Does anyone else find it annoying when reliable resources go missing? In late 2007, when Microsoft launched the “Xbox Originals” project, allowing original Xbox games to be downloaded in their entirety and played on the Xbox 360, they also uploaded instruction manuals for those games for viewing on Xbox.com. In some cases they did not have completed art work or were missing covers, as these were often manuals that were submitted for approval before manufacturing that Microsoft had the rights to. Only some titles, such as the original “Halo” (a Microsoft Studios title), have complete cover-to-cover manuals. Unfortunately, useful uploads like these have a tendency to go missing. So, even though it was about 10 years ago, I dove into the archives and pulled some of these out for archival purposes.
I also have an archive of a few Xbox and Xbox 360 manuals as well.
I make no claim to the copyrights of any of these and will remove them upon request, but as they were distributed freely on Xbox.com in the past, I simply consider this a mirror of what was once freely available. All manuals are in English.
- BLACK
- Burnout 3
- Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex
- Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
- Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
- Fable
- Fuzion Frenzy
- Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows
- Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
- Halo
- Indigo Prophecy
- The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
- Metal Arms
- Ninja Gaiden Black
- Psychonauts
- Sid Meier’s Pirates!
- Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
In addition to the manuals, here is what the original Xbox Originals website had to say about compatibility, features, known bugs, and differences you can expect. I imagine much of this information carries over to modern experiences like playing these original Xbox games on the newest Xbox One and Xbox One X.
Xbox Originals – More Information
Xbox Original games are carefully selected based on fan feedback and the quality of the play experience on the Xbox 360. All Xbox Original games have been thoroughly tested to offer a great gameplay experience when played on your Xbox 360. However, there are some differences in their behavior due to their being designed for the original Xbox. If you’ve played disc-based games for the original Xbox on your Xbox 360 using the backwards compatibility feature, you’ll find that Xbox Originals behave in the same manner.
Gameplay Differences:
- If an Xbox Original game features additional content, such as demos or game trailers, those items aren’t supported when playing that game on the Xbox 360. Selecting one of these items will cause your Xbox 360 to stop responding and require you to restart your console.
- The white and black buttons on the original Xbox controller now map to the Left Bumper and Right Bumper, respectively. See the controller maps available for each game on Xbox.com for specific controller functions for each game.
- To exit an Xbox Original game, press the Xbox 360 Guide button, then press the Y button to exit to the dashboard, or press the A button to shut down your console.
- Xbox Original titles that are designed for 4:3 (non-widescreen) displays will show black boxes on either side of the screen when played at 720p or higher resolution, in order to avoid distorting the original game images.
- You can’t purchase premium content (such as add-on maps) for Xbox Original games using Microsoft Points. To purchase content for Xbox Original titles, you’ll need a credit card on file for the Xbox LIVE account you’re using in order to make the purchase.
- Publisher logos at the start of a game can be choppy on first play.
Xbox LIVE Experience:
- Xbox Original games don’t feature Achievements or Gamerscore. The original Xbox didn’t support Achievements, and these games are designed to run just as they did on the original console.
- Some Xbox Original games don’t support Xbox LIVE multiplayer gameplay. Check the game’s page on Xbox.com for information on local and LIVE multiplayer features.
- Xbox LIVE notifications (such as notifications that friends have logged on) won’t appear while playing an Xbox Original game.
- You’ll be automatically logged out of Xbox LIVE when you launch an Xbox Originals game. If the game supports Xbox Live, you can re-connect by logging back in via the game.
Information on Specific Titles:
- BLACK: There are some minor lighting issues with non-player characters.
- Burnout 3: Takedown: Very minor performance drops in multiplayer mode.
- Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge: There is some minor flickering at the top of the screen that happens very rarely. The “Press A to Continue” message is missing when the host player leaves a multiplayer game.
- Dreamfall: The Longest Journey: Player can get caught in geometry after loading level 8. Blurry lines may appear at VGA resolution 848X480
- Fable: There are some random bursts of audio static and some minor texture issues and a short hang up when removing tattoos.
- Fuzion Frenzy: There are some minor frame rate issues.
- Guilty Gear X2 Reload: Minor graphical corruption, artifacting on player avatars.
- Halo: There are some very mild frame rate drops.
- The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning: Minor graphical corruption when using lightning breath.
- Ninja Gaiden Black: No audio is heard during the display of the publisher logo. There is a minor performance drop during the Alma cutscene. Original Ninja Gaiden Arcade game does not run and is not supported.
- Sid Meier’s Pirates!: There is minor stuttering during the introductory video, and there is some texture tearing and instances of textures disappearing in the game.
- Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse: Minor audio stuttering during final credits. Minor performance drops during co-operative play. No video for Pal-60. Title must be played on Pal-50.
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory: Light sources can sometimes be seen through textures and player avatar (Minor).