• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

OG Xbox Appreciation and Lack of Emulation Thread of the big black box of doom

Crynox

Neo Member
crossposting from the Dreamcast thread because this is something I'm curious about: does Metropolis Street Racer have any major gameplay differences or features not in Project Gotham Racing (beside that amazing Richard Jacques soundtrack)? Or does PGR and its sequel completely obselete it?

Not in my opinion! As good as PGR 1 is it isn't better than MSR. It was a quick rush job to get it out for launch day. For me the PGR series began at PGR 2.
Compared to MSR they seemed to use a very dark colour pallette which didn't look good. It didn't have the unique DC time of day set up.
They made it easier as lots of the track layouts are missing the central reservations, which took away the sense of tenseness during the races.
It does play well though and it does have the extra city and of course it's a little sharper in the graphics department.
 

Glowsquid

Member
Not in my opinion! As good as PGR 1 is it isn't better than MSR. It was a quick rush job to get it out for launch day. For me the PGR series began at PGR 2.
Compared to MSR they seemed to use a very dark colour pallette which didn't look good. It didn't have the unique DC time of day set up.
They made it easier as lots of the track layouts are missing the central reservations, which took away the sense of tenseness during the races.
It does play well though and it does have the extra city and of course it's a little sharper in the graphics department.

Ah, thanks for that. I asked because the two games seemed to share a lot of the same tracks.
 

-shadow-

Member
I had no idea that this was a thing. Considering actually supporting it, every little incentive for a OG Xbox emulator would help. Especially considering Microsoft doesn't seem to care two shits about the platform.
 

Havoc2049

Member
crossposting from the Dreamcast thread because this is something I'm curious about: does Metropolis Street Racer have any major gameplay differences or features not in Project Gotham Racing (beside that amazing Richard Jacques soundtrack)? Or does PGR and its sequel completely obselete it?

It doesn't matter now, but MSR also had some online features as well. There were online leaderboards for the tracks and you could upload and download ghost cars onto and from the leaderboards for Time Attack. Offline, MSR also had a unique multiplayer mode that supported up to 8 players. Each player uploaded their data via the VMU and the multiplayer took place in a round robin fashion, either on a single screen or two-player split screen.

PGR supports 4-player split screen. PGR also supports the Xbox custom soundtrack feature as well. Music you rip onto the Xbox could actually be burned onto a virtual CD (MSR also had this feature, but only for songs in the game). You could also have your own music play on the radio stations as well. This music was actually incorporated into the game and faded in and out and had DJ's talking in between songs. Way better than the crappy X360 custom soundtrack feature that just played over the game.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Is there an HDMI converter cable or whatever for the X-box?

Also what is the best way to clean the powercord and connectors of some dusty-gunk that has accumulated over the past 2-5 years?
 

EmiPrime

Member
Is there an HDMI converter cable or whatever for the X-box?

Also what is the best way to clean the powercord and connectors of some dusty-gunk that has accumulated over the past 2-5 years?

I use a component to HDMI converter box but I don't like the results. I wish there was a mod for native HDMI like there is for Gamecube.

A can of compressed air should do the trick for fragile stuff. If it's just the cord and the plug head a kitchen wipe will suffice.
 

Balb

Member
Are there any good controller adapters for the original Xbox that don't add any/much lag? I love the Xbox but I can't deal with either of the official controllers for non-FPS/racing games. Ideally I would like to use a Dualshock 2 instead.
 

Vespa

Member
xbox-magicbox.jpg


I think the Magicbox is supposed to be a fairly decent adapter but is kinda hard to find, not sure if there are any other decent options.
 

EmiPrime

Member
Selling my Magic Box is one of my big gaming regrets. I thought I would be able to get another one whenever I wanted to but I will never be able to get one again for a good price.
 

Balb

Member
Yeah looking at the Magic Box impressions, it seems legit. Is that the only good adapter? Unfortunately I don't think it's available anywhere at the moment (including eBay) :(
 

Vespa

Member
I bought a magicbox fairly recently for about £35 off a forum I think, pure luck though, I have not seen one anywhere else.

bigbox.jpg

Seems totek had an adapter for ps1/2. I believe they make good adapters but I don't own one myself. Price is $20 without shipping but it's sold out :/
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Breakdown GameFAQs said:
You'll go into a white room with some white posts in it. Go along the
left side but not against the wall. When the first wave of Guard T'lan
spawn, try to take one out as soon as it lands, then use your jumping
to get away from the others. Instead of using boost here, I prefer to
have 3 or 4 shots of the shockwave. Jump through the middle of the
area and you can usually group the remaining 4 Guards together. Hit'em
with a Shock Wave as they come at you and you should knock a couple
down, jump away and get them all together again and then do another
shockwave. Hopefully this kills one or two, watch were there energy
drops! You need it! If you can pull off another Shock Wave or two
repeat this strategy, and try to lead the T'lan away from the dropped
energy so you can pick it up. Also, don't run anywhere, jump! When
you get the first wave down to two Guards you're in pretty good shape.
You can usually divide them and take them down one on one. When you
kill the last one the next wave will come out.

THe second wave is three Heavy T'lan. These guys are a breeze compared
to the 5 Guards. Use a shockwave if you've refilled your T'langen to
knock all 3 down, then pick one to run up and do a few Slide Kick Uppers
to. Do them until he dies or recovers, and then finish him off. Then
turn and repeat with the remaining two. Kill them off like this one
by one and then collect their energy.

The third wave is all Stealth T'lan, of which there's 5. Hopefully
you;ve refilled on the energy of the Heavies. Run towards where they
spawn on one end of the area and let them come at you as a group, when
they get kinda close, use Shock Waves to take them down. After 3 or 4
Shock Waves they should all be dead. You have to get to where they spawn
QUICKLY for this to work. Otherwise you can Boost and take a couple out
with SLide Uppers then work on the rest when they spread out a little.

The fourth wave consists of 6 Assault T'lans. If you've refilled your
T'langen from some dropped energy then this wave will be easy. Take
cover behind one of the white poles and let them come to you, then
Boost and start dishin out the Slide Uppers. You'll dispense of them
pretty easily. Collect the energy they drop quickly because the final
wave is coming up!

Wave 5 is 3 Heavies, 3 Guards, 1 Stealth and 3 Assault T'lan, they
don't all come out at once though. You start with the 3 heavies, and
once each of the other guys. Once you kill one of the other T'lans
off, the next one of that kind jumps in. I always go for the Guarding
T'lan first, when they're out of the way it makes life much easier.
When they all first come out, let them get near and Shock Wave a couple
times to knock the Heavies down, and then go for the Guard. WHen it's
dead, go for the Assault and the Stealth if it's around. As the next
type of those T'lan are spawning, take out one of the Heavies by Slide
Uppering it a few times. Repeat this process, refilling on the energy
of the killed T'lan and keeping away from the Heavies as a group and
this 5th wave isn;t so bad. WHen you have enough T'lan, don't hesitate
to use Boost to make taking out the Guard and Assault T'lans easier,
and don't forget to Shock Wave the Heavies to knock them back and then
Slide into them.

Ok, I either die to the first wave or the fifth wave. No in-between.

If I make it to the fifth wave, I can't shoot the anti-T'lan laser at them to clear them out. The stealth is hard to see in all the white (with my old TV contrast as well) and basically gets a free kill on me.

If I boost, I eat attacks, thereby eating up boosts' time by slowly getting up.

Fuck this game. It may have been "ahead of it's time" in regards to doing a first-person movie gimmick thing, but the combat is terrible. The lock-on screws you over when you're trying to melee smack enemies and/or get away and blocking does absolutely nothing since it'll eat into your energy AND HP in small quantities when you're facing more than 2 enemies.

If you're facing 1-2 enemies, the game is fine. But 3+ it starts to show how awful the combat is. It doesn't help that now and then I'll try to "Slider-Uppercut" and have the game recognize me wanting to launch a projectile because somehow the game won't recognize my Left Trigger and/or assumes me holding forward to get into position a second before counts as wanting to slide. Ugh.
 
I bought a magicbox fairly recently for about £35 off a forum I think, pure luck though, I have not seen one anywhere else.

bigbox.jpg

Seems totek had an adapter for ps1/2. I believe they make good adapters but I don't own one myself. Price is $20 without shipping but it's sold out :/

I wonder if the tototek adapter is any good. The mappings on some of them like the PCE adapter look really questionable
 

Vespa

Member
I wonder if the tototek adapter is any good. The mappings on some of them like the PCE adapter look really questionable

Being stuck with bad mapping would be terrible, shame you can't reprogram it like the raphnet adapters.

http://forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/60284/converter-compatibility-thread said:
Magicbox
Pros : Regarded as the best adapter to XBox with no lag
Cons : Trying to find one
Where : Not available at any stores, try EBay or the Trading forums
Price : Probably around $50-60

XBox : DreamBox

Pros : Works perfectly with official Sony PCBs, cheaper and easier to find than Magic Box, has headset jack.
Cons : Compatibilty with other PCBs? ie. HRAPs, SFACs, T5s, etc.
Price : About $15 US + shipping

XBox : X Connection

Pros : Works with almost all fighting games
Cons : Doesn't work with Capcom Fighting Evolution (which sucks anyway)
Price : $9.99 + shipping

Looking at this old post on Shoryuken forums I tried finding these and came across the X Connection on Ebay and the Dreambox here (Netherlands, Germany and Belgium only) or Ebay here. Also a search on Aliexpress turned up this super cheap adapter. No idea about lag on that one though or compatibility.
 

Catch22

Member
That game was very hard at times.

The end bosses are mildly hard. But with some practice in learning how to beat them, they become easy peasy. This is not PS2 Shinobi.

But seriously, Gunvalkyrie is pretty easy, if you play the maile character- Sabarouta.

99% of the YouTube videos do not do this game justice, as they clearly show "how not to play the game."
 

Catch22

Member
For me, I want the old Sega titles. But I doubt they'll add titles like Jet Set, Panzer, Spikeout, and Gunvalkyrie. Those that made the XBox 360 list had issues.
 

PGamer

fucking juniors
Some interesting developments in the PC Xbox emulation scene over the last little while. The recent attention that CXBX-Reloaded has gotten appears to have spurred the XQEMU developers back into action. They are both now working on Xbox emulator development again and the developers from both projects are going to collaborate when it makes sense to. Of course the other big recent news is that Phil Spencer has stated that he wants to bring Xbox backwards compatibility to PC as well. So now there is something of a three way race to get an Xbox emulator running properly on PC.

XQEMU game updates:

- 187 Ride or Die
- Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance
- Darkwatch
- Hulk
- Predator: Concrete Jungle

CXBX-Reloaded updates:

Rendering Issues (Update)
Goal Reached: Debug Kit
A Little Update
Game Purchases for June 2017
 

Timu

Member
Won't it just be 640x480? afaik I haven't heard anything about resolution enhancements or anything but that'd be awesome
The X1 can do 640x480, but I can see these games being at a higher res going by this quote form Phil Spencer:

"OG games will look better and play better across the Xbox One family,"
 

televator

Member
The X1 can do 640x480, but I can see these games being at a higher res going by this quote form Phil Spencer:

"OG games will look better and play better across the Xbox One family,"

Yeah, that and MS now has a track record of pushing up performance and resolution on their emulation efforts. If they're doing it for 360, they can do it for OG XBOX.
 

Tain

Member
I think it's easier with Xbox-era games, too. Less post-processing effects to worry about scaling alongside the base rendering resolution.

I'll laugh if Microsoft is the first to bring me emulated HD Ninja Gaiden Black.
 
Top Bottom