Looks like recently whatever XBox gods still hanging around have given all the good people a lot of what they've been asking for, for years.
Thanks to +T+ for Final Burn Legends 1.7
Thanks to nes6502 for the original Nestopiax port and XtecuterX73 for updating it to 1.3
Thanks to Ez0n3, freakdave & weinerschnitzel for releasing an update to Surreal64 CE, Surreal64 CE B5.5
Thanks to A600 for ScummVM 1.4.0
Thanks to Hyper_Eye for Odamex, 0.5.6 and every version of it that he made possible before it.
Thanks to BP for whatever version of whatever his newest MAME emulator is called (I honestly haven't kept up on it and don't know the current name or version number, but love him or hate him, he is always making things there better in his own vision, and in the end, the truth is, the MAME emulator is so much better than what the XBox had before he was around).
And, finally....... a special, HUGE thanks for Yabause CE PUBLIC A1.0 (Sega Saturn), Ported to xbox by Freakdave.
Also, as an aside, thanks to Madmab for whatever updates he's been making on the Madmab Edition XPORT emus in the last two years. I'm not up-to-date on the updates there at all, but I know he's made a lot of things happen in that time. Whatever updates that have been made, and are currently in progress, should be appreciated even more because I know personally that he is balancing a job a wife and kids and still managing to make Xbox emulation dreams come true for himself while sharing them selflessly with those of us who are incapable or unwilling to learn how to code.
It's really a great Christmas here at the Emuscene. There seems to be a lot of thanks to go around in this special season. And these are only the new updates posted about in here since September..... (Sorry if I missed anyone or any update that happened before that time!!!)
Although I haven't had any time to try out any of the above mentioned, it's so exciting to see so many new developments on our beloved little Box. I guess this means that either no other system does it as well as ours does, and/or there are some really good people who still continue to bring the best to any of us too afraid to mod a multi-hundred new-gen system.
Either way, it's a win-win for the entire community and we should be grateful and take a little time to thank the people who make it all possible.
The Box may not play every emulator or play some heavy-load games as well as a PC does, but nobody plays so many games, hassle free, user friendly and with so many perks as we've all made our trusty old boxes do.
It's really a great machine. In the last 6 years I've owned 12 Boxes (many of which I gave away to brothers and friends for Christmas in the past) and the only one to fail on me was a poor soldier who died in an electrical short in my house while trying to wire up a ceiling light without turning off the main first (totally user-error). RIP soldier. Fortunately, the hard drive is still alive, so I just need another Box.
Controllers, on the other hand, are a mixed bag..... Hopefully somebody starts making some good 3rd party controllers to replace the Official XBox controllers gone bad. For most of the emulated games, the 3rd party controllers are perfectly fine, but to play XBox it's just not the same. I've probably had about 20 official controllers since I started buying used XBoxes. At least 5 of them didnt' work right when I bought them, and at least another 5 have crapped out in the last 6 years.
They're not exactly as crappy as the Atari 5200 controllers were, but when you're looking at a discontinued item I could see working controllers going for 200 bucks on ebay if a 3rd party company doesn't make and advertise a perfect replacement. Maybe somebody in the M$ ranks should make it possible for future versions of the 360 controller to work on the original?
Anyways.....
Until that time comes, I'll just keep buying Korean/Taiwanese/Chinese replacement controllers for our emulators. They work perfect for the old-school stuff that we love. I'll just make sure I save the good controllers for when I want to play Dynasty Warriors 4, Deus Ex 2 or Burger King's "Sneak King"

Thanks again to everyone mentioned above. Though I might rank at a 1.5 in a 10 point scale on class, I truly know how much effort and time it takes to make these dreams come true. There would be no XBScene if it weren't for people doing what you're doing and sacrificing what you do to make it happen.
Merry Christmas,
Happy Hanukkah,
Merry Kwanzaa,
Happy Allah Day,
and Happy Whatever-Athiests-Do-on-this-day,
Happy 2012, all year long to everyone. :B
Let's hope that the Mayan's and the X-Files were wrong, and we'll still be making updates to the Box in 2013.
~Rx