The Xbox One is by far the best way to play 360 games, enabling a bevy of improvements including 16x AF, higher frame rates, V-Sync, as well as rendering in 4K for some games. However not every game is compatible, most notably many delisted games, the excellent library of Japanese scrolling shooters and all games that require Kinect. The Xbox One has also never been hacked and while Developer Mode opens up some homebrew possibilities, enabling it comes with some drawbacks. This is where the trusty old 360 comes in, as the perfect stablemate for your Xbox One, filling in the gaps it can't fill.
Hardware
We have 3 choices here: Jasper revision OG Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Slim and Xbox 360 E. It's not recommended to get anything older due to fundamental design flaws in earlier Xbox 360s.
OG Xbox 360, Jasper revision
This is the only original model 360 that is worth bothering with. Courtesy of a die shrink on the GPU down to 65nm, the infamous Red Ring of Death is a thing of the past with this revision. These are easily identifiable: if the amperage of the system is 12.1A and the power supply is 150W you got yourself a Jasper. These started becoming available at the end of 2008 and were available as Arcade (white DVD drive tray), Pro (chrome DVD drive tray) and Elite models (black system with chrome DVD drive tray).
Has stood the test of time: is considered to be very reliable operating at reasonable temperatures whatever the load
A modded system will boot immediately
No WiFi although WiFi adaptors are fairly cheap now
No Kinect port so you'll need the power adaptor for it
Can be a bit loud although not nearly as bad as the models that came before it
Xbox 360 Slim
Revealed at and made available shortly after E3 2010, this combined the CPU and the GPU onto one die at 45nm. With a dedicated Kinect port, the Kinect can be powered directly from the console without occupying another wall socket.
Is very quiet
Has the full complement of ports
Finally introduced built-in WiFi
Longer boot-time for modded systems
Some question marks regarding reliability with more people getting the red light of death lately
Xbox 360 E
Introduced alongside the Xbox One at E3 2013, this model's aesthetics owe much to its younger brother while also carrying over many of the improvements the previous Slim model made. For a long time these 360s were not able to be hacked but that has since changed.
Is very quiet
Seems reliable
Longer boot times for modded systems
Is missing the proprietary multi-out port ruling out VGA and RGB SCART output
Is also missing the optical audio port
All of these are solid choices, there's no perfect solution here. Personally I have a modded Jasper Xbox 360 and an unmodified Slim Xbox 360 to cover all my bases.
Modding and homebrew
There are two mods for the Xbox 360: flashing the DVD drive's firmware to allow burned games to be played and the Reset Glitch Hack (RGH). The primary function of DVD drive flashing is piracy as such it will not be discussed here. The RGH however opens up the system completely, allowing unsigned code to be executed, and thus, homebrew. For an explanation of how the Xbox 360's security was defeated, Modern Vintage Gamer has an excellent video explaining in detail the ins and outs.
Performing the RGH is outside the scope of this topic but there are plenty of guides on Youtube. If you don't feel able to do it yourself, there are plenty of modders out there who will do it for you.
So what are the benefits?
To get up and running once you've got your modified machine there are some app installs that should be prioritised:
The first thing you should install on your modded 360 is XeXMenu. This will grant you full access to the 360's file system and from there we can install additional homebrew or custom dashboards. Just format a USB stick using your 360, copy across XeXMenu using your computer to the "Content" folder on the USB stick (enable hidden files if you can't see it), plug the USB stick back into the 360 and copy XeXMenu to the 360 itself (it will show up in the Demos section of your USB stick's storage). Once you've done all that you can run XeXMenu from your installed games section.
The second bit of homebrew you want is DashLaunch. This will assign certain settings on boot including which dashboard the console will boot to, allow you to install plug-ins and allow you to block the Xbox Live DNS so that your system won't get banned!
Aurora is the best 3rd party dashboard for everyday use. If you liked the way Wii HDD loaders presented your games library with cascading 3D cases then you'll love this. It has built-in FTP functionality, a file browser, the ability to rip disc based games (and then boot them without the disc), download title updates and more.
General tips
To access your digital library you need to do it from the console itself. Unfortunately Microsoft removed the ability to check your 360 library from the web. From the 360 dashboard go to Settings > Account > Download History.
Whichever 360 you buy, the loudest component will be the DVD drive. Wherever possible it's best to install your games onto the HDD after which your disk will act merely as a license key and not cause the drive to spin up. Some games might exhibit problems or come with installation DVDs but for 99% of 360 games, this is what you should do before even playing the game. A modded 360 won't require a license check so you can keep your disks safely tucked away!
Even stock 360s are compatible with external storage. Connect any thumb drive or a HDD up to 2TB in size and away you go.
Xbox 360 is backwards compatible with some OG Xbox games but it's no great shakes. Expect frame rate issues, graphical glitches and LOTS of audio bugs. Just buy an OG Xbox if you want to play its games. Unless you have a modified 360, you will need an official HDD formatted with a partition that houses the emulator and space for the games to cache data.
If you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription you will have access to Cloud Saves. Unlike on Xbox One this is a paid for feature but with this you can play on the same save file whether you're playing on 360 or Xbox One! Always use it for all your games even those that aren't backwards compatible: you never know what will happen once Scarlett is released.
Games redeemed via Games with Gold are yours to keep forever. It seems Microsoft didn't foresee needing to have license expiration on the 360 so redeeming games offered on GWG is no different to buying them.
360 games that aren't BC on Xbox One (crowd sourced from XboxEra):
While hope springs eternal for next year and Scarlett's launch, some games are never going to be made BC for licensing reasons, publisher intransigence, companies going bust and a myriad of other reasons. Here's some you might want to look at.
Kinect:
Useful Links
TrueAchievements
MajorNelson.com XB1 backwards compatibility list
List of Xbox games compatible with Xbox 360 (Wikipedia)
Related Threads
Xbox One Backwards Compatibility |OT| Who wants to pay for remasters?
Xbox One Backwards Compatibility |OT2| "We've got to go back Marty!"
OG Xbox |OT| Appreciation, maintenance and collecting
Xbox Game Studios |OT6| I'M BACK (TO RISE)
Xbox One X Enhanced Games: All Titles, Platforms, and Details
Greets to MauroNL, Klobrille and all the frauds on the XboxEra Discord server.
Hardware
We have 3 choices here: Jasper revision OG Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Slim and Xbox 360 E. It's not recommended to get anything older due to fundamental design flaws in earlier Xbox 360s.
OG Xbox 360, Jasper revision
This is the only original model 360 that is worth bothering with. Courtesy of a die shrink on the GPU down to 65nm, the infamous Red Ring of Death is a thing of the past with this revision. These are easily identifiable: if the amperage of the system is 12.1A and the power supply is 150W you got yourself a Jasper. These started becoming available at the end of 2008 and were available as Arcade (white DVD drive tray), Pro (chrome DVD drive tray) and Elite models (black system with chrome DVD drive tray).
Xbox 360 Slim
Revealed at and made available shortly after E3 2010, this combined the CPU and the GPU onto one die at 45nm. With a dedicated Kinect port, the Kinect can be powered directly from the console without occupying another wall socket.
Xbox 360 E
Introduced alongside the Xbox One at E3 2013, this model's aesthetics owe much to its younger brother while also carrying over many of the improvements the previous Slim model made. For a long time these 360s were not able to be hacked but that has since changed.
All of these are solid choices, there's no perfect solution here. Personally I have a modded Jasper Xbox 360 and an unmodified Slim Xbox 360 to cover all my bases.
Modding and homebrew
There are two mods for the Xbox 360: flashing the DVD drive's firmware to allow burned games to be played and the Reset Glitch Hack (RGH). The primary function of DVD drive flashing is piracy as such it will not be discussed here. The RGH however opens up the system completely, allowing unsigned code to be executed, and thus, homebrew. For an explanation of how the Xbox 360's security was defeated, Modern Vintage Gamer has an excellent video explaining in detail the ins and outs.
Performing the RGH is outside the scope of this topic but there are plenty of guides on Youtube. If you don't feel able to do it yourself, there are plenty of modders out there who will do it for you.
So what are the benefits?
- Region free gaming: the 360 is unfortunately region locked and while some games are region free, most aren't, locking western gamers out of some exceptional Japanese exclusives
- Full file system access: your DVD drive dies? No problem, just FTP into your system or connect external storage
- Emulators: the 360 emulation scene is exceptional, giving you a HDMI connected arcade box compatible with all your 360 controllers
- Run your disk based games off the HDD without needing your disks to perform a license check
- Removing the whitelist for OG Xbox games allowing you to attempt to boot games not officially sanctioned by Microsoft (with mixed results)
To get up and running once you've got your modified machine there are some app installs that should be prioritised:
The first thing you should install on your modded 360 is XeXMenu. This will grant you full access to the 360's file system and from there we can install additional homebrew or custom dashboards. Just format a USB stick using your 360, copy across XeXMenu using your computer to the "Content" folder on the USB stick (enable hidden files if you can't see it), plug the USB stick back into the 360 and copy XeXMenu to the 360 itself (it will show up in the Demos section of your USB stick's storage). Once you've done all that you can run XeXMenu from your installed games section.
The second bit of homebrew you want is DashLaunch. This will assign certain settings on boot including which dashboard the console will boot to, allow you to install plug-ins and allow you to block the Xbox Live DNS so that your system won't get banned!
Aurora is the best 3rd party dashboard for everyday use. If you liked the way Wii HDD loaders presented your games library with cascading 3D cases then you'll love this. It has built-in FTP functionality, a file browser, the ability to rip disc based games (and then boot them without the disc), download title updates and more.
General tips
To access your digital library you need to do it from the console itself. Unfortunately Microsoft removed the ability to check your 360 library from the web. From the 360 dashboard go to Settings > Account > Download History.
Whichever 360 you buy, the loudest component will be the DVD drive. Wherever possible it's best to install your games onto the HDD after which your disk will act merely as a license key and not cause the drive to spin up. Some games might exhibit problems or come with installation DVDs but for 99% of 360 games, this is what you should do before even playing the game. A modded 360 won't require a license check so you can keep your disks safely tucked away!
Even stock 360s are compatible with external storage. Connect any thumb drive or a HDD up to 2TB in size and away you go.
Xbox 360 is backwards compatible with some OG Xbox games but it's no great shakes. Expect frame rate issues, graphical glitches and LOTS of audio bugs. Just buy an OG Xbox if you want to play its games. Unless you have a modified 360, you will need an official HDD formatted with a partition that houses the emulator and space for the games to cache data.
If you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription you will have access to Cloud Saves. Unlike on Xbox One this is a paid for feature but with this you can play on the same save file whether you're playing on 360 or Xbox One! Always use it for all your games even those that aren't backwards compatible: you never know what will happen once Scarlett is released.
Games redeemed via Games with Gold are yours to keep forever. It seems Microsoft didn't foresee needing to have license expiration on the 360 so redeeming games offered on GWG is no different to buying them.
360 games that aren't BC on Xbox One (crowd sourced from XboxEra):
While hope springs eternal for next year and Scarlett's launch, some games are never going to be made BC for licensing reasons, publisher intransigence, companies going bust and a myriad of other reasons. Here's some you might want to look at.
- 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
- After Burner Climax (delisted)
- Akai Katana
- Amped 3
- Anarchy Reigns
- Armored Core 4, For Answer, 5, Verdict Day
- Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel
- Bangai-O HD
- Beautiful Katamari
- Bionic Commando: Rearmed
- Binary Domain
- Blacksite Area 51
- Blazing Angels II: Secret Missions of WWII
- Blood Drive
- Bodycount
- Bullet Witch
- Condemned 2
- Culdcept Saga
- DOA4
- Darkstalkers Resurrection
- Dark Sector
- Deathsmiles
- Deathsmiles IIX
- Dodonpachi Resurrection
- Eschatos
- Espgaluda II
- F.E.A.R., Files, 2, 3
- Forza Motorsport 2, 3, 4
- Fracture
- Full Auto
- Guitar Hero (series)
- H.A.W.X 2
- Hour of Victory
- Import Tuner Challenge
- Ketsui
- Legendary
- Max Payne 3
- Mushihime-sama Futari
- Naughty Bear
- Nier
- Ninja Blade
- Outrun Online Arcade (delisted)
- Over-G Fighters
- PGR3
- PGR4
- Project Sylpheed
- Raiden Fighters Aces
- Record of Agarest War
- Remember Me
- Ridge Racer 6
- Rise of the Argonauts
- Rock Band (series)
- Shaun White Snowboarding
- Singularity
- Skate 2
- Soul Calibur IV, V
- Stoked
- Stranglehold
- Street Fighter X Tekken
- Tetris: The Grand Master Ace
- The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
- The Club
- Time Shift
- Tony Hawk (series)
- Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
- Turok
- Velvet Assassin
- Vigilante 8 Arcade
- Virtua Tennis 3, 2009, 4
- WET
- Wolfenstein (2009)
- X-Men Origins Wolverine
Kinect:
- Dance Central 1, 2, 3
- Fable: The Journey
- Fruit Ninja
- Kinect Sports
- Kinect Sports Season 2
- Puss in Boots
- Rise of Nightmares
- The Gunstringer
Useful Links
TrueAchievements
MajorNelson.com XB1 backwards compatibility list
List of Xbox games compatible with Xbox 360 (Wikipedia)
Related Threads
Xbox One Backwards Compatibility |OT| Who wants to pay for remasters?
Xbox One Backwards Compatibility |OT2| "We've got to go back Marty!"
OG Xbox |OT| Appreciation, maintenance and collecting
Xbox Game Studios |OT6| I'M BACK (TO RISE)
Xbox One X Enhanced Games: All Titles, Platforms, and Details
Greets to MauroNL, Klobrille and all the frauds on the XboxEra Discord server.
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