360 backwards compatibility

[Darth Marsden]

Thinkin' about maybe getting a 360. Maybe. And one of the draws for me would be backwards compatibility. But the thing is, I know it's not the same as, say, the Wii, where you can just shove any old game in there and have it play. You gotta download a profile or some such, and even then not all the games work perfectly.

I've done some research, but I was wondering - anyone here had fun with BC on the 360? And if so, would you care to share your experiences?

Just don't mention Halo. If you mention Halo, I will come to your house and kill your dog. And if you don't have a dog, I will buy one for you just so I can kill it.

[Yoshiman]

The BC games I've played on my 360 run perfectly. But yeah, you do need to download a software program in order to play the older games. So you do need your 360 hooked up to the Internet. You don't need a Gold account (the one you pay for) to download stuff though, so you should be fine with an ethernet cable.

Experience-wise, it seems better on the 360. The 360's controller is ten times more comfortable than the original's, and the resolution is bumped up as well. Hell, I've even noticed that load times for "A-Certain-Game-That-is-Not-to-be-Mentioned 2" were significantly faster.

But keep in mind that not all games are backwards compatible. The more popular games like Ninja Gaiden and "That Game" are pretty much a guarantee, but for more obscure games, you might want to check this list. (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm)

[Nicholas Steel]

Also, you need a Hard Drive to install the BC software.

[Archibaldo]

Most games are already backwards compatible. And I think some of the newer 360 come with the patch already installed.

[Darth Marsden]

Yeah, I thought as much. Though I prefer this list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_with_Xbox_360) to the official one. Bear in mind I'd be PAL rather then NTSC.

Any of you have problems with any particular games?

[Cloral]

No problems, though I never had an original Xbox, so the only two games I ever tried were 'that game 2' and Ninja Gaiden.

The 'software program' you need to run the games is delivered as a patch. So you boot up the game, you get a message from the system that an update is available, it downloads it automatically, and you're good to go. As long as you can connect to the internet, you're fine.

[MottZilla]

The reason you need a hard drive is because original xbox games require this. Most Xbox games used 3 cache partitions on the hard drive for faster loading or I suppose something like Virtual Memory storage.

Alot of games work fine on the 360, but many technically work but suffer from various issues like in Ninja Gaiden you cannot play the classic Ninja Gaiden games (emulated NG Trilogy). I hear Fable has audio issues.

Just consult the compatibility lists. Personally I don't use the BC feature of the 360 at all. But then again I have the original Xbox so I have no reason not to use that instead.

[Darth Marsden]

So... none of you have tried Buffy or Conker? Bah!

Thanks for the info guys. I'd pretty much learned it all myself, but it's nice to hear it from people who've done it themselves.

[Nicholas Steel]

The reason you need a hard drive is because original xbox games require this. Most Xbox games used 3 cache partitions on the hard drive for faster loading or I suppose something like Virtual Memory storage.
big reasons would be 'faster loading' and the ability to better compress game data on the DVD with minimal performance hits.

[FirstWizZedd45]

Also, if you don't happen to have the internet hooked up to your 360 you can always download the file to disc and load it that way.

I have never had problems with BC games such as glitches just games I would like to play that are not yet backward compatible.

[Nicholas Steel]

Where do you find System Software Updates? The only one I managed to find was for some winter or something... can't find any others though! MUST you connect the console to the internet to aquire the latest or is there a website dedicated to them that lets you download them and install in a similar fashion like mentioned in post #10?

[Darth Marsden]

Look before you leap. (http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/backwardscompatibility_old.htm#disc)

[MottZilla]

While we're on the subject of the 360, I thought I'd mention my 2nd console died tonight. It lived much longer than the first console, almost 2 years. But alas it is dead now. Thankfully my warrenty is for 2 years and I should be able to replace it with a new unit.

[Darth Marsden]

My condolences on your loss.

[Nicholas Steel]

Look before you leap.
I mean System Software, not the Compatabilty Software for original XBOX Games... you know, updates to the O/S, not the original game support stuff.

[MottZilla]

I got a new console now so it's all good I suppose. Bigger HD now and HDMI is nice.

As for downloading updates and burning them to a CD-ROM, you could check around xbox.com for that, but I don't know if you'll find anything like that other than for adding backwards compatibility support. Why don't you just logon to live? The Silver Xbox account is free. That will get you all the updates.