Figuring out the still relevant of the original xbox game library.

FAST6191

Techromancer
OP
Editorial Team
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
36,795
Trophies
5
XP
28,518
Country
United Kingdom
Following a profile conversation and a lack of anything really popping up for a token search ( https://www.thegamer.com/best-original-xbox-games/ has 10 games locked to the original xbox and was about as good as that got, most other things being best multiplatform games) I figured I would start on this. I have considered libraries for a console before but this is something I think a bit of crowd sourcing might work for. For the uniniated then the original xbox was Microsoft's big push into the console market (having been the main game in town on PCs for years before this). It flopped in Japan but outside it did somewhat OK. Got some exclusive games, though many were later/simultaneously ported to the PC, and if the game was a multiplatform game then 99 times of 100 the xbox version would be the best of any home console versions.
This porting to the PC means that today many struggle to consider the xbox library when any PC still able to run a modern web browser could probably run 10 copies of the game and still have the printer company's "buy our ink and paper" spamware take up more resources, and the PC versions are usually very cheap. There are however some gems in there that you will need an original xbox or something to emulate it on to play in any form but more on that shortly.

I will assume anything missing from ABGX's list is a region dupe
https://web.archive.org/web/20190905230059/http://abgx.net/
https://web.archive.org/web/20190902144503/http://www.abgx.net/xbox_releases_alpha.txt
https://web.archive.org/web/20190815155707/http://www.abgx.net/xbox_releases_date.txt

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/xbox/filtered?page=0
https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/xbox/filtered?view=condensed
I normally don't care for metacritic but could prove somewhat illustrative in this and was around where something like opencritic might struggle. That said there are a few xbox originals that are getting a second look today that some would be said to be unfairly dismissed by the critics.
Don't know if we want to look at gamefaqs here -- they are not that complete in many later systems when I wanted lists before.

Anyway the goal would probably be a few separate lists.
Simple xbox exclusives including things which made it to PC. Though I will note PC ports might have been different games rather than higher res versions of the same game (007 nightfire, one of the better multiplayer efforts of the generation and a pretty decent single player, being quite different here and generally viewed as inferior). However as this is a hacker forum I do have to include whatever has since been done with mods to make things nice and shiny -- restoration of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 ( https://starwarsfans.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sith_Lords_Restored_Content_Mod ) being among those. What you care for in terms of mods in general might vary -- Max Payne as a franchise has some great stuff on PC but a lot of that is more in the total conversion realm.

Simple xbox exclusives that were xbox exclusives then and to this day, though stuff like being sold as downloadable or something on the 360 and xbone is a not necessarily a dealbreaker. We can do the Halo vs remastered versions disucssion if you want. Rare games (as in Conker and Banjo) that got sometimes censored, though hackers can and have bypassed some of this, but also appear in very nice forms on later consoles in disc form that might be the better choice. Ninja Gaiden Black tends to be ignored in remakes/rereleases in favour of its own remake in the form of Sigma that first appeared on the PS3 (the 360 having been enjoying an out and out sequel in the form of Ninja Gaiden II at the same time).

Console exclusives that might have appeared on the PS2 or gamecube (don't care about handhelds for this, though happy to note if something is good) but not the PC. Generally if the xbox got a version it was the best version of a given game but there might be exceptions.

Some might also note local multiplayer in this. If you saw the reboot of sorts for Dark Alliance then you might want to play the original games here with a nice local co-op rather than trying to get it going on PCs for a LAN session or something.

Others might want to note if later entries in the franchise exist. SSX3 would feature on many lists here, but with the 360 effort is that a better choice? MX vs ATV?

Is region going to be a thing in this? PAL for instance never got high resolution cables and PAL users today have to hack their xbox to use them.

Step 1 would probably be to condense down the list above to English names (can happily have "also known as" in another column), any Japanese exclusives (there were a couple), any non English stuff (don't know if there are any, normally see any random non English comics, TV show tie ins, gameshows and cartoons go for handhelds but could have happened here), maybe lose the homebrew/sdks/non game stuff in there and generally get a nice master list to start with.

In the meantime do also feel free to note any games you would get for the original xbox that might be harder to find, or the best console version, or otherwise ripe for playing today. Panzer Dragoon Orta for instance is a wonderful game, Gun Valkyrie is good stuff as well.
 
D

Deleted User

Guest
If you include emulation, there's not any I can think of but there maybe a couple. Xemu has gotten really good at emulating about 60% of xbox games.

https://xemu.app/

You can sort the working games by clicking the green link that says 58%.
 
Last edited by ,
  • Like
Reactions: Jayro

Jayro

MediCat USB Dev
Developer
Joined
Jul 23, 2012
Messages
13,741
Trophies
7
Location
WA State
Website
ko-fi.com
XP
18,691
Country
United States
If you include emulation, there's not any I can think of but there maybe a couple. Xemu has gotten really good at emulating about 60% of xbox games.

https://xemu.app/

You can sort the working games by clicking the green link that says 58%.
This looks incredible. I can't believe I haven't heard of this until now. I've been relying on the PSP port of Burnout 3 (Burnout Legends) on PPSSPP, but now it looks like I can play the real thing!
 
D

Deleted User

Guest
This looks incredible. I can't believe I haven't heard of this until now. I've been relying on the PSP port of Burnout 3 (Burnout Legends) on PPSSPP, but now it looks like I can play the real thing!

It's somewhat convoluted to get setup though. You have to use ISOs no folder format, but you can't use redump ISOs for whatever reason. You have to download the folder format of the game then convert it using Qwix or XDVDMulleterX to ISO. Then you also have to get several files to get it working such as bios and Xbox hdd image.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    kijetesantakalu042 @ kijetesantakalu042: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vl1EGGzVkw