The Xbox Series S is STILL an Emulation Beast - New Updates! 

Correction : I incorrectly stated that Vulkan is available for UWP. At this time the Mesa 3d UWP port only supports OpenGL

I was huge into the dev mode/ retail mode emulation scene on my Series X for the past few years. However, I've since migrated over to mini PCs for my emulation. I consider dev mode emulation on the Xbox to be my introduction and I'll always remember it fondly

That UWP language Vulkan/Open GL to DX12 is exactly what we all dreamed about for the last few years. The Series S is a miracle machine for emulation. Nothing comes close at that price point, especially at that form factor. If the UWP scene really does finally take off, Series S is going to become an absolute dream come true for game preservation.

Glad you enjoyed SuperModel and thanks for the coverage!

having this dev mode and retail mode is the most logical thing i have ever heard. why isnt it standard to switch between the two?

I snagged a second hand Series S for $100 in great condition. Been using it as a bedroom console for old classics and emu and it's been a value king.

When I was in elementary school I found dark forces 2 slid in between the CD drive and case of the school PC. That was a magical day

I love my Series S. I travel a lot for work and and it works great on the road

I didn’t know model 3 is on the series s! 🤯

It's crazy how far emulation has come

Can you talk about the recent Xbox one kernel expolit that was found a few weeks ago. The one that needed game script

can you make a video on installing SteamOS on the series S and turning it into a 'Steam Machine', that would be hella cool

Man I've gotta get this running asap! Great video!

Always good when MVG uploads a vid

Thank you for keeping us up to date! This helps the scene continue to be vibrant.

Last week I took the time to set it up and it is super convenient to have everything in one system. I have a compatible arcade controller so I was testing some NAOMI games and it plays like butter.

got dev mode on my xbox love it over 10,000 retro games i have on my hard drive

The Xbox series S i have is still offline from the previous retail banning fallout. It is a bit disappointing seeing these new updates but it still does solid emulation so i cannot complain enough and maybe the same fiasco might happen again so ill cherish it and keep it as is (offline) forever.

I'm so glad interest continues in this scene- it felt like it died quickly when retail mode was no longer an option despite dev mode! I've attained a CRT since and I've always had og hardware around so I've mostly shifted to that, but there are definitely cases where I don't have that and am happy to use my series x and continue to see interest in this cool function it hides!

MVG is a die hard Xbox/Amiga fan

Holy moly, Thanks man great job, I been really wanting to get a emulator machine, I think I’m going to get a used series s. But I’m not that good at computer setup stuff. I have to try. The Sega stuff sold me . I love & grew up a model 2, 3 lover!! I’m very excited, plus GameCube stuff

Holy damn, Model 3 games run on the Series X??? That's worth an entry fee alone. Wonder how well it handles Naomi or Type X hardware.

Ahhhh starting my day with new MVG thank you for the uploads!

I Love your videos, thanks for the updates as always!! Cheers from Mexico!

Thank you, MVG! Now all of Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games (in one or another form) are playable on Xbox! Dark Forces 2 has been missing on consoles for decades! Would love to see some other PC classics, like Mafia 1 (should have been included in Mafia Remake), AvP 2000 (has a port on PS Vita) and Fallout 1/2.

My issue isn't the fee to activate Dev Mode, but whether Dev Mode will even be available in a many years from now when all Xbox Series Consoles' online functionality have become completely unavailable. Hopefully the console would have been fully cracked open by then.

I already had a bunch of emu’s installed on my series x dev mode, thanks so much for sharing all these updates! I’ll definitely check out these ports, and emulators. I’m excited to see the citrus emulator I saw for a second when you scrolled down the dev store

Great content as always. Love from Thailand. 🇹🇭

I’ve been playing 3ds games on the modified retroarch. Aside from some stuttering, it’s incredible. If I’m not mistaken the main dev is currently making a dedicated citra uwp, so here’s to hoping we can have better smooth 3ds emulation.

I completely forgot about Dev Mode I got it YEARS ago for One X prototyping. Might just dust it off and start making a little UWP game for fun

This makes me SOOOO happy. Thank you for yet another helpful, meaningful, well produced video. I’ve been meaning to sit down and hammer out setting emulation on my Series S, since all my systems have been collecting dust as of late. I stopped when retail mode died last year, but then I tried dev mode a few months ago. I ended up not following through because of the lack of updates to many apps. I’m glad there has been a shake up that’s led to devs wanting to update their apps. The native apps like Dark Forces 2 and Doom 3 really excites me, the same way Mario 64 excited me on 3DS did a few years ago.

Love ya MVG! Keep up the good work! :)

Supermodel dev here, emulation is pretty close to perfect for pretty much all games.

Not an emulator, but it's emulator adjacent. Someone ported Ship of Harkinian to the Xbox, which is that really great Ocarina of Time PC port. It might only be hosted on the HarborMasters64 Discord right now, not sure, but I think it's worth spreading the word regardless.

Great update! Thanks for this video! Keep it up 💪

Thank you for this, much appreciated bud

Wow, this had made a lot of improvements. As someone who has an Xbox One X with an internal SSD, the emulation scene on dev mode was 1 of 3 reasons I bought my Series S and love it more than the One X (Destiny 2 at 60fps, and the $150 price tag from Verizon being the other 2 reasons). Last year before we moved into our bigger place, I had a minimalist gaming set up in the living room with only a few consoles hooked up. The Series S with emulation became my primary method of playing Playstation 2 games, as well as everything else. For anyone wondering how the Series S is over the One X on Xbox One games, it depends on the games you want to play. Halo MCC is dependent if you want to play at 4K or 120hz. Destiny 2 is definitely better at 1080p 60fps on Series S vs 4K 30fps on the One X. PubG is better on Series S despite being the base Xbox One version cause of the 60fps boost, and its a MUCH smoother 60fps than One X. Mortal Kombat 11 is about the same. Apex Legends is almost the same but definitely a more stable 60fps on Series S. And OMG, Xbox 360 games that support FPS Boost like Gears of War 3, they seriously feel like playing brand new games!!!

I use my series s as my main emulation device! At this point I play more emulated games on there than any xbox games 😅

6:29 -- that VF3 footage looks luscious!

Thank you MVG! Always informative, definitely considering it!

It will be very funny if the Xbox series consoles can run PS3 and the ps5 can't

I was just watching the previous videos yesterday. I’ve been considering picking an S up solely for emulation.

Very cool to see you playing and enjoying Supermodel :) Btw, as a game dev, would love to discuss improving the analog steering controls for joypads. I have some ideas in mind but thought you might have some specific ideas about how this is typically done. I think we need to provide an option that makes steering feel more like a proper console port (as Like a Dragon's emulator does).

Thank you for your work.

I really hope we see Wii U and Switch emulation on this.

Dev Mode is life

As a neat freak, I always appreciated how clean MVG keeps his gear and workspace.

Thanks for the video

I prefer a PC a lot more rather than a console, I can play games and also work on the same machine

I noticed that RetroArch on the Series X could access and read all files from PS2 discs just as if it were a directory (I tried it with San Andreas). Would be awesome if in the future we could use PCSX2's "play from disc" capability on the Series X!

This music in the end is just 🔥🔥🔥

Excellent video thx

I also think Dark Forces 2 Jedi Knight is the best of the them. The story line and level design are so awesome.

Already a PS fanboy since PS1. Got into Xbox thanks to your previous "Emulation beast" video 3 years ago. Only regret now is not getting a series X to make the best use of Game Pass. Overall glad i own the ss. Now emulating great consoles i wasn't even aware of their existence like NeoGeo CD, PC Engine, 3DO. Best decision i made. 😊👍

Appreciate the update

Many thanks for the video! the Model 3 emulator is definitely a great reason to set up dev mode

Can't wait for Xbox Series consoles to get "PS3 Backwards Compatibility" with RPCS3 in some years

My older sister also thinks Dark Forces 2 was the series zenith. I fall into the Jadi Academy 2 group, myself.

Great video !

Dark Forces 2 is my all-time favorite from the series. Crossing fingers to get a remastered version like the first one

5:30, We've finally reached the point where we need VKDX instead of DXVK in at least one place. Progress!

lets Summurais... nice word play... 2:21

I'm a real hardware guy but when I bought dev mode for my Series X it truly changed my mind for the better. I even bought an SSD with a USB adapter for my game roms.

I have an xbox one with dev mode since the beginning. All i can really do is play ps1 games with duckstation. Guess i need a digital series S or X for anything else. Thanks for the update MVG.

I wonder if someone will play with fire and port those Mario 64 or Zelda decompilations to Xbox.

Emulation is in such a weird state. You need a $2000 pc to run PS3 games while Wii and everything below run on any potato. And PS4 emulation is still like 5-10 years away

It definitely takes some work to set everything up but once you do, its amazing! I really only use my series s for emulation LOL

Big fan as always, wish u can make a video on installing that stuff for the the computer challenged people like me. I would love 4 u & rgt85 to make a video on classic sega stuff together, maybe arcade model 2,3, Saturn stuff

Right now ita almost impossible to buy dev mode ... Many users are reporting that, me included since January of 2024, even the page has changed but always throws errors about the banks. At bank side with their help the fault is from Microsoft

So now that Mesa was ported to UWP, would this mean that an UWP RPCS3 port could be possible? That would be hilarious, lol

i'm glad you addressed some of the mundane questions that people keep asking every time one of these dev mode / emulation videos is uploaded by someone.... for all you commenters that didn't watch the entire video, or somehow STILL don't understand.... "NO, your xbox will not get banned.".... "it's $20 to get dev mode enabled, paid directly to MICROSOFT."..... "This has been available since the 1st xbox 1 so NO, Microsoft will not be shutting it down." .....furthermore, there are plenty of "how to.... videos available so anything mvg did not cover here is covered elsewhere in OTHER RU-vid videos if you simply SEARCH for what you're looking for EXACTLY..... mvg simply made an update with THIS video on the further advancements in the emulation scene within dev mode.

Glad to see people coming back to this, it's just so amazing. Great to see new updates as well. Getting PS3 emulation added would be awesome

Could you please talk about the steam deck ?

Being honest here, I got a PS5 for current games and a Series S for the emulators.

Great videos, dude! Keep up the great job!

Bro I love you, thanks

These fake spam 🌽 bots do speak the truth, always entertaining and informative videos!

I wonder if the Xenia devs can somehow reverse engineer the Xbox One/Series emulation for 360 games and implement it into their emulator

I love how versatile the Series S is. I have a Series X, but it's great to see that such a cheap console can do so much

Looks amazing!

Until certain brands go full "How DARE you!" and strike the emulators down...

Honestly Microsoft opening up dev mode is something that should've been done ages ago. 'Here you want to tinker? give us a nominal fee that is largely used to reimburse anything that needs to be shipped and we will give you a way to toggle the console between dev and customer modes. Dev mode lets you do a lot but bars you from running commerical content. Otherwise. Go. Nuts.' I love that the series S does that. Here pay a one time fee largely used for customer tracking and bam. Instantly get access to a lot of goodies. and you arne't giving up the official side either. A no piracy way to indulge in seeing just how far those legs streach.

Would be cool for you to cover the mini pcs that you refer to in a future video

After watching this video I looked online and grabbed a used complete in box series s for $90 usd from Craigslist! I gotta get this loaded up with emulators for my kid! Thanks, MVG!

3 years in and Emulation is the most exciting thing on this generation 🤣

I'd rather emulate on my pc

Hopefully this power and UWP support will be in the Xbox handheld

I never thought in the world that I would get an Xbox Series S but this might make me do it. The controller is God tier to me and while I could just get a mini PC, this is a little more TV friendly.

MVG, I know it's more obscure but is there any hope for Namco's SYSTEM 21/22/Polygonizer? Apologies for a bit off topic, I love your channel and emulation talks.

Imagine if DynaRes 2.0 was ported over to the Xbox Series consoles, and worked over Direct-video mode, this would be amazing for authentic retro emulation, and a great alternative to RGB-Pi and MiSTer, the best thing about the Xbox consoles is they have far smaller OS footprints, meaning less overheads, meaning lower latency, which means higher input fidelity, no in the same league as MiSTer, or the upcoming Replay OS with DynaRes 2.0, but if that could be ported or a fork of it, so that you could use an Xbox for emulation over direct-video with fast & accurate video/audio timings, it could be a brilliant, user-friendly way to play all the best classics, as there really isn't a simple way to get low latency retro game performance on an X86 or X64 OS, it can be done, but it's not a novice endeavour, you have to strip out all the processes you can without destabilizing the OS, setup and configure fast USB encoding and polling, make sure you are using a legacy BIOS and a GPU with an analogue BIOS and DAC (RAMDAC), use RAMDISK, configure RGBHV to RGBS 15Khz if using a CRT or configuring shaders and scanlines if using an OLED or Arcade IPS, it's a long-drawn-out process to get a decent experience that matches or comes close to the real thing as intended, and the Xbox could make that a much easier process, especially if someone figures out low latency controls and video/audio with it. My hope is though, that we eventually get a hybrid FPGA/ASIC/RISC-C/X86 all-in-one console one day, that has sub 1ms latency, reference audio & video quality ad timings, and is plug & play, kind of what the Polly mega promised but never came close to delivering, MiSTer gives us this up to 5th generation games, RGB-Pi on a Pi 5 gives us a halfway decent latency performance thanks to DynaRes 1.0 for up to 6th gen, I think the best combination will be an FPGA for handling all the cores for everything up to 6th gen, and ARM64 for running everything else, or would X64 be better, Apple's Silicon ARM64 SoCs have proven to be absolute powerhouses for emulation, it's whichever architecture has the best parallel processing performance, I would also think this perfect hybrid console would have a GPU also for when brute force rasterization is needed for larger resolutions and increasing internal rendering fidelity, as well as a dedicated scaler IC or ASIC for running BFI, scanline, shaders and so on. I'd also like to finally see a next gen, sub 4ms, zero jitter wireless controller tech developed, perhaps using beam forming or laser sight frequency communication, 100 thousand times faster than RF or WIFI, and the perfect candidate for next generation wireless gamepads that will finally give us even better performance than wired controllers.

8:56 you're right about that. Jedi Outcast (Q3 engine) all day!

can you go into a little more depth here ? i use my xbox almost exclusively for gamepass so id love to know how easy and practical it is to swap between states ? would i lose data stored internally , would i need to store roms externally and so on and so forth . great video as always dude

This is incredible, I think it's time for DEV mode ROUND 2.. the OPENGL Series S Doom 3 4k emulation smooth.. wow... possibilities. Power.

I went through the whole process setting up Dev mode for GameCube and PS2 and had a fantastic time, pretty quickly though I found myself replacing the experience with a mini PC and a batocera drive I set up. I'm glad to see this improved though. What I would be curious is how easy it is to update emulators you already have or if you should do a full delete and replace the app

I think I remember playing that first game in the intro at the arcade at this restaurant/casino

Thanks MVG

If Microsoft made some official wrapper API that allows older DX to DX12 UWP and support mesa I would love for them to see them support PC store fronts and just allow any PC game to run like it’s a steam deck, even if they force gamepass ultimate to be required it would be so fucking awesome to run some steam EA indie games on this thing

the dolphin logo has recently been updated to a more modern look

Whenever rpcs3 updates their compatibility list it's worth doing another video about became performance on low tier hardware has improved a lot

I also was big into it when it came to retail mode (I did test in Dev mode as well), I loved it in retail mode. I would be in a chat with friends they would be playing something else (that really didn't feel like playing) and I would bring up a GameCube game, or a SNES game. When it died, I kind of lost interest. I just built up a 70's cab with 9 consoles including a Steam Deck, I moved all emulation to the deck (and a portable, or 2). On the Deck, with EmuDeck, it's just a great interface (ES-DE) that plays up to light 360 and PS3. Most of the 360 games that have been delisted that I want to play can play on the deck, or my gaming PC. 360 games I will play on my 360 or Series X.... It really is great to see devs working on this again