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XBOX 360 Emulator for Mac OS X

M

mattfick12

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2008
52
0
Is there anything out there that I could use so I can pop a xbox 360 disk into my mac and play the game?

I have a loaded macbook pro so, the system pref are up there for speed and graphics. I'm aware that the xbox 360 is one powerful machine and that people had some trouble making a emulator work on a pc. I've done some research and what I've found is that some people use mac g5 for game servers running 360 games. I'm also noticed that they made guitar hero 3 for pc and a bunch of xbox 360 based games for it. Since you can play that on a pc, wouldn't one think that an xbox 360 emulator for a mac would work?


I would like to find an xbox 360 emulator for the mac os x. Can anyone help me out?

If there isn't a such thing right now, what would one have to do to make something like this become a reality?


if anyone wants to start a group and work on this, im up for it
 
Quartz Extreme

Quartz Extreme

macrumors regular
Jun 9, 2005
169
35
USA
mattfick12 said:
Is there anything out there that I could use so I can pop a xbox 360 disk into my mac and play the game?

I have a loaded macbook pro so, the system pref are up there for speed and graphics.
Click to expand...

Let me put this in perspective....

Your MacBook Pro is using a general-purpose Intel Core 2 Duo, running from 2-2.6GHz.

The Xbox uses a 3.2GHz triple-core PPC processor, built with a heavy emphasis on floating-point, SIMD operations and parallel processing, and using strictly in-order processing (In English: not a general-purpose CPU)

They can barely make an accutate emulator for the GameCube....and that only uses a 485MHz PowerPC!

mattfick12 said:
If there isn't a such thing right now, what would one have to do to make something like this become a reality?
Click to expand...

You are not going to be able to anytime soon. Just buy a real Xbox 360.
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
There is not one that I know of.

If you want to write one I suggest learning to program at god level. You will need to be able to perfectly emulate the hardware and API Microsoft provide on the 360. This will take thousands of hours of effort.
 
B

benpatient

macrumors 68000
Nov 4, 2003
1,870
0
let me put it this way....it won't happen for 5-6 years on "normal" hardware.

There is a HUGE performance hit when you emulate something, especially on a non-native chipset.

The 360 is on a PPC-based IBM "Power" architecture, which is very, very similar to a G5.

The differences even between a G5 and a 360 are considerable. The difference between a 360 and an intel-based Mac are almost total in scope. There is nothing about them that's closely compatible.

the 360 is Big Endian.

the 360 has 3 processor cores

the 360 has a custom version of a Direct X graphics platform.

I suggest you look around at the availability of REGULAR xbox emulators and look at what they can do to give you an idea of how far away a 360 emulator is.

short version:
the 733mhz Pentium 3, 64mb of RAM and Geforce-equivalent graphics processor of the original XBox bring the best computers available today to their knees when emulated.

Not much past the N64 runs WELL on a modern computer, much less OS X.
 
anirban

anirban

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2007
689
0
Houston, TX
While the idea is interesting, I would agree with other posters- it will take a whole lot of work to get this to work. Xbox runs on a different architecture than the MBP, and that would just add more work.
 
M

mattfick12

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2008
52
0
i already have a 360. based on what people said above, it sounds like it wont be happening any time soon. You would probably have to buy a computer that cost 22 grand or more just to make it work. with 22 grand, you can buy a lot of 360's.

But I have to say, it would be amazing if I was flying to where ever and i popped in a 360 game into my laptop and hooked up a controller and played a 360 game.
 
Sdashiki

Sdashiki

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2005
3,529
11
Behind the lens
What people are saying is the same thing thats been said of every emulator ever written.

You cant emulate something more powerful than the machine the emulator runs on. Nor can you expect it to work 100% as the original does.

In real world terms this boils down to at least 3-10 years before a completely stable version of any emulator trickles down to the basic user.

NES, SNES, N64, PSX emulators took years to get right, and even PSX emulation is spotty on the best machines today.
 
GimmeSlack12

GimmeSlack12

macrumors 603
Apr 29, 2005
5,403
12
San Francisco
mattfick12 said:
You would probably have to buy a computer that cost 22 grand or more just to make it work. with 22 grand, you can buy a lot of 360's.
Click to expand...

Bro, it isn't even a possibility. That's what everyone is saying. None, nada, zilch, zero. No chance, even if you had a $1 million to spend. Its not going to happen. Maybe hire Ben Heck to build a 360 Laptop for you. He just completed a PS3 Laptop.

You're better off trying to get your 360 to run OS X rather than the other way around.
 
S

sthulbourn

macrumors newbie
Apr 5, 2008
5
0
madmaxmedia said:
So what you guys are saying, is that when the new G5 PowerBooks finally come out, we might have a better chance? (since its a related CPU)
Click to expand...

Wait, what? G5 PowerBooks come out? I'm pretty sure that Apple dropped the PowerPC for good...

The day Apple release another PowerPC based notebook is the day I take all my stuff into the garden and burn it
 
M

mattfick12

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2008
52
0
indeed, indeed. The XBOX 360 is one powerful machine.

That laptop is pretty sick. wish i had one :)

I'm guessing its possible to put mac os x on a 360...how would one go about doing this? and if i do this, would i still be able to play games and use it as an xbox?
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
mattfick12 said:
indeed, indeed. The XBOX 360 is one powerful machine.

That laptop is pretty sick. wish i had one :)

I'm guessing its possible to put mac os x on a 360...how would one go about doing this? and if i do this, would i still be able to play games and use it as an xbox?
Click to expand...
As far as I know it's not possible. Whilst the CPU is a bit like a G5, it's not a G5. The rest of the system architecture is nothing like any Mac every shipped.
 
M

mattfick12

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2008
52
0
robbieduncan said:
That's not a 360. It's a standard x86 PC shoehorned into a 360 case.
Click to expand...

yea is it. So basically, is there any operating system that will work with the 360?

ps: im trying plug in my iphone to the 360 to play music form it...its not working :( I tried the update but, it wont work. any mods or anything i can do to get it to play music from my iphone to my xbox 360?
 
0098386

0098386

Suspended
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
Nope.

Although dev kits are related to the G5, they also run games without AA since they don't have matching graphics cards (or aren't as optimised yet).
 
7

72930

Retired
May 16, 2006
9,060
4
SthrnCmfrtr said:
Yeah, that case mod is really relevant.
Click to expand...

It means that one day when PC components are small enough, some of the 360 parts will be able to be replaced with smaller ones, and Mac-parts could be put into it. Then we'll have a 360/Mac machine, hopefully with some kind of dual-boot method.
 
M

mattfick12

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2008
52
0
does anyone know where i can find a custom xbox 360 case mods? I've found a website that you can buy simpler cases for your xbox 360 but im looking for something with a windows (not square) and some lights and crap...
 
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