# XBOX OS emulator?



## LockeNess (Jan 2, 2005)

Hey, first of all i know that by thinking the following I'm probably being very niave, but ive been doing some research on this subject and thers one aproach that i have not yet encountered:
treate the XBOX like a OS
essentialy, the XBOX uses a nerfed windows 2000 OS with custum skins, and built in drivers. As such, wouldnt the easiest route to compatible emulation be a repartition of a pc hdd with that specific OS installed on it? I know that the xbox uses the same hardware config on each system, so the drivers would be a pain in the ***, but still, couldnt drivers be written for the XBOX OS for a plethora of different hardware configs? I mean, it still runs on a slightly modified win2000 kernel.

Any thoughts on this? flaws in my logic?
thanks for any input


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## gotrootdude (Feb 19, 2003)

First off, I don't believe the xbox's OS has anything to do with the win2000 OS, although it is based on windows.
The reason I don't believe it is that even though the filenames can have up to 128 characters on the game disks, the hard drive files are restricted to the old 8+3 filenames.
The reason I believe it is based on windows is that there doesn't seem to be much difference between a program written for windows and a xbox program.

Secondly, linux is available to run on the xbox. If you use a USB adaptor, then you can use USB devices with their respective linux drivers on the xbox. So, I'm not quite sure what you're suggesting. http://www.xbox-linux.org/

Third, if you're suggesting xbox emulation, since there isn't much physical difference between an xbox and a 733 celeron PC, the only thing that's really preventing programs written for the xbox from running on a PC is the fact that microsoft used encryption to prevent it. There are programs being developed to decrypt the encryption used in real time to turn the executional into a windows version executional. On the xbox, decryption is handled by the hardware, not software. The use of such programs is most likely illegal so no help will be given here. There may come a day when microsoft decides to make a add-on card for the PC that will enable running xbox programs, but I highly doubt it.

@ Emulation is not viewed favorably by the administrator of this forum due to it's association with copyright violation. This thread will probably be closed shortly. Emulation is not supported by this forum.


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## LockeNess (Jan 2, 2005)

Firstly, if I have somehow violated the rules of this forum, please do shut down this thread, my interest in this subject is purely hypothetical (i was wondering if, like gotroot said, windows may someday sell a add on thing of some sort) because it certainly seems like a good business decision on the part of M$ to do so, seeing as once the alternate OS is written, they could reproduce it milions of times, selling licences for maybe 75-100 with a higher profit margin than on a console that required materials, assembly, etc.



gotrootdude said:


> First off, I don't believe the xbox's OS has anything to do with the win2000 OS, although it is based on windows.


upon researching the following emu development site, i found this page, the first item on the checklist:

http://www.caustik.com/cxbx/progress.htm

like i/it said, the xbox seems to be a modified 2000 kernel, although I am going purely by the text on this sight (probably not the best source for reputable facts =P)

However, if it Was based on linux, wouldnt my theory still stand? to sumhow integrate the xbox environment as a second OS on a different partition of a HDD? Like you said, drivers are available for many USB devices, that can be added after the initial purchase of an xbox, so why couldnt drivers be added after the fact for other components? if its purely a sooftware/hardware compatibility issue, theoreticaly, only one needs to be changed to suit the other, so why change both in the form of a card rather than a secure, PAID, downloadable .iso from M$? i suppose that there is mainly the problem of software piracy, but ms is taking strides against that with their windows os, so why not just pump a little manpower into making a secondary, gaming, os, perhaps one that supports windows games aswell, with special software bundles designed specificaly for the gaming niche.

Once again, My apologies if i have inadvertantly defied the rules of this forum, and if an admin wishes to take this down, please do.

thanks for the input


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

I read about an Xbox emulator that ran on a PC about two years ago but I cannot find the link anymore.


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## AvvY (Oct 8, 2004)

I find it hard to believe that the Xbox was built to run Linux. Its MS and thus would run an Windows kernel of some sort. 

I think it probably would be a good idea to design an os specifically for gamming. MS already made that Media Cetre edition of windows, surely this would be a good move. Make it so that it plays Xbox games, and can optimize all hardware for game play and not run other stuff that you might normally do onn a regular system, such as MSN or what ever runs in the background. 

It would need to have some sort of firewall and antivirus built in for online game play. But i dont know to what extent MS would be bale to provide this protection - perhaps they need to work with a company like Notron to intergrate it.

I think it would be a good idea for sure. Is there anyway to connect an xbox to ur PC and run it like a second hdd? - I guess that wouldnt solve any issues tho.

Late,


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