Emulation/PlayStation 1

About PlayStation 1

The PlayStation 1 was an extremely popular CD-ROM based 3D gaming system in the 1990's. Because of it's popularity, it has a large library of historically relevant games, as well as a relatively large community of programmers working on emulation for the system.

PlayStation Emulators

ePSXe

A screenshot of ePSXe.

For original PlayStation emulation, ePSXe is the most compatible. ePSXe is closed source proprietary software, but does offer extension through plugins.

Plugins

One of the features of ePSXe is the ability to use of various plugins. These plugins allow the emulators video, sound, and other input/output systems to be customized to provide the best emulation experience for the users hardware. For example, using an OpenGL based plugin will provide the best video quality for systems with Nvidia graphics cards, sometimes resulting in graphics quality superior to the graphics on the original PlayStation hardware.

System Requirements

Its minimum system requirements are low (Pentium III with 256MB of RAM) but they will differ depending on the game being emulated. More graphically-intensive games such as Final Fantasy 9 will require a more powerful system.

Duckstation

A relatively recent open source PlayStation 1 emulator made with contemporary techniques, focused on being reasonably accurate without sacrificing much performance.

Other PlayStation 1 emulators

Mednafen - Open source multi system emulator. Original PS1 core.
PCSX-Redux - Fork of the older PCSX-Reloaded.
AdriPSX - An older PS1 emulator. Versions exist with very low system requirements.
Bleem! - Historic commercial emulator. No longer used except for historical interest.
Connectix Virtual Game Station - Historic commercial emulator. No longer used except for historical interest.
no$psx - Closed source emulator made by Martin "nocash" Korth.

System Files

The PlayStation 1 uses a BIOS, which most emulators do not include. PCSX-Redux includes OpenBIOS, a full open source PlayStation 1 BIOS replacement, and no$psx includes a closed source BIOS clone. To use other PS1 emulators, one must dump a BIOS from a PlayStation 1 they own.