
The PS2’s Backwards Compatibility from the Engineer Who Built It - xd1936
https://medium.com/@freelansations/the-story-of-the-ps2s-backwards-compatibility-from-the-engineer-who-built-it-ec39cf5a0353
======
walrus01
A note about the xbox one's backwards compatibility, it's not an emulator of
any sort and doesn't create a virtual environment of a Xenon CPU, which is
PowerPC based.

Individual games were recompiled for the x86-64 architecture of the xbox one.

If you insert an xbox 360 game disc into an xbox one it simply uses it as a
token to prove that you own the physical game, and downloads the xbox-one-
native version from Microsoft.

~~~
ta999999171
> downloads the xbox-one-native version from Microsoft.

Ew.

~~~
glouwbug
I imagine it downloads binaries and libraries, which would be less than a
hundred megabytes. All the art assets would still be transferred from the disc

------
nmfisher
Great read!

One thing that stood out to me:

> when I entered the team...I had no real electrical engineering skills to
> speak of whatsoever and I didn’t even know how to boot up Windows 3.1, let
> alone how to write any programs...I got the chance to learn how to program
> computers thanks to a training program that the company ran.

I don't know if that's a function of the 90s, or of Japanese companies, but I
almost never hear of companies nowadays taking in completely unskilled
employees and training them up.

I also found it quite amusing that the engineer went through all that effort
to emulate the PSX sound chip in software, only to have the decision reversed
and the hardware chip included in the PS2.

~~~
illwrks
I'm likely wrong but I believe that is/was part of Japanese company culture.

You were brought in, trained up and expected to stay with the company through
good and bad times until the day you retire/die.

~~~
mcraiha
It sounds exactly like that. "Someone else was already supposed to be taking
care of that and when I asked what was going on, I was told that they were
quitting the company and that it was on me to pick up where they left off, no
ifs, ands, or buts."

------
theandrewbailey
Since the next Xbox and Playstation will have the same architecture as the
current generation (AMD CPU + AMD GPU), not having backwards compatibility
would be a surprise.

~~~
ohithereyou
Why would they add that when they can just sell you a remaster for the price
of a new game?

~~~
ac29
It helps move consoles in the first year or two when they don't have many
compelling titles of their own. Not every title gets remastered, and the ones
that do don't tend to be launch titles.

------
joshstrange
Doubtful anyone else cares but if you are looking for the Jim Ryan quote in
the linked article you should search for "anybody" not "anyone" as the quote
is slightly wrong in the Medium post.

