PC Emulators: PSX,PS2,PS3, & PSP

Published on 03-04-2013 08:06 PM

20 Comments

With all the talk about emulation here of late, thanks to the work done by IngPereira . We here at PSX-Scene thought it would be a good time to look at the PlayStation Systems that are emulated on the PC. Below you find some of recent changes and progression from many of the PC emulators for various PlayStation system (PSX, PS2, PSP, & a early PS3 emulators). For Details/Links/Downloads check below at some of the emulators available for PC for each respected system.

PlayStation Emulators

PCSX-Reloaded

What is PCSX-Reloaded?

PCSX-Reloaded is a forked version of the dead PCSX emulator, with a nicer
interface and several improvements to stability and functionality.

PCSX-Reloaded uses the PSEMU plugin interface to provide most functionality;
without them, you will not be able to use it to play games. PCSX-Reloaded
provides a number of plugins to provide basic functionality out of the box.

PCSX-Reloaded has a very capable Internal HLE BIOS that can run many games
without problems. It is recommended that you use it. However, if you own a
real PlayStation, you may be able to use your own BIOS image. PCSX-Reloaded
will find it in ~/.pcsx/bios/ or /usr/share/psemu/bios/ if you place it there.
This can improve compatibility, especially with certain games and with the
use of memory cards.

See the doc/ folder in the source, or /usr/share/doc/pcsx/ on Debian systems,
for more detailed information on PCSX-Reloaded. A UNIX manpage is also
available.

Recent Changes

r83096
dfcdrom CDRreadCDDA fix;
r83091
Link cable emulation for Linux. pcsxr must be configured with --enable-sio1 option. Emulation accuracy is quite low, but all games work well. Around fifty games was tested. Port to Windows will be some later.

Download: PCSX Reloaded SVN r83100 (emucr.com)

Project Home: pcsxr.codeplex.com

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ePSXe

What is ePSXe?

ePSXe (enhanced PSX emulator) is a PlayStation emulator for x86-based PC hardware with Microsoft Windows or Linux, and now on the Android. It was written by three authors, using the aliases "Calb", "_Demo_", and "Galtor". ePSXe is closed source with the exception of the application programming interface (API) for its plug-ins.

System Requirements

Processor: Pentium 200 MHz, recommended Pentium 3 at 1 GHz
RAM: 256 MB RAM, recommended 512 MB RAM
Video card: 3D capable video card with support for OpenGL, DirectX, or Glide
Operating system: Windows or Linux
CD-ROM: 16x or faster (optional)

For more info checkout: Link

Downloads: ePSXe v1.8.0

Official Site

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yaPSXe

What is yaPSXe?

yaPSXe is a PlayStation 1 emulator still in its early stages. It is written in C++ and developed in VC++ 2010. Author is making it public at this stage in the hope that it might attract the attention of other emulator developers who could help get this project off the ground.

Recent Changes

deletion
added support for keeping the aspect ratio + config option
misc

Download: yaPSXe Git (2013/02/23) (emucr.com)

Project Home: Github

PlayStation 2 Emulator

What is PCSX2?

PCSX2 is an open source PlayStation 2 (PS2) emulator for the Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. With the most recent versions, many PS2 games are playable (although speed limitations have made play-to-completion tests for many games impractical), and several games are claimed to have full functionality.

Recent Changes

r5569
microVU: Fixed random Unknown Opcode messages. Turns out the bios blanket writes MOV VF00, VF00 and NOP (for lower, upper respectively) ops to the VU's on boot, apparently some game designers new this and just left it being ran as part of their programs. Our problem being is it was writing it to the VU MicroMem in the wrong order!
All fixed now

System Requirements
Minimum

Windows/Linux OS
CPU: Any that supports SSE2 (Pentium 4 and up, Athlon64 and up)
GPU: Any that supports Pixel Shader model 2.0, except Nvidia FX series (broken SM2.0, too slow anyway)
512MB RAM (note Vista needs at least 2GB to run reliably)

Recommended

Windows Vista / Windows 7 (32bit or 64bit) with the latest DirectX
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.2ghz or better
GPU: 8800gt or better (for Direct3D10 support)
RAM: 1GB on Linux/Windows XP, 2GB or more on Vista

Note: Because of copyright issues, and the complexity of trying to work around it, you need a BIOS dump extracted from a legitimately owned Playstation 2 console to use the emulator.

Note: PCSX2 mainly takes advantage of 2 CPU cores. As of r4865 PCSX2 can now take advantage of a 3rd core using the MTVU speedhack. This can be a significant speedup on CPUs with 3+ cores, however on GS limited games (or on dual core CPUs) it may be a slowdown

For more info. checkout: link

Download: PCSX2 SVN r5569

PCSX2 SVN r5569 (VS2012)

Project Home: Google Code

Official Site

PlayStation Portable Emulator

What is PPSSPP?

PPSSPP is a fast and portable PSP emulator for Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux, written in C++.

Recent Changes

Merge pull request #766 from raven02/patch-1 glClearColor(0,0,0,1);
Add glClearColor(0,0,0,1);
glClearColor(0,0,0,1);
iOS needs a back key as well due to lack of hardware buttons. At least until a gesture can replace this function.
Enable color and depth buffer write before clearing

For more info checkout: Link

Download: http://down.emucr.com/v3/4709001

PPSSPP Git (2013/02/23) x64

PPSSPP Git (2013/02/23) for Android

Project Home: Github

Official Website

PlayStation 3 Emulator

What is RPCS3?

rpcs3 is an open source PlayStation 3 (PS3) emulator for the Microsoft Windows. Current versions can run only small homebrew for PS3. Developers are planning to make it to emulate PS3 on its speed in the near future.

Recent Changes

r59
- Emulation of the remaining PPU vector instructions.

Download: rpcs3 SVN r59 x86

rpcs3 SVN r59 x64

Project Home: Google Code

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_{Tags :

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20 Comments

BahumatLord - 03-05-2013, 12:03 AM
- Reply
I downloaded these a while ago (benefits of being able to see working copies of articles ) I was impressed with the speed of the PSP emulator, but it seems to have difficulty displaying in game videos. I tried a few of my Final Fantasy games and it couldn't handle any of them. I didn't see any video driver options either

Still, very impressive work on these emulators

LocalH - 03-05-2013, 12:33 AM
- Reply
What about pSX for PS1 emulation? pSX emulator

STLcardsWS - 03-05-2013, 01:16 AM
- Reply
Originally Posted by LocalH

What about pSX for PS1 emulation? pSX emulator

Yea admittedly there are a few PSone emulators missing but there are just far to many to list them all, for this article.. Nearly all the emulators i posted here had recent changes.

How is that emulator BTW?

jalaneme - 03-05-2013, 01:21 AM
- Reply
its a shame no ps1 emulator is native 64 bit windows, i tend to use multiman for ps1 games anyway as the pc ps1 emulators don't peform as good as they should do.

ccfman2004 - 03-05-2013, 07:52 AM
- Reply
I'd like to mention that PCSX-R also has a Mac version and runs in 64-bit mode.

corpse101 - 03-05-2013, 08:24 AM
- Reply
How is the PS2 Emu? I tried it years ago and found it almost unuseable, though I am sure things have changed.
@BahumatLord
That's too bad about the PSP emu videos being like that. I am still going to see if I can set it up on my android tablet. I love it so far with all my other emulators it has become a portable gaming system as it has an mini hdmi out and I hooked up its BT to my PS3 controller.

ccfman2004 - 03-05-2013, 08:41 AM
- Reply
The reason that PSP videos don't play well, if at all, is due to the video format that most games use for videos. The codec is proprietary from Sony that as far as I know isn't available on the computer. Even Mac PSP emulators can't play those videos too.

I've heard that you have to set up a certain Sony video editing program that may allow those PSP videos to play. Don't remember it offhand.

sad11 - 03-05-2013, 08:45 AM
- Reply
Thanks for the share

deank - 03-05-2013, 08:45 AM
- Reply
That may be PAMFComposer, PS3StreamComposer, PS3StreamMultiplexer and PS3StreamViewer or their PSP counterparts.

corpse101 - 03-05-2013, 09:09 AM
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That might fix the PC version of the PSP emu but has anyone tried it on Android yet? Stuck at work and the anticipation of installing it is killing me.

Funny to say for something that has probably been out for a while.

ace99 - 03-05-2013, 10:20 AM
- Reply
Originally Posted by STLcardsWS

Yea admittedly there are a few PSone emulators missing but there are just far to many to list them all, for this article.. Nearly all the emulators i posted here had recent changes.

How is that emulator BTW?

I have been using pSX for a few months, and haven't found a game that doesn't run at full speed, even on my laptop. If you have a wired XBOX 360 controller, you can use that for some of the more action-orientated games.

indirect76 - 03-05-2013, 11:44 AM
- Reply
I've been fascinated by emulators for more than 15 years. The amount of technical know how that goes into each emulator is amazing.

ccfman2004 - 03-05-2013, 11:50 AM
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Look at when Nintendo wrote an N64 emulator for the GameCube to run Zelda.

I find it amazing that something like the PS2 is so hard to properly emulate even on todays super fast computers. Just shows how powerful the PS2 really was. Even Sony is having issues since some of those PS2 classics still have frame rate issues. Seems like they keep sticking with the games that don't tax the PS2 CPU or GPU. Have you looked at how many Dora the Explorer or Diago PS2 classics they have released?

Don't know if anyone remembers when some people created CPU expansion cards for computers to properly run games from other CPU architectures? I believe there was even a project for a PSX CPU PCI card but I believe Sony put a stop to that.

ionelush2001 - 03-05-2013, 03:29 PM
- Reply
Where is it JPCSP emu for PC in JAVA language, I think over half of the games works.

Smoker1 - 03-06-2013, 02:15 AM
- Reply
I would much rather deal with the RemoteJoy for playing PSP games on my PC. Hopefully the PS3 Emulator continues to have progress. EPSXE works better than the others and PCSX2 works pretty good from what I can run on my current Hardware.
Cant wait till I get a better setup and the PS3 Emu starts running more.

trasman - 03-06-2013, 05:06 AM
- Reply
Originally Posted by STLcardsWS

Yea admittedly there are a few PSone emulators missing but there are just far to many to list them all, for this article.. Nearly all the emulators i posted here had recent changes.

How is that emulator BTW?

I have tried a few PSX emulators and I think pSX is by far the best one. Really smooth. I played through all FF games on my computer rather on my PS2 console.

mrjared123 - 03-06-2013, 06:30 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by STLcardsWS

Yea admittedly there are a few PSone emulators missing but there are just far to many to list them all, for this article.. Nearly all the emulators i posted here had recent changes.

How is that emulator BTW?

Runs just like a PS1, no plugins or special graphical settings. Maybe the fastest PS1 emulator but not the most accurate, the most accurate has to be the not-well-known Xebra emulator, runs exactly like a virtual PS1.

georaldc - 03-07-2013, 03:32 AM
- Reply
Originally Posted by mrjared123

Runs just like a PS1, no plugins or special graphical settings. Maybe the fastest PS1 emulator but not the most accurate, the most accurate has to be the not-well-known Xebra emulator, runs exactly like a virtual PS1.

I always thought pSX emulator was the most compatible, accurate ps1 emulator out there

mrjared123 - 03-11-2013, 06:58 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by georaldc

I always thought pSX emulator was the most compatible, accurate ps1 emulator out there

Nope, I used to use pSX a lot but someone on a different forum mentioned Xebra so I looked into it and it is for sure the most compatible one. It also doesn't have graphics/audio plugins like pSX. The sound sometimes statics up but that is the only downfall I could find.

georaldc - 03-11-2013, 07:07 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by mrjared123

Nope, I used to use pSX a lot but someone on a different forum mentioned Xebra so I looked into it and it is for sure the most compatible one. It also doesn't have graphics/audio plugins like pSX. The sound sometimes statics up but that is the only downfall I could find.

Interesting. Care to cite any examples where xebra is better?