Xqemu Alternatives

xqemu reviews and mentions

• why can't console games be ran natively?
  3 projects | /r/emulation | 22 Jan 2023

  These projects are called compatibility layers, or "translation layers" sometimes. I think XQEmu (OG XBox on PC) works the same.

• QEMU Version 6.0.0 Released
  11 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Apr 2021

  Yes:

  https://xemu.app/

  https://xqemu.com/

  Are both original Xbox emulators built off of QEMU. I've only used Xemu, but performance was pretty good for the games I tried on it (it doesn't have a way to upscale rendering yet though).

• Morrowind Rebooted the Original Xbox Without You Ever Noticing
  3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 15 Apr 2021

  It's indeed a bit like a kexec.

  On system initialization, kernel routines are copied into RAM by the bootloader[1]. Executables run in ring 0, and have a jump table to call kernel routines in their own address space (IIRC) [2].

  As such, loading any executable counts as a soft reboot.

  Also, there is a functioning open source emulator, Xqemu [3] (and its sibling/fork focused on speed and compatibility more than accuracy, xemu [4])

  I recommend reading "17 mistakes Microsoft made in the Xbox security system", which is very informative [5].

  [1]: https://xboxdevwiki.net/Boot_Process

  [2]: https://xboxdevwiki.net/Kernel

  [3]: https://xqemu.com/

  [4]: https://xemu.app/

  [5]: https://xboxdevwiki.net/17_Mistakes_Microsoft_Made_in_the_Xb...

• Experimental Nintendo Switch Emulator written in C#
  8 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 13 Mar 2021

  There is one emulator currently that does do that, the "XQEMU" emulator for the original Xbox https://xqemu.com/

  It's in its infant stages at the moment according to the "Emulation General" wiki and focuses heavily on "accuracy" over performance

  Other emulators such as CXBX-Reloaded have made larger strides, currently emulating roughly 10% of the software library

  It's also worth stating, while the Xbox seems like an "easy" target, being based on an ia-32 (Pentium III) PC with an Nvidia GeForce chip (somewhere between a Geforce 2 and 3 at the time) it is an absolutely monstrous beast with minimal documentation about its hardware and numerous "gotchas"

  It also has a very small library of 'exclusive' content which detracts from gaining many developers

• A note from our sponsor - CodeRabbit
  coderabbit.ai | 18 Apr 2025

  Revolutionize your code reviews with AI. CodeRabbit offers PR summaries, code walkthroughs, 1-click suggestions, and AST-based analysis. Boost productivity and code quality across all major languages with each PR. Learn more →