This video's absent any meaningful sound (except the hum of the Xbox 360 next to the television screen), so it'll take a little 'splainin. What it is, is a NES emulator running at "almost full speed" on the Xbox 360.

How it works is by firing up a web browser-based Java emulator on a Windows Media Center PC and then streaming the content displayed in that web browser window via Microsoft's Media Center Extender software to the Xbox 360. It's not the 360 emulating the old games, it's the Media Center PC. The Xbox 360 simply displays whatever's going on in the browser back on the PC. Basically, any program that can be run in a browser on a Windows PC can be run on an Xbox 360 through this method.


Here's the current status: Forum users report varying degrees of success getting the application to work. There appears to be three issues.

1. The speed of the Windows Media Center PC is important, as running finicky, slow emulators at full speed requires faster PCs.
2. The connection between the Xbox 360 and the PC needs to be fast. Some users with suboptimal home networks report lag issues. Remember, this is basically remote control of a PC via an Xbox 360. Network speed is very important.
3. Sound isn't working yet, but Xexter and other programmers are surely hard at work on that issue.

For more information: the best thread on this at the moment can be found over at the Xbox-scene forums, here.

It's legal for now, maybe. An Xbox-scene forum member Daddy021 writes, "The Library of Congress has recently granted copyright exemptions in the Digital Millenium Act to obsolete games. The exemption applies to games that require the original hardware as a condition of access, and if the game is 'no longer manufactured or reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.'" In other words, until the Nintendo Revolution is released, there is no reasonably available means in the commercial marketplace for playing these games. Therefore this may be legal, for now.