Could Gameboy Advance emulation be a possibility with Universal Windows 10 apps on the Xbox One? Perhaps.
Making rounds on the net are rumors of VBA10 showing up on the Xbox One, according to a post on ICXM. This app is an offshoot of the already available VBA-X, which is already downloadable on Windows 10 enabled smart phones, tablets, and PCs. With Xbox One becoming more and more of a Windows 10 device, apps like this could bring emulation to the Xbox One.
This could be a huge deal for Xbox players, as while the library is steadily gaining ground in terms of variety, adding emulated games would expand that in a matter of seconds. This means, gamers may one day soon, be able to play Pokemon, Tetris, or the original Doom through an Xbox One, just to name a few. Hopefully, there will be plenty of development on these programs as nothing is worse than a poor emulator.
Yet, this could open up rampant piracy on the home console, something that hasn’t been much of an issue since the Wii was first cracked wide open. While I’ve always been a huge advocate of emulation, homebrew, and rom hacking, I’m not sure that a current generation console is the best place for this.
I guess until full Windows 10 crossover is available through the preview program, we’ll have to wait and see what Microsoft brings to the table. Either way, giving a broader access to developers to make apps for the Xbox One is an exciting prospect. There are tons of creative, talented individuals that could do amazing things with the console that are already being done on the Windows 10 Store.
In the end, I’ll be looking forward to the irony of Super Mario World on the Xbox One.
