XBOX Emulation or DC Emulation?

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XBOX Emulation or DC Emulation?

Post by wildonrio »

I've heard that the XBOX emulates better than DC, but is it worth buying an expensive XBOX and modding it? I think the only room for improvement that DC would be SNES emulation, everything else I've seen is just about perfect.
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Post by JohnnyB »

Dreamcast doesn't compare to XBOX in terms of emulation, XBOX basically emulates everything up to the Dreamcast near perfectly while the Dreamcast is still struggling with 16-bit stuff. Then there's the whole disc-saving HDD and XBMC features, well worth the money my friend.
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Post by wildonrio »

What is XBMC? And how difficult is it to get XBOX to emulate? I've had a real hard time with DC myself.
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Post by JohnnyB »

XBMC is a dashboard, basically what you see when you boot the system up without a game inside. It allows you to stream movies/music/pictures from your PC, internet and XBOX itself. You can also get weather forecasts, browse the web, all sorts of stuff.

As for the emulation part, you simple copy the emulator and ROMs over to your XBOX, preferably through your network though discs work too, then just launch the emulator from XBMC. You may want to pay someone to softmod your XBOX for you though, it can be a little tricky for the inexperienced.

http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/
http://www.xbox-scene.com/
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Post by Quzar »

Depending on what you want to emulate, the Dreamcast can be the better choice. Mostly due to the difference in price. A DC will run you at least 1/5th of what an xbox+modchip will.
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Post by DaMadFiddler »

That's the issue. Since most people seem to get information from lists the best, here's a bit of a breakdown. Keep in mind that this ignores all issues regarding actual Xbox and Dreamcast games:

XBOX PROS/CONS
+ good emulation of most systems up to & including N64 and PSX
+ Internet/network access through built-in ethernet
+ extensive media capabilities, including streaming media, DVD/CD ripping, media management, etc, which supports most major formats
+ controller works well for most consoles
- must be modded; requires effort and/or money to get started
- several times more expensive than DC (about $99 for base unit, then cost of mod and larger HDD if desired)
- hardware usually does not last more than a few years without problems
- takes more effort to get software set up
- far fewer homebrew games than DC

DREAMCAST PROS/CONS
+ very easy to get software running (in most cases, just download disc image, burn, and go)
+ incredibly inexpensive (usually $15-$30 for the base unit)
+ good emulation of NES, Gameboy, MasterSystem, NGPC, NeoGeo/CD, Scumm, and several others. SNES, Genesis, and TG-16 are constantly improving (though still have some issues).
+ *tons* of homebrew games and programs
+ takes up less space, uses less power than Xbox
- no mass storage
- controllers are not as nice as Xbox
- Internet capabilities of DC are nearly useless
- due to lack of mass storage and lower specs, lacks media abilities of Xbox

To be honest, it really depends on what you're looking for. The Xbox is great in that it has a hard drive, and thus can be a vast media and emulation hub. It can also use your network for media streaming, and get song/album/movie info (and more) over the Internet, as well as playing Shoutcast feeds. However, it takes a lot more time, money, and technical know-how to get an Xbox rig going.

The Dreamcast has a lot of support from the homebrew community, and a lot of effort has been put into making everything easy to use. Often, you can just download a file, burn it to disc, and you're set to go. There is also a vast wealth of Dreamcast homebrew games and game mods, if you're into that. Unfortunately, the DC is considerably less powerful than the Xbox, and emulators for the 16-bit and higher systems simply aren't as good. Also, the lack of mass storage means that you do have to keep everything on separate discs, and it's not nearly as good for multimedia as the Xbox. If you're looking primarily for homebrew and older games, though, the Dreamcast is a better buy because it can cost you up to ten TIMES less, depending on how much you have done to the Xbox.
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Post by Christuserloeser »

Well, I'd say get both if you got the money + time.

I don't own an xbox but I am perfectly happy with my DC. The DC also has a great library of (inexpensive) commercial games that are well worth playing - and since there won't be too much new releases it's possible to have something like a 'complete' collection :)
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Post by GyroVorbis »

Dreamcast. The price difference and hassle of buying an Xbox and modding it isn't worth it just so you can play Mario RPG or Chrono Trigger at a bit higher framerate, imo.
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I did it...

Post by wildonrio »

Well I went ahead and did it. I bought an XBOX for $89 at a pawn shop. It wasn't very hard to mod it. I had a friend help me and it took less than five minutes. We softmodded it, which is a very simple way to do it. I then used FTP to transfer every game I wanted. The thing emulates so perfectly every NES, SNES, Gameboy, Genesis, N64, and Playstation game. No skipping or slowdown ever! And they are all on the hard drive, no more cd swapping. I can also load movies and games onto the hard drive so that I don't need to put in games or DVDs anymore because they are already backed up. For 89 bucks it was WAY worth it. The only drawback I have seen so far is that the XBOX is the size of a VCR but that's the only thing the DC has over XBOX imo.
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Post by Skynet »

Well I went ahead and did it. I bought an XBOX for $89 at a pawn shop. It wasn't very hard to mod it. I had a friend help me and it took less than five minutes. We softmodded it, which is a very simple way to do it. I then used FTP to transfer every game I wanted. The thing emulates so perfectly every NES, SNES, Gameboy, Genesis, N64, and Playstation game. No skipping or slowdown ever!
I agree with the softmod, yes it's very easy. I'd take softmodding and ftping my games over the hassles I used to have with burning images/nero/disc juggler anyday for the sheer simplicity of it all. I do disagree with your statement on perfection though. No PS1 is not perfect and neither is n64. But they are very playable.
The only drawback I have seen so far is that the XBOX is the size of a VCR but that's the only thing the DC has over XBOX imo.
Yes it's big and bulky, but oh well. I have both Xbox and 360 but I manage to store them places, so it's not too bad. :lol: The DC has out of the box emulation possibilities simply because of the ability to boot CDRs directly with no modification if burnt right. So for size, price and emu burning, DC is great. But Xbox emulates far beyond (in terms generation of consoles, ps1, n64, etc.) what the DC can. The hard drive and additional ram are a big plus, as it means you can load and store much bigger roms. Something the DC just cannot do.
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Post by Segata Sanshiro »

I prefer my Dreamcast, but there cant be any comparison... the DC scene is stuck struggling with proper emulation of 16 bit systems, snes emulation sucks, genesis is not good yet, MAME is decent and neo-geo is GREAT!! and thats about it. The DC is powerful enough to handle the PSX as proven by bleemcast and probably even the N64, but seems that there is not enough interest from talented programmers to do better emulators... its understandable, its so much easier to do everything on the xbox, that they have to be really hardcore DC fanboys to downgrade and program for a older machine.
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Post by evanft »

Yeah, emulation on the Xbox is really awesome. I mean, the damn thing can run Sega CD games.
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Post by Smurph »

Segata Sanshiro wrote:I prefer my Dreamcast, but there cant be any comparison... the DC scene is stuck struggling with proper emulation of 16 bit systems, snes emulation sucks, genesis is not good yet, MAME is decent and neo-geo is GREAT!! and thats about it. The DC is powerful enough to handle the PSX as proven by bleemcast and probably even the N64, but seems that there is not enough interest from talented programmers to do better emulators... its understandable, its so much easier to do everything on the xbox, that they have to be really hardcore DC fanboys to downgrade and program for a older machine.
Go play BA's latest release.

I shall dig up a link.

EDIT: http://www.dcevolution.net/dsdevelopmen ... 006-BA.zip
Image
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Post by Juan »

DC Emulation lives on fanboyism = fanboys are good :mrgreen:
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Post by evanft »

Smurph wrote:
Segata Sanshiro wrote:I prefer my Dreamcast, but there cant be any comparison... the DC scene is stuck struggling with proper emulation of 16 bit systems, snes emulation sucks, genesis is not good yet, MAME is decent and neo-geo is GREAT!! and thats about it. The DC is powerful enough to handle the PSX as proven by bleemcast and probably even the N64, but seems that there is not enough interest from talented programmers to do better emulators... its understandable, its so much easier to do everything on the xbox, that they have to be really hardcore DC fanboys to downgrade and program for a older machine.
Go play BA's latest release.

I shall dig up a link.

EDIT: http://www.dcevolution.net/dsdevelopmen ... 006-BA.zip
It's definately not on the same level as the Xbox gen emus, though.
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Post by lbm5007 »

Does anyone know what the average price of having an X-box professionally modded is.
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Post by JohnnyB »

Check your local buy & sell, there are usually a couple people who'll softmod one for like $20.
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Post by Segata Sanshiro »

BA's release is almost perfect... and i honestly prefer playing genesis on my DC (sega fanboy and heart), but the xbox emulates even 32X without problems.
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Post by Skynet »

Does anyone know what the average price of having an X-box professionally modded is.
Hell you can do it yourself for nothing with a little know how.

I've charged $20 for the ones I softmodded.
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Post by XDelusion »

Dude, I love my Dreamcast, but nothing beats the XBOX's Speed and RAM resources, plus the fact that you no longer have to boot up off those slow CD-R's anymore...


...it's worth the investment in my book!
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