The Xbox 360 is when Microsoft started making a dent in the home video game console three-way fight with Sony and Nintendo. Early on, it definitely looked like Microsoft would win the battle, until the PlayStation 3 took off and its success continued a generation later.
Emulation for Xbox 360 is not that high in terms of interest since Microsoft itself allows for the emulation of the aforementioned video game console on its modern offerings. Aside from that, most of the games in the Xbox 360 are ported over to PC, which at least alleviates the need for emulation. Even at the time of its release on the Xbox 360, a significant number of games are being remastered, remade, or belatedly ported to modern hardware.
Still, there are games that are stuck on the Xbox 360 with no end in sight, hence a growing interest in the platform. Examples of these games are the blockbusters Metal Gear Solid 4 and the first Red Dead Redemption, other XBLA games like Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, and AA productions like the JRPG Infinite Undiscovery.
UPDATE – https://retrododo.com/best-xbox-360-emulators/
If you would like to relive some of these old classics, take a look below for our best XBOX 360 Emulators,
1. Xenia
Xenia is the only unofficial emulator for the Xbox 360 worth anyone’s time, and this should be the case for a long, long while. It is still in the experimental stage. This Xbox 360 emulator is also an open-source emulator, hence, the continued development of Xenia is promising. It should be noted that the lead developer views building Xenia as “fun” and pretty much said that this project has “largely achieved” its objective.
Obviously, due to the power of the Xbox 360, it needs pretty hefty specs to emulate games and is only available on Windows. Although, technically, it can run on Linux using the compatibility layer Wine. There is a high probability that there will never be a Xenia port for the macOS.
The recommended hardware for Xenia to run is any GPU capable of Direct3D 12′ Rasterizer-Ordered Views like Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 for desktop setup / GTX 965M for laptops. Surprisingly, AMD Radeon GPUs struggle with emulation although the Xbox 360’s GPU is ATI Xenos GPU. The newest GPUs, if you can find or afford them, like the RX 7900 and the RTX 3000/4000 have issues running this emulator.
As of this writing, there are around ~20% playable titles on Xenia. Below are some of the games that are deemed “playable”:
- Super Meat Boy
- Dream Chronicles
- Dragon’s Lair
- Darkstalkers
- Giana Sisters: TD
- Burgertime World Tour
- Contrast
- Tetris Evolution
- Syberia
- Halo 3 Limited Edition Bonus Disc
- Pac-Man C.E.
- Bionic Commando: Rearmed games
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure HD
- MGS PEACE WALKER HD
- DAYTONA USA
- Diablo III
- Quantum Theory
- Phantasy Star 2
- Adventure Time: The Secret of Nameless Kingdom
- Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi
Some basic features like saves are broken in some of the games. Xenia also supports XInput controllers. Using popular controllers like the Xbox controllers will not be a problem. However, those which has HID input will require further tinkering. While there is indeed keyboard support, Xenia does not support mouse controls, as well as the Xbox 360 accessories like the Kinect, uDraw GameTablet, and even the microphones.
The following features will never be part of the Xenia emulator:
- High Accuracy – due to the lack of documentation on the Xbox 360 hardware, it will not be possible to get Xenia to run as close as the original hardware;
- Xbox Live Connectivity – For obvious reasons, Xbox Live Connectivity could not be implemented, but could be simulated;
- Original Xbox Backwards Compatibility – There are other emulators that work perfectly fine with emulating the original Xbox hardware like Xemu and Cxbx-Reloaded. Xbox 360 emulator itself is a herculean effort, having the same emulator emulate another significantly different hardware should be too much to ask from the developers.
Pros
- In active development
- It runs!
Cons
- Understandably need beefy hardware
- Still very early in its development
- Anemic feature set
2. Fission
Fission is the official internally developed original Xbox and Xbox 360 emulator for both the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. At first, this patch-based emulator was meant to run Xbox 360 games only, but due to the rising demand and probably the rise of revitalized interest in free and open-source emulators, Microsoft decided to add in the original Xbox in Fission.
As of this writing, there are 632 out of 2154 Xbox 360 Games that are emulated in Xbox 360. Below are some of the games which have Xbox One X enhancements and/or FPS Boost,
- Alan Wake
- Assassin’s Creed
- Binary Domain
- Banjo-Kazooie games
- Black College Football: BCFX: The Experience
- Darksiders
- Dead Space 2
- Dead Space 3
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Dragon Age: 2
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- Fable Anniversary
- Fable III
- Fallout 3
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Far Cry 3
- F.E.A.R.
- F.E.A.R 3
- Final Fantasy XIII-2
- Gears of War
- Gears of War 2
- Gears of War: Judgment
- Kameo: Elements of Power
- Lego The Lord of the Rings
- Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
- Medal of Honor: Airborne
- Mirror’s Edge
- Nier
- Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
- Rock of Ages
- Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
- Sonic Generations
- Sonic Unleashed
- Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment
Some Xbox 360 games that are emulated without enhancements include:
- Alan Wake’s American Nightmare
- Alice: Madness Returns
- Alien Hominid HD
- Aliens vs. Predator
- A good number of Assassin’s Creed games
- Asura’s Wrath
Fission is unique in the sense that it uses the original physical Xbox games as “evidence” that you own them and download a version of it to your console. You need to keep being online for DRM purposes. There is also an advantage with this method as the emulated games that are downloaded have several enhancements like improved graphics, better performance in terms of frame rates, and increased resolutions.
For the Xbox One X, a number of original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles have been upgraded with new visual effects, better framerates, and resolutions up to 4K.
When their discs are inserted, two specific original Xbox games do not download as the original versions. Instead, the 360 versions of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be downloaded.
Pros
- Active
- Good feature set
Cons
- Very low amount of compatible games
View on Amazon (Xbox Series S)
View on Amazon (Xbox Series X)
