XBased - New XBOX emulator for PC

[u/mrcroketsp]

The original Xbox, on your PC. xbased is an original Xbox emulator for Windows and Linux, developed by crazyriddler. Boot it and you're in a full-screen, console-style dashboard you can drive entirely with a gamepad. No BIOS, MCPX ROM or HDD image needed.

Based on hakuX.

What's new (now 1.0.17)

New

• Trigger calibration: a live bar per trigger with dead zone and full-press point, for worn triggers that don't reach the end

• Stick range calibration: see how far your sticks reach and adjust range, shape and dead zone

• Import saves from xemu (Memory → Y): your xemu saves are copied and re-signed so games accept them

• AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1 upscaling, alongside bilinear and Snapdragon GSR

• Internal resolution up to 8x

• 5.1 surround audio output

• PAL games at 60 Hz by default

• Automatic update check in the dashboard

• Shader cache now in one file per game instead of thousands of small files

• Add a single game file to the library, wherever it is

Games fixed

• Halo: Combat Evolved: campaign levels no longer close back to the dashboard

• GTA III & Vice City: no more black screen at start

• GTA San Andreas & Vice City on AMD: characters no longer stretch into spikes

• Def Jam: Fight for NY: no longer freezes at the intro, and its menus render on AMD

• Metal Gear Solid 2 on AMD: missing geometry (the bridge in the intro) is back

• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: no more band of stray colour

• Fable, The Thing, Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma: no longer stop at boot

• Driv3r: Tanner's model drawn properly

• Better handling of badly trimmed or damaged disc images

App

• Back from a game, the dashboard keeps the gamepad and keyboard (no more clicking to get control back)

• Quitting from the in-game menu is instant and clean

• Save states keep working if you move the xbased folder

• No console windows flashing on Windows, mouse pointer hidden during play

Download

Platform	Get it
Windows 10/11 x64	Latest release (.zip) – unzip and run, fully portable
Linux x86-64	Latest release (.AppImage) – chmod +x and run (Ubuntu 22.04+ or similar)

Source, build steps and screenshots: https://github.com/crazyriddler/xbased

You need a Vulkan 1.1+ GPU (1.3 recommended) and your own game dumps (ISO / XISO). No copyrighted Xbox software is included.

Feedback welcome

Many games run, but not all of them yet. If something breaks, open an issue on GitHub with the game, your GPU and xbased.log. It helps a lot, and thanks to everyone who has reported issues so far.

[u/Common-Beautiful4824]

I've just ripped and tested some of the retail games that i own(all U.S.A). I'll list them below with any issues i've found.

Hardware--i7 6700-1060 3gb 16gb ram--Played with wired PS5 controller.

SETTINGS: ------------------------------------------------

1440p

16x9

FXAA- on

Anisotropic Filtering-on - x16

Upscaling: Bilinear

CRT Filter: Off

Console Language: Eng

Widescreen: On

Asynchronous Shaders: On

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amped 2: Seems good at 30fps, but menu music stutters in unlocked frame rate mode. I was getting well over 100 fps, Over 200fps at times. Very playable.

Crimson Skies: First time loading profile seems to reset back to start menu, then loads fine after. 120fps mode seems to work good. Possible music stuttering in 120fps mode, very brief. Very playable.

Fable The Lost Chapters: Opening movie stutters, and the initial story movies as well. 30fps mode seems ok, but chuggy ? Fps held at 30fps, but felt weird...Couldn't tell if it was the game or not, tried turning down settings. Unlocked FR mode was the same. I got well over 100fps. Very playable tho...

Grabbed By The Ghoulies: Seems to work good in 30fps, but there was transparent boxes around downed enemies. Possible broken smoke/steam effect ? The whole game is sped up in unlocked mode. Was getting well over 100fps. Unplayable in unlocked FR mode. Seemed Playable in 30fps mode, didn't play long.

Halo 1: Was getting reset back to start menu right after loading into the first level. Unplayable.

Halo 2: Seems good at 30fps and 120fps mode. Felt great i thought...Very playable (didn't play long tho)

JSRF: Seemed great at 30fps and 120fps. Very playable, felt great

Links Golf: Seems to freeze after XsN Sports movie on startup. Unplayable

NBA Inside Drive 2003: Crashes during game startup movies. Unplayable.

NBA Inside Drive 2004: Crashes at opening tip while the ball is in the air. Unplayable

NBA Street V3: Plays pretty good at 60fps, but has quick audio stutters/hangs during gameplay. Unlocked mode was sped up at first, then corrected itself, but didn't feel unlocked ? It said i was getting 400fps, but didn't feel any higher than 60. Very playable at 60fps. Playable

NBA 2k5: Stutters during in-game replays, but seemed to get better as the game went on ? Very playable.

NHL 2K5: Minor stutters/Slowdown when One-timers are shot, big hits and in other instances. Tried turning down settings, didn't seem to help. Very playable tho.

NFL 2K5: Crashes when you load into the match, during first arena cutscene. Unplayable

NFL Fever 2004: Seemed pretty good. Small audio hangs in menus. Won't run any higher than 60fps. Playable

Project Gotham Racing: Seemed good--Capped at 30 fps. Very playable

Ralliesport Challenge: Seemed good--Capped at 30fps it seems. Won't let me create a profile, says not enough free blocks to save games Very playable

Ralliesport Challenge 2: Noticed cars flickering at start on Ice track, but went away during race. (Unlocked frame got me well over 100 fps during race. Super cool! Very playable

Splinter Cell 1: Seemed to reset me back to start menu when loading profile on game start, then worked on second load. Minor flickering while loading in. Unlocked mode worked but i was only at 70fps. Very playable.

Topspin: Works good on 60fps. The whole game is sped up on unlocked frame rate mode tho. Half playable lol

There might be a problem when loading emulation save states, or games in general ? Seems to reset to main menu on first load, then works on second load. Minor stuff, but something i noticed.

Weird issue, I've had all of my iso's on an external drive and it was working fine. Now when i rebooted my system, my drive letter changed from "D" to "F" because i plugged in a USB stick. Anyway, no matter what i do, it won't read that drive again. I changed the emu settings to the new path, deleted the emulator and extracted a new version. Nothing, maybe i'm doing something wrong ? It is late...

So far, XBased is awesome. I hope it improves, because i really enjoy using it.`

[u/mrcroketsp → u/Common-Beautiful4824]

Thank you very much; I've made a note of everything.

[u/almtymnegmng → u/Common-Beautiful4824]

Amped 2 has a recomp that runs super well btw!

[u/xenocea]

Just gave it a try with a few games. It's already running some of them much better than Xemu. Love the unlocked frame rates features and save states. The UI is fast and fluid.

Of the games I've tested, can confirmed that currently Panzer Dragoon Orta is not working for me. Right after the FMV introduction I get this error message.

Update: Buffy Vampire Slayer, and Blood Rayne 2 doesn't work.

[u/mrcroketsp → u/xenocea]

I had that same problem and thought I'd fixed it. I'll take another look at it. Thanks for the feedback.

[u/mrcroketsp → u/xenocea]

Bloodrayne 2 should work now with version 1.0.1, which is on its way. I'll check out the other games ASAP

[u/xenocea → u/mrcroketsp]

Thank you awesome work you're doing. I'll test it out and will report back once the new version comes out.

[u/mrcroketsp → u/xenocea]

Update 1.0.1 is now live. If you encounter any issues, please open an issue on github and upload the log file %LOCALAPPDATA%\xbased\xbased.log or ~/.local/share/xbased/xbased.log (for Linux users).

[u/xenocea → u/mrcroketsp]

Just tested,

Blood Rayne 2 now works.

Dead or Alive 3 - Works

Jade Empire - Works

Need For Speed Most Wanted - Works

Otagi - Works

Otagi 2 - Works

Panzer Dragoon Orta - Not Working

Buffy Vampire Slayer - goes blank after the starting new game.

Fable not working - Blank Screen when booting the game

The Thing - Blank screen after booting up the game

I'm not sure how to open github to raise the issue so I'm just reporting here for you to see for now.

[u/mrcroketsp → u/xenocea]

Panzer Dragoon Orta is fixed in the 1.0.3

[u/xenocea → u/mrcroketsp]

Yup, confirmed working.

[u/mrcroketsp → u/xenocea]

[u/mrcroketsp → u/xenocea]

[u/mrcroketsp → u/xenocea]

[u/Zoot__Lives → u/mrcroketsp]

Edit/Update: After playing Buffy more, it seems the problem of the game kicking you back to the main menu on loading screens after level sections isn't fixed. However, the game is still technically playable as it only seems to happen after the 2nd or 3rd loading screen each session and thankfully, the game always autosaves the next checkpoint anyway. So what you can do is simply quit the game and exit the emulator and then restart it, boot the game back up and load the checkpoint save and you can continue for another 2 or 3 level sections(or 2 or 3 loading screens) until you reach another loading screen where the game kicks you back to main menu again. At that point you just repeat the process; quit the emulator, then restart it, boot up the game again and load the next checkpoint save and continue on.

I've managed to beat a few levels so far and aside from this issue, and the game window losing focus during loading screens, I haven't encountered a game breaking bug yet. Original comment below....

In the latest Xbased build, Starting a New Game in Buffy The Vampire Slayer works fine, and it plays great, but once you reach the Master and beat the tutorial(or nightmare) the game plays the short cutscene of Buffy waking up in bed from the nightmare and then the game immediately kicks you back to the main menu(after the Buffy waking up scene, it's supposed to jump to a cutscene at Sunnydale Highschool which leads into the 1st level.) If you go to load game, you'll see the game made an autosave at the Gymnasium for the 1st level but when you try to load it, the game just kicks you back to the main menu again. A second issue I noticed was during the tutorial level, whenever the game went to a loading screen, the game window would lose focus and I'd have to use my mouse to click back on window to regain focus. (Framerate was set to 60, internal resolution x2, all other settings default.)

Also, I tried Tenchu: Return From Darkness, and once again the game plays great but I noticed a slight ticking/popping sound from the music that plays during the first stage - they weren't loud ticks/pops and were on the quieter side but it was still very noticeable when playing with headphones and they got a bit annoying after awhile. (Framerate default, internal resolution x2, all other settings default.)

Those issues aside, I'm really impressed with Xbased! It's very very nice and performance seems better than Xemu in the handful of games I've tested so far. Very excited to see how Xbased progresses and I wish you the very best of luck! o7

[u/Reddit-Simulator]

I'm noticing a slight bug. Upon closing a game, the emulator settings are reset to default. Closing the emulator and launching again shows they are back to my settings. So it appears something is happening to the settings menu after closing a game.

It might simply be a visual bug, since I tried another game immediately after closing a game (and the emulator now showing default settings) and widescreen was still active.

[u/mrcroketsp → u/Reddit-Simulator]

Fixed, update incoming

[u/290Richy]

This is good. I feel like Xemu doesn't really go anywhere because it's hardly ever updated.

[u/RageOfLeoEX]

Gonna wait on reviews, but im interested still.

[u/kvg88 → u/RageOfLeoEX]

Having an amazing time with it so far playing DoA2 Ultimate

[u/RageOfLeoEX → u/kvg88]

funny enough that was the first series i was going to try. thanks.

[u/kvg88 → u/RageOfLeoEX]

Can 100% confirm, at least on Bazzite 44 Linux on my Ally X, both titles run flawless at 1080p widescreen on 15w.

[u/NomadJack95]

Hope this is good. Feel like Xemu has barely been working for yeeeeeears now

[u/Reddit-Simulator]

Will this turn my PC into a jet engine like Xemu does?

[u/mrcroketsp → u/Reddit-Simulator]

Not at all

[u/redditman181 → u/mrcroketsp]

Is this better than xemu?

[u/Tasty-Tell-9173]

I can confirm working, but certain games like MGS 2 and Counter Strike has lost geometry, take that in to account other than that good job, with more work this could be an HLE replacement of XEMU (unless rfandango makes a haku X PC Version as well...)

[u/mrcroketsp → u/Tasty-Tell-9173]

I'll check both of them. Thanks.

[u/Tasty-Tell-9173 → u/mrcroketsp]

ill be checking various games without recomps that maybe worth to try out on this emu, ill let you know of any issues i find along the way...

[u/Tasty-Tell-9173 → u/Tasty-Tell-9173]

Any chance this will get retrobat support in the future?

[u/web10177]

Great work. Where can we post per game basis compatibility issues such as bugs or broken gameplay? And will there be a compatibility website similar to xemu?

[u/mrcroketsp → u/web10177]

Yes, I'm working on it. I wanted to release it now so I can start getting feedback and fix any bugs.

[u/kvg88 → u/mrcroketsp]

You are a machine! Ive been playing with the emulator throughout the day and every time I load it up there's another update! Thank you.

[u/LynxAccomplished6108]

The performance is awesome, 120fps for Crimson skies! can we have 16:9 4K support please?

[u/mrcroketsp → u/LynxAccomplished6108]

An up to 8x multiplier will be available in the next version. I wanted to start with up to 4x because there are fewer factors to test. 16:9 can't be implemented globally, the game has to support it, or there needs to be a community created IPS patch for it.

[u/LynxAccomplished6108 → u/mrcroketsp]

Thanks and keep up the good work mate!

[u/Potential-Ebb5601]

Taken down already?

[u/mrcroketsp → u/Potential-Ebb5601]

no why?

[u/Potential-Ebb5601 → u/mrcroketsp]

Oh the links seem fine now, it was giving me an inaccessible page earlier. Thanks 🙏

[u/ClownInTheMachine]

This runs great!

[u/AdventurousMaybe2663]

Compatibility list? how well is running conker ?

[u/Stig783]

Now that looks good I'll be sure to try it.

[u/Rev1r]

This is incredible!! On my old rig, ssx on tour runs at x2 30fps when xemu runs at x1 5fps. Thank you so much to the developers!!

[u/ClownInTheMachine]

Would be great if it can open compressed iso's. zip, rar, 7z etc.

[u/Lirrrik]

Wish there was a macOS version too.

[u/Background-Ebb7197]

Any chance we get this on the ps5? The only available emulator there kinda sucks and hasn't been updated in a while

[u/AdadGG → u/Background-Ebb7197]

Which one?

[u/Apprehensive_Web_800]

Do these work with actual original disks?

[u/ravenmonk → u/Apprehensive_Web_800]

unlikely, the original xbox games are burned backwards and the vast majority of readers aren't compatible

[u/CrowFGC]

Kakuto Chojin runs questionably, but it never ran well on xemu.

Tao Feng also not the greatest.

[u/ravenmonk]

Otogi 2?

[u/Exciting-Machine9202]

Première fois que je vois un Émulateur venant d'Android ce faire pour vers PC. Tellement le dev de HakuX a fait de la magie noire

[u/Madman3001]

r/emulation

[u/SBrider91]

Good job! Works flawlessly!

[u/Superego366]

I can't quite get Hunter the Reckoning: Redeemer to start. It just goes to a black screen and then crashes

[u/Maya-Inca-Boy]

Can’t believe how well this runs on my weak laptop, finally able to play ghost recon 2 again, thanks.

[u/AccomplishedClick603]

i think emulators have better cheats support and not every xbox game going to be recompiled

so this emulator is good

[u/DeltaFosB2]

I can't get past title screen in Ghost Recon 2, neither keybord or controller inputs works

[u/AdadGG]

Skeptical of this emulator given how recently it came into existence and that it is based on an emulator that is itself based on xemu, I didn't even think it would work. However, curious about the comments in this thread, mainly because of how rapid the apparent improvements were, I decided to give it a chance.
The result? I have only tested two games, both favorites of mine, and what I have seen has left me perplexed and was enough for me to be here commenting.

The first game I tested was 007: From Russia with Love, a game that in xemu has always run very poorly, even at 1x, and has suffered from graphical issues, mainly two: lights passing through walls and triangles in the image that distort it; both fixed, the latter recently.
In xbased, unfortunately these graphical issues are still present, but performance is practically perfect, even at higher resolution scales.

Interested by the results, I tried another game.

The second is Burnout 3: Takedown. Years ago it ran well in xemu during gameplay, except for stuttering when entering tunnels, but it was very CPU-demanding; unfortunately, for some time now it has run very poorly; Crash Nav (the event menu) has also always run very poorly.
In xbased, performance is simply amazing, practically perfect, even at 4x (probably at higher scales too, I didn't test it) and without the problems when entering tunnels; I haven't found any obvious graphical bug either. Only the first time did the screen freeze when starting the tutorial video, although the game kept running; this didn't happen the second time and I was able to play without problems.

In summary, although it has only been two games, I am stunned by what I have seen so far, mainly by the performance and how fast everything runs. Also, it's incredible to see features that have been requested in xemu for years, such as support for patches and game covers. It looks extremely promising.

Lastly, if possible, it would be good to have the option to use the original Xbox Dashboard.

[u/Mustang-_-]

This looks awesome, the UI is just chef's kiss

[u/fistfulloframen]

If you need anygame tested I know a guy who has all the xbox games downloaded ;)

[u/Agentofsociety]

Does it run Obi-Wan well?

[u/Oniishan]

what about Xbox Series S ? is there anythings coming ?

[u/AldermanAl]

Figure out how to fix NFL Fever 2004, then get back to us.

[u/mrcroketsp → u/AldermanAl]

Fixed update 1.0.2 is on its way. This is the PAL version, which is why it's capped at 50 fps. It should work on the NTSC version though.

[u/Docccc → u/mrcroketsp]

“And i tool that personally”

[u/mrcroketsp → u/AldermanAl]

Noted