News MS warns over Xbox One backwards compatibility hoax

Not that architecture differences are a real barrier to backwards compatibility, of course. The original Xbox used a modified Pentium architecture, while the Xbox 360 used Power; didn't stop the Xbox 360 from being backwards compatible with a hand-picked selection of the most popular Xbox games. See also the original European PS3; yes, the original US model cheated by sticking an Emotion Engine processor in there, but the European model did limited backwards compatibility entirely in software despite a move to the Power architecture from MIPS.

Interesting fact about that: the Master System adapter for the Mega Drive/Genesis was purely a mechanical adapter to make the cartridges fit the slot; the reason the Mega Drive could play Master System games without difficulty is because it had the same Z80 processor as its predecessor. The difference? Where the Master System used the Z80 as its central processor, the Mega Drive used it to drive the audio subsystem. Just think about that for a minute. The Mega Drive launched just two years after the Master System, but was so much more powerful it was using its predecessor's processor just for sound. When you plugged in a Master System cartridge via the adapter, the Mega Drive disabled its own CPU and booted the cart from the Z80.

To put that into perspective, imagine if two years after the Xbox 360 launched Microsoft released the Xbox One with its shiny new chip and the original Xenon processor just for surround sound processing. Mind-boggling, right?

Other systems that have boasted backwards compatibility over the years yet haven't appeared on your list include the Game Boy series right through to the Nintendo DS and DS Lite which could play Game Boy Advance games and the 3DS's ability to play DS and DSi games, the Atari 7800 which could play pretty much every Atari 2600 game ever released, the Commodore 128 which included a special Commodore 64 mode (accessible by typing GO64 at C128 BASIC, or holding down the chicken-head key on power-on) to make sure everything worked just fine, the Neo Geo Pocket Color [sic], the Atari XEGS, the Sega SG-1000 Mark III and arguably the Sega Master System II, the Atari Jaguar II, and the Nintendo Famicom Twin. If that's not enough, the Tristar (also known as the Super-8) allowed NES games to run on the SNES, and Nintendo itself released an official Game Boy adapter for the Game Cube. Oh, and there was an add-on for plugging Master System games into a Game Gear - although that was more sideways compatibility than backwards compatibility. Then there was the Tristar 64, for adding SNES and NES compatibility to the Nintendo 64...

 

I used the backwards compatibility of my Xbox 360 quite heavily - still do, in fact. Every time there was a list update, I'd print it out and go through my collection marking the games that had been added with a 'B' in permanent marker on the disc. I'm still angry about claims that Silent Hill 4: The Room is backwards compatible, as there are horrific texture glitches in every single cutscene which render it almost entirely unplayable.

Yes, you can keep the last-generation console - providing you've got room under your TV, a spare input on the TV and sound system, don't mind cluttering up the place with numerous controllers for different boxes, and don't need to sell it to raise cash for its replacement. I have a PS2 under my PS3 for that very reason - although I couldn't do the same if I were to buy a PS4, 'cos the PS3 has a rounded top. Cheers for that, Sony. There are, however, advantages to backwards compatibility. I find the Xbox 360 pad more comfortable than the Xbox pad - so playing my Xbox games using the Xbox 360 pad feels a lot nicer, and they're wireless to boot; original Xbox games running on the Xbox 360 also benefit from anti-aliasing to improve graphical fidelity over their original release.

Let me put it this way: if the Xbox One offered backwards compatibility with the Xbox 360, I would probably already have upgraded. As it is, I won't be even thinking about that until the January 2015 sales - and even then it'll depend heavily on how much the launch games now cost and whether there's actually anything worth justifying the cost of the console to play.