I've been building an "everything" emulation setup on an Xbox Series X in Dev Mode and
just put the first test builds on GitHub.
**1. xemu for Xbox Dev Mode (UWP port)**
As far as I can find, this is the first time xemu has run as a UWP app on the console.
- Boots the BIOS, dashboard and retail games
I've been building an "everything" emulation setup on an Xbox Series X in Dev Mode and
just put the first test builds on GitHub.
ots the BIOS, dashboard and retail games, with sound and controller
- 1080p and 4K output through Mesa's OpenGL-on-D3D12
- Plays XISO images and full disc dumps without converting
- Includes fixes for GPU read-backs that took one game's demo from 20-28 fps to 59-60
https://github.com/skitzellez/xemu-uwp
**2. Game Vault (launcher)**
Plug in a USB drive and it finds your games, works out which system each one belongs to
by reading the file (not the name), fetches box art, and starts the right emulator:
xemu, RetroArch, Dolphin, XBSX2, PPSSPP or F
https://github.com/skitzellez/xbox-game-vault
**Honest status**
- Tested on one Series X with a handful of games. Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex and
Panzer Dragoon Orta hold about 60 fps. OutRun 2 sits near 30 fps in races. Burnout 3's
intro videos crawl at a few fps (the same problem exists on desktop xemu).
- In the launcher, PS1, GBA and original Xbox have been played. The other systems are
written but untested.
- No games or BIOS files included. Bring your own.
- The code was written with an AI assistant (Claude), and the READMEs say so. Because
xemu/QEMU and SDL don't accept AI-written code, this is a separate fork. Please don't
report problems with it to the xemu team.
**What would help**
Test reports (what works, what doesn't, with the log file), fixes, and ideas. Setup
steps, known problems and the open performance leads are in the READMEs. Free for
noncommercial use.
Thanks to the xemu project and XboxEmulationHub (SDL3-uwp, mesa-uwp, RetroArch UWP),
whose work this builds on.
— Skitzelles
EDIT: Update! Thanks to your feedback, the new releases are out:
- Game Vault now opens straight to your library, even with hundreds of games (it remembers what it scanned and checks for changes quietly in the background)
- Original Xbox games: the graphics xemu learns about are kept between updates, so new versions don't start from scratch, and new areas no longer freeze the first time you reach them
- Each Xbox game's log is copied to a "Game Vault logs" folder on your USB drive. If a game runs badly, send me that file!
- New logo :)
Downloads (free, always): https://github.com/skitzellez/xbox-game-vault/releases
Everything stays free. Memberships keep the dev PC and test Xbox running.