Kevin Chu
|
| 1/31/2002 9:40:55 PM |
Not rated |
I think MS should release an emulator for PC that allow PC users (with GeForce 3 or better) to run XBox games. Since MS's main point is making money off the SOFTWARE and not the HArdware (we all they they are loosing a ton there) What do you guys think?
|
|
Bob Q
|
| 1/31/2002 9:46:49 PM |
Not rated |
I think that would go against the fundamental goal of the X-Box. The X-Box is MS's first steps at an attempt to invade consumer electronics and every living room in the world.
MS doesn't care if they lose money on the X-Box (and considering that you need to buy at least $200 worth of $1 manufacturing cost software with a $500 machine priced at $300, they're not losing money on the hardware anyways). The point is to build up a presence to make back truckloads of money say 5, 10, 20 years down the road.
|
|
Kevin Chu
|
| 1/31/2002 9:48:23 PM |
Not rated |
Well, If XBox can sit in my living room and let me copy music CDs while still being $300... I dont mind it being THE home entertainment system. :)
|
|
Ben Martens
|
| 1/31/2002 10:27:06 PM |
Not rated |
You'd need a beast of a machine to run those games. They take advantage of the single hardware configuration. So when you run that through an emulator to match your configuration it would just slow things down. I don't think it would even work.
|
|
Kevin Chu
|
| 1/31/2002 10:41:10 PM |
Not rated |
GeForce 3 Ti 200 @ 230core/520mem, Athlon 1600+ @1700Mhz with 512MB DDR can easily do the job right, and GeForce 4 is just at the horizon..
|
|
Jimmy C
|
| 2/1/2002 11:07:23 AM |
Avg. Rating: 1 by 1 Users |
really!? where can i get this x-box emulator?
|
|
Robert Wlodarczyk
|
| 2/1/2002 11:12:47 AM |
Not rated |
I'm curious if someone will be able to make such an emulator. I mean, the games on the XBOX use DirectX anyway... the key is just being able to read the data off the DVD and make sense of it. The thing is if you just take the DVD now and stick it in your DVD drive on your PC, you get a movie saying that the DVD is meant to be used on the XBOX. So, maybe something like Bleem for PS games.
|
|
Chris Mitchell
|
| 2/1/2002 12:16:26 PM |
Not rated |
Emulator is overkill. All that is needed is an execution environment. Someone would have to bust the certification (and or encryption) process for the DVD that MS uses. Here's a big problem though. The games are specifically deisgned around the Intel 733 (i thinlk) Celeron processor and the GeForce 3 card. There have also been "additions" to the graphics pipeline to aid in some light and shadow rendering. No computer system with a GeForce3 would have these additions, plus the operating system would cause some additional overhead the XBOX wouldn't be used to. I'd suspect the frame rates to be extremely messed up. It's a big challenge.
|
|
Adam Poswolsky
|
| 2/2/2002 1:42:59 AM |
Not rated |
Hi Rob!
This is my first message to devhood.
Anyway... I am sure it is *possible* to make an emulator.
As you said, the games are just a regular DVD. It isn't anything special.
If MS claims to be losing money on the hardware, why don't they make an emulator for the PC, and that way a greater range of people can play the games.
How is that not in their best interest? More people will buy the games!
|
|
Michael Brooks
|
| 2/3/2002 2:22:03 AM |
Not rated |
Well, its not in their best interest for a few reasons. For one, almost no computers would be able to run an emulator right now. Secondly, MS is not about making money for itself, its about gaining market share. If it can take away money from Sony and Nintendo, then it will own the video game market and can do whatever it wants, be it move gamers onto the PC market or keep owning the console market.
Additionally, PC gaming has never been as strong as console gaming, even today, people seem to want to play games on a console/TV than on a PC/monitor. Heck, I use ZSNES which is the finest emu IMHO, but I still prefer to whip out the ol' SNES and play it on my big screen...
|
|
Simon Parsons
|
| 2/5/2002 9:36:32 PM |
Not rated |
Actually, nothing on the market can do it. The X-chip (Xbox GPU) is based on a core not yet in ANY PC card. the GF4 may be able to match the new instructions one-for-one though.
|
|
Matt Cooper
|
| 2/6/2002 12:23:35 PM |
Not rated |
As you said, the games are just a regular DVD. It isn't anything special.
I thought Xbox DVDs were written from the outside edge, and I presume "regular" DVDs are written from the inside edge, like CDs. Perhaps I mistaken about my facts but if I am correct, then the games would not, in fact, be regular DVDs.
< The Ub4r Network >
|
|
Simon Parsons
|
| 2/6/2002 1:16:31 PM |
Not rated |
This is correct, they are written from the outer groove like an LP, as this speeds up the loading by packing more data per centimeter of radius than on the inside. It's the same as burning a dummy file on a pirate Dreamcast game to 'push' the game to the outside....it optimises loading times, and increases the risk of scratch damage
|
|
Ricardo Sanchez
|
| 2/6/2002 1:58:05 PM |
Avg. Rating: 1 by 1 Users |
Where can I find an Xbox emulator?
|
|
Paul Ardis
|
| 2/6/2002 1:58:31 PM |
Avg. Rating: 2 by 1 Users |
Why bother with an emulator? I'm not saying that the X-box is completely worthless here, but a good deal of the games already released are already available in another format (PS2 being the most notable). And if you're not willing to go out and buy a PS2 (which you should), you're more likely to find emulators for them out there. It would be a ton easier to find, for instance, Tony Hawk emulated from PS2 than looking for a whole different emulator/ROM set for the X-box version.
|
|
. Vidal .
|
| 2/6/2002 2:34:48 PM |
Not rated |
Microsoft Should make a good emulator and sell it as software. Because if microsoft don't do it some one will.
|
|
Bruce Chang
|
| 2/8/2002 2:54:37 PM |
Not rated |
When the N64 came out, people immediately said that an emulator with playable speed was impossible. 2 months later, UltraHLE came out and proved them wrong. And keep in mind, most emulators out there are developed by reverse engineering, so there's lots of trial-and-error going on. I've been following console emulators since the GenEm days in 1996, and I'm of the opinion that lawsuits aside, anything can and will be emulated. If our current PC's don't have the juice to power an x-box emulator right now, they'll have that capacity in a year.
|
|
John Larson
|
| 2/8/2002 7:15:17 PM |
Avg. Rating: 1 by 2 Users |
x-box emulator, neat idea, would need one hell of a system to run it
|
|
Paul Ardis
|
| 2/10/2002 3:06:03 PM |
Not rated |
I don't think the requirements would be too strenuous, as while the XBox has all the hardware dedicated to it alone, there's no way it can match up against the speed/RAM/etc. etc. etc. of a true gamer console (like 1+ Ghz, 256+ Mb RAM, excellent graphics card).
|
|
Paul Ardis
|
| 2/10/2002 3:06:15 PM |
Avg. Rating: 1 by 1 Users |
Whoops!
An error made me double-post. Sorry.
|
|