I've heard that some original xbox games don't perform well (or at all) on the 360 and was wondering if anyone had experience with either of those titles.

Alternatively, I've got a Mac (without Windows installed) and could purchase KOTOR1 through the App Store. I have a pretty tepid graphics card so KOTOR probably looks about on par between my macbook and the xbox, so visually that isn't as much of a consideration. I'm tempted to play them on the 360 since KOTOR2 isn't available on Mac.

I'm asking on the SWTOR boards because I'm really looking forward to playing SWTOR once they make a Mac port of some kind. If they make a Mac port. So I figure I might as well play kotor1 and 2 until then.

I don't know about KOTOR 2, but from what I've played of KOTOR 1, it runs fairly well. It can get rough in a few areas, but nothing too serious.

They have some pretty crazy framerate issues at points.

Short answer: no.

Long answer: nope.

Definitely not for me. Kotor 1 had a lot of frame rate issues and froze on me multiple times. There were audio desyncs as well. I still trudged through the problems because it was a fantastic game, though.

Decent.
 
Sometimes combat hangs and goes like 1 fps, but beside that and some minor audio issues I had good fun with both.

If KOTOR 2's incredibly bad framerate doesn't destroy your desire to play, then it's audio glitches and load times will.

They're fine.

1 runs well when I tried it out. I'm pretty sure KOTOR 1 came out for mac though. Look around the app store.

KOTOR 1 runs on my laptop very well at a high resolution and decent settings; my laptop uses Intel HD graphics as its card and has 4GB of RAM and an Intel i3 processor.

KOTOR 1 on Xbox runs like a 500 pound man after two plates of bacon and a large pizza.

The Kotor2 disc spun in my 360 like... a spinfusor disk or something. It was really fast and violent and it got hot and it worried me so I stopped.

Which Mac specifically?

I think they both play ok on 360. If you can get a copy of Windows to Bootcamp I'd recommend playing KoTOR 2 on PC because lots of stuff was cut from the retail version that was modded back in by fans.

Thanks for the replies guys. Wow, getting some contradictory responses, but I think I'll stick with the Mac version of KOTOR.

@wewantsthering: I have a 13 inch 2011 MBP. 8G Ram, 2.7 Intel Core i7, which is all great except for my Intel HD Graphics 3000 card (sad trombone). The graphics thing never bugged me since I use it for music-making, but I suppose it'll hold me back with gaming. That said, I'll give KOTOR a shot. @believer258: your comp stats sound a bit like mine.. so KOTOR should run well here! I'll def purchase it.

So that settles KOTOR1. For KOTOR2.. I guess I'll figure it out when I get there. Sounds like the 360 version is less than ideal.

@JoeyIA: I'd prefer not install Windows on my Mac because of hard drive space reasons (not to mention I don't have a copy of Windows laying around and its crazy expensive to buy).

@RainVillain: I think your computer will run it better than the 360 will that's for sure. It's still really lame that they didn't put a better GPU in that model. It makes sense that they wouldn't in my Macbook Air, but for the thicker pro models, it doesn't make nearly as much sense. I ran L4D2 and Psychonauts just find on my Macbook Air, which is similar specs.

KOTOR ran decent when I played it on a 360. There were some really bad frame rate issues at points, though.

2 is unplayable.

Also, I just wanted to say that if there are any other Mac users with Old Republic envy: Crossover Games is claiming that Mac support is almost golden.

I'm a Canadian with crappy bandwidth limits so I don't want to download SWTOR through their website until it's fairly certain it'll work (I assume its a massive download), but for anyone else without a PC this should be worth looking into.

@wewantsthering: Cool. Any other mac game recommendations (beyond the obvious valve/blizzard titles)?

kotor 2 does not run well on xbox 360 at all you will find the sound cuts out a lot the game locks up huge frame rate issues for some unknown reason as well!

I'd say that they're pretty fucking unplayable. But I won't, because they're not.

I had a hard time with KOTOR on the 360. Never played 2.  
 
The framerate was unbearable at points. 

I don't remember kotor 2 running well to begin with.

Just get the PC versions. the cheapest graphics card on the market today is probably more power than you need to run those games.

Why not buy a original xbox? I did from Gamestop for like 30 bucks. Plays both games great in progressive scan as well. Solves your problem also you can get a nice little catalog of last gens titles for next to nothing.

I would just like to say right now that while the original Xbox version of KotOR 1 does not have any outstanding issues, you should not play the console version of KotOR II. If the technical hiccups don't get you, the myriad of insane bugs will. The PC version at least has the benefit of patches and the restoration mods, though... you probably shouldn't play it regardless. That game is kind of a mess. An interesting mess, but a mess all the same. I actually played and wrote about it early last year if you want to read a more detailed opinion.

@RainVillain: Well I would just run Steam on Mac and go to the Mac section. :-) Most of the TellTale games are Mac compatible if you are into those types of adventure games.

1 is pretty terrible, but you can play it. 2 is damn near impossible to play though. Take the issues with 1 and multiply it by 30 and you get kotor 2.

@Irvandus said:

1 runs well when I tried it out. I'm pretty sure KOTOR 1 came out for mac though. Look around the app store.

I actually got a retail copy of that at home. (Bought in an Apple Store). But back in the day (2005) Macs still used the PowerPC processor. Not sure if there is an Intel port around.

@RainVillain: Well I would just run Steam on Mac and go to the Mac section. :-) Most of the TellTale games are Mac compatible if you are into those types of adventure games.

KotOR 2 has horrible audio issues. Both are playable, but barely.