubt due to subtle timing differences)

And the demand is simply not big enough to make it worth it.

All damn good reasons and none of them technical.

 

I agree with them, backward compatibility is not necessary. People don't spend £400 on a new Xbox One to play Xbox 360 games. If you want to do that, just keep your Xbox 360.

 

That's a bit different though, isn't it. Manufacturers still make turntables - you don't have to scour the second-hand market for a way to play vinyl (and vinyl is still produced)...

 

********. There is no decent emulator even for the original Xbox (cxbx, dxbx and Xeon haven't been updated for years). There are DEFINITELY no functional 360 emulators (though a lot of poorly disguised scams pretending to be one).[/QUOTE]

I stand corrected on that then, I just remembered seeing them back when I had my P4 laptop which was a while ago !

 

To translate on-the-fly and in real-time (and not **** up anything based on fine inter-chip timing) PowerPC instructions to x86 instructions for a triple-core 3GHz system? A mere 6-core server isn't going to cut it, you're looking deep into HPC territory. It would be easier and cheaper to actually build a PowerPC based system than to try and do it on even multiple x86 machines.

The P4 was released half a decade before the 360 even existed!

 

I can see one major reason for offering backwards compatibility. A lot of people are saying "you have a 360, why not keep it around to play your 360 games?" the answer: Reliability. Not everyone has one of the newer units (I'm still running an Elite) the older ones have developed a reputation for overheating and when the older models finally go it will be harder to replace it if they're no longer being sold.

 

Even the elite isn't immune to the rrod ; mine recently went that way 3 years out of warranty. The new slim ones don't take the old hdd, so I'm stuck in limbo of deciding between writing the whole thing off, reflowing it, or getting a second hand one with no guarantees that it'll last longer than 10mins.

 

But it's not good business, MS have paid their dues and fines for the RROD issues, why would they pay more to allow their loyal users to play older games on a new reliable system (thats yet to be prooven)

 

Off topic, can't you take the HDD out of the old caddy, it's just a 2.5" drive which is what the slim takes

 

If you want to play xbox 360 games, you use your xbox 360. They'll be ten-a-penny once the new console is out anyway.

I really don't see what the big deal is....

 

You missed my point. I'm not disagreeing on the compatibility point - as you say, if you want to play 360 games, get a 360. What I was getting at was the fact that turntables aren't obsolete and out of production, but 360 consoles will be!

 

... I must be the only person who still has a working launch model 360...

 

I had one for years, until I got burgled and it was taken. It might still be going, though - heaven knows who's got it (and all of my game saves)

 

I have a xenon model used for offline gaming, think I have another but the DVD drive laser is dead

 

IF

 

Final fantasy 6-10, time crysis 1-3 (on ps2), speed freaks, crash team racing, project eden, GTA. On PC half life, deus ex, doom, system shock..... Who's backward? Some of those games are Gems compared to todays turd, others hold nostalgia or a challange that isnt seen today.

 

people have wierd memorys, Sony did not do backwards compat on the uk ps3 there was an uproar on forums like this about it, Now Microsoft does it, its not big deal and go deal with it. Wierd how some fokes memory works i guess.

I must of rebrought Final Fantasy 7 3 times due to lack of backwards compat.