Xbox 360 Emulator 3.2.4 Bios
Myong Killings
xemu is a low-level, full-system emulator which emulates the actual hardware of the Xbox; this means that in order to actually run xemu, you must have a copy of the stuff that a real Xbox needs when it turns on:
xemu is a free and open-source low-level Xbox emulator continuing much of the work done on XQEMU. It focuses on stability, performance, and ease of use. While still in an early stage it already runs a lot of commercial games. Xemu benefits greatly from having a high CPU core count, having at least four can dramatically improve emulation speed.
Standardized features available to all cores of this emulator: xbox.videomode, xbox.videomode, xbox.bezel, xbox.bezel_stretch, xbox.hud, xbox.hud_corner, xbox.bezel.tattoo, xbox.bezel.tattoo_corner, xbox.bezel.tattoo_file, xbox.bezel.resize_tattoo
If for some reason you aren't able to set the language from your Xbox, you can directly edit the EEPROM settings on the hard-drive image using Ernegien's Original Xbox EEPROM Editor. The EEPROM can be found at /userdata/saves/xbox/xemu_eeprom.bin.
RetroDeck is an all-in-one emulation solution that uses EmulationStation as its main interface. Because it is self-contained, it will behave as a single app with all of its emulators pre-installed and configured. This is a great solution if you just want a simple emulation experience that you can access directly from your SteamOS environment. Moreover, the app is available as a FlatPak directly in the Discover app via Desktop Mode on your Steam Deck, making the installation process super easy. RetroDeck is in active development and not yet in a final release state.
By default, EmulationStation will prefer specific emulators. To change them out, enter the Main Menu by pressing START > Other Settings > Alternative Emulators and change them as you see fit. These are the emulators I prefer to use with some of the major systems in ES-DE (those that are changed from default are in bold):
CryoUtilities is a tool that will allow for some under-the-hood performance tweaks that improve gameplay smoothness for high-end emulators like Yuzu (Nintendo Switch). When used in combination with the PowerTools plugin featured below, you can have improved gameplay with very minimal work. This tool was created by YouTuber CryoByte33, and you can find his in-depth explanation of the tool and its benefits in this video.
PowerTools: PowerTools is a plugin that will allow you to tweak specific emulators and games for the best performance. For example, it works really well with Dolphin by allowing you to reduce the number of CPU threads used by the app from 8 to 3 (be sure to also turn SMT OFF), which will make the 3 threads perform at a higher clock speed and provide smooth gameplay.
The PlayStation can play just fine on RetroArch with all the bells and whistles, but the standalone Duckstation emulator is excellent, too. It also has a sweet radial Quick Menu that can be activated by scrolling the left trackpad near the bottom-left which makes navigation super easy. You can see a demonstration image of a similar menu in the 3DS/Citra section above. Be sure to enable the PS1 controller profile to access the Quick Menu.
Performance and compatibility: Xbox emulation on the Steam Deck is unfortunately not perfect. To see whether a game will be compatible with the Xemu emulator, check out their compatibility list. If the game is compatible, is will likely play at an acceptable level when using an Internal Resolution Scale of 1x (the default set by EmuDeck). Some games may run at a 2x resolution; to set this, press SELECT + START to bring up the Quick Menu, then navigate to Settings > All Settings.
RetroDeck is an all-in-one emulation solution that uses EmulationStation as its main interface. Because it is self-contained, it will behave as a single app with all of its emulators pre-installed and configured. This is a great solution if you just want a simple emulation experience that you can access directly from your SteamOS environment. Moreover, the app is available directly in the Discover app via Desktop Mode on your Steam Deck, making the installation process super easy.
Unless I am missing something, EVERYTHING played through EmulationStation needs to be using the default Steam Deck profile, unless you want to keep swapping back and forth. The emulator-specific profiles only really work if you launch them separately through Steam.
Thanks a lot for this amazing guide! One questions: Is there an option to change the languages for the RetroArch Emulators? I was checking all options but for I have no options for the emulators directly, for example PPSPP. Thanks a lot!
Russ, coming back to this months later now that I have a Deck. I have everything set up, but my problem is that launching GC/Wii games from Emulation station prevents the deck from using the Per-Game profiles in performance settings and Power Tools. Is there any way to circumvent that, besides launching those from Steam library or through the emulator?
Than you should now that the xbox bios also hasn't anything to do with the n64 emulator. The n64 emaulator and the PSX emulators make use of the original PSX/n64 bios. Simple has that. The n64 has some special chips and the n64 dosn't only struggle on the XBox. MvG has made a great video on that topic.
You can flash it to one of the free BIOS banks that the X3 modchip has then set the bank select switches to boot it by default or keep booting the X3 BIOS to start X3CL then run the cerbios from X3CL's BIOS menu.
Although, if you're using this bios for the only thing that sets it apart from all the others (especially an X3 bios), which is 8TB HDD support, you're gonna have issues swapping between this bios and the X3 bios, so you'd have to commit to Cerbios if you want to use a HDD that fuckin' big.
disable Xlive: It's long been a worrying issue for Xbox gamers who use Live! and also have a hacked Xbox with modified bios, that it's sometimes possible to accidentally connect to XBL while the mod is enabled - which in turn bans their account from the Xbox Live Service. This is a method that will patch the game on the fly forcing an error at the login screen which fakes that the network cable is disconnected.
Wow. This project is accumulating some impressive momentum. This is really awesome. I never thought Iˋd see another bios again. I wonder if a config menu like X3CL could be implemented in some way, even if the settings\values have to be stored on the HDD instead of flash. I would donate hundreds of dollars for that, at LEAST.
Separating the boot animation into a separate .xbe file was a great idea, both for providing extra space for cerbios code and also for customisation. Hopefully we'll begin to see more custom anims in the future.
no more snes emulation for your xbox! Microsoft has decided to ban any and all emulators from the xbox store front. while i haven't been able to confirm that this also extends to other emulators that aren't related to Nintendo themselves, i'd say this also would include them as well. UPDATE: other emulators non-Nintendo are affected as well
i'd say Nintendo is trying to crack down on easier ways to emulate their games by any "legal" means necessary. while they can't outright go after emulators themselves (thanks Bleem!), this would probably be the closest they can get. (i'd say Nintendo may try again with the play store next but I'm speculating)
The gaming industry is not going out of business because J-random-nitwit decides to play a 30 year old Nintendo game on an emulator because the hardware hasn't been available for 30 years. That has never been the problem and Nintendo knows it. The problem is companies like Nintendo and Disney, decide to just "stop making available" products and then seemingly are surprised that there is demand for it. Sitting on IP is stupid, and if you are not making it available to watch or play. Then people who want to play or watch it are going to do by so by any means. That is why emulators exist. That is why CD and DVD rips exist. That's why ROM sites exist.
There are 716 official licensed NES games. How many does switch online have? about 60. That's LESS than 10%. How are you supposed to play the rest legitimately? Time machines are fiction. Repro carts on eBay are ALSO pirated copies. Analogue FPGA consoles are the only way to play original NES carts as intended. Good luck getting a vintage NES. The Analogue FPGA consoles can also be jailbroken to play all 716 licensed games without owning them, but that's not what it's marketed as. So why doesn't Nintendo just have an official emulator on the Switch or on Mac/Win/PS5/Xbox/iPhone that just downloads the ROM as a one-time-purchase from Nintendo itself to play it? That would solve the problem. But Nintendo won't do that. The closest we got to that was the Wii/WiiU virtual console. The NES classic? They could have loaded every single game on it and sold it, and just unlocked the games with e-shop codes.
Kinda wild to begin with that there were ever console emulator on a console just on the official store front. That is something for people who do homebrew, not the general public. That little bit of gatekeeping drastically cuts down casual, not necessarily intentional piracy.
The type of people doing homebrew, the whole process of putting an emulator on is not significant friction.
Aaaand this stuff is part of the reason why I hacked my New 2DS XL. Doesn't matter if we aren't allowed emulators and the like; people are going to find a way to get perfectly-legal emulators on there no matter what.
There is a reason why many emulators are "legit" but do not come with the BIOS. Re-implenting software that you don't have the source code for is hard, and inaccurate. If you want 100% accuracy you need the BIOS. How many people are capable of dumping a BIOS from a console? ZERO. You can only dump a BIOS from a modified console, and that often means soldering things to the console or the firmware chip to get to it.
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