Years ago, after Xbox Live for the original Xbox shut down, there was a program you could run on your PC that would connect over the internet to others running that software.
It would emulate an Xbox and do matchmaking and your local/physical Xbox would see the others through the program as “local” using the system link option for multiplayer games (Halo, etc)
For the life of me I cannot remember what that was called, and my Google-fu is failing and only returning results for console emulators.
Some friends from college and I dug out our old Xboxes, and we want to setup remote play for Halo 2 and have a nostalgic “Shotguns on Midship” night.
Update: Solved. Thanks, mouse@midwest.social. XLink Kai was the software I was thinking of.
I do believe that’s it! Thanks!
Now to see if it’s still active or even works.
Edit: Looks like XLink Kai is still active, and they even have non-Windows versions now – even works on a Raspberry Pi. I was afraid I’d have to try to get an ancient, archived copy to work.
This just went from “let’s try to make it happen” to “probably can happen”. Assuming their consoles still work.
I was using it last year to play old ps2 armored core(s)with my buddy. Pretty cool! Works with emulators and the consoles themselves.