Why can’t newer iterations of the xbox run original xbox games?

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Why cant the xbox one or series x/s run the original xbox games without Microsoft specifically making them backwards compatible?

In: Technology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The original Xbox ran on a stripped down Windows NT kernel. The game is a program that runs on it. The game knows how to talk to the OS.

To run the same game on an Xbox One or Xbox series X, Microsoft would need to create a software layer so that the game thinks it’s running on an original Xbox.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Basically, different computer architectures speak different languages. You can translate the language on the fly, which is essentially what emulation is, but this requires a lot of processing power.

However, it is possible to “build” the game files in the new language of the new console, and this saves a lot of processing power, but requires developers to spend time on am old product with limited money-making potential.

There’s also the option of putting an extra chip or two in the new console that is essentially a micro-version of the previous console, but this makes the new system more expensive.