PSX emulator

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The correct title of this article is pSX emulator. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

pSX emulator

pSX emulator configuration screen
Developer:	pSX Author
Latest release:	1.11 / February 24, 2007
OS:	Microsoft Windows / Linux
Use:	Emulator
License:	Freeware
Website:	[http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/

pSX emulator, more commonly referred to as pSX (notice the capitalization), is a PlayStation emulator for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Its first public release, 1.0, was on January 29, 2006. pSX is freeware, available for download.

Unlike most modern emulators, pSX doesn't use plugins to emulate the GPU, SPU and CD drive functions of the PlayStation. In other words, it's completely self-contained. pSX has been designed to be as easy and unobtrusive as possible, and in most cases you wont need to configure anything besides your controllers to use it. However, it does need a PlayStation BIOS dump to work. To avoid legal problems, a BIOS dump is not included with pSX.

pSX supports running games directly from CDs and CD images (several popular formats are supported directly). It also supports emulation of both the classic digital controller and the DualShock-type controller. Its game compatibility is fairly high at this point, but there are many games that have bugs, and some that don't run at all. As the development of pSX is an ongoing process, many expect its compatibility to top that of the more popular emulators in the future.

On January 29, 2007 (the one-year anniversary of pSX), pSX Author released a WIP build of pSX for Linux. The release of pSX 1.11 on February 24, 2007 marked the first official release of the Linux port alongside its Windows counterpart.

1 Goal
2 System Requirements
3 Localization
4 Supported Image Formats
5 Future Development
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Goal

pSX is an attempt to accurately emulate the PlayStation hardware as closely as possible (with an emphasis on greater compatibility). This goal contrasts with the goals of many other PlayStation emulators, which place an emphasis on enhancing gameplay (most often graphically) in addition to accuracy. One advantage of focusing only on accuracy and compatibility is that there are fewer worries for the author with regards to implementing or fixing enhancement options. Each release of the emulator generally brings it a leap forward in terms of compatibility and stability. There is also little worry for graphics card compatibility, because the graphics are mainly software rendered. Though actual minimum system requirements have not been specified by the author, pSX emulator has lower system requirements than most other PlayStation emulators, mainly due to the fact that pSX does little else besides emulate the PlayStation hardware itself. This is unlike the enhancing emulators for which more RAM and a decent graphics card are required to attain enhanced graphics while maintaining decent, playable speeds.

[edit] System Requirements

Although the readme that comes with the emulator does not list any specific system requirements, system requirements have been drawn based on user input. Note that the minimum requirements listed here are for getting some (but not necessarily all) games running at full speed.

Minimum System Requirements:

CPU: 600 MHz (750 MHz on Windows XP)
Memory: 128 MB RAM (192 MB on Windows XP)
CD-ROM: 2x read, ASPI-compatible, or any CD-compatible virtual drive

Recommended System Requirements:

CPU: 1.3 GHz
Memory: 256 MB RAM
CD-ROM: 16x read, ASPI-compatible, or any CD-compatible virtual drive

Windows-specific Requirements:

OS: Windows 98 or higher
Graphics: DirectX9-compatible graphics card (non-integrated recommended)
Sound: DirectX-compatible sound card (non-integrated recommended)
Other: Latest release of DirectX9, fully-functional ASPI layer recommended

Linux-specific Requirements:

Kernel: Linux 2.6.x
Graphics: OpenGL and supporting graphics card
Sound: ALSA, sound card that supports 20ms period or below highly recommended
Other: libgtkglext (a library used to add OpenGL support to GTK+ widgets)

Notes:

An integrated video card or sound card will require a faster processor and possibly more RAM to maintain steady speeds.
Higher quality graphics cards will provide only minimal improvements in performance, as graphics are software rendered (relying mostly on the processor).
While the CD-ROM only needs to read at 2x, one with higher capabilities is highly recommended to guarantee being able to read original PlayStation discs.
As a rule of thumb, the cheapest solution for faster overall performance is to add system RAM. For people with slower CPUs, a faster processor will also provide a strong performance boost.

[edit] Localization

Support for localization was added in version 1.10, which included translations of the main user interface in various languages. The translations are mainly provided by users on the official support forums. While the readme is currently English-only, there are plans for it to be translated as well following a pending rewrite. Support for more languages is also a constant goal, with 20 translations (English and 1337 Speak among them) included as of pSX 1.11.

[edit] Supported Image Formats

pSX emulator supports direct loading of ISO, BIN/CUE, and CloneCD images (CCD/CUE/IMG/SUB). The latter format is required if the game uses subcode data. In addition to these formats, pSX is able to use a compressed format (developed by pSX Author himself) called CDZ. The compression algorithm used in CDZ is based on zlib compression. This format was created in order to save hard drive space while maintaining the ability to perform random data access (which is required for the games, but not supported with the more popular data compression formats). Any image format that pSX supports can be compressed to and decompressed from CDZ format. The CDZ converter will include all relevant files in the final CDZ file, so image formats that make use of multiple files (such as CloneCD's CCD/CUE/IMG/SUB images) are stored in the single CDZ file. Users can convert images using the GUI included in the emulator, or use the commandline utility (cdztool.exe), which is located in the utils folder included with the emulator.

[edit] Future Development

PlayStation graphics enhancements, the use of higher render resolutions, filters, and other GPU technologies. This is a possibility, though only after the author is satisfied with the emulator's accuracy.^[1]
PS2 emulation has been worked on, and pSX emulator can boot a PS2 BIOS up (using the -2 switch), but pSX Author has placed this aspect of emulation at a lower priority in order to focus more on PS1 emulation. Even still, he has made some progress with PS2 emulation, improving the emulator enough for it to be able to run at least one PS2 game.