A YouTube video has surfaced showing DOSBox running on Xbox One via the Universal Windows Platform kit. The video and code was made by vcfan, and he admits it runs slowly but he hopes to improve it for fully functional usage.



In the video, he runs Windows 95, Duke Nukem 3D, and ZSNES.

He has plans to release sources for it in the future, and this may pave the way to other legitimate emulators running on the console with this method!

Source

 

[CuriousTommy]

I wonder how restrictive is the Universal Windows Platform in terms of sandboxing? I know iOS does not allow JIT unless you jailbreak, other than the usual restrictive limited access to other apps.

 

[XDel]

Currently, the Pi 3 kills this, but cool none the less considering no hack was required!

 

[nxwing]

DosXbox? XDosBox? I suck at names.

This is quite interesting. Hopefully M$ doesn't stop progress.

 

[chartube12]

I wonder how restrictive is the Universal Windows Platform in terms of sandboxing? I know iOS does not allow JIT unless you jailbreak, other than the usual restrictive limited access to other apps.

the sandbox limits you to 1gb of ram (as of this writing) and lowered clocked speed of the processors. Basically like running a high end windows 10 phone.

With a little patience even dreamcast should be emulat-able at playable speeds.

 

[DinohScene]

Neato!

Hopefully MS won't plug this ;/

 

[RemixDeluxe]

I thought the windows 95 on 3DS was a more impressive feat.

I still wish for the best on this and anyone whos interested.

 

[Xuman]

DosXbox? XDosBox? I suck at names.

This is quite interesting. Hopefully M$ doesn't stop progress.

XDos One?
Dosbox One?

This is kinda hard

 

[Idaho]

Currently, the Pi 3 kills this, but cool none the less considering no hack was required!

For now home made apps can only access ~400mB of RAM it's planned to reach 1GB by the time it's released, I guess a few more optimizations will be brought along as well, I have my hopes high for emulators and old school open source games being brought to the xbox one, I hope someone will bring Marathon and DOOM

After all VLC said they'll bring VLC to the xbox one as well, so if VLC can work properly with 1GB of RAM, so will emulators and other cool stuffs...

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Holy shit. It happened .

The scene got The Xbox one to play good games.

 

[TheLegendofMario]

XDos One?
Dosbox One?

This is kinda hard

Me personally I like the sound of DosBox ONE and XDos ONE

 

[SonyUSA]

DoxBox One just sends all your personal info to other people randomly :/

 

[Xuman]

So Xbone gets hackless dosbox and ps4 gets hackful steam. Nice

 

[Transdude1996]

Neato!

Hopefully MS won't plug this ;/

That's the one thing I'm curious about. If this expands beyond just DOS games, then Microsoft almost literally does have "the one console" that most consumers will ever need. It removes the problem of consumers having to, continuously, hack their console for emulators and homebrew, and will be just as popular as the emulators are on smartphones.

Though, the one thing to note is that this does put Microsoft in an awkward position. Despite how people feel, emulators are still a legal grey area when it comes to consumer usage of them. So, once people start seeing widespread usage of games such as Sony's PS1 games or Nintendo's SNES titles officially played on the XB1 through the UWP, you can bet you're @$$ that Microsoft is going to have to do something about it, for better or for worse.

Also, I feel it should be mentioned that the reason this hasn't happened to the emulators on smartphones is because they're competing in a slight different market than the consoles, and even handhelds. The fact that this can now happen on an official console starts sending up red flags all over the place.

 

[DinohScene]

Don't think MS will allow this.
Seeing emulators are mostly, (99% of the time) associated with piracy.
Their main focus (well I still hope) is gaming.

Android is an entirely different market, they aren't focused on gaming mainly.

 

[Transdude1996]

Don't think MS will allow this.
Seeing emulators are mostly, (99% of the time) associated with piracy.

Perhaps that should change. Whether that means to tell the companies to shove it, or offer a better option that removes the partial need for piracy, a firm stance needs to be taken on part of the reason emulation even exists: to always keep all games remembered.

There's always going to be piracy, there's no stopping it. The only solution would be to provide consumers with a better option than piracy would provide.

 

[DinohScene]

Ninty does it smart, VC.
Paying for the old games (tho quite expensive but eh)

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

That's the one thing I'm curious about. If this expands beyond just DOS games, then Microsoft almost literally does have "the one console" that most consumers will ever need. It removes the problem of consumers having to, continuously, hack their console for emulators and homebrew, and will be just as popular as the emulators are on smartphones.

Though, the one thing to note is that this does put Microsoft in an awkward position. Despite how people feel, emulators are still a legal grey area when it comes to consumer usage of them. So, once people start seeing widespread usage of games such as Sony's PS1 games or Nintendo's SNES titles officially played on the XB1 through the UWP, you can bet you're @$$ that Microsoft is going to have to do something about it, for better or for worse.

Also, I feel it should be mentioned that the reason this hasn't happened to the emulators on smartphones is because they're competing in a slight different market than the consoles, and even handhelds. The fact that this can now happen on an official console starts sending up red flags all over the place.

To clarify what you're saying, consoles are closed ecosystems. They're run by a single company, and that company has to make sure everything on their ecosystem adheres to copyright laws, or they risk getting huge backlash, whether it be lawsuits from other companies or simple public outcry.

Android phones and PCs are different because they're open ecosystems. Apple Macs also run on open ecosystems, and have emulators as well. Since they're open, the company behind the ecosystem isn't held accountable for things such as emulators, and so they don't allocate resources to their removal. Their basic status as open systems means the companies behind them don't have any access on what appears on their hardware and software. They're essentially just providing an empty shell for developers and consumers to fill with whatever they want.

A closed ecosystem can't do that. iPhones don't have emulators, why? Because they're closed ecosystems, tightly controlled by Apple. They can't have emulators, otherwise they'll face scrutiny, because it's their ecosystem and they're in control. They're expected to facilitate legal matters such as this, or face getting a legal slap themselves.

Hope you all liked that small little business lesson. It's for this reason that Microsoft can't allow emulators on their systems.

 

[Dr.Hacknik]

A YouTube video has surfaced showing DOSBox running on Xbox One via the Universal Windows Platform kit. The video and code was made by vcfan, and he admits it runs slowly but he hopes to improve it for fully functional usage.



In the video, he runs Windows 95, Duke Nukem 3D, and ZSNES.

He has plans to release sources for it in the future, and this may pave the way to other legitimate emulators running on the console with this method!

Source

Imagine Windows XP, or even Windows 7!