• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Xbox Series is a beast of an emulation machine

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


The Xbox Series is is a beast of an emulation machine, and in this video, i want to show you how to run retroarch on xbox series S and X. I'll also show you how to play PS2 games on series S, how to play PSP, PS1, gamecube, wii, all the sega consoles, and more! Running Retroarch on Series S is an amazing way to expand your game library, and it's awesome being able to emulate retro games on a $299 console. Running developer mode on Series S is actively encouraged by microsoft, so its great to be able to take advantage of this to play all your favorite retro games on xbox. we also test ps2 games running on xbox, I show you games like Daxter, Need for Speed underground, god of war, and so much more running on the xbox! It's super cool.
Click to expand...

Good video explaining how to install retroarch and showcasing a few games.

01011001 said:
______________

IMPORTANT!!! (maybe)
______________
👇 👇 👇

GUYS DO NOT DOWNLOAD / USE this version:


I'm pretty certain the one in the link above is categorized as an "App" (maybe people who downloaded it can confirm)

get this one here:
www.microsoft.com

Get Retroarch69+ - Microsoft Store en-GB

Download this game from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub), HoloLens, Xbox One. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for Retroarch69+.
www.microsoft.com

this ☝️ one is categorized as a "Game" which is important. an App on an Xbox can not use the full power of the hardware, not even close.
so it is important that it's actually a game!
maybe I am wrong, and the first one is actually categorized as a "game", but for me it says "you own this App" instead of "You own this Game"
when I "buy" the version I linked it says "You own this Game"


also, for file transfer, here is an FTP app for transferring files directly from your PC to your Xbox that I also use, which is apparently now also available without whitelisting
www.microsoft.com

Get [DurangoFTP] - Microsoft Store en-GB

Download this game from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub), HoloLens, Xbox One. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for [DurangoFTP].
www.microsoft.com

BE AWARE WHEN TRANSFERRING OVER MULTIPLE FOLDERS WITH SUBFOLDERS! THIS APP MIGHT SCRAMBLE AROUND THE FILES,
SO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO IS YOU HAVE TO MANUALLY CREATE THE FOLDER STRUCTURE (NAME EVERY FOLDER 100% CORRECTLY)
AND THEN FOLDER FOR FOLDER COPY OVER THE FILES ONE FOLDER AT A TIME!!!
I am writing this in caps and red because it is important, especially for Dolphin and PCSX2 folders!!!
games will not launch if you didn't put every file in the exact place it needs to be.
this can be a bit annoying to do but you only have to do it once or once every few months at most, so not as bad as it first seems

it is important to do it, I didn't at first and just copied over my whole collection, and all the SNES games for example,
which I have in folders from "0-9" to "Z", were in the "0-9" folder after I bulk copied over everything.
so I had to go in, create the SNES folder, then create each folder for each letter, and then copy over all the games starting with each letter into their corresponding folders.
I now use a USB drive for almost all the ROMS, but this still applies when you copy over your PCSX2 Emulator folder, or your Dolphin folder... or your Dreamcast folder etc.

maybe this is an issue on my end and an issue with the FTP program I use on my PC, but you can test it out and see if the files and subfolders get copied over correctly for you.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
digital_ghost

digital_ghost

Gold Member
Nintendo and Sony's lawyers:

eric cartman people GIF by South Park
 
Ozzy Onya A2Z

Ozzy Onya A2Z

Member
elliot5 said:
New link to to the discord to get whitelisted https://discord.gg/jcrgSGXt

You can apply for whitelisting for the retail store app so you don't have to be in dev mode and flip back and forth.
Click to expand...

This is the preferred method for me. I don't need my kids playing around in dev or the wife cracking it with me without the retail polished UI. Otherwise I'll pick up a Series S for emulation, in place of using my X.
 
Last edited:
01011001

01011001

Banned
Horatius said:
i actually can't believe there's a generation of gamers who never grew up emulating everything on PC and consider it a novelty
Click to expand...

it is a novelty that you can do this on a new Home console without any need to mod it either via software of hardware mods. the last time this happened was with the PSP 1.50 firmware, which was quickly patched and locked down. this however isn't gettin patched as Microsoft seems to be ok with it as long as it is through a backdoor and not through their official store front
 
BlackTron

BlackTron

Member
It appears to me that you will get a vastly superior emulation machine from a Series S than a PC of the same cost, plus the fact that it can be done without any modding out of the box, pretty big deal IMO. Factor in that it's a plug and play game console and comes with a controller.

I just hope there are ways of connecting other types of gamepads because I wouldn't want to play all of those systems on an Xbox controller. Being able to connect just about anything necessary to a PC was my tipping point on dropping a massive PC case in the living room.
 
E

elliot5

Member
BlackTron said:
It appears to me that you will get a vastly superior emulation machine from a Series S than a PC of the same cost, plus the fact that it can be done without any modding out of the box, pretty big deal IMO. Factor in that it's a plug and play game console and comes with a controller.

I just hope there are ways of connecting other types of gamepads because I wouldn't want to play all of those systems on an Xbox controller. Being able to connect just about anything necessary to a PC was my tipping point on dropping a massive PC case in the living room.
Click to expand...
There's prob a way to do that via the Xbox adaptive controller, but idk the details of how it all works and is prob more complicated than ideal.
 
alabtrosMyster

alabtrosMyster

Member
I have retroarch.
MaulerX said:
You can play PS1 and PS2 games on Series X|S but not on PS5.

This is one hell of a time line.
Click to expand...
it's a bit more complicated than just buying a really cheapo used PC and run Retroarch to do the same thing (no need to redo the developer thing or whatever it is now).

But yeah, embarrassing for Sony that they don't offer more than selling you a couple of PS2 games + whatever is on PSNow.
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
BlackTron said:
It appears to me that you will get a vastly superior emulation machine from a Series S than a PC of the same cost, plus the fact that it can be done without any modding out of the box, pretty big deal IMO.
Click to expand...
You are still restricted in what emulators you can use on Series S though.

Neither Dolphin or PCSX2 are as good in their RetroArch core versions, as the standalones. You are also missing anything that isn't available in RetroArch such as Phoenix (the only viable Atari Jaguar emu), Model 2 emulator, Supermodel, Teknoparrot, Cemu and Demul (the only Naomi 2 emulator).

I love RetroArch but some of it's cores are grossly out of date such as Beetle Saturn (which is at least 2 years out of date compared to the original, standalone Mednafen).

I'm not even sure if all cores are available for Series X either.
 
Last edited:
CrustyBritches

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
NikuNashi said:
I bought my DC on release for House Of The Dead 2 and Virtua Fighter 3. (Next gen games, at the time)
Click to expand...
I was responding to your "Been playing and buying consoles on launch since 1990's. Never heard of a brand new console being pushed as an emulation machine before". Bleemcast! was a staple in gaming news at the time and originally aimed to deliver "Bleempaks" that would add compatibility for 100s of games. They only managed to push out MGS, Tekken 3, and GT2 into retail stores before Sony shut them down in court.
 
Fess

Fess

Member
Not sure what’s the story behind retail mode Retroarch, iirc the dev said it wasn’t from them so I take it was never officially on the store. But I found this when googling:

Closed beta testing of the Retroarch emulator for XBOX consoles has begun ✅ 🔥



After the end of testing, the app will appear in the Microsoft Store for everyone-you will no longer need to use the developer mode
Click to expand...
answers.microsoft.com

Retroarch

How long will the retroarch beta test take approximately? Or how to get into beta testing ?
answers.microsoft.com


Anyway, having access to both new and old games instantly from the dashboard without a hack is when the real magic happens. Everything just works, screenshot/video button, remote play, background downloading, socials etc. The dev mode solution isn’t as convenient, it takes a few minutes to swap between retail and dev mode and it’s an isolated boot with no other features. Still great though.
 
D

drhankmccoyphd

Member
I just got my series s and I’m thinking about installing this. How is the arcade support specially cps stuff? Also will I still be able to use game pass and all my purchases digits stuff? I would assume so but figured I’d ask.
 
SpiceRacz

SpiceRacz

Member
Has anyone done this to their console? Is it relatively easy to set up? Can you run the games off an external hard drive? I had seen that it requires you to set a limit on the game size to 2gb.
 
CrustyBritches

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
SpiceRacz said:
Has anyone done this to their console? Is it relatively easy to set up? Can you run the games off an external hard drive? I had seen that it requires you to set a limit on the game size to 2gb.
Click to expand...
We had a pretty beefy thread on it, but it was moved to communities.
www.neogaf.com

Retroarch on Series X and S |OT| Too many games

I thought I'd create this thread to discuss emulation on the Series X and S. It's quite a complicated process with lots of settings so a little cooperation and sharing of knowledge will go along way. Do not discuss where to get ROMs here. The legality of which is very dubious if you don't...
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com

There was a window of a couple months that you could get whitelisted for a retail build of RetroArch+PPSSPP gold, but now it's limited to using in your console's dev mode(this isn't as bad as it sounds). Only downside compared to the retail build is that you have about 4min wait time going between retail mode and dev mode. Should still work just fine, and the last time I was on Dominater01's discord server, they were still updating the RetroArch and PPSSPP packages. Esppiral Esppiral is highly knowledgeable regarding this subject.
 
Last edited:
Fess

Fess

Member
No idea if it’s still working


I read somewhere that it was in beta and Retroarch might come back to the store for real soon. Seems like wishful thinking but it would be awesome if it happened.
Can’t wait for Xbox to turn 100% into a Windows 11 box so we don’t need all these hurdles for emulators and mods etc.
Edit: lol just noticed that I already wrote about this earlier in the thread
 
Last edited:
W

WoJ

Member
SpiceRacz said:
Has anyone done this to their console? Is it relatively easy to set up? Can you run the games off an external hard drive? I had seen that it requires you to set a limit on the game size to 2gb.
Click to expand...
I have Retroarch running on my Series X and currently can run GameCube, Wii, and SNES games. Now I did the dev mode version and it was fairly easy to do. I plan to set up more stuff - notably PS1, PS2, N64, GBA, NDS. Dual layered Wii games need to be on the internal hard drive as do PS2 games, but everything else so far I've been able to run external.

This YouTube channel does a great job with walk-throughs.

 
Fess

Fess

Member
WoJ said:
I have Retroarch running on my Series X and currently can run GameCube, Wii, and SNES games. Now I did the dev mode version and it was fairly easy to do. I plan to set up more stuff - notably PS1, PS2, N64, GBA, NDS. Dual layered Wii games need to be on the internal hard drive as do PS2 games, but everything else so far I've been able to run external.

This YouTube channel does a great job with walk-throughs.

Click to expand...
I’m using this little thing for emulation, can barely even notice it’s there.

OCVhZdE.jpg
 
Last edited:
SpiceRacz

SpiceRacz

Member
WoJ said:
I have Retroarch running on my Series X and currently can run GameCube, Wii, and SNES games. Now I did the dev mode version and it was fairly easy to do. I plan to set up more stuff - notably PS1, PS2, N64, GBA, NDS. Dual layered Wii games need to be on the internal hard drive as do PS2 games, but everything else so far I've been able to run external.

This YouTube channel does a great job with walk-throughs.

Click to expand...

Thanks man. I don't have too much interest in playing PS2 stuff, so that works for me. I'm gonna give it a shot this weekend.
 
T

tuco11

Member
Nikana said:
I would have to imagine pretty quick. On an eternal SSD on One X were pretty crazy. Under 10 seconds to load from a saved game and transitions to new areas was about 5-6 seconds.
Click to expand...

Neko Mimi Mode said:
No, the Jaguar core CPU is a major bottleneck there. In general even PSP, Dreamcast and GameCube games fair poorly on One X with Retroarch because of the CPU, but PS2 even moreso.

The fact PS2 emulates so flawlessly on a $299 box is pretty amazing tbh
Click to expand...

WoJ said:
I have Retroarch running on my Series X and currently can run GameCube, Wii, and SNES games. Now I did the dev mode version and it was fairly easy to do. I plan to set up more stuff - notably PS1, PS2, N64, GBA, NDS. Dual layered Wii games need to be on the internal hard drive as do PS2 games, but everything else so far I've been able to run external.

This YouTube channel does a great job with walk-throughs.

Click to expand...

2nd vote for that Youtube link.
 
W

WoJ

Member
tuco11 said:
Noob question.. Will Series X play roms from an attached thumb drive?
Click to expand...
Yes with the exception of PS2 games and dual layered Wii games. Those need to be on the internal drive.

With the caveat being that you need to set up retroarch.
 
Last edited:
01011001

01011001

Banned
tuco11 said:
Noob question.. Will Series X play roms from an attached thumb drive?
Click to expand...

yes, ISO of more recent systems might need to be on the internal storage tho.

I have a complete SNES, NES, Genesis, PC Engine and GB/GBC sets on my USB stick and they work flawlessly.
N64, PS1 and Dreamcast work fine as well

GameCube and PS2 should be copied over to the internal storage tho, some smaller games might work over USB but most won't, especially PS2 really doesn't like to be on external
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Delta is now available on the Apple Appstore... and it rocks
Retro 2 3
126
14K
FoxMcChief replied
The Verge: Microsoft wants to make the Xbox app the home of PC gaming
Platform 2 3 4 5 6
294
13K
Gamezone replied
[Windows Central] The UK and other regions are running suspiciously low on Xbox Series X console stocks.
Business Hardware Platform 2
88
6K
Unknown? replied
[Microsoft] New Year, New Rewards with Xbox
2 3 4
188
7K
AJUMP23 replied
Phillip Wesley Spencer The 3rd: "Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 are too similar"..."I want us to innovate and make hardware the differentiator."
News 2 3
135
6K
Danteyke223 replied
Top Bottom