xbox 360 backward compatability?

there is a list of original xbox games you can play on the 360. So all i do is put the disc into my 360 right? (I'm asking this question because i keep hearing about emulators or something like that and can someone explain this in the simplest way possible)

thanks

First things first, you must have a hard drive in order to play XBX games on the 360.

In order to play those games that are capable of being played on the 360, you need to get the update from either XBL, a disk through snail-mail from MS, or you can download the update and burn it to a CD. Easiest way is through XBL. Just log into XBL, and if there's an update, it should ask you if you want to download the latest update. Click yes. After the download, you should be able to insert the XBX game into the 360, and it should play the game. If you got the disk from MS or you burned it yourself, just put the disk into the 360, and it should automatically update the 360 for you.

The 360's backward compatibility isn't based on hardware, which is what the PS2, PS3, and Wii are. Basically, the PS3 has the PSX and PS2 hardware built into it's hardware, so it can play PSX and PS2 games. Same thing applies to the Wii. It has the GC hardware built into it's hardware, so it can play GC games. The 360, on the other hand, doesn't have the XBX hardware built into it's hardware, so the only way for the 360 to play XBX games is through software emulator. Programmers need to write the emu program for the XBX games before it can be played on the 360. You just put the disc into the xbox like you normally would. Yes, just put the disc in. Emulators are on computers and MODIFIED xboxes, they have nothing to do with xbox games going in a 360. Whoever gave you that info, don't listen to them about anything else This list of games is published here: