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Disc Images

xemu requires game discs to be in the form of xiso images. These are generally saved with a .iso extension, but are not the same as typical ISO images and should be created following the instructions below.

Disclaimer

The xemu project does not endorse or promote piracy. We don't permit sharing of games on any channel. The only legal way to acquire these files is to dump them from your real, physical media.

Backing Up

Fortunately games can be acquired for relatively cheap and it is very easy to create a game backup. You can backup your legally purchased games by:

  • Using your computer to connect via FTP to your real Xbox running a custom dashboard. You can simply insert the disc and transfer the game files from the D directory to your computer.
  • Purchasing and using a special, reflashed DVD drive. More details here.

Creating ISOs

xdvdfs (Web or Command Line)

xdvdfs is a tool that can manage Xbox disc images. It is available as a webapp or as a command line tool.

Warning

xdvdfs does not apply media patching to xbe files within the image. Some games on some BIOSes will not load as a result.

For maximum compatibility, either apply the patch yourself, or use a BIOS that does this for you (such as m8plus).

extract-xiso (Command Line)

extract-xiso is a command-line tool to create Xbox-compatible disc images.

Warning

Use only 32-bit builds of extract-xiso. 64-bit builds can cause subtle issues resulting in dirty disc errors.

If you have downloaded your game files over FTP to a directory, the directory structure will look something like this:

game/
  default.xbe
  data/
    image.tga

You can run:

extract-xiso -c game

game.iso will be produced. This can be used with xemu.

Qwix (GUI)

Qwix is a popular GUI based tool for creating Xbox compatible ISO images.

Warning

Qwix is not an open-source project, it is not maintained by the xemu project. Use at own risk.

About "redump" ISOs

"Redump" ISOs are a full dump of the game disc. Xbox game discs contain two partitions, the first is a video partition which you can access from a computer or DVD player. This partition usually contains a short video instructing you to insert the disc into an Xbox. The second partition contains the actual game data. A "redump" ISO contains both of these partitions.

If you have used a customized DVD drive to produce a backup of your game disc, you more than likely have this format. As a sanity check, these images are typically ~7GB in size.

xemu is not currently compatible with this format, but you can extract the second partition of the disc image for use with xemu. You can do this with utilities such as xdvdfs, dd, extract-xiso or fallocate on supported systems.

The webapp tool is capable of repacking or extracting most redump ISO images by selecting an ISO file as the input. The output file can then be used with xemu.

The command line tool is also able to repack or extract redump ISO images: 

xdvdfs pack game-redump.iso

You can then use game-redump.xiso.iso with xemu.

dd if=game-redump.iso of=game.iso skip=387 bs=1M

You can then use the game.iso with xemu.

extract-xiso -r game-redump.iso

You can then use game-redump.iso with xemu. Your original will be game-redump.iso.old.

This will truncate the original file in-place: 

fallocate -c -o 0 -l 387MiB game.iso

You can then use the game.iso with xemu.