The $299 XBOX Series S is an Emulation Beast | MVG

jshackles said:
But this has the advantage of having an awesome controller that's purpose built for the hardware, wireless networking, and a fairly robust CPU. The equivalent desktop CPU would cost about $150-$200 alone. Maybe that would be a waste for a purpose-built emulation box, but $300 is not that huge of an ask for what you're getting (I think that's the point of the video in the OP).

It also plays next-gen Xbox games.
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Anyone tried OG Xbox? I'd love to play Gun Valkyrie and Otogi again ;) Does fightcade work?
 
th4tguy said:
I know this video focuses on the series s but is this possible on series x? Wouldn't we get much better performance out of the series x?
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Yes it's possible on the X and probably a little more performant, but he focuses on the S here because it's a much smaller, cheaper box. A sweet spot if you will.
 
MrMephistoX said:
Anyone tried OG Xbox? I'd love to play Gun Valkyrie and Otogi again ;) Does fightcade work?
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I'd love to see this too! "Xbox Series S is fully backwards compatible with OG Xbox games" would give gaming journalists massive hardons and huge vindication.
 
M1chl said:
No they won't remove it, because there is EULA there, which basically saying that you are responsible what you running on the machine, not them.
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If they remove it it is not because they care if you run some pirated old PS1/PS2 games on it.
It will be because if you can run PS1/PS2 games on it, maybe you will not buy a GamePass subscription.

They don't care if you pirate old games. Why should they? They DO care about whether you sign up for GamePass or not.
 
Cato said:
If they remove it it is not because they care if you run some pirated old PS1/PS2 games on it.
It will be because if you can run PS1/PS2 games on it, maybe you will not buy a GamePass subscription.

They don't care if you pirate old games. Why should they? They DO care about whether you sign up for GamePass or not.
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I feel like even that justification would be a huge stretch though. Hell, even if this thing could 100% emulate Xbox 360 games they probably still wouldn't care. The average user will pay for the convenience if given the opportunity. As CrustyBritches CrustyBritches is finding out, these methods aren't exactly user-friendly and likely won't ever be.
 
Cato said:
If they remove it it is not because they care if you run some pirated old PS1/PS2 games on it.
It will be because if you can run PS1/PS2 games on it, maybe you will not buy a GamePass subscription.

They don't care if you pirate old games. Why should they? They DO care about whether you sign up for GamePass or not.
Click to expand...
I doubt that's a case and besides you have licence for it, many devs would have issues and that would spark way bigger controversy than people playing some ROMS, in my honest opinion...
 
The only thing I dislike about the PS5 is not having the ability to play my PS2 games on there. Sony can do it but they don't want to...
 
Mobile Suit Gooch said:
The only thing I dislike about the PS5 is not having the ability to play my PS2 games on there. Sony can do it but they don't want to...
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I think sony just does not think there is much point. They have tried ps2 emulation on both ps3 and ps4 but I suspect that the number of people that still care about these now very old games is very small.

And I also suspect that most people that still care about ps2 and play ps2 games have physical ps2 consoles to play them on, like me, I have 5 PS2 consoles :), making the potential userbase for ps2 emulation on ps5 even smaller.

A ps2 console can be had for just ~50$ on ebay. You don't have to do emulation. Play on real hw.
 
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Makes me really sad, that I have to wait till half of December for my XSX :messenger_loudly_crying:

That video in OP was hyped and so much good feel™ in this thread. Thank you guys.
 
M1chl said:
Maybe they will introduce it in same manner, it would only attracted more devs for the system.
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I doubt it. They gave up on the ps2 on ps4 stuff where Sony and Rockstar provided most of the games.

They probably sold like shit and people prefer remakes and remasters.
 
Fox Mulder said:
I doubt it. They gave up on the ps2 on ps4 stuff where Sony and Rockstar provided most of the games.

They probably sold like shit and people prefer remakes and remasters.
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It was all so self-deprecating though. Sony required developers to change a bunch of code, add trophies, etc. to get the games running on PS4. These were like... "lazy remasters". Not many took part because it was a difficult process. Then, they didn't sell well because the value proposition was completely missing for consumers. Other developers saw low sales numbers on the existing games and thought "why bother?". Then they quietly discontinued their efforts after sales were low.

As a fan of retro gaming, these kinds of terrible decisions still make my blood boil.
 
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This is great in theory but I am a little sceptical since all the videos so far have been at native res with framerate problems.
 
I timed it going each way from standard xbox game mode to dev mode and it took about 4min. each way. Not ideal, but once the kinks get ironed out it could still be a useful way to play retro games. My iphone does great offscreen photos, but the videos are always turd mode. I don't get it, but here's an example of the performance of Tekken 6 in PPSSPP.


This is what it actually looks like. I'm gonna figure out how to get some respectable footage tonight. Need a real camera.
kSsukbT.jpg


I'm starting to wonder if the trouble I'm having launching GCN and some PSP games has to do with launching from USB?

*BONUS*


Now playing...
RUYqLMP.jpg
 
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Cato said:
I think sony just does not think there is much point. They have tried ps2 emulation on both ps3 and ps4 but I suspect that the number of people that still care about these now very old games is very small.

And I also suspect that most people that still care about ps2 and play ps2 games have physical ps2 consoles to play them on, like me, I have 5 PS2 consoles :), making the potential userbase for ps2 emulation on ps5 even smaller.

A ps2 console can be had for just ~50$ on ebay. You don't have to do emulation. Play on real hw.
Click to expand...
Physical consoles die and are hard to find, only going to get harder to find, and ones you can find will die eventually. Emulation is the only way these games are still available to play in 20 years time. I've got hundreds of ps2 games and no working ps2, so emulation has saved my collection. Not to mention I can play ps1/2/wii/wii u/GameCube/etc games that I own at native 1080p etc via emulation. It's much better than native hardware.
 
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MrFunSocks said:
Physical consoles die and are hard to find, only going to get harder to find, and ones you can find will die eventually. Emulation is the only way these games are still available to play in 20 years time. I've got hundreds of ps2 games and no working ps2, so emulation has saved my collection. Not to mention I can play ps1/2/wii/wii u/GameCube/etc games that I own at native 1080p etc via emulation. It's much better than native hardware.
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If works for you, great I guess.
I don't click with emulation. To me something is missing and it feel wrong. But for each what they are comfortable with and enjoy.
 
Cato said:
If works for you, great I guess.
I don't click with emulation. To me something is missing and it feel wrong. But for each what they are comfortable with and enjoy.
Click to expand...
I don't get how it doesn't "click" though. You can play games *exactly* how they played on the original consoles if you want to, complete with CRT scanlines and everything, or you can play around with settings and have them look 10 times better and run at massively higher native resolutions. Emulation is literally the only way anyone will be able to play most of the exclusive games from those consoles in even 10 years time.
 
Lmao I'm kinda laughing at the thought of Sony Ps1, Ps2, Ps3 games being played on it.

If Xbox can hardware could do it, Sony loses all credibility with their justifications as to why theirs cant.
 
MrFunSocks said:
I don't get how it doesn't "click" though. You can play games *exactly* how they played on the original consoles if you want to, complete with CRT scanlines and everything, or you can play around with settings and have them look 10 times better and run at massively higher native resolutions. Emulation is literally the only way anyone will be able to play most of the exclusive games from those consoles in even 10 years time.
Click to expand...

I think it is psychological.
I don't dispute that they will run perfect under emulation. It just feels wrong to me and thus it doesn't click.

As for quality of display you can get that easily for real consoles too. Converters to hdmi and auto upscaling with effects like scanlines (if you dont have a crt) and other filters are plentiful, all from very cheap to very expensive.
PS1 even has the PS1Digital. Not cheap I admit but the output is imho unmatched and you get it from running the game on a (modified) genuine ps1.

Me personally, when I play PS1/2 games under emulation I tire quickly of the games and get disinterested by the primitive and poor graphics. That does not happen when I play the games on genuine hardware even after hours and hours and hours.
If playing emulation works for you, great! I am happy for you.
 
Cato said:
I think it is psychological.
I don't dispute that they will run perfect under emulation. It just feels wrong to me and thus it doesn't click.

As for quality of display you can get that easily for real consoles too. Converters to hdmi and auto upscaling with effects like scanlines (if you dont have a crt) and other filters are plentiful, all from very cheap to very expensive.
PS1 even has the PS1Digital. Not cheap I admit but the output is imho unmatched and you get it from running the game on a (modified) genuine ps1.

Me personally, when I play PS1/2 games under emulation I tire quickly of the games and get disinterested by the primitive and poor graphics. That does not happen when I play the games on genuine hardware even after hours and hours and hours.
If playing emulation works for you, great! I am happy for you.
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I don't understand this though. I can play my PS1/2 games on my gaming PC and have them look pretty much 100% identical to what they look like on genuine hardware playing on the same tv, or even have them look like they're played on a CRT and they'll look the same as if they were genuine hardware on a CRT. That's what I'm saying - it can be as genuine as playing on real hardware, or as improved as you want.

I've been playing lots of my old PS1 games recently like Croc, WWF Smackdown, WWF Attitude, Jet Rider (Jet Moto in the USA), Wu-Tang, Return Fire, etc, and they look and play identical to how they used to look. Most of the time I don't upscale etc them because that's not how I remember them.

eyesabitdull said:
Lmao I'm kinda laughing at the thought of Sony Ps1, Ps2, Ps3 games being played on it.

If Xbox can hardware could do it, Sony loses all credibility with their justifications as to why theirs cant.
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Mobile phones can emulate the PS1 and PS2 perfectly these days. Sony literally just don't want to do BC with them. There's no other reason - they just don't want to. We know they have working software emulators for both PS1 and PS2.
 
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CrustyBritches said:
I timed it going each way from standard xbox game mode to dev mode and it took about 4min. each way. Not ideal, but once the kinks get ironed out it could still be a useful way to play retro games. My iphone does great offscreen photos, but the videos are always turd mode. I don't get it, but here's an example of the performance of Tekken 6 in PPSSPP.


This is what it actually looks like. I'm gonna figure out how to get some respectable footage tonight. Need a real camera.
kSsukbT.jpg


I'm starting to wonder if the trouble I'm having launching GCN and some PSP games has to do with launching from USB?

*BONUS*


Now playing...
RUYqLMP.jpg
Click to expand...


Where do you get the emulators from and how do you get the roms on there?
 
dvdvideo said:
So what does it take to flip between dev mode and retail? A reboot or a full restore?
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Reboot, but it's taking around 5 minutes appearantly to do so.

MilkyJoe said:
Where do you get the emulators from and how do you get the roms on there?
Click to expand...
Do you have dev mode on Xbox? If no, scroll through the thread, thre is a video and some notes by CrustyBritches CrustyBritches how to do it. And after that you get the retro arch from here: https://www.retroarch.com/index.php?page=platforms and roms can be on USB sticks.
 
lucius said:
About $200 I got mine with controller for less since they were clearing out the version 2 , actually the tube one might be cheaper . You can use DS4 or Xbox bluetooth with it I just wanted the audio port, but wireless headphones work fine with it too.
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The cheaper tube Shield is 32-bit only, so won't run all of the apps.
 
MilkyJoe said:
Where do you get the emulators from and how do you get the roms on there?
Click to expand...
On Xbox there's an app called "Activate Dev Mode". Download that and it will give you a device activation code and a link to enter on PC. I wasn't signed up for their individual dev license, so I purchased it for $19.00usd. The item is called "Windows and Windows Phone Annual Developer Registration" in order history.

Once you do that you're able to enter your Xbox device code from the Activate Dev Mode app. It will say it's updating and once it's done to return. I returned, even after a restart, and the update didn't progress the screen. That's where the fix from SquareBanana comes in...
I was having the same issue. However I've managed to activate dev mode through the hidden developer settings menu rather than the dev mode activation app. To access the hidden menu go to Settings > System > Console Info > Press LB RB LT RT > Developer Settings > Developer Mode
Click to expand...

After you tick the dev mode box the console will restart in developer mode. WiFi wasn't working for me, so I used ethernet. In the bottom right corner it will have an option for Remote Access info/settings. When you navigate there it will have an IP for the Xbox Series S. I typed that in my browser on PC and it opened the web console for managing development. I hit the "Add" button up top and selected the .appxbundle RetroArch file. It takes a bit to transfer and then it will just pop up in your list on Series S and you can run it.

I haven't tried N64, but PSX, SNES, and Gen work pretty effortlessly. PPSSPP works with Tekken 6, but not FF: Crisis Core. I can't get GCN or DC to work right now, it might have to do with loading from USB I get an error something like "Content load error" which when I googled might be related to USB or somebody suggested changing the allotted Dev Mode space.

This is super early in the game, of course, so it will get much easier in the future. I remember going through all the growing pains with PS Classic only to find a pre-made 128GB zip you could download to a flash stick that was pre-loaded with everything perfectly like it was done by a team or autist. Good luck!
 
M1chl said:
Good luck : )


Some people don't have PCs and this is possibly already owned device in your living room.
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Resenge said:
Nobody is buying an XsS for emulation, it's just a bonus on top of owning one, especially if you don't own a pc and are a console user only.
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Even if you own a PC, this console is always sitting under your TV connected to it compared to your PC. And for $20 I'd rather pay that than hack it (that's if you can anyway) and play retro games on it, in addition to your Xbox games.
 
CrustyBritches said:
On Xbox there's an app called "Activate Dev Mode". Download that and it will give you a device activation code and a link to enter on PC. I wasn't signed up for their individual dev license, so I purchased it for $19.00usd. The item is called "Windows and Windows Phone Annual Developer Registration" in order history.

Once you do that you're able to enter your Xbox device code from the Activate Dev Mode app. It will say it's updating and once it's done to return. I returned, even after a restart, and the update didn't progress the screen. That's where the fix from SquareBanana comes in...


After you tick the dev mode box the console will restart in developer mode. WiFi wasn't working for me, so I used ethernet. In the bottom right corner it will have an option for Remote Access info/settings. When you navigate there it will have an IP for the Xbox Series S. I typed that in my browser on PC and it opened the web console for managing development. I hit the "Add" button up top and selected the .appxbundle RetroArch file. It takes a bit to transfer and then it will just pop up in your list on Series S and you can run it.

I haven't tried N64, but PSX, SNES, and Gen work pretty effortlessly. PPSSPP works with Tekken 6, but not FF: Crisis Core. I can't get GCN or DC to work right now, it might have to do with loading from USB I get an error something like "Content load error" which when I googled might be related to USB or somebody suggested changing the allotted Dev Mode space.

This is super early in the game, of course, so it will get much easier in the future. I remember going through all the growing pains with PS Classic only to find a pre-made 128GB zip you could download to a flash stick that was pre-loaded with everything perfectly like it was done by a team or autist. Good luck!
Click to expand...
So the $20 is annual? I thought it was a one off..
 
It was fun messing around with this today, but I think I'm going to wait a couple weeks and return to it once people have had a chance to get working easily.

I was able to run Capcom Remixed just fine on PPSSPP. Reloaded was having trouble. Remixed had Final Fight, Captain Commando, etc. Not too shabby.
pMZIq8k.jpg


I put the Wii Sports .wbfs on USB and loaded it with Dolphin. You can hear the menu music running just fine in the background but no picture. Gonna be funny if/when people get Wii games going on here with real controllers.

If you're into this stuff like me, then it's $20 well spent. If you're looking for an easy way to play retro games I'd wait off until things are a little more ironed out. As it is, there's a ton of potential here. I just need to learn what I'm doing with the Retroarch deployment.
 
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CrustyBritches said:
I timed it going each way from standard xbox game mode to dev mode and it took about 4min. each way. Not ideal, but once the kinks get ironed out it could still be a useful way to play retro games. My iphone does great offscreen photos, but the videos are always turd mode. I don't get it, but here's an example of the performance of Tekken 6 in PPSSPP.


This is what it actually looks like. I'm gonna figure out how to get some respectable footage tonight. Need a real camera.
kSsukbT.jpg


I'm starting to wonder if the trouble I'm having launching GCN and some PSP games has to do with launching from USB?

*BONUS*


Now playing...
RUYqLMP.jpg
Click to expand...


but does it run X-Files interactive ~FMV game on ps1? Thats the REAL benchmark for ps1.
 
sponk said:
Relly cool! Not gonna lie, this could be the very reason for me to pick up a xbox one s. Wonder if the machine will be able to emulate the wiiU. Imagine playing BOTW on an xbox.
Click to expand...
I use a PS4 controller and stream botw from my PC to my phone in bed. It's pretty flawless 60fps and 1440p
 
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