Hacker able to get original Xbox emulator running on Nintendo’s Switch

It seems Nintendo’s Switch is capable of running pretty much any retro system at this point.

Hacker and self-described Xbox fan ‘Voxel9‘ recently uploaded a video of the original 2001 Xbox’s XQEMU emulator running on the Nintendo Switch. The relatively brief video shows the emulator being compiled on the Switch, followed by Halo: Combat Evolved running on the console and eventually even cult classic Jet Set Radio Future.

While a fascinating technical achievement, both games run far from smoothly, with Voxel9 going so far as to increase the playback framerate of the Jet Set Radio gameplay to four times to simulate what the game should actually look like.

In the video’s description Voxel9 explains that the Xbox emulator is running on Linux on the Switch rather than the proprietary operating system featured in Nintendo’s console. Voxel9 also writes that he’s playing the games with a PlayStation 4 controller rather than the Switch’s Joy-Cons because the XQEMU emulator isn’t able to detect Nintendo’s gamepads.

Following the release of a surprisingly simple Switch hardware hack late last year, the Switch homebrew scene has been growing rapidly. Back in late February, an Android developer was even able to sort of get Android up and running on Nintendo’s console.

Source: YouTube (Voxel9) Via: Kotaku