How hard is it to make a wrapper?

[Smoblikat]

So there is a game I want that can only be played on xbox, xbox 1, and my xbox is already close to a decade old and showing its age. I heard that sometimes devs hire companies to write "wrappers" to port games from consoles to PC (which is why GTA IV was such a shitty port) and was wondering if it was possible to make/hire someone to make a wrapper for this game. Im assuming well need the source code, but if I know that there is a way to do it then ill make a few calls and see what I can do about that code.

 

[Markbnj]

A "wrapper" is really an emulator for the hardware/firmware environment that the game code expects. Not so easy to do, but I think others have already done it. Google around for XBox emulators. I never used one so can't be more specific than that.

 

[KaOTiK]

What game is it you are wanting to play?

 

[KeypoX]

have your people call my people and we can have a sitdown

 

[Smoblikat]

have your people call my people and we can have a sitdown

If youre serious so am I

What game is it you are wanting to play?

Guantlet Dark Legacy, one of the best games EVER!!

A "wrapper" is really an emulator for the hardware/firmware environment that the game code expects. Not so easy to do, but I think others have already done it. Google around for XBox emulators. I never used one so can't be more specific than that.

All the xbox emulators suck.

 

[Smoblikat]

Also, I do have my xbox modded and plays it (sorta well) I just have frequemt crashes and overheating and I dont think the box will make it to this time next year.

 

[KaOTiK]

You know, it would probably be easier and cheaper to just buy another Xbox, they can't be expensive.

 

[Smoblikat]

You know, it would probably be easier and cheaper to just buy another Xbox, they can't be expensive.

Thats merely a bandaid, not a true solution. Hardware fails, eventually all xboxes will just stop working and microsoft is no longer fixing them. A PC is different in the sense that I can just put in a new ABC to get it running again.

 

[Markbnj]

All the xbox emulators suck.

That might give you some idea of how difficult it can be to create an emulator. But good luck with your project.

 

[Smoblikat]

That might give you some idea of how difficult it can be to create an emulator. But good luck with your project.

It cannot be difficult to emulate an X86 processor on an X86 processor. There is a perfect Wii emulator, surely Wii is harder to emulate than an Xbox.

 

[BFG10K]

It cannot be difficult to emulate an X86 processor on an X86 processor.

There's a lot more to it than that. A console emulator has to emulate the entire system with all of its quirks and timings, not just translating one CPU to another.

 

[darkewaffle]

...Just get a 360?

 

[vshah]

its extremely hard. if there was a ps2 version of the game, you could try ps2 emulators as well, or try to find an early ps3 with built in ps2 hardware.

the easiest method is just to buy a couple spare xboxes. certainly cheaper than paying someone to write an emulator.

 

[Anarchist420]

...Just get a 360?

It's incompatible with many Xbox games.

There's a lot more to it than that. A console emulator has to emulate the entire system with all of its quirks and timings, not just translating one CPU to another.

Agreed

It cannot be difficult to emulate an X86 processor on an X86 processor. There is a perfect Wii emulator, surely Wii is harder to emulate than an Xbox.

That's a good point, but then think about how many Geforce 3/4/FX functions are neither in newer hardware nor emulated by drivers (unless the latest drivers that I haven't tried fixed issues with 16 bit color, although I'm don't know whether DX11.1 fixed 16 bit color issues via the new hardware modes), and that even includes Splinter Cell's shadow and lighting system.

The Wii actually probably would be easier for that reason.

What they could do with the Xbox is emulate the graphics processor via GPGPU (shaders and maybe texture units if necessary or desirable) via double precision (although GTX680 would probably be too slow) while using the CPU to emulate the Xbox's CPU... although the Xbox used a totally unified memory architecture if I'm not mistaken, so that could be a difficulty for all I know.

 

[Anarchist420]

the easiest method is just to buy a couple spare xboxes. certainly cheaper than paying someone to write an emulator.

The problem is that the circuitry weakens and that it used a fan which doesn't last forever. Another problem is that most Xbox games don't use AA, and none use a good sample pattern.

The original xbox actually ran pretty hot, too.

 

[Anarchist420]

I'd chip in also. Even though it may not be a whole lot, it would still be something

have your people call my people and we can have a sitdown

If youre serious so am I