You can officially play original Xbox games on PC! They will have 4× higher resolution, VSync, and improved anti-aliasing

Nostalgia enthusiasts, pay attention. Microsoft has launched the Xbox Backward Compatibility on PC program, allowing you to officially play games from the original Xbox from 2001 on Windows for the first time. The new feature is available in an early version on Windows 11 PCs and also works on gaming handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally. Backward compatibility has been one of Microsoft’s most popular initiatives since 2015, when it launched on consoles – now the same recipe is being tried on PCs.

Four Classics in a New Guise

The initial offering relies on proven titles: the sharp-tongued squirrel in Conker: Live and Reloaded, aerial combat in Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, the platformer BLiNX: The Time Sweeper, and the party title Fuzion Frenzy. All four can be purchased in the Xbox app on PC and are included at no extra cost in every Game Pass subscription tier. Owners of a digital console license will automatically receive the PC version thanks to Xbox Play Anywhere. And these are not lazy ports – Microsoft has added up to 4× higher rendering resolution, VSync, anisotropic filtering, improved anti-aliasing, and language selection, which original releases often did not allow. Achievements are expected to arrive later this year.

It Will Even Run on an Office Clunker

Hardware requirements reflect that these are quarter-century-old games with a new coat of paint. A minimum of GeForce GTX 950 or Radeon RX 550, a quad-core processor, and 8 GB of RAM is sufficient. Microsoft promises that the list of titles will gradually grow, but is keeping specific names to itself for now.

Which original Xbox classic would you like to see on PC next?

Source: Notebookcheck, Xbox