If you’ve owned an Xbox or an Xbox 360 in the past, or for that matter own one now there are some new (ish) emulators that have grown to be quite reliable in the last few years. The most stable one is the OG Xbox emulator Xemu, this one I use quite a bit about 95% of my games so far seem to work with no issues that impede playability,
The later XBOX 360 emulator is Xenia, this allows you to play your backed up files of your games on a PC, Xenia comes in two forms, firstly the Master version which for me sounded like the one to use however it has another version, referred to as a fork version called Xenia Canary, this one seems to run more games , but some games will run on one and not the other and vice versa. I’ve had about a 50/50 success rate out of the 50 or so games I’ve so far tested.
Games
Playing the games on both emulators is a bit of a task, as windows doesn’t recognise the original game discs, I have read that this is mostly due to compatibility issues with DVD drives, with only a few makes that will read them requiring a flash – That’s too complicated for me!
Xenia (Master & Canary)
How do you get a game onto the PC for the emulator? I’ll start briefly with the easier one in my opinion Xenia. You will need
- Xbox 360 console and controller
- USB stick (at least 16gb)
- PC that can run Xenia
- The Xenia Emulator (canary, master or both)
- God 2 ISO
Firstly download the latest builds of Xenia and God2ISO, after setting these up you’ll need to switch on your XBOX 360 and insert the USB stick. Install your game onto the USB, when complete take out the USB stick and insert into the PC, now you can run the game straight from the USB stick, you’ll open the 44kb file and that will run it in Xenia if its a game that works. There is an optional step to use God2ISO to make the game into an ISO file, which has its benefits and makes games easier to find when you start to have a few on your PC. This is a brief explanation I will do a guide soon, check back!
Games that I have tested on Xenia (Canary) so far are:
James Cameron’s Avatar – Playable with issues – minor graphical glitches but playable
JASF Jane’s Advanced Strike Fighters – Playable no apparent issues
Legend of Spyro Dawn of Dragons – Playable with issues – menu and cutscenes messed up
Painkiller Hell & Damnation – Playable no apparent issues
PGR3 – Playable no apparent issues
Project Sylpheed – Playable no apparent issues
Spiderman Friend or Foe – Playable no apparent issues
Terminator Salvation – Playable no apparent issues
Test Drive Unlimited – Playable with issues – sky flickers intermittently, cutscenes messed up
The Simpsons Game – Playable no apparent issues
Some not aren’t working..
Spiderman Edge of Time – Black textures render game unplayable
Spiderman Shattered Dimensions – Black textures render game unplayable
Import Tuner Challenge – Game will play for unspecified period, then freeze after exiting race.
GI Joe Rise of the Cobra – Black snow textures render game unplayable
Tenchu Z – Strange graphics on character
Top Gun Hard Lock – Plane Textures corrupted, game playable.
The Sabotuer – Black textures render game unplayable
Games list for Xenia – Work in progress (link)
Xemu
The process of getting games onto Xemu from your original game disc isn’t an easy thing to do for the average person, you will need a few more items and steps than Xenia, that said the fact that most XBOX original games will work and they can be upscaled, is defiantly worth the effort. You will need:
- Soft or Hard Modded Original Xbox
- DVD to one on your Xbox
- Ethernet Cable
- FTP software for PC
- Qwix – Converts Disc Files into ISO files
First thing to do is connect your PC to your XBOX OG with the ethernet cable, start your console. Grab you game and load it in to XBOX. Depending on which dash your xbox has, navigate to DVD2One and start copying your game to the hard drive. When complete go back to your PC and start your chosen FTP program and setup the FTP connection to your XBOX, from there you can transfer your game to the PC. Once the copying process is finished, use Quix program on your PC to convert the files to an ISO file. open up Xemu and load the image, you may have to use the reset option to start the game, hey presto your done! This is a brief explanation I will do a guide soon, check back soon.
Most games that I tested work, I’d hazard a guess about 90% work in Xemu and can be played,
here is a few:
4X4 EVO 2
Amped 2
Battlestar Galactica
Crime Life – Gang Wars
Demon Stone
Evil Dead Regeneration
Family Guy
Godzilla Save the Earth
Jet Set Radio Future
Miami Vice
Ninja Gaiden
Panzer Elite Action
SPIKEOUT Battle Street
The Great Escape
Yager
Conclusion
There we have it , 2 classic consoles of the 2000’s and 10’s emulated to a degree of success, I enjoyed messing around with both. My favourite is probably Xemu, the games look great upscaled and will probably continue to add my full physical pal titles to the emulator and play them. Xenia is good, however with a collection of over 600 phsyical 360 games, a good portion of which run on the Xbox one & Series X and I still like getting the achievements! Xenia for me is a marvel to be sure, I’m likely to use it to play NTSC titles for which I have no console for but do own a few games.
