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Microsoft has just announced that original Xbox titles will soon be playable on PC through a new backwards compatibility effort - and we've gone hands on with the app and played all four games that are part of the initial launch. This is a litmus test for future Xbox back-compat efforts on PC, and should pave the way for more original Xbox titles - to say nothing of 360-era games.

The four games included in the current test include Conker: Live and Reloaded, a demanding fever dream from Rare; Blinx: The Time Sweeper, another handsome platformer; Fuzion Frenzy, a four-player minigame collection; and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, an aerial combat game in an alternate-era 1930s.

Three of the four games ran at 30fps on original Xbox hardware, and that limit is maintained for the new PC releases; Fuzion Frenzy is the 60fps exception and runs at the same frame-rate on PC.

The original Xbox backwards compatibility program runs on desktops, laptops and gaming handhelds like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X - Microsoft's minimum specs include a GTX 950 and Core i3-8100 GPU, for context, though they recommend at least a GTX 1070 Ti and six-core CPU like the Ryzen 5 3600.

The app also includes options that aren't included when running the same games on Xbox Series hardware. For example, you can increase the resolution by 2x, 3x or 4x, for a maximum of 2560x1920, though you're limited to a 4:3 aspect ratio with no widescreen support. Likewise, there's no option to engage VRR or set higher frame-rates, though you can enable v-sync, increase MSAA to 2x or 4x, enable anisotropic filtering (AF) and choose a trade-off between sound latency and sound clarity. The top-end options here match back-compat on Series X, rather than pushing beyond it, while the various graphical options allow for scalability down to much less capable kit.

The good news is that the results here are a good match for Xbox Series X emulation, with identical textures, shadows and effects. However, this is clearly an early test and we found a number of issues in our testing - some problematic enough to delay our video coverage until we'd consulted with Microsoft for clarity.

We spotted sub-par frame-pacing on the 30fps titles, with deviations from the regular 33.3ms or 16.7ms update rate that can produce jerky camera motion. There are no problems with this on Xbox consoles, so to see an obvious visual issue like this on PC was a little disappointing.

There's also a bug where display scaling results in lower-than-intended rendering resolutions - so the "2560x1920" setting produces only 1440x1080 if Windows is set to 150 percent scaling. Setting Windows to 100 percent scaling fixes the issue - something we didn't know during testing, meaning our video captures require updating before we can post video content. Beyond this, AF is limited to a single setting and looks worse than on Series X, and there are a handful of visual bugs, including wireframes visible in Fuzion Frenzy, shadow artefacts in Blinx and motion judder in Conker.

We've informed the Xbox team of these issues, and hopefully they will be fixed in future patches. There is also one instance where the PC presentation is better than on console back-compat, with Conker presenting in a correct 4:3 aspect ratio rather than the narrower view on Series X.

While this initial pilot is limited in its scope, it's a good sign that Microsoft is taking backwards-compatibility seriously, and it'll be fascinating to see how it develops in future - hopefully with a longer list of supported games, more features to push beyond original Xbox limitations and fewer bugs. Microsoft VP Jason Ronald says that the Xbox Back-Compat programme "marks the beginning of a broader effort to preserve Xbox games from the past and bring them to PC over time", so we have high hopes.

First-party Microsoft games are the most likely to be added next, and there are some crackers in the original Xbox library that haven't made the jump to PC. The original Forza Motorsport and Project Gotham Racing 1 and 2 immediately spring to mind, though racing games are notoriously hard to re-release due to car and music licensing issues. You could also add in Brute Force, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kung Fu Chaos, Blood Wake, the two Amped games - and probably many more.

We understand that third-party games are also being considered for inclusion within the Xbox on PC back compat programme, though it's likely this will require more wrangling with rights holders versus Microsoft first-party titles.

What do you make of the news? Let us know in the comments below.