List of Xbox Games Compatible With Xbox 360 - How Compatibility Is Achieved

How Compatibility Is Achieved

According to Microsoft, each game needs an emulation profile to run. These profiles can be downloaded through the Xbox Live service or from Xbox.com and burned on CD or DVD recordable media. They are also routinely distributed as part of the content on the Official Xbox Magazine monthly discs. The profiles are downloaded as a single bundle, and hence only need to be applied once per update (if doing so offline), or are automatically downloaded the first time a compatible game is inserted.

The Xbox 360 hard disk is required to play the games on this list. The hard disk is used not only to store the emulation software, but also to store saved games, store downloaded content, and to serve as a data cache for titles which utilize disk caching. Since games for the original Xbox were designed with the expectation that a hard drive would always be available, most titles rely heavily on the presence of one.

An early version of the emulator for playing Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 offline was included with the Xbox 360 hard drive at launch. Xbox 360 hard drives manufactured later include updated emulation profiles which allow a greater range of titles to be played out of the box without updating. Whenever new sets of emulation profiles are released, drives manufactured after that date automatically include the latest update.

The original Xbox controller is not compatible with the Xbox 360, due to its different connector and its marginally different button layout. Specifically, the white and black buttons are not to be found on the 360 controller, having been replaced by the "bumpers" found above the left and right triggers. When playing an Xbox game on the Xbox 360 (using an Xbox 360 controller), the white button is mapped to the left bumper and the black button to the right.