I’ve been waiting for an Xbox 360 for more than half a year now. One of the big pluses was the backwards compatibility with my existing Xbox games. That was in all the gaming magazines that I buy occasionally. The reality is much different. Only 13 percent of my games are compatible, which makes a mockery of the word “compatible.”
I found out the terrible truth in very unsatisfactory manner. I put in an old game and got an error message, telling me that I need to go to the Xbox site. I hadn’t hooked up wireless to the Xbox 360 yet, so I went online using my computer.
After much digging, I found this page, which required me to register just to read it. Joy. After accessing it, I found out I can download some software to a CD to upgrade the Xbox. Alternatively, if I put an old game into the Xbox 360, it will automatically update itself to play it.
OK, I dig out an old Ethernet adapter and got wireless going on the Xbox 360. Unlike with my old Xbox, I actually get into Xbox Live without a problem. I go through a painfully slow registration process, where I’m asked for things like my phone number and my birthday without being told why I need this or how it will be used. I was told some info will be displayed publicly, which kind of worried me about giving it. But you have no choice but to provide it.
Now I try again with an old game, and I’m told Xbox needs to update itself. It does a few things, then I eventually see the system is up to 1.2 rather than 1.0. Still, the game won’t play. That error message returns, telling me to go to the pretty useless xbox.com/games address for more info. I say useless because when you get there, it’s like an Easter Egg hunt to locate the information about playing old games.
Finally, after digging, I come across three great articles:
In the Q&A, the first question is, “Is Xbox 360 backward compatible?,” with the answer, “Yes.” Then the qualification:
Today we’re confirming more than 200 titles including games…
Dig further, and Microsoft tells you they’ve decided to focus on making some top selling games backwards compatible, that a hard drive is required if you want this and that they’ll be getting the entire Xbox portfolio made compatible over time. “We’re going deeper into the portfolio every day,” we’re assured.
They must not be digging too fast is all I can say. The Xbox has been out for months, and there’s plenty not on the list. In fact, the list looks very similar to what they said back in August, as I found here. Meanwhile, this post reports we might not see much more happening until the end of the year.
Let’s look at our own library. What works?
- SSX 3
- Crimson Skies
What doesn’t work?
- OutRun2
- Pirates
- Project Gotham Racing
- Project Gotham Racing 2
- Star Wars Battlefront
- Lego Star Wars
- Midtown Madness 3
- Midway Arcade Treasures
- Silent Scope
- Burnout 2
- The Italian Job
- Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex
- Crash Tag Team Racing
So of our 15 game titles, 2 work — that 13 percent of what we own. That’s backwards compatible?
I know backwards compatibility. It’s on the Nintendo DS. It will play ALL GameBoy Advanced games flawlessly, not 13 percent of them. And it played all old games when it came out.
OK, many of the Xbox games we don’t play that much anymore. Some of them are older titles that perhaps weren’t best sellers. But c’mon! Lego Star Wars doesn’t make the list? The older Project Gothams don’t? Yes, PGR3 was a launch title for the Xbox 360, so I suppose you shouldn’t be going back to the old ones. Then again, if I want to drive a Mini, it’s PGR2 that I need.
From what I understand, Microsoft has to make an emulator for each and every Xbox game they want to make compatible. Despite the promises, I’m not expecting they’ll actually do this or get through the library quickly. That’s especially so after they said things like this that I found from back in August.
1. Will the Xbox 360 be backward compatible with the Xbox?
Yes, the Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with the Xbox. To take advantage of these features though, the Xbox 360 hard drive is required.
3. Many game publications claimed the Xbox 360 won’t be backward compatible with the Xbox. Is that true?
No, that is false and pure rampant speculation based on the fact that Microsoft changed its technology partners for the CPU (from Intel to IBM) and GPU (from nVIDIA to ATI). This speculation ended when Microsoft officially announced that the Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with the Xbox.
Keep reading, and then you get to the part about backwards compatible meaning that this would be for “top selling” games. Honestly. That should have been in response to question one. It should have been like this:
1. Will the Xbox 360 be backward compatible with the Xbox?
The Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with a select number of Xbox games at launch, if you have an Xbox 360 hard drive. Compatibility with other Xbox games will happen over time.
I did try the two games that are backwards compatible. Crimson Skies seemed to jerk occasionally, not a lot, but enough that I noticed and wondered if the emulation wasn’t so good. SSX 3 seemed fine.
Overall, the issue was enough to make me decide to return my Xbox 360. I explain more about that and some of the other factors behind that decision here: At Last, My Xbox 360 Arrives — And Now I Don’t Want It.
{ 23 comments }
does star wars knights of the old republic work
yes it does as well as kotor 2
when i put kotor 2 in my xbox 360, it downloaded some update. then the game starts but all the text is messed up.. for example the first thing i see is a text box that says “15-Meter RA” and then the main menu which is populated by weird things like “Pperently St” and “he owsing 4.Gr”. when i make it into the game all the in-game objects have similar nonsense text
very frustrating.. nobody else online has mentioned having this particular problem. back when i had an Xbox i was similarly upset because the DVD drive stopped reading half my games so i had to buy my own replacement. perhaps Microsoft shouldn’t be in the gaming console business.
it’s so frustrating that you need a hdtv to get the text at a proper size. does Microsoft think we can all afford hd compatible tv’s?
I purchased X-Men Legends II after I got my Xbox 360 unaware it was not fully backward compatible, I just assumed it was because most systems are now a days. I have been waiting a year now for them for them to update it. There list online says it was last updated November 2007…. were almost in November 2009! http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm thats the list, its pathetic, they have Alias the video game supported, I’m a fan of Alias but I would say X-men Legends II is a far more popular game.
I emailed them the other day expressing my concern for when they actually are going to update again and if X-Men was on that list. Basically they are done updating all the original games here is what they basically said:
-”Please be advised that the backward compatibility games list is no longer updated. Therefore, the list on the Xbox.com Web site represents the final set of backward-compatible games.”-
Microsoft is a huge company, they have the money and for them to leave a lot of faithful Xbox/Xbox 360 users and Xbox live users out like this is pathetic and distasteful, I am regretting not buying a PS3 instead now!
I don’t see why people are complaining so much about the backwards compatibility. I can understand that if you didn’t have an Xbox before, and now have a 360, you might want to play some of the old games. HOWEVER, most of the games that are not backwards compatible with the 360 are not exclusive. The original poster’s list of games are all now compatible for the 360. And if you want a PS3 that’s not 400+ bucks, you will not get backwards compatibility at all. That’s why the PS3 is cheaper than before. They threw the backwards compatibility out of the system and lowered PS2 prices and then pretended that they just had the power to drop 150 bucks easy.
Backwards compatibility is more complicated than it seems. You have to do one of two things to support backwards compatibility: create the system to emulate the old system via the hardware and BIOS, or use a software emulator, which is still not as easy. When you emulate, you have to PRETEND that you are something else. The 360 is a significant improvement on the original and got rid of a lot of things, so being backwards compatible for all Xbox original games is hard. Using a software emulator isn’t perfect, and they don’t have all the time in the world to make a software emulator for every single game that came out.
Note: They have you download a software emulator on a game-to-game basis, which means there’s no one-to-rule-them-all. If you’ve ever messed with emulation you’ll know it is no easy task. You can have the best computer in the world and still can’t emulate a PS2 game to save your life. Give them a break.
Then again, people will always have something to complain about…
CJ, I think fewer people are complaining now. But it was a big issue when the new Xbox 360 rolled out, because there weren’t that many games for it, and it was annoying to be expected to toss out your existing library.
Personally I think it is a HUGE issue. 2 1/2 years ago we were tossing up between the ps3 and the 360. The SOLE reason we chose the 360 was because we were informed that it would be backward compatible and it seemed silly to throw away all that money on the 50 xbox games we already had! Had we not been deceived we would not have bought it. As it is now, we bought a handful of games, but 99% of the time it is used as a glorified dvd player.
Backwards compatibility is a big deal, and frankly, if they’re finding releases of their original console games to emulate – why not recode for the new console, and have them as downloadable content? many titles we’re not platform exclusive and coded easily enough (code boys don’t flame me now..) for multiple platforms including the PC… some of which have be re-released (in updated combo packs, like lego star wars). I also don’t recall the Wii having any problem with it’s GC backcompt, nor PS2>PS1 (oh, I needed a PS1 memory card.. for shame).. Really, it Can be done, and it can be done well.. but there is more money in getting people to worry about their new releases, than in just keeping an XBL subscription to have support for their old ones. I kept an XB original just for that (and for XBMC too..)
but seriously, the 360 wouldn’t even let me play HALO. THE FLAGSHIP GAME OF THE CONSOLE. that’s a bit pathetic.
I WANT ALL BACKWARD COMPATIBLE ON XBOX 360
CJ: There are several reasons that people are complaining so much about the backwards compatibility. For me, the main two are:
1) The simple principle of the thing. One of the big selling points that Microsoft hyped about the thing is that users would still be able to play their old xbox games. When asked if it would be backwards compatible, they often gave a simple, unqualified “yes”. Not “maybe”, or “probably” or “SOME of them”, but “YES!”. Which (mis)lead people into believing that, they would indeed be able to use their old games. Also . . .
2) Far more inportantly, for many people (myself included), the reason I chose xbox over another system was this alleged backward compatibility. I have over 30 titles in my original xbox collection, and less than 1/4 of them are playable on the 360. Many of these games I still very much enjoy playing, and would like to play again, but can’t. As to your comment that titles are not exclusive, or those who say that many of the unsupported titles can be purchased in an Xbox 360 version, that may all be well and true, but I myself (and I am guessing very many others), can neither afford to buy multiple gaming consoles to play all the games I want, nor to go out and replace all the 360 version-updated titles at an additional $40-$75 a piece. Even if all my titles were available, that would involve an investment of over $1000! So now, instead of having a library of 30+ games to choose from, I am down to 8 (7 that actually are backward compatible, and 1 that came with the console). It will literally be years before I am able to afford to build up a full collection again, if I even bother, and by then I am sure they’ll have come out with a new system yet again. And I guarantee, I’ll be a lot more wary about buying it based on anything their PR guys have to say!
Basically for me, what really irks me about it is that they were not honest about it. They’d have a lot less ticked off customers if they had been straight forward about it to begin with. They should have been honest from the start and said that it would have “limited backward compatibility” or “with select titles only” or something of that nature.
And yes, I am well aware of the difficulties of emulation and backward compatibility, and yes, they had a huge and daunting task ahead of them if indeed they ever really did intend to make the entire line backward compatible. BUT SO WERE THEY. Their programmers had to have known what was involved, and if they couldn’t handle it, they shouldn’t have promised it.
Anyone know where I can get the download for the update? The link to the update on Xbox.com is dead now and the backcomp team seems to be in the same predicament. They wont email me back. I have found an update named system Update 200076000-00000 or similar and have downloaded and copied to a flash drive and cdr but they wont work when i put them in the 360. I dont have live nor will I be getting it so don’t tell me to do it that way.
Any help would be appreciated thanks!
One thing is it really makes me mad that they did not let you play the original juiced game on the 360 since it was the best online xbox game out there and still is today. I always loved that fact that game allowed you to race for pinks where as the the 360 juiced to just plan sucks and does not let you race for pinks slips. :/
does timesplitters future perfect work offline?
Playing xbox games on xbox 360?
I’m trying to play silent hill 2 on my xbox 360. I downloaded the update to do this from the webpage and copied it in a pentdrive. Then, I connected the pentdrive into my xbox 360 and updated it but it still givesme this message:
“This original Xbox game is not supported on your Xbox 360 console. An update to support this game may be available. For more info, go to http://www.xbox.com/games. X: 2689.0 B: 1884.0″
I bought my xbox around 1 year and a half ago. Why won’t it let me play xbox games even if I update it?
I just purchased a new xbox 360 250gb slim. I saw marvel vs capcom 2 on the backwards compatibilty list. So hunted this original xbox game disc title down and paid alot for it. I was excited to play it.. Little did I know it was unplayable due to severe character breakup.. The characters would flicker bad, had vertical lines going through them, and the frame rate was awful.. On the good side the backgrounds were perfect. Even though this title can now be bought on xbox live I wanted the disc so I could take it to my friends house. I contacted xbox support, they told me to contact capcom.. I contacted capcom and they said it is 100% microfiche responsibility to re-release a updated emulator/patch to fix this issue.. I passed this information on to xbox support and waiting for a response. From what I understand each game has it’s own emulator. What’s needs to be done is to have one emulator that can handle all games. Reguardless… I know have an expensive marvel vs capcom 2 disc that is crippled when played in my new xbox 360. How Microsoft can post this game as being backwards compatible is beyond me.. The game is broken and is horrible to play with the on screen characters flickering and breaking up. Just not good business. I hope that Microsoft will resolve this issue and update the emulator for this game.
Can anyone tell me if X men legends for xbox works on the Xbox 360?
Quentin: it is not.
that sucks…i like x men legends more than x men legends 2…does anyone know if they will make a new x men legends for xbox 360? is there a way i can talk to the microsoft people so i can ask them?
Me and my boyfriend play DDR and well i owned DDR Ultramix from the xbox, i have 360 mats and games but this game for the Xbox was classic and had excellent songs, first i updated it on live. I still get an error message that says to look at microsoft/games or something. Like seriously microsoft get your shit together. Its DDR! is that so difficult to convert to the 360? FUUUUUU
Hello everyone, the compatibility list is kind of dead, so I looked up wikipedia and saw their list or backwards compatible games. Anyone know if that list is accurate? I bought a 360 by trading in my old box and 2 dozen xbox games and now regret it because I had some nice titles. I would like to buy them used again off ebay if they are playable on my 360. I have the black 360 “slim” one that’s packages with the kinect (which I didnt get)
Here is the link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_with_Xbox_360
I was thinking of getting starwars battlefront 2 and Gauntlet Seven Sorrows back, will they work?
Cheers
Just wanted to thank you for this informative page. I’d been trying off and on to play an old xbox game on my 360 and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t, since I’d also heard that it was backward compatible. Your article gave me the tough but honest truth to the matter, so now I can pout and be mad, but at least I won’t keep trying to do this and not know why. A lot of the comments were also helpful. Thanks,
Merlin
el crimson skies no funciona en mi consolo,
es una slim de 4 gb pero le puse un disco de 250 gb y igual no corre el juego. esta actualizada
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