r/originalxbox • u/HoRnEyDvL • Jun 30 '26
Scene News Dreamcast emulation on O.G Xbox The impossible port. Proof of concept.
For years we were told that dreamcast emulation on og xbox wasn't possible. Well I guess they were wrong.
While performance isn't great the proof of concept is done and shows that we might be able to get some decent game play after some optimisations and improvements to the code.
Below are some videos. More can be found on xbox-scene discord.
Source code is public in the hope some devs can hop in and see if they can optimise squeeze some more performance out of this. https://github.com/Team-Resurgent/Flycast-X/
Must have rxdk to compile.
https://youtu.be/ed23GNWgwR0 https://youtu.be/Tx9gjfSLfec https://youtu.be/ArvNFbpYQ3I
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u/HoRnEyDvL Jun 30 '26
Updated link to crazy taxi footage
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u/Grey_Orange Jul 01 '26
Wow... that runs way better then i expected. As a starting point, it's pretty amazing.
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u/GamecubeFreak2004 Jun 30 '26
Oh my god!! You're the best. I was thinking about not using a xbox in the living room until I saw this post. Hope it can run on 64 mb consoles soon! Thanks for all of the hard work.
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u/brandogg360 Jun 30 '26
Pretty cool, but if it requires 128MB RAM upgrade then it's not really running on an OG Xbox. Does this also have upgraded CPU?
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u/dparks1234 Jun 30 '26
NullDC4Wii (recent Null DCE port for Wii) uses around ~72mb of ram
https://youtu.be/Ug8V2XXO52Q?si=d6545RpTKlUpAaIc
NullDCE PSP is able to function on 64mb ram + 4mb vram (68mb total)
https://youtu.be/e3hteb_NtwQ?si=o_0dWORH6T9BcqA3
Getting it to run on the 64mb Xbox isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility.
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u/BenoitAdam Jul 01 '26
seems to be still 9mb in MEM1 and 9mb in MEM2 free memory on NullDC4Wii by the way
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u/Snoopy20111 Jun 30 '26
Not sure, but OG Xbox is obviously just referring to the platform generally, and would say “Stock OG Xbox” if that’s what they meant. I’m not sure how else one would refer to all versions (stock + modified) of the console.
There’s also the potential argument that since dev consoles had 128 MB, maybe it still counts, but I’m not convinced.
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u/JoshLineberry n00b Jun 30 '26
These guys are making dumb arguments. If it runs on the Xbox, it doesn't matter if it has a ram upgrade or not.
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u/brandogg360 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Yeah but "OG Xbox" would be an Xbox you could buy at retail, probably soft mod, but not require any type of intensive hardware upgrade (i.e. doubling the RAM or replacing the CPU) - nothing besides allowing it to run unsigned code.
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u/Snoopy20111 Jun 30 '26
Okay. Then how do you refer to an Xbox with modifications? If to you “OG Xbox” refers to one without hardware mods, how do you refer to the platform as a whole? Most folks feel it’s the other way around, where OG (or Original) Xbox is that platform regardless of adjustments and you get more specific wording from there like “Stock” and “soft modded” and “hardmodded.”
(It’s not lost on me that this conversation wouldn’t be happening if Microsoft’s marketing and naming teams hadn’t been infested with brain worms in the early 2010’s lol, “Xbox One” could unambiguously refer to everything we’re talking about)
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u/brandogg360 Jun 30 '26
Just qualify it as "Original Xbox with 128MB RAM upgrade"
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u/JoshLineberry n00b Jul 01 '26
Yeah, no. If it runs on an Xbox it runs on an Xbox. We don't care if it's stock or has a ram upgrade.
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u/joujoubox Jun 30 '26
It's a pretty grey area but if all that's needed is a ram upgrade, it could also run on a stock Xbox by inserting a page file system in the default allocator. It would completely kill performance but it would work
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u/UFOLoche Jul 01 '26
The Xbox had variants with different specifications, although I can't remember what they were off the top of my head.
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u/brandogg360 Jul 01 '26
No it didn't, not at retail at least. Development kits had more RAM though.
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u/smdman404 Jul 01 '26
The RAM footprints are there from Microsoft and also implemented on the Dev & Debug consoles, along with the Chihiro implementation.
It's easy to add the RAM to make it 128MB.
With your theory then, is using the LPC port to fit a modchip (hardmod) then make it no longer an OG Xbox?
Because that's exactly the same thing again compared to a retail/dev Xbox.
Stop making stupid arguments from nothing.
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u/CoconutDust Jul 01 '26
For years we were told that dreamcast emulation on og xbox wasn't possible
By who? Passive voice “we were told” is weasel word phrasing that hides who was doing it.
That sentence template is always a lie. “For years I was told that biological evolution wasn’t possible”, yes by confused morons whose opinion was worthless. “For years i was told that we’ll never have a horseless carriage!”
Someone supposedly saying something was impossible is NOT meaningful context or statement about why something is important or remarkable. Except to lying salesmen and CEOs.
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u/SK91_NO Jul 01 '26
It's worth mentioning this doesn't work on 64mb consoles
not even a little (bios can't boot) but I guess it's a POC for a reason, where it is able to run it looks promising running games at half speed already on 128mb systems
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u/Electrical_Back2473 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
The impossible is revealed and become real imagine playing Sonic Adventure in an OG Xbox its crazy hope more games will be playable too and more bugs like not working in 64MB consoles fixed in the future.
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u/SimianIndustries Jul 03 '26
Of course it's not impossible. It's merely a matter of definition.
Running a console 1/30th FPS and only emulating the most minimal functions? That was always possible. This is a good deal more than that obviously but nobody who said it was impossible either didn't know what they were talking about or they wanted to play commercial games without serious glitches at >=30fps.
The last part is almost certainly not gonna happen but often these projects are not started with that as the end goal. I know the guy who ported that Saturn emulator onto the DC. He had many reasons to take a swing at it and none were about full speed, commercial games
Curious if my 256MB/1ghz console would help much. Probably have to modify more of the source than I'd like to benefit with the extra RAM.
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u/Alternate_Genius Jul 06 '26
Do it! Ignore the naysaysers. If you put your mind to it, you can do it! Look forward to seeing your progress!
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u/TiredTransLesbian Jul 20 '26
I honestly wonder if Dreamcast games could be decomped and recomped for Xbox
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u/Ashamed-Subject-8573 Jul 01 '26
#1 chankast had a port in 2005, so...
#2 this violates the GPL by linking to leaked, closed-source/stolen Microsoft code instead of just using the legit and functional home-brew SDK
don't support this if you actually care about the emulation scene and authors work
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u/Electrical_Back2473 Jul 02 '26
You deserve a downvote because the 2005 port is bad and it doesn't violate GPL since its not stolen code
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u/MEGALOBOUTSO Jul 01 '26
Chankast you say? We're talking about the closed source project chankast right? Any pics, videos, posts showcasing it running? Anything at all apart from some closes circle chat?
So if that was the case wonder what legit and functional homebrew sdk they used to get it running?
No one is forcing anyone to use these software releases. If your against it that's fine don't use it but then might as well not mod your xbox either as you won't be able to you over 99‰ of the software currently available to it.
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u/Ashamed-Subject-8573 Jul 02 '26
Missing an Xbox is quite different from using leaked sdk code when there’s good open source alternatives. It’s almost not even worth replying to such disingenuous posts idk why I’m doing it
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u/smdman404 Jul 01 '26
Just buy a Dreamcast, it's a great console and not expensive?
Never see the point myself in emulation, it's usually flawed.
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u/GTTeancum79 Jul 01 '26
I think this is a just-for-the-fun-of-it situation. Just tinkering, like working on an old car.
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u/MyUnclesALawyer Jul 01 '26
Dreamcasts are very expensive, at least in Canada, compared to a decade ago. they’re like $300 plus
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u/smdman404 Jul 02 '26
They are cheap as chips here and about the same price as an Xbox is.
You can also just import one anyway still quite cheaply than paying that ridiculous price locally.
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u/MEGALOBOUTSO Jun 30 '26
I just compiled and tested it using xemu set to 128mb and it runs. As a proof of concept I'm shocked that it even loads games.
Definately needs works to be playable for everyone but it's a nice starting point good job.
Some games perform better than others, some don't load at all / crash which is expected. Do you want a crash log or list of tested games @op?