[doc eggfan]

ahem...

Quote

The heart of NUON was the Aries 3 chip. The Aries 3 was based on a unique 128-bit, four-way-parallel very long instruction word processor architecture. In addition to the video and audio decoding and trick-play functions, the chip performs all system-management and CPU functions. More specifically, Aries 3 featured MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 program stream and video decode; MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 Layers 1 and 2 audio decode; 5.1-channel Dolby Digital audio decode; extended DVD trick modes; 32-voice wave table synthesizer; MP3 decode; an integrated Content Scrambling System descrambling module; video scaling, and 3D video gaming. A hardware block placed on-chip to assist MPEG video decoding was designed to free up the bulk of the VLIW device's programmable processing power: 3,024 MIPS at peak and 864 MIPS typical. OK...if your still with us, it was a powerful chip for its time.

[Thousand Pancake]

Isn't there supposed to be a NUON emulator available somewhere?

[doc eggfan]

There was - Nuance - but I don't think it was ever finished, because the guy working on it died tragically.

Or maybe it's been worked on since then, I dunno.

[Lanzer]

Do you mean that Dolphin emulator developer that just died recently? or someone else?

[doc eggfan]

Nah, someone else, it was ages ago

http://www.nuon-dome...wordpress/?p=19

[GerbilSoft]

winterhell, on 24 April 2015 - 02:04 PM, said:

The xbox might as well be the hardest console to emulate out of the 128-bit ones. Having the least popular/numerous exclusive games doesn't help either.

I wasn't aware the Pentium III was a 128-bit CPU. Did I miss the memo?

[winterhell]

GerbilSoft, on 28 April 2015 - 09:28 PM, said:

winterhell, on 24 April 2015 - 02:04 PM, said:

The xbox might as well be the hardest console to emulate out of the 128-bit ones. Having the least popular/numerous exclusive games doesn't help either.

I wasn't aware the Pentium III was a 128-bit CPU. Did I miss the memo?

You know very well what I'm talking about. People take one of the bus widths in the console instead of the address space or even the native integer/float of the CPU and plaster it on the box. I know its wrong.
If we are looking at the address space there are no 128-bit CPUs out there.

[Meat Miracle]

.Luke, on 10 February 2015 - 04:35 PM, said:

The 360's XBOX emulation is a sham, as there are dozen of games that don't even work with it. I think one guy couldn't get any SEGA published XBOX games to work on his 360 at all. If you aren't trying to run Halo 1 or 2, it's hit or miss compatibility. The first Fable might run, that's how bad it is. And if you happen to still own one of the few 360s that shipped without a hard drive, you can't even emulate the few that work.

As I recall, only the PAL releases were not supported, most of the NTSC library is supported on the latest updates - mostly bug free. Wikipedia has a compatibility list.

Still, considering how powerful that machine was, it is nothing short of a miracle for the X360 to be capable of emulating it so well. The x86 alone is a horrible devil to emulate, for one.

Fun fact: it was so difficult that half the Xbox team were asking the developers about where will they go once they realize their futility and get canned, and when they actually got the emulator working, the team members got the official job title "EMULATION NINJA" from Bill Gates himself:
http://michaelbrunda...x-360-emulator/

[.Luke]

So if I get a 360, I pretty much won't need an original XBOX? That's a long ways from where it used to be years ago, I didn't think Microsoft cared enough to fund it. Even better with the "EMULATION NINJA" title.

[The Game Collector]

.Luke, on 09 May 2015 - 08:33 PM, said:

So if I get a 360, I pretty much won't need an original XBOX? />/> That's a long ways from where it used to be years ago, I didn't think Microsoft cared enough to fund it. Even better with the "EMULATION NINJA" title.

That's not true. Not even half of the system's library is playable on Xbox 360. The article was just talking about how they got the short list of emulated games working when they did. Unless the 360 gets homebrew emulators made for all of the individual unsupported games, it's only going to be what it already was. You're better off keeping a modded original Xbox with a component video cable. I found a nice component Monster cable for Xbox at Goodwill for $4.

This post has been edited by The Game Collector: 09 May 2015 - 10:45 PM

[.Luke]

Sadly, most of the XBOX's library doesn't get my interest, so the compatibility list covers what I'd ever beg for. (The not-so turd ports of any Sonic 6th gen game, Fable, both Halo games, OddWorld, Jade Empire, etc.) I'm not into RTS or BTS games, and I'm very picky about racing games, for as much as I love them.

It's still leagues better than what Sony did with PS2 emulation, forcing you to pay for a limited selection of games all over again on the PSN. Although, yes, for XBOX emulation, it doesn't mean anything for preservation of the entire console's library; I agree on that.

[The Game Collector]

.Luke, on 09 May 2015 - 11:04 PM, said:

Sadly, most of the XBOX's library doesn't get my interest, so the compatibility list covers what I'd ever beg for. (The not-so turd ports of any Sonic 6th gen game, Fable, both Halo games, OddWorld, Jade Empire, etc.) I'm not into RTS or BTS games, and I'm very picky about racing games, for as much as I love them.

It's still leagues better than what Sony did with PS2 emulation, forcing you to pay for a limited selection of games all over again on the PSN. Although, yes, for XBOX emulation, it doesn't mean anything for preservation of the entire console's library; I agree on that.

It was probably cheaper to buy the fully backward compatible launch PS3 than it was to buy every single one of the digital titles if you think about it. So you save $100 getting the newer model? Well buy 10 PS2 download titles at $10 each and you're back where you started with less stuff. 60GB FTW.

[DigitalDuck]

The Game Collector, on 09 May 2015 - 11:12 PM, said:

It was probably cheaper to buy the fully backward compatible launch PS3 than it was to buy every single one of the digital titles if you think about it.

Unless you lived in Europe in which case the launch PS3 didn't have backwards compatibility.

Also fucking hell is the BC-PS3 heavy. It oughtweighs the original Xbox.

[sonicblur]

DigitalDuck, on 10 May 2015 - 04:24 AM, said:

Also fucking hell is the BC-PS3 heavy. It oughtweighs the original Xbox.

Keep in mind that they cut backwards compatibility before moving to the PS3 slim. The non-BC fat PS3's are the same size and probably the same weight as the BC ones were.

On a note more related to this thread, I had always assumed the reason they got 360 BC working so well is that they did something similar to CXBX where they emulate specific XDK versions. So they'd "port" the specific XDK version to 360 natively, and they'd still have to emulate an x86 CPU but any SDK calls could be handed natively without the emulation overhead. This would explain why when a group of new games got supported, they usually were based on the same XDK versions. Not sure if there's any truth to that, since none of the documented information I've seen goes into specific technical details, (the link earlier in this thread sure doesn't) but it would help explain why they never reached 100% compatibility. Re-testing every supported game is probably a factor too, but I'm not sure how much of a sticking point that would be since the emulation wasn't perfect in the first place. (There are some side-by-side comparisons on YouTube)

[Overlord]

DigitalDuck, on 10 May 2015 - 04:24 AM, said:

The Game Collector, on 09 May 2015 - 11:12 PM, said:

It was probably cheaper to buy the fully backward compatible launch PS3 than it was to buy every single one of the digital titles if you think about it.

Unless you lived in Europe in which case the launch PS3 didn't have backwards compatibility.

Also fucking hell is the BC-PS3 heavy. It oughtweighs the original Xbox.

It did, just not in hardware. Chopped the list down quite a lot.