Microsoft Announces Xbox one Backwards Compatibility, Even Servers

[Psykomantis00]

AFAIK, the Xbox One's OS hasn't been cracked open, has it? I haven't followed that side of things, but yea if they did then you'd have a PPC emulator already written in x86 ready to go, which would be pretty awesome all things considered. 

No idea. I haven't followed console news at all this gen. I sold my xbox one a couple weeks ago after playing it literally 4 times to gamestop for store credit... Jokes on them though, I bought steam gift cards. 

[DeViLzzz]

What is also cool is you can use features like screenshots and other stuff with the Xbox 360 games too on Xbox One so you are getting some new things to do with your games from the last generation console.

[Lazmarr]

Xbox 360 is based off PPC. Xbox One is x86. I'll remind you that PCs STILL don't have proper PPC emulation for the 360, so MS doing it right off the Xbox One is pretty awesome. 

What black magic/space sorcery is this? Like how have they managed it?

[NAP51DMustang]

and how long has nintendo been doing this?

Since the Wii. Carts aren't BC-able

[patrickjp93]

Hopefully someone will crack it and we can get a real emulator for 360 games. 

It's too bad I'm not interested in it. The base instruction set itself is not difficult and has probably been done. The tough part is the offloading macros to send things to the GPU and the CELL processors themselves and the numerous variations thereof.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Since the Wii. Carts aren't BC-able

they were on the handhelds though

[patrickjp93]

What black magic/space sorcery is this? Like how have they managed it?

The same way Sun built a JVM in an actual CPU. It's nothing more than a matter of understanding the rules. Once you know the ISA and all relevant commands for the environment, you just create a program which takes in the byte codes from the game and translates them before calling equivalent functions on your native machine. That's how all virtual machines work.

[Alurit]

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/backward-compatibility?xr=shellnav

it's a pity that it's only 21 at the moment

[niofalpha]

I'm gonna sell my 360 now since I have no reason to have it...

 

Not that iv'e played my consoles in the last 4 months...

[Nowak]

Before more of you complain about how it took two years for this to happen, remember that the Xbox One is based on x86-64 while the Xbox 360 was based on PowerPC. They're in the same situation they were in with Xbox 360 backwards compatibility, wherein the original Xbox was x86 while the Xbox 360 was PPC and had to rely on x86 emulation to achieve backwards compatibility, only this time they have to rely on PPC emulation instead of x86 emulation.

[The Gaige]

Well there goes my 360 to Gamestop to tried in!

[Psykomantis00]

It's too bad I'm not interested in it. The base instruction set itself is not difficult and has probably been done. The tough part is the offloading macros to send things to the GPU and the CELL processors themselves and the numerous variations thereof.

I'm not either, but being able to say "me too" to console peasantry is always great. 

[skywake]

and how long has nintendo been doing this?

Every home console since the Wii and every portable since the GBC. Also if you include the VC service, which isn't exhaustive but it is there, it goes back further than just one generation. On the 3DS you can play 3DS, DS, GBC, GB, GameGear and NES games. On the Wii U you can play Wii U, Wii, N64, SNES, NES and GBA games. It's not perfect, the Wii U is missing Gamecube and the 3DS misses out on GBA. Likely for technical reasons. But it ain't bad.

 

That said, PC backwards compatibility puts them all to shame

[Albatross]

So wait...it doesn't mean I can put a 360 game in but means I can put a XboxOne game in to play with the 360 people right?

 

I hope they still do something like this for PC.

[Dabombinable]

Hmmm, either buy a 360-which can be softmodded/upgraded (though you need to be absolutely sure that you've got everything 100% correct for your Xbox), or buy an Xbone that plays all 360 games (and was primarily aimed at TV)-and which I've got utterly no clue on how to softmod or upgrade.

[JAKEBAB]

Does anyone know if these games will be ported or are emulated by the xbox? Im guessing ported since it only uses the disc as verification that you own the game then downloads a digital copy.

[GeathX]

The latter voids the warranty though

 

upgrading the ps4 hard drive voids the warrenty?

[qwertywarrior]

Xbox 360 is based off PPC. Xbox One is x86. I'll remind you that PCs STILL don't have proper PPC emulation for the 360, so MS doing it right off the Xbox One is pretty awesome.

I highly doubt its emulation . I believe these are ports since it downloads you a digital copy if u have a disk

[patrickjp93]

I highly doubt its emulation . I believe these are ports since it downloads you a digital copy if u have a disk

To have backwards compatibility with the same existing files/disks requires emulation.

[Slinkey]

Just copying and pasting my post from the other thread.

 

I don't think they should be praised for something which should be in consoles from the very start.

 

And reintroducing it as a feature is terrible. So many games I have for my PS2 and PS3, which I cannot play on my PS4. They want me to rebuy it for a newer console? Just keep all my consoles connected at all times? Heck no.

[Dabombinable]

Just copying and pasting my post from the other thread.

 

I don't think they should be praised for something which should be in consoles from the very start.

 

And reintroducing it as a feature is terrible. So many games I have for my PS2 and PS3, which I cannot play on my PS4. They want me to rebuy it for a newer console? Just keep all my consoles connected at all times? Heck no.

Honestly just play the games that give you the most amount of fun on the console that works best. I straight up said 'FU' to Microsoft when they expected me to re-buy games so I could play them on the newer console when I'd already spent over $1000 on my Original Xbox (which is still going all of these years later with its 'shit' thompson drive outlasting 2 samsung spares - softmodding and upgrading the HDD helps too)

[Slinkey]

All my consoles still work, but I play various games, I have this spontaneous urges to play DBZ, MGS, Spyro and Crashbandicoot. But I also sometimes want to play games which were released during PS3, Uncharted and God of War.

I cannot have all of them connected at the same time. TV is used by my PS4 and PC and no place to keep more consoles hooked up.

[M156]

Just copying and pasting my post from the other thread.

I don't think they should be praised for something which should be in consoles from the very start.

And reintroducing it as a feature is terrible. So many games I have for my PS2 and PS3, which I cannot play on my PS4. They want me to rebuy it for a newer console? Just keep all my consoles connected at all times? Heck no.

I hope you understand why this wasn't available at launch. Backwards compatibility via software is HARD and intensive. Sure, MS could've done hardware but would you want to pay another 150-200 for a One? Cause Sony basically put a PS2 into a PS3 to get the backwards compatibility they had.

The PS4 will NEVER have this kind of support outside of their paid subscription service. Cell is a pain to work with and I'm sure most developers are fucking thrilled they never have to touch it again.

[ShadowCaptain]

All my consoles still work, but I play various games, I have this spontaneous urges to play DBZ, MGS, Spyro and Crashbandicoot. But I also sometimes want to play games which were released during PS3, Uncharted and God of War.

I cannot have all of them connected at the same time. TV is used by my PS4 and PC and no place to keep more consoles hooked up.

 

Get a nice TV cabinet and store all your consoles in it

[Trik'Stari]

I think TotalBiscuit nailed E3 on the head.

 

Only good news this year was Fallout 4.