Backwards Compatible Game No Longer Compatible?

Every now and again I'll have a bout of nostalgia where I want to revisit a game I haven't played in years to see what I liked about it to begin with. A couple weeks ago I decided to buy an old original Xbox game (Vexx to be precise) that I knew worked
on the Xbox 360 in the past, but now for whatever reason every time I try to launch it, I get an error message telling me "The game couldn't start. Try downloading the game again." I've checked and cleaned the disc properly, I know my hard drive is legit,
and as far as I can tell my Xbox 360 is up to date. I can't help but wonder if the list of original Xbox games that were compatible on the 360 has changed in any way. I know if the disc was defective, I'd be getting a different error message that says it's
dirty or damaged, and I'm pretty sure I'd be getting an error message of some kind if my hard drive's defective (not entirely sure how old it is to be honest though).

:)

 

Civilization Revolution

Is this game backwards compatible.

Hope so miss playing this game, as I no longer have a 360.

 

Ghost Recon and Market Place

We can't.Games are no longer added to the backward compatible list/marketplace.

 

No games have become uncompatible, at least not that I know of.

 

Hey Parastrat!

You can see a comprehensive list of games available as backwards compatible on Xbox One

here. As far as I know, before the Xbox One was released there wasn't really a list of backwards compatible games. It was more like the technology was so similar, you could play virtually any Original Xbox game on the Xbox 360.

Since the release of the Xbox One and the introduction of Original Xbox games as backwards compatible on the Xbox One, Microsoft may have removed the functionality of backwards compatible games being play on an Xbox 360 entirely.

Are you able to play any other original Xbox games on your 360 or have you only tried Vexx?

Let me know if any of that helps.

 

Have you tried
clearing the systems cache yet?

 

Alright I've taken time to do some experimenting. Unfortunately it seems like clearing the system caches for all of my storage devices hasn't done anything (although it never hurts to do some occasional maintenance). I've also tested two other original
Xbox games I knew were also backwards compatible with the 360 back in the day (Mechassault and Jet Set Radio Future), and I get the exact same insta-failure to launch with the error message: "The game couldn't start. Try downloading again" despite the fact
that these are disks, not downloads. I suspect whatever overhauls have been done to make the Xbox One compatible with 360 and original Xbox games has removed the backwards compatibility feature for the 360 completely somehow.

Can't think of any other reason these games would suddenly stop working (the discs are all in playable condition). Pretty sure the hard drives are in good condition considering I'd have probably had a specific error message and code popping up if they were
the root cause of the issue, and as stated earlier I know they're legit because they've got the Microsoft logo on the side of the storage device menu and have worked for the longest time.

 

Hello Parastrat

You can try to install on a different storage but as far as I know they have to be installed on official xbox 360 hard drives. You can also try a

System update rollback then go to solution 7.

1. Clear the system cache. To do this, see the "Clear the system cache" section above.
   
2. Roll back and then reinstall system updates. To do this:
   1. Press the Guide button on your controller.
   2. Go to settings and select System.
   3. Select Storage.
   4. Enter the following button sequence: X, LB, RB, X, LB, RB, X.
      
   5. Select the option to roll back all system updates that are installed. The console will restart automatically and then download the updates again.
      

Thanks

Brad

Xbox Forum Team

 

Tried the system update rollback method twice (once without updating to see if a new update somehow disabled backwards compatibility and once after re-implementing all system updates), no dice. Only thing I can think of is maybe trying a new xbox 360
hard drive (which could be a while). If that doesn't work, all I can assume is that backwards compatibility is no longer a thing for the 360.

 

Scratch that idea on a new hard drive, I did some sleuthing around. Turns out when the Xbox 360 stopped being officially supported, its backwards compatibility feature was disabled to give people one less reason to cling onto it when Xbox One gained the
ability to support most 360 and some original Xbox games. That's great and all...except when the One can't support the games I want to play (at least not yet). If nothing else I've figured out what the problem is, and I've got some games to recommend if
Microsoft can't think of what else to make backwards compatible. I hear nostalgia's a big thing right now.