Microsoft Xbox

• Emulator: xemu
• Folder: /userdata/roms/xbox
• Accepted ROM formats: .iso, .squashfs

The following BIOS files are required:

That's all that's required to boot into games.

In addition to these, it is also possible to use the HDD image of the Xbox itself (the Xbox came with a HDD which it would store its firmware on, starting a trend that would soon become common) in place of the pre-installed dummy drive.

Fortunately, the original Xbox uses a bog-standard hard-drive that you can just connect to your computer and clone:

1. Unlock your drive
2. Connect it to a computer
3. Use a cloning application like dd to clone the entire contents of the drive straight to a file

This file can be used as-is.

These instructions have been summarized from Xemu's official documentation on it.

Alternatively, you can use a dummy hard-drive image. Games can still be launched using this, though it may cause an error prompt to appear when the official BIOS attempts to access it due to it being unsigned.

If using a dummy image, you can install a custom dashboard into it such as NevolutionX. This is not necessary but may improve the user experience.

Place your Xbox ROMs in /userdata/roms/xbox/.

ISO files must be in the XISO format. It is not directly compatible with the original disc image, only the game partition. It is possible to extract the game partition of an original disc image with extract-xiso on a Windows or Linux PC:

• If using an image dump of the entire disc (usually the case with Redump), run the command

  extract-xiso -r game-redump.iso

  to rewrite the filesystem structure of the image. The resulting game-redump.iso can immediately be used with xemu, with the original version being renamed to game-redump.iso.old.

• If using a folder with just the game's contents (usually the result from an FTP transfer from the original Xbox), run the following:

  extract-xiso -c game-folder

  The resulting game-folder.iso image can immediately be used with xemu.

For example, if creating the Halo 2 game for use with xemu from a folder containing just the game's extracted files:

extract-xiso -c halo-2

The following batch script can be used to automate the process. Put this in the same directory as extract-iso.exe and the game's ISO:

iso-to-xiso.bat

for /r %%i in (*.iso) do extract-xiso.exe -r "%%i"

More information about this can be found on xemu's wiki page about disc images.

If you want to compress the your (x)iso rom file, use Squashfs https://wiki.batocera.org/disk_image_compression#squashfs. For example on Linux:

mksquashfs "OutRun 2006 - Coast 2 Coast (USA, Europe) (En,Fr,De,Es,It).iso" "OutRun 2006 - Coast 2 Coast (USA, Europe) (En,Fr,De,Es,It).iso.squashfs"

The extension has to be .iso.squashfs, otherwise you'll get file driver requires /var/run/squashfs/<rom> to be a regular file

xemu is a free and open-source low-level Xbox emulator continuing much of the work done on XQEMU. It focuses on stability, performance, and ease of use. While still in an early stage it already runs a lot of commercial games. Xemu benefits greatly from having a high CPU core count, having at least four can dramatically improve emulation speed.

We use the latest xemu release.

Standardized features available to all cores of this emulator: xbox.videomode, xbox.videomode, xbox.bezel, xbox.bezel_stretch, xbox.hud, xbox.hud_corner, xbox.bezel.tattoo, xbox.bezel.tattoo_corner, xbox.bezel.tattoo_file, xbox.bezel.resize_tattoo

By default, the games will display in 480i (interlaced) resolution. But the Xbox was a powerfull console, able to output in 480p, 720p and 1080i, in 4:3 or 16:9 ratios, depending on the game (see https://en.everybodywiki.com/List_of_Xbox_games_with_alternate_display_modes for a list of supported modes). The vast majority of games support at least 480p.

This has to be enabled via the Dashboard. If you didn't dump the original dashboard from your console, you can use the NevolutionX dashboard:

• Download the latest iso
• Launch it
• In Settings > Video, change:
  • Screen Ratio to Widescreen
  • 480p to Yes
  • 720p to Yes (may cause visual glitches depending on the game)
  • Leave 1080i to No as very few games support it and the interlacing can cause many problems.
• Then go back to the main menu and choose: Power off

Many games supporting 16:9 ratio are using anamorphic widescreen. To display them correctly, you should change the aspect ratio from Auto to 16×9 in the advanced options of the emulator. Note that some elements may display strangely: OutRun 2 stretches the selection menus (coming from the arcade version) but has a correct display while racing.

The xbox hard disk image is saved here: /userdata/saves/xbox/xbox_hdd.qcow2 but in a format that is not easy to access.

Extensive information can be found at https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:Original_Xbox_Mods_Wiki

Most tutorials recommend running a ftp server on xemu to access the files such as the official xemu doc. This can be tricky on batocera.

Another (easier ?) way which works fine on batocera, is to use a ftp client on xemu to access a ftp server located in your Lan. Android phones, for example, have plenty of applications allowing you to quickly set up a ftp server to share files. This will allow you to upload/download your game saves. Here is the procedure:

1. Launch any game with xemu
2. Press your Hotkey Button to bring the xemu menu. Then Settings>All settings>Network>Enable . The adapter is attached to NAT. No need to do any port forwarding.

1. On another device (computer, smartphone,…) install and run a Ftp server. For example, Android phones have a lot of applications to get this up and running very quickly.

1. To install the ftp client, you can download a ready-to-use iso from https://github.com/Rocky5/Xbox-Softmodding-Tool. Make sure to download the Xbox Softmodding Tool Extras Disc.iso
2. Launch this iso with xemu
3. Install Dashboards > UnleashX > Install as dashboard to: E:\Dashboard\
4. Once it's done, go back to the main menu and choose: Advanced Menu: Enter Menu > File Manager.
5. Navigate to E:\Dashboard\default.xbe: this will launch UnleashX
6. Go all the way down to System>File Explorer. Press start on the gamepad and go down to Switch to FTP Browser. Another press on start allows you to enter the details about the server.
7. The save files are located in E:\UDATA (sometimes also in E:\TDATA)

System Link is a form of offline multiplayer gaming on the Xbox and Xbox 360 gaming consoles over a LAN (local area network). Wikipedia has a list of supported titles. The option is sometimes buried deeply (ex: in OutRun2, it lays in OutRun Challenge > Race Mode > System Link).

Using an existing server allows you to play with other users on the same Lan, or on the Internet as if you were on the same LAN:

• us-west-1.lan.xemu.app:9938
• us-east-1.lan.xemu.app:9938
• de-1.lan.xemu.app:9938

Change your Network settings by pressing Hotkey, then Network > UDP Tunnel

• Remote address: de-1.lan.xemu.app:9938
• Bind Address: 0.0.0.0:9938

Alternatively, you can edit directly the /userdata/system/configs/xemu/xemu.toml file:

[net]
enable = true
backend = 'udp'

[net.udp]
bind_addr = '0.0.0.0:9938'
remote_addr = 'de-1.lan.xemu.app:9938'

It's also possible to use your own server (see some documentation here https://github.com/mborgerson/l2tunnel/issues/4 ) if you want to locally connect several computers (and even real xbox consoles) running xemu.

It offers a completely different approach. The service was shut down by Micrososft in 2010. Some projects, such as insignia, exist to offer replacement servers.

Here are the default Microsoft XBOX's controls shown on a Batocera Retropad:

Actually this can be any language, but French seems to be more common.

It is recommended to properly set your language on your original Xbox and extract the BIOS files again. As long as your Xbox has the correct language set, it will use that language.

It would be weird if you were using a BIOS for another Xbox, wouldn't it?

If for some reason you aren't able to set the language from your Xbox, you can

• directly edit the EEPROM settings on the hard-drive image using Ernegien's Original Xbox EEPROM Editor. The EEPROM can be found at /userdata/saves/xbox/xemu_eeprom.bin.
• or use the NevolutionX dashboard to change the language settings.

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.