Xbox 360 Not Fully Compatible?

May 18, 2005 By Ian Bell

Sorry for the confusion everyone, but we just found out that the new Xbox 360 might not be fully compatible with older Xbox games.

“Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 360 gaming console will play some, but not all, old Xbox games, the company has admitted at the E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles.

This lack of backwards compatibility follows Microsoft’s decision to switch chip vendors for its latest gaming device.

The current Xbox uses a processor made by Intel, but the Xbox 360 will deploy IBM’s Power chips. The company also swapped out nVidia’s graphics card for a model from ATI.”

Showing 12 comments

J at 5:17pm 29th June 2005 Xbox Live Silver will include chat, content download and other things while Gold will include all this and multiplayer. Silver is free and Gold is not.
TechFreak at 2:19pm 19th May 2005 Yes and no is my understanding. Every game will be Xbox live enabled. There will be two versions, a silver and a gold. I think the silver is free and just basically gives you an account, but you cannot access all of the multiplayer features etc, and the gold version will give you everything.
Mike at 1:37pm 19th May 2005 Will Xbox live be free?
Andrew at 9:54am 19th May 2005 Sorry - this is just simple computer science. Software compiled for an intel chip (i386 architecture) will not run on a PowerPC architecture - the software is just a bunch of binary instructions, and the i386 ones will make no sense to a PowerPC.

The guy who reckoned it was just a Win32 patch and claiming to be an expert, well, lets just hope you don't work with computers for a living.

I've seen reports that MS are getting developers (presumably their in house ones like Bungie are most likely to be doing this) to recompile their programs for PowerPC. How easy this will be to do will depend upon how much the APIs have changed between XBox and XBox360, and also how much they used Nvidia specific operations when addressing the graphics card (which would have been an issue even if they'd stuck with Intel).

This suggests (but doesn't prove) that MS aren't going to offer emulation for playing old XBox games on the XBox 360. Decent emulation is difficult, and it's likely that the XBox360 isn't powerful enough to emulate an XBox (yes, it may be several times more powerful but that may not be enough).

The interesting question then becomes, if MS are getting developers to recompile games like Halo/Halo2, will owners of the original XBox be able to get these for free? Will they be able to download them (e.g. insert the original CD and it will download the recompiled version)?
jason at 11:17pm 18th May 2005 ok people what they mean by that is just like how the ps2 wouldnt play ALL psone games......well its the same situation here...it will play all the top sellers that means all platium series and games worth playing......gees man u guys need to understand what most means......
James at 10:32pm 18th May 2005 By the time the Xbox 360 and PS3 hit the market, there should be new video cards available for the computer as well. I think Sony is smart to play the power game with Microsoft. The original Xbox smoked the PS2 in terms of raw power, but it looks to be the other way around this time. 1080P is amazing, 99% of the HDTV's do not even support it yet. And then throw in Blu-Ray playback and you are on the cutting edge.
Justin Hodorek at 9:16pm 18th May 2005 Besides, the actual running memory (RAM) of the PS3 will be twice that of the PS2, and the the XBOX 360's RAM will be twice that of the PS3, or four times that of the PS2...so much for domination. Besides, even with a seven celled processor running at 3.2 ghz each, each processor has to catch up with the one in front of it, so it is comparable to having a one celled processor running at 3.2 ghz, whereas the XBOX 360 has 3 independent 3.2 ghz processors which are completely separate from each other. RAM has the most to do with graphics (besides the graphics card) and the processor speed is second most important. So the XBOX 360 wins in both those areas...yeah. That's what I thought. Don't fry your computer keyboard with the tears of surrender. Later...email me if you have any questions...as I am a freaking computer/gaming/electronics genius...I do it for a living...so I don't really care about the whole backwards compatible thing, as the firmware can easily be patched with a WIN32 patch...a homebrew...
Justin Hodorek at 9:16pm 18th May 2005 yeah well it all depends...as Microsoft switched chip versions, that also means that for any Xbox game to work, there must be some kind of firmware change (I'm guessing a WIN32 patch...but then again, I live with computers). So if there's a patch for the "newer" games, then there's probably a homebrew patch for the older games. Plus, Allard said that you would be able to play the "most popular titles from the Xbox" not the most recent. Halo/Halo 2 and others, I'm guessing, will work. It still remains to be seen as we draw near to the day when the world will revel in the newest advance in gaming

THE XBOX 360

email me at jeesusfreek0024@yahoo.com if you want to exchange some comments on the 360 vs. the PS3...I'd love to talk, as it seems that everyone is hyped over nothing on that PS3...geez...a seven celled processor...that was a bad idea, and let me tell you why...each processor is dependent on the one in front of it...it's comparable to have ONE 3.2 ghz processor instead of seven. I've done the math...I graduated as valedictorian and I'm a freaking genius...seriously...actually the numbers come out to ~1.218 processors, but rounded off...it comes to about one...whereas the 360 will have 3 independent processors running at 3.2 ghz each. completely separate of each other. Also, the ps3 will have twice the RAM (running memory) of the ps2, and the 360 will have twice the RAM of the ps3, or four times the RAM of the ps2. Don't let your tears of surrender to the best system ever ruin your keyboard. It is possible...

lata and as i said, drop me a note whether you disagree or agree...don't flame me because then you look rather homosexual
TechFreak at 5:19pm 18th May 2005 Yup, looks like I will have a room full of consoles again...
wizened gamer at 5:04pm 18th May 2005 Those of you holding on to the promise of 360 being fully backwards compatible on reading benign press releases are fools, If your a veteran gamer then shame on you for being so stupid and your gaming years serving you poorly. If your not then remember the adage: "If it seems too good to be true..." - Duh!

Dont get too caught up in the frenzy and hype, after all its usually first hype and then information.
clyde at 4:50pm 18th May 2005 I wanted to network my xbox to the new 360 to play some old games. Kind of disappointing this may not be possible.
TechFreak at 3:43pm 18th May 2005 I was hoping to sell my Xbox and play my old games on the new 360. Looks like that is not going to happen, what a bummer.