diff --git a/hw/xbox/smbus_xbox_smc.c b/hw/xbox/smbus_xbox_smc.c
index 577230e1c2..4a80f5652f 100644
--- a/hw/xbox/smbus_xbox_smc.c
+++ b/hw/xbox/smbus_xbox_smc.c
@@ -20,8 +20,9 @@
 #include "hw/hw.h"
 #include "hw/i2c/i2c.h"
 #include "hw/i2c/smbus.h"
+#include <qemu/config-file.h>
 
-/* 
+/*
  * Hardware is a PIC16LC
  * http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/PIC
  */
@@ -128,7 +129,7 @@ static uint8_t smc_read_data(SMBusDevice *dev, uint8_t cmd, int n)
         printf("smc_read_data: addr=0x%02x cmd=0x%02x n=%d\n",
                dev->i2c.address, cmd, n);
     #endif
-    
+
     switch(cmd) {
         case SMC_REG_VER:
             return smc_version_string[
@@ -137,9 +138,16 @@ static uint8_t smc_read_data(SMBusDevice *dev, uint8_t cmd, int n)
             /* pretend to have a composite av pack plugged in */
             return SMC_REG_AVPACK_COMPOSITE;
 
-        case SMC_REG_SCRATCH:
+        case SMC_REG_SCRATCH: {
+            /* Skip boot animation if the "skipanim" flag was set. */
+            QemuOpts *opts = qemu_opts_find(qemu_find_opts("machine"), NULL);
+            if (opts && qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "skipanim", 0))
+            {
+                return SMC_REG_SCRATCH_SHORT_ANIMATION;
+            }
+
             return 0;
-            // return SMC_REG_SCRATCH_SHORT_ANIMATION;
+        }
 
         /* challenge request:
          * must be non-0 */
@@ -155,14 +163,14 @@ static uint8_t smc_read_data(SMBusDevice *dev, uint8_t cmd, int n)
         default:
             break;
     }
-    
+
     return 0;
 }
 
 static int smbus_smc_init(SMBusDevice *dev)
 {
     SMBusSMCDevice *smc = (SMBusSMCDevice *)dev;
-    
+
     smc->versionStringIndex = 0;
 
     return 0;
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index 6b759de490..8d2f0ededd 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -440,6 +440,10 @@ static QemuOptsList qemu_machine_opts = {
             .name = "mediaboard_filesystem",
             .type = QEMU_OPT_STRING,
             .help = "Chihiro mediaboard filesystem file",
+        },{
+            .name = "skipanim",
+            .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
+            .help = "Skip boot animation",
         },
         { /* End of list */ }
     },