http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilityqa.htm

I love how they act like this a MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH despite it being just plain annoying.

I wanted to play Panzer Dragoon ;-;;

Well, they said they'll keep updating.

Considering that Burnout 3 and Spider-man 2 aren't on that list, i'd say it's not complete.

I'm surprised that Futurama and Robotech: Battlecry, two pretty niche Xbox games, are on there =/

The list seems rather random to me, titles that should be in there aren't and titles that shouldn't be there are.

I highly doubt that this will be the final list.

But there's one thing I don't understand, all the XboX games are programmed the same way, then why is there a specific list and why will the XboX 360 be only backwards compatible with those titles? Since they are programmed the same way, shouldn't all XboX games be playable on the 360? Or am I asking a stupid question or am I missing something?

But there's one thing I don't understand, all the XboX games are programmed the same way, then why is there a specific list and why will the XboX 360 be only backwards compatible with those titles? Since they are programmed the same way, shouldn't all XboX games be playable on the 360? Or am I asking a stupid question or am I missing something?

There are substantial differences between the Xbox and Xbox360 architecture - the Xbox is a single core x86 processor, while the 360 is a multi-core PowerPC processor.

The real problem lies with the graphics chip - the X360 uses an ATI chip, while the original Xbox used a nVidia chip. Microsoft had two choices - pay a large royalty AND hardware costs to put an Xbox nVidia chip in the new machine as well as the ATI one, or just spend the royalty and emulate the nVidia chip.

Microsoft went the emulation route, and individual emulation routines had to be written for each game (or each game engine i'm assuming). This means that you have to have a HD if you want backwards compatibility - you need to store the emulation software.

The benefit of this is that some developers (like Bungie) are taking this oppurtunity to slightly 'upgrade' their games. Halo and Halo 2 for instance are getting a resolution increase, and improved anti-aliasing.

Ahh, thanks for clearing that up for me, because I was interrested in maybe getting a XboX 360 in favor of a PS3, but I wanted to know about the backwards compatability before I'd make my defenate choice.

Metal Arms!!
can some techhead confirm the loss of the v synch(tearing)? :x

Metal Arms!!
can some techhead confirm the loss of the v synch(tearing)? :x

If you can show me the article where you heard that, I can tell you if it's bullshit or not =/

...also, would Metal Arms be THAT great a loss?

If you can show me the article where you heard that, I can tell you if it's bullshit or not

i didnt hear it anywhere
i just hope out loud :m


...also, would Metal Arms be THAT great a loss?
well to me it obviously would
i bought it 2 years ago and still play it regularly
both versions are camped with some problems

the gamecube version is great as it doesnt have the v synch/tearing problem and has the gcube controller but it lacks a decent audio 5.1 transfer wich i really really hate as i'm kinda obsessed with sound

the xbox version had
- the xbox controller
- the v synch/tearing problem

but it also had a better framerate and a perfect 5.1 transfer

if i could get a version without the v synch/tearing bit and with the x360 controller.. that would be fucking awesome to me

It's a fairly sizeable list, but futurama? Really?! There are titles like that which make no logical sense, and random. Just count how many of those are sports titles...

However, with fable, halo, project gotham among other greats, fans won't be too disapointed.