With the recent release of Studio MDHR’s Cuphead on to the Nintendo Switch, which in turn has brought with it, the promise of the still, forthcoming, Xbox Live integration support. It shouldn’t be too surprising, that recently, a dedicated fan, successfully compiled XQEMU, an original Xbox emulator, to run on the Nintendo Switch.
XQEMU, is an emulator for Microsoft’s original Xbox and the SEGA Chihiro (Xbox Arcade hardware), developed specifically, for lower-end machines in mind. The emulator itself is derived from QEMU, an open-source virtualization and machine emulator, popular amongst Linux users. In fact, XQEMU runs natively through an instance of Linux, on the switch, rather than through Horizon, Nintendo’s operating system of choice for their hybrid console.
Of course, as is the case with many, early-emulators, especially those on consoles. XQEMU in its current iteration is more of a proof-of-concept, rather than something playable. Yet, even still, seeing the original Xbox GUI, followed up with footage of Halo: Combat Evolved, running on the switch, is pretty cool and gives viewers a glimpse into what may potentially become a reality, emulated, or otherwise.
Currently, Xbox Live has yet to make its debut onto the Switch, meaning, it’s hard to gauge just exactly how the service will manifest on the handheld/console. Alternatively, readers interested in following the emulator as it progresses, are encouraged to follow the YouTube user, Voxel9, the person responsible for compiling the emulator on to the Switch (under Linux).