Backwards "Backwards Compatibility"?

There is just too much happening at E3 for me to follow all of it. I am not even going to try and be a news source for you, there are dozens of those available. The one thing I did do a little research on is the Xbox 360.

The 360 is going to have questionable backwards compatibility. This is a huge issue for me, and probably many other players. The essential run down is that because of the colossal changes in hardware between the original and the 360 games would need to be recompiled and then resold to users in order to be used on the 360. That is just insane. I plan on holding onto my Xbox but it will be a pain in the ass to set it up every time I want to play Halo.

The fact that these games will need to be recompiled means that we will see only the most popular titles available. I question this strategy, and I wish Micro$oft would take a page from Nintendo.

The Nintendo Revolution offers up these features (taken from the Nintendo Website):

• Backward Compatibility. Revolution will play all of your favorite Nintendo GameCube games. An innovative self-loading media bay will play both 12-centimeter optical discs used for the new system as well as Nintendo GameCube discs. You can also equip a small, self-contained attachment to play movies and other DVD content.
• Huge Historic Library. Revolution will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

What an idea! Instead of making hackers go through the trouble of building emulators and mod chips, Nintendo offers up all the old games to you as downloadable content! That is the selling point for me. The fact that I can play Goldeneye:007, The Ocarina of Time and Turok on the same console I can play the next generation Mario Cart ensures the fact that I will have one in my living room.

-GLIM

EDIT: Apparently this rumor is not true, or so says Major Nelson. Bottom line is that we will all need to wait and see. The Xbox 360 was not even running the game demos at E3; they were running on Apple PowerMac G5's.