Microsoft are well within their rights to shut down emulators on Xbox -- frankly I’m amazed that they, even briefly, allowed them at all -- but one of the reasons it rankles a bit is that, for all Xbox’s tremendous work on backwards compatibility, it remains deeply sad that some games are never going to make it.
I speak in particular of the PGR series. Yes, Halo was the main reason to buy an Xbox, but PGR occupies a curiously unappreciated niche in Xbox history, being launch titles for both the original console and 360 and one of the big early Xbox Live games.
360 emulation was just kicking off on Xbox Series when the bans dropped so it never really took off, but for a brief bit I hoped against hope that, at last, PGR would be playable on a modern Xbox again.
Yes, I agree the real mystery in this is why MS were ever okay with emulators and have only recently seen the error of their ways. Definitely missing a part of the story there.
I share your PGR lament and will raise you OutRun Online Arcade. Licensing agreements mean racing games have early use-by dates, sadly.
It’s not quite the same, but if you want to scratch your OutRun itch, the PC version of Outrun 2 SP works beautifully on Steam Deck. (As someone whose first and only “gaming PC” is a Steam Deck, this was a legit system seller to me.)
And it runs beautifully on a PC once you fiddle with resolution and so on! A great shame you can't buy it on Steam anymore — I am tremendously grateful to Past Nathan for buying it in a Steam sale in like 2009 or something, thinking it would work on a cheapo laptop I'd just bought (it did not).
Have a great break Nathan!! I understand the desire to have a structure to these posts, but for me I enjoy whatever content you put out - if it's Max HP, a take on a larger topic, or your commentary around bite-size news snippets.
So, I guess you could take any direction - discuss a new game you're into, recount an experience from the past, go into dev processes etc. Whatever it is, for me it's how it's delivered that is the appeal, so try not to stress it too much!! Certainly until September :)
Microsoft are well within their rights to shut down emulators on Xbox -- frankly I’m amazed that they, even briefly, allowed them at all -- but one of the reasons it rankles a bit is that, for all Xbox’s tremendous work on backwards compatibility, it remains deeply sad that some games are never going to make it.
I speak in particular of the PGR series. Yes, Halo was the main reason to buy an Xbox, but PGR occupies a curiously unappreciated niche in Xbox history, being launch titles for both the original console and 360 and one of the big early Xbox Live games.
360 emulation was just kicking off on Xbox Series when the bans dropped so it never really took off, but for a brief bit I hoped against hope that, at last, PGR would be playable on a modern Xbox again.
Yes, I agree the real mystery in this is why MS were ever okay with emulators and have only recently seen the error of their ways. Definitely missing a part of the story there.
I share your PGR lament and will raise you OutRun Online Arcade. Licensing agreements mean racing games have early use-by dates, sadly.
It’s not quite the same, but if you want to scratch your OutRun itch, the PC version of Outrun 2 SP works beautifully on Steam Deck. (As someone whose first and only “gaming PC” is a Steam Deck, this was a legit system seller to me.)
And it runs beautifully on a PC once you fiddle with resolution and so on! A great shame you can't buy it on Steam anymore — I am tremendously grateful to Past Nathan for buying it in a Steam sale in like 2009 or something, thinking it would work on a cheapo laptop I'd just bought (it did not).
Have a great break Nathan!! I understand the desire to have a structure to these posts, but for me I enjoy whatever content you put out - if it's Max HP, a take on a larger topic, or your commentary around bite-size news snippets.
So, I guess you could take any direction - discuss a new game you're into, recount an experience from the past, go into dev processes etc. Whatever it is, for me it's how it's delivered that is the appeal, so try not to stress it too much!! Certainly until September :)
Thanks Ian, that's very kind of you. I might get 'try not to stress it too much' tattooed on the inside of my eyelids.
Enjoy the break, and thanks for the brilliant work as always!
Have a nice hol! Looking forward to your renewed ‘ramblings’ on your return!!