Sega Dreamcast Emulator For Xbox One Retro Gaming Goodness Arrives This Summer For Free
One of the biggest advantages of Microsoft's Xbox One is that gamers are not locked into playing only Xbox One games. Through its backwards compatibility feature, Microsoft allows playback of hundreds of Xbox 360 games, meaning those titles sitting on the shelf are not going to rot if a user's actual Xbox 360 console dies.
As cool as that feature is, it's just the tip of the iceberg of what the Xbox One can do. While it's not entirely intuitive, users can install custom software to allow them to play games from other consoles, including Game Boy Advance, PSP, Nintendo 64, and even the original PSone. Soon, Sega's Dreamcast is going to be added to that list.
We can forgive you if you didn't even realize that unsupported emulation on the Xbox One was supported. It's supported even without "rooting" your console; all you need to do is sign up for a developer account, switch an Xbox One to developer mode, and then sideload the custom software. Ultimately, the process of installation seems little different from installing emulators on Android, although since Google actually does allow emulators to be sold on its Play Store, that removes a few steps.
Due out this summer, WinDCe10 is going to be made available for free, although donations are welcomed by the developers to expedite the development process. It's not clear which emulation base this particular emulator uses, but it'd likely be either nullDC or DEMUL, both of which are solid solutions. Once the forthcoming emulator is installed, users will need to provide their own games, likely through ISOs rather than the real discs.
Like all good emulators, this one will support save and load states, and won't have a region lock (that will likely be controlled by the chosen BIOS). It'll also feature different A/V options, as well as turbo mode. Let's hope it also supports the Dreamcast's exotic VMU memory cards, as those are a big charm of the system. Online support sure wouldn't hurt, either!
