Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

Astute social observer and programmer extraordinaire Peter Kovacs has pointed out that Apple's switch to Intel chips absolutely does not mean that programmers have to rewrite their Mac code. Now, I say "astute social observer" because I didn't even know this was a problem, until Peter showed evidence of people actually saying that.

So kudos to Peter for pointing out the real challenge of chips here: you have to recompile, but you don't have to rewrite. Sure, it's a pain, and I assume this means you need to, for example, offer separate downloads on your website for Intel and Motorola (right?) chipsets. So it may be a big deal for some people, but it's not like they have to burrow through ten-year-old code and figure out what the hell names like "hhh-moh" and "dummy_variable_47" mean.

But linking to Peter gives me the opportunity to make a similar point. I mentioned earlier that all three major video game console manufacturers are preparing for another round of system launches. In the case of the Microsoft XBox 360, a selling point claimed that XBox 360 would be backwards compatible with "top-selling" XBox games. Now, that qualifier is a little foreboding; I would expect that a remark like that means that backwards compatibility for every game turned out to be pretty complicated, so Microsoft decided only to write code to play the most popular XBox games on XBox 360.

Turns out the real answer is even lamer. Apparently, since Microsoft, like Apple, is switching chip manufacturers, XBox games need to be recompiled to work on the 360. Now, it's one thing with talking about downloading an alternate file for your new Mac. But video game consoles sure don't let you: a) recompile software code, or b) let you write this newly recompiled binary onto your unwriteable disc. If you ask me, that means you just have to go and buy the old game again, which of course means there's no reason you shouldn't just play it on your old XBox.

Fortunately, it looks like Ari Fleischer's gotten a job in Redmond:

"At launch, Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with the top Xbox games," Xbox PR manager Michael Wolf told GamesIndustry.biz today. "Our goal is to have every Xbox game work on Xbox 360. You will NOT need to purchase a new 'version' - your original games will work on Xbox 360."

I figure Microsoft's solution is one of two things: you can somehow download a recompiled version through XBox 360 Live, which, if even possible, sounds like it would take forever, or, even better, pixie dust. In either case, good luck.

UPDATE TEN MINUTES LATER: Whoops, looks like I should have checked my Bloglines feeds. After reading this, it turns out I was vaguely right the first time: Microsoft got the old chip maker to emulate individual games on the new chip maker's chipset. Or something like that; in any case they're going to see what games they do by popular demand.