When Microsoft first announced that the Xbox would run Windows apps, I don’t think it thought of that! You can play Nintendo GameCube and Wii games with a beta version of the Dolphin emulator, available as a universal Windows platform app (via Windows headquarters).
Sir Mangler’s fork of the excellent emulator runs on the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and even the smaller of Microsoft’s two modern consoles is reportedly doing a great job. In the video above, Modern Vintage Gamer shows impressively smooth performance on GameCube titles upscaled to 1440p, even when adding HD texture packs to games like Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and load everything from a USB stick.
(Never played Eternal Darkness? Let’s just say Modern Vintage Gamer has good taste.)
While the emulator will technically run on the Xbox One and Xbox One X as well, MVG shows it’s a decidedly choppy affair there, so you’re probably best off sticking with the latest generation.
If you enable Developer Mode on your Xbox (it’s a requirement and not the only hoope you have to jump through), you don’t have to stop at GameCube and Wii games. As we wrote in 2020, you can also install RetroArch to play a variety of classic games – including PS2 titles that Sony’s PS5 can’t play.
Of course, for all this you need the ISOs or ROMs. We do not advocate stealing them! Personally, I use an old Nintendo Wii with Homebrew Channel and CleanRip to dispose of my own Wii and GameCube discs.
