Topic: Rare Replay - $30 for 30 games from Rare

[W7RE]

Pre-order trailer (this is actually the intro that plays when you launch the game):

30 games from Rare, all ported to Xbox One. Here's the list:

Jetpac - 1983
Lunar Jetman - 1983
Atic Atac - 1983
Sabre Wulf - 1984
Underwurlde - 1984
Knight Lore - 1984
Gunfright - 1985
Slalom - 1987
R.C. Pro-Am - 1987
Cobra Triangle - 1989
Snake Rattle N Roll - 1990
Solar Jetman - 1990
Digger T. Rock - 1990
Battletoads - 1991
R.C. Pro-Am II - 1992
Battletoads Arcade - 1994
Killer Instinct Gold - 1996
Blast Corps - 1997
Banjo-Kazooie - 1998
Jet Force Gemini - 1999
Perfect Dark - 2000
Banjo-Tooie - 2000
Conker's Bad Fur Day - 2001
Grabbed by the Ghoulies - 2003
Kameo: Elements of Power - 2005
Perfect Dark Zero - 2005
Viva Piñata - 2006
Jetpac Refuelled - 2007
Viva Piñata: Trouble In Paradise - 2008
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - 2008


There's a slick cinema-themed UI for browsing and launching all the games. Each game has milestones, which seem mostly related to achievements. There's also Snapshots, which are like mini challenges within some of the games. Completing milestones and Snapshots give you stamps, which sort of level you when you collect enough, and that unlocks videos and stuff, telling you about the history of Rare. Each game can save it's own save state too. So you can quit at any time, go play some of the other games, or something other than Rare Replay, then come back to exactly where you were. You can toggle on unlimited lives in most games it seems, and the left and right triggers allow you to rewind and fast-forward the game. (So now not only can you beat Battletoads, but you can do it on one life without ever getting hit, if you abuse the rewind enough.) There's also a very blurry CRT filter that adds scanlines and curves the screen edges.

So far, I only have 3 complaints:

1: Wizards & Warriors is not included
2: Because the Xbox 360 games run as backward compatible games, they are each their own game. When you try to launch one from within Rare Replay, it takes you to the store page for that game, even if it's already installed. Also because they don't run inside of Rare Replay they don't get the save state, unlimited lives, or rewind features. They also don't have Snapshots.
3: There's no online multiplayer support for the games that run inside of Rare Replay (though I think local multi is). The Xbox 360 titles do support online, using the emulated 360 popup menu (press start+select together).

[W7RE]

Here's a short video showing off the rewind feature, and the CRT filter:

[Cobra951]

I need to think what games I'd be playing if I got this.  Everything 8- and 16-bit I can play easily by other means.  The 360 Rare games I wanted I already have, including the N64 ports.  That leaves, what, the censored version of Conker's BFD?  Oh wait, there's also Jet Force Gemini.  I loved that game.  Blast Corps too.  Good game.  I have those on N64 carts, but I don't see me pulling the N64 out of its box again.  In fact, I have or can otherwise play everything on that list that I care about.  Hmm.

[W7RE]

the censored version of Conker's BFD?

I thought I heard that the Xbox version was censored compared to the N64 game. The one in here is the N64 version.

Before grabbing this, I only had Perfect Dark, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, and Conker: Live and Reloaded (the Xbox remake). Definitely worth it for me. The first 2 Banjo games on 360 are $15 each, so that's $30 worth right there. All the games I got growing up were always given to my brother and me to share. When I left for college, I couldn't take them with me, and they've just sort of become my brother's. So I have little left from anything pre-original Xbox.

[Cobra951]

B&K: Nuts and Bolts is a gem, if you like to tinker.  You can put together all these contraptions and vehicles with rules-based active parts.  It's like a pre-Minecraft crafting game.  I spent a long time coming up with different things, like a jet-powered semi-truck, and a working carousel that could deploy helicopter blades and fly to a different location.  Loved it, and oh!--my signature.  (See below.  Had forgotten that.)  B-K and B-T I have on N64 & 360 (both on both).  Conker BFD I have on N64.  You think it isn't censored on this Replay?  I also have Blast Corps and Jet Force Gemini (N64).

I never could get into the Viva Piñata's.  Not at all.  I made the mistake of buying the first one, and the 2nd I got free with Gold not long ago.  Perfect Dark gives me instant vertigo on the 360.  Didn't have that problem on the N64.  I'm not sure what's up with that.  Kameo was my first good experience with the 360.  It felt so "new-gen" back then.  Haha!  Perfect Dark Zero I could not get into either.  I was quite disappointed, after the great times I had with Goldeneye and PD.  Don't care about KI--at all.  It goes in the same ignore box with all other one-on-one single-screen fighters.  Jetpac Refueled was fun for a day or two, then I lost interest.  Grabbed by the Ghoulies--now there's one I never played.

[W7RE]

From Wikipedia, on the N64 version:

Some offensive content was censored under the supervision of Nintendo, including cutscenes with Pokémon and a joke at the expense of the Ku Klux Klan.[24] Seavor, however, remarked that "pretty much 99.9% of the game remained

From Wikipedia, on the Xbox version:

The game was originally titled Conker: Live and Uncut and was to feature a completely uncensored single player experience. At some point during the development of the game, this was changed and the game was released with heavy censorship.[2] Even minor obscenities which were present in the original N64 version were censored. This drew criticism from fans of the original, especially as it detracted from comedic highlights such as the "Great Mighty Poo" song in the Sloprano chapter.

Sounds to me like any censoring of specific words or visuals in the N64 version are probably the same in the Xbox version, but there are things censored in the Xbox version that are not censored on the N64.

[W7RE]

While I do feel this collection is worth it, just for the N64 era games, some of the older games are really bad though. The only pre-NES game I actually like is Jetpac.

[scottws]

Ars Technica says that the version of CBFD in this collection is the uncensored N64 one.

[Cobra951]

Ars Technica says that the version of CBFD in this collection is the uncensored N64 one.

Yeah, I was just reading the Kotaku review of Replay, and just ran into this:

Killer Instinct Gold, Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini and Conker’s Bad Fur Day—are running on a Nintendo 64 emulator. Yes, the Xbox One is running an N64 emulator. Presumably Nintendo has been informed. Strangely, Rare Replay is not using the Xbox remake of Conker. The N64 version is still technically impressive with good graphics and a lot of funny voice-acting, so it’s not a big deal and probably for the best.

http://kotaku.com/rare-replay-the-kotaku-review-1721781195


That's actually good news.  But unfortunately, overall, I just don't see me getting this unless it gets even cheaper:

Rare Replay, you see, is possibly the most strangely-delivered game ever. It consists of 10 discrete pieces of software: the main Rare Replay application which contains 21 games as well as nine standalone Xbox 360 games, all of which run on Xbox One through the system’s recently-unveiled backwards compatibility. Apparently, the collection has this 10-application structure even if you buy it on disc.

I already have every single one of those 360 games, on the 360--which means I should be able to play them on the One freely when backward compatibility goes live.  (And if they're shamefully restricted to Replay, no big deal.  I still have them on the 360.)  The 8-bit games are not going to motivate me to part with any cash.  That leaves the N64 emulated games and Grabbed by the Ghoulies (original Xbox).  I have all the N64 games, on N64 carts.  The two N64 B-K games also made it to the 360 (see image above), and I got those cheap, years ago.  Those run quite a bit more smoothly on the newer hardware.

In short, $30 for compilation convenience and Grabbed by the Ghoulies?  Nah!

That Kotaku review is a good read, BTW.

[scottws]

Why did Kotaku mention the thing about the N64 emulator and Nintendo being informed? Emulators are perfectly legal. Regarding running the N64 game ROMs in the emulator, well a bunch of the games in the collection were published by Nintendo, so I'm sure Microsoft had to work with Nintendo on this in any case.

Speaking of Rare, Microsoft, and Nintendo, man fuck Microsoft.  As soon as MS bought Rare, the legendary company basically died.  Most of the stuff they did under MS was pure crap.

[W7RE]

This setup is actually less messy than I thought at first. The Rare Replay interaction with the 360 games wasn't working for me at first, maybe it was a hard reset that fixed it. You can select the game from within Rare Replay and launch it, then at any time you can press and hold Menu (Start), and you'll get a quick loading bar in the bottom left and it'll take you back to Rare Replay. Because the Xbox One can only run one "game" at a time you're not taken back to where you were in the menu (like you are with the other games in the collection), but you do get a certain amount of integration with the main app.

(And if they're shamefully restricted to Replay, no big deal.  I still have them on the 360.)

They're seen as separate games. I own Perfect Dark and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise digitally, and bought Rare Replay digitally. Both of those games show up twice in my "ready to install" list, and one of each has a golden "Rare Replay" banner across the top. I'm guessing the difference is that the Rare Replay branded ones just have the "hold Start to launch Rare Replay" function.

Speaking of Rare, Microsoft, and Nintendo, man fuck Microsoft.  As soon as MS bought Rare, the legendary company basically died.  Most of the stuff they did under MS was pure crap.

There's a whole section of unlockables, with a subsection called "Previously Unseen", which has videos talking about cancelled Rare projects. I haven't unlocked any myself, but I've already seen people link to videos of Kameo 2 and a cancelled kart racer. It's great to get a look at these things, but it sucks knowing they'll never come to be.

Kameo 2

The Fast and the Furriest

[Cobra951]

This setup is actually less messy than I thought at first. The Rare Replay interaction with the 360 games wasn't working for me at first, maybe it was a hard reset that fixed it. You can select the game from within Rare Replay and launch it, then at any time you can press and hold Menu (Start), and you'll get a quick loading bar in the bottom left and it'll take you back to Rare Replay. Because the Xbox One can only run one "game" at a time you're not taken back to where you were in the menu (like you are with the other games in the collection), but you do get a certain amount of integration with the main app.


They're seen as separate games. I own Perfect Dark and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise digitally, and bought Rare Replay digitally. Both of those games show up twice in my "ready to install" list, and one of each has a golden "Rare Replay" banner across the top. I'm guessing the difference is that the Rare Replay branded ones just have the "hold Start to launch Rare Replay" function.


There's a whole section of unlockables, with a subsection called "Previously Unseen", which has videos talking about cancelled Rare projects. I haven't unlocked any myself, but I've already seen people link to videos of Kameo 2 and a cancelled kart racer. It's great to get a look at these things, but it sucks knowing they'll never come to be.

Those 2 games you owned already are showing independently?  Are you in the preview program for the system updates?  I've thought about it, but don't want to be constantly running a system in a beta-test state.

My biggest problem right now is space.  I can't fit one more thing in this (surprisingly) puny 500GB drive (with like a fifth of the space taken up by the system).  I already deleted Wolfenstein so I could fit The Witcher 3.  I have to get me an external, which is going to be close to a $100 expenditure.  Less than 2 TB just doesn't make sense with games in the 20-50GB range.  This package is around 50 GB, from what I've read.  I'm not surprised, given the 5 DVD and 4 arcade releases from the 360.

So the extras are already showing up on the internet.  I don't know why I'm tempted to get this anyway, at some point.  I have everything of value in it.  As you discovered, pre-NES games typically suck.  The ZX Spectrum's display capabilities were awful even in its day.

[W7RE]

Those 2 games you owned already are showing independently?  Are you in the preview program for the system updates?

Yeah, I'm in the preview program, and PD and Viva Pinata TIP are among the BC games available.

My biggest problem right now is space.  I can't fit one more thing in this (surprisingly) puny 500GB drive (with like a fifth of the space taken up by the system).  I already deleted Wolfenstein so I could fit The Witcher 3.  I have to get me an external, which is going to be close to a $100 expenditure.  Less than 2 TB just doesn't make sense with games in the 20-50GB range.  This package is around 50 GB, from what I've read.  I'm not surprised, given the 5 DVD and 4 arcade releases from the 360.

I have a 1TB external. It's getting a bit full, but I do have a lot of games installed that I'm not actively playing. I would have gotten a bigger drive, but this one was a present so I didn't have much choice in the size. Rare Replay does add up to 45.1 GB, but you can pick and choose which of the 360 games to install.

Rare Replay is 11.4 GB
Banjo-Kazooie is 673 MB
Banjo-Tooie is 736 MB
Banjo-Kazooie Nuts N Bolts is 7.1 GB
Viva Pinata is 5.5 GB
Viva Pinata TIP is 5.7 GB
Kameo is 6.2 GB
Perfect Dark is 882 MB
Perfect Dark Zero is 6.3 GB
Jetpac Refuelled is 617 MB

If you own most of them already though, it doesn't really seem worth it. It might be better to wait and pick it up on a sale later.

[Cobra951]

Oh, man, thanks for taking the time to type up that info.  Appreciate it.

Hey, does your external behave itself all the time?  Does it ever time out after you leave a game on pause for a while (like to go eat) and then come back?  Some externals spin down in like 10 minutes of inactivity, then take more than a few seconds to spin back up.  I read some people had trouble with getting a message that the drive is ready, over and over.  What did you get?  I think you said Toshiba?  I can't remember where you posted about that.

[W7RE]

Hey, does your external behave itself all the time?  Does it ever time out after you leave a game on pause for a while (like to go eat) and then come back?  Some externals spin down in like 10 minutes of inactivity, then take more than a few seconds to spin back up.  I read some people had trouble with getting a message that the drive is ready, over and over.  What did you get?  I think you said Toshiba?  I can't remember where you posted about that.

I got a 1TB Seagate Expansion (I think this is it). I'ts USB 3.0, USB powered. I think the drive is 5400 RPM, which I was weary about, but apparently the internal is as well, and people were reporting load times to be either the same, or shorter, with a 5400RPM USB 3.0 drive.

I've had mine for 8 months, and I've gotten the "your drive is ready" message once. I think it was as I turned the Xbox on after it had received an OS update in sleep mode. None of my data was impacted. Otherwise it performs just like the internal drive. I set it as my default install location for new stuff, and that was it. If it spins down, it doesn't affect anything that I've noticed.

[Cobra951]

Thanks.  Looks like the Xbox folks like Seagate too (not that it guarantees anything beyond a business arrangement).  I hate how difficult it is to get objective info on these things.  For every candidate drive I've checked out, I've read the whole range of opinions from glowing praise to disappointment with issues and utter failures.  That, more than the money, is what's kept me from getting one already.  The pro reviews are seldom any better.  They barely scratch the surface.  I was hoping to find something officially endorsed for the system, and here it is, but Seagate's reported failure rate is higher than WD's and Toshiba's.

Back on topic, Jet Force Gemini should be awesome with the new modern controls.  I loved this game on the N64 even with its wonky single-stick controls.

[W7RE]

Ugh, the camera in Banjo-Kazooie...

The C-buttons are mapped to the right analog stick, and that works just fine. The issue is that for some locations, the camera wants to be in a specific spot. So you'll be running along, maybe adjusting the camera as you go, and then it instantly flips to the other side of your character. If you're on a ledge when this happens, you're going down. Also most games will pull the camera in close if there's a close wall, to avoid clipping. This one will just instantly jump to the other side of the character, skipping 30-40 degrees of movement.

[Cobra951]

The camera can be awful in those games.  You learn to anticipate the weirdness after a while.  Have you tried JFG with the new controls yet?

[gpw11]

The camera in that era was really awful.  I remember reading reviews of games and hearing complaints of "terrible camera systems" but I'd rarely notice it at at the time and just dealt with it. I find going back now and replaying these games are really hard.  For instance, Rayman 2 -  I was playing this on the Vita (PSX version) and had to quite because I just couldn't get past the brutal camera system.

[W7RE]

The camera can be awful in those games.  You learn to anticipate the weirdness after a while.  Have you tried JFG with the new controls yet?

I haven't actually tried JFG yet. I thought it might be long enough to warrant more attention so I hadn't played it. I did a little bit of most of the games, then dove into Banjo-Kazooie.

[W7RE]

So, the controls in Jet Force Gemini...

Original: push the left stick in the direction you want to move. Right stick left and right are strafe, up and down and jump and crouch.
Modern controls: Left stick is the same, right stick is strafe still, but crouch and jump are moved to B and A.

With either setting, pulling the left trigger puts you in aim mode, which controls like any modern FPS (forward/backward and strafe on the left stick, look around with the right stick). In the regular mode, there appears to be no camera control, and the camera seems pretty bad. In just a few minutes of gameplay, there are lots of occurrences of enemies being behind the camera. I guess the design intent is that you run around relying on autofire to kill things, with the occasional use of manual aim. Manual aim is really sluggish and the crosshair isn't tied to the center of the screen (so it feels really odd, and is difficult to use).

[W7RE]

After even more messing around in JFG I realized the only thing "modern controls" does is snaps the crosshair to the center of the screen for aim mode, and the right stick becomes a first-person camera control. In the original mode, the crosshair could move all over the screen, snapping back to center if you release it. The modern crosshair still moves around a bit in the center of the screen, and has some delay, so it's not exactly easy to use, just easier than before.

With modern controls on, the in-game controls menu is bypassed and you instead get the Rare Replay themed menu. With modern controls off, you can choose Expert or Normal modes. Expert has jump/crouch on the right stick, and Normal has jump/crouch on the face buttons. Both modes map strafing to the right stick.

Strafing is also weird in this game. Strafing right rotates the camera to the right, and same for left. I'm not sure if it was like this in the original, or if they mapped the camera controls (with super low sensitivity) AND the strafing to the same stick for some reason.


Here's a video showing what I'm talking about with the aiming mode, and the strafing:

[Cobra951]

Oh!  Your previous post had me thinking it was bad either way.  So as long as you hold the aiming trigger, it behaves just like it should with modern controls (2-stick omnidirectional move & aim).  Nice.

In early days of 3rd person camera, a lot of games had that inverted sense.  You're controlling the camera, not your eyes.  Think of it as a camera stuck on a long pole attached to your back.  The camera moves in the direction you push the stick, and your view rotates in the opposite direction (up, down, left or right).  The 3D Zeldas do the same thing too.  Same with 3D Marios, at least 64.  (I think Galaxy too, but now I don't remember for sure.)  The best thing to do nowadays is to allow the player to invert both axes individually on the look controls.  That way, everybody's happy.

You seem proficient capturing and editing video now with the console DVR & Upload.  I just learned I could record 5 minutes instead of just 30 seconds.  How do you get it to Youtube?  Do you link your XBL and Google accounts somehow?  I've been sending my clips to my Onedrive.  I know I can upload them to my Youtube channel (which I've never used) somehow.  All new to me.

[W7RE]

Oh!  Your previous post had me thinking it was bad either way.  So as long as you hold the aiming trigger, it behaves just like it should with modern controls (2-stick omnidirectional move & aim).  Nice.

In early days of 3rd person camera, a lot of games had that inverted sense.  You're controlling the camera, not your eyes.  Think of it as a camera stuck on a long pole attached to your back.  The camera moves in the direction you push the stick, and your view rotates in the opposite direction (up, down, left or right).  The 3D Zeldas do the same thing too.  Same with 3D Marios, at least 64.  (I think Galaxy too, but now I don't remember for sure.)  The best thing to do nowadays is to allow the player to invert both axes individually on the look controls.  That way, everybody's happy.

You seem proficient capturing and editing video now with the console DVR & Upload.  I just learned I could record 5 minutes instead of just 30 seconds.  How do you get it to Youtube?  Do you link your XBL and Google accounts somehow?  I've been sending my clips to my Onedrive.  I know I can upload them to my Youtube channel (which I've never used) somehow.  All new to me.

Inverted doesn't bother me, I actually play inverted in pretty much all games. (not with a mouse though, don't look at me like that!) In JFG it basically seems easiest to just let the autoaim do the work for you, and manually aim at enemies in weird spots. It would just be nice to have manual horizontal camera control when not in aim mode.


I was going to upload 3 different clips that I captured with "xbox record that" (30 seconds), then decided to just edit them together. You just select a clip, hit start, and choose "edit in Upload Studio. There's a + symbol on either end of the clip for adding clips/transitions/splashes, and you can trim individual clips. Then save to Upload (this puts it in with all your other saved clips, even ones you haven't edited). As for YouTube, if you're signed in with a YouTube account you can go to the uploads section in the app (press X to use the guide to get there) and the first tile there is to upload videos from your Xbox.

[Cobra951]

Guess I misunderstood.  I thought you were complaining about the inverted horizontal axis.  Inverted vertical is still common, but not inverted H.

Thanks for the tips on the videos.  I have several 30-sec clips I'll try tacking on to each other, or to longer related videos.  I take it you meant the Youtube app has an upload section.  I'll figure it out.  Seems easy.

[W7RE]

Guess I misunderstood.  I thought you were complaining about the inverted horizontal axis.  Inverted vertical is still common, but not inverted H.

Thanks for the tips on the videos.  I have several 30-sec clips I'll try tacking on to each other, or to longer related videos.  I take it you meant the Youtube app has an upload section.  I'll figure it out.  Seems easy.

Yea, I meant the YouTube app. If you're not editing at all and just want to upload, you can do that with just the YouTube app. You can title and set the privacy of the video. If I'm just showing something to someone, like with this JFG one, I set it to unlisted and just link it to whoever I want instead of keeping it public.

[Cobra951]

A weird state of mind yesterday knocked me off this fence, and I grabbed this collection.  I'm really glad I did.  The package is a treasure as a cohesive whole, and includes a good deal of extra content related to the history of Rare.  I've been playing everything from Digger T Rock forward, though I'm only getting started.  The way 360 games are handled is very cool, though the performance of the emulator suffers greatly in the latest game (and one of my favorites ever) Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.  Hopefully, they'll address that by the time backward compatibility hits officially in a month or whatever.  Everything else so far seems to run very well.

So I booted up my 360, enabled cloud saves, and copied all the relevant stuff from B-K:N&B into it.  Booting the game on the One then brought up a blurb about "Syncing cloud saves", which took several minutes for the progress bar to fill in.  Playing the game brought up my familiar save and all my gadgets.  The carousel is something that is quite unusual and its workings unintended.  It involves using a towbar connection as a freely rotating bearing.  (Hinges are also possible this way, and I have some things that use it that way, like a dump truck.)  Here is a vid of the carousel in action.  This thing ended up as part of the SnS DLC (which is included in the game) along with creations from 6 other game users on the Rare forums.  Unfortunately, they messed it up when they edited it, or whatever, and their version is woefully out of balance.  (It can be fixed.)

The other quick vid I captured was of a multi-mode fighter craft that has become my go-to vehicle when I need to clear out an area's baddies.  Here, I'm just blazing along.  The world is already clear of annoyances.

You can see how the performance suffers.  The frame rate dips quite a bit inthose, and sound cuts out repeatedly.  It's much-better behaved in the hub world, but still chuggy everywhere.

I played quite a bit of the original Banjo-Kazooie as well.  That's a terrific port from the N64 on the 360, and it runs perfectly well (so far) on the One.  I tried that Grabbed by the Ghoulies, and it's a shame that it turned out so boring.  The setting and art assets could have been used to much better advantage.  I also dabbled a bit in Blast Corps.  I had forgotten how good and unusual that game is.

May post more later, as I do more.

Edit:  Oh, and Jet Force Gemini.  Forgot about that one.  It was a favorite back in its day.  Though it looks way dated now, the new more modern controls make it palatable.  I'm still trying to get accustomed to it.  I had forgotten how much I liked shooting all those bugs.

Yea, I meant the YouTube app. If you're not editing at all and just want to upload, you can do that with just the YouTube app. You can title and set the privacy of the video. If I'm just showing something to someone, like with this JFG one, I set it to unlisted and just link it to whoever I want instead of keeping it public.

That's exactly what I did here.  I can't save the clips or upload them to the system's own Upload area at all--my guess is because this 360 game is still considered as being in preview on the One.  But the system has no problem with me uploading them to my Onedrive or my Youtube channel.  Weird.

[Cobra951]

Jet Force Gemini is a real gem, even today.  The thing to do is set it to "modern controls" and get used to them.  Once that happens, this game is very engaging even today--and it is massive.  Last time I played through it was probably around the turn of the century.  I'm staring down the final boss right now.  Still haven't been able to beat him after several tries.  I know I beat him on the N64.  I can do this!

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is massively improved as of yesterday's system update and today's game update.  All audio dropouts are gone, and the frame rate seems perfectly locked at 30 fps in my 2 favorite worlds to mess around with building and using contraptions (the first one, with a tropical theme, and that big sports-stadium one).  It can still get quite chuggy in the hub overworld when there are a lot of creatures running around the town center.  (Away from the town center behaves much better.)  But this doesn't really much matter if the performance is good inside the worlds, where all the gameplay happens.  Audio is perfect in the hub as well. 

I'm really pleased about this, as it seems that they're taking the back-compat seriously.  And it might involve more that simple emulation.  There is one story I read about cross-compiling PPC executables, but it's unclear whether that was done just for one specific collection (Gears of War) or whether it has to happen to every BC game.