PlayStation 2 emulators
Developer | Sony |
---|---|
Type | Home video game console |
Generation | Sixth generation |
Release date | 2000 |
Discontinued | 2013 |
Predecessor | PlayStation |
Successor | PlayStation 3 |
Emulated | ✓ |
- For other emulators that run on PS2 hardware, see Emulators on PS2.
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a sixth-generation console released by Sony on October 26, 2000, and it was retailed for US$299.99 (equivalent to $530.74 in 2024). It has the Emotion Engine CPU based on the MIPS R5900 at 300 MHz with 32 MBs of RDRAM system memory and 4 MBs of eDRAM (VRAM). Its GPU was a custom Graphics Synthesizer, which ran at 150 MHz. It became the highest-selling console of all time, with over 155 million units sold.
Announced in 1999, Sony began developing the console after the immense success of the PS1. The PS2 offered backward-compatibility for the PS1 DualShock controller, as well as its games.[1]
The PlayStation 2 received widespread critical acclaim upon release. A total of over 4,000 game titles were released worldwide, with over 1.5 billion copies sold. In 2004, Sony released a smaller, lighter revision of the console known as the PS2 Slim. Even after the release of its successor, the PlayStation 3, it remained popular well into the seventh generation. It continued to be produced until 2013 when Sony finally announced that it had been discontinued after over twelve years of production, one of the longest lifespans of any video game console. By the end of its life, two new games were launched posthumously for the console.[1]
Contents
Emulators
- ↑ The stable versions are years out-of-date and missing countless features and bug fixes. Nightly versions are a better choice for almost all users; the stable versions should only be used if you have a specific need for them.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 This is a complete hard fork of PCSX2 and its own separate emulator at this point, so there is no point in chasing after any kind of upstream, though it is under development, use standalone PCSX2-nightly or XBSX2 builds instead. If you really want to use a libretro core for PlayStation 2 emulation; use this libretro core.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Playable state in the PCSX2 compatibility list purposely doesn't include minor performance and graphical issues both with SW and HW renderers. While the compatibility list categorizes majority games as playable, some users may encounter issues that impact their individual experience and consider them unplayable.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 AetherSX2 dev calls it quits, shuts down site leaving a message citing "complaints, demands, and death threats" made to him during development process.
Comparisons
- PCSX2
- Started sometime in mid 2001, with its first release on March 23, 2002. It was the first PS2 emulator to boot games on Dec 19, 2002. Succeeding their earlier PCSX PlayStation emulator, PCSX2 dedicated its development to faithfully replicating the PS2 experience. The years haven't dimmed its shine thanks to the continuous improvements in accuracy, compatibility, and performance. In the last years, PCSX2 nightly builds boast a sleek, modern QT GUI and a pluginless design, eliminating the headaches of plugin configuration and making all features readily available. Just grab the original system firmware and you're ready to relive your PS2 memories. PCSX2 also has lots of new modern enhancements built-in (one of the best emulators when it comes to enhancement capabilities, similar to Dolphin, Flycast, BigPEmu, PPSSPP and DuckStation) and supports some of the hardware features, peripherals of the PlayStation 2.
- PCSX2 has great compatibility, and it is capable of playing most titles without any major glitches however some titles still need software rendering to run without any major graphical issues. For checking if your games work and any fixes, tweaks, or settings you should know beforehand. For more information regarding playability check these sources;
- PCSX2 GameDB (GameIndex)
- PCSX2 Wiki (Note that the wiki can contain outdated information. It is encouraged to do personal testing and contribute to the wiki)
- Official Compatibility List
- PCSX2 github issues
- AetherSX2
- A closed-source freeware emulator partially forked from PCSX2. It's designed to be optimal for ARM-based platforms, primarily those running Android.
- It has multiple versions; The latest google play version which contains ads while an ad free Alpha version can be downloaded directly from the AetherSX2 website. Development was stopped due to various dramas.
- Play!
- Development is almost all done by the single maintainer jpd002. Also, unlike PCSX2 it's supports Namco System 2x6 variations and it has a playable Android and iOS port.
- DobieStation
- Many titles can go ingame, focused on accuracy, and therefore inherently slower than Play! or PCSX2.
- HPS2x64
- Can also run quite a few commercial games, but probably less so, and at slower speeds than Play!. It also emulates and focuses more on PlayStation emulation. There is also a mirror that has fixes done to it.
- DamonPS2
- Closed-source payware/malware emulator only for Android, illegally based on PCSX2, Play! and PPSSPP. It can hardly run any games and behaves very much like virus software. It is the worst PS2 emulator and as such, it is NOT recommended under any circumstance. DamonPS2 uses unnecessary DRM, making the emulator useless without an internet connection.
Enhancements
Side note: Please don't bump/spam GitHub threads/issues and feature request pages.
Name | PCSX2 | Play! | AetherSX2 XBSX2.0 |
Official Sony emulators | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Graphics | Resizable Internal Resolution | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ? |
Texture Replacement | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ~[N3 1] | |
Widescreen hack | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | |
Pre-rendering AA (MSAA, SSAA) |
✗* | ✗ | ✗ | ? | |
Performance | Overclock | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
Internal Framerate Hack | ✓ | ? | ✓ | ✗ | |
Preload optical disc image to RAM For users with sluggish multi-platter HDDs or plagued by horrible seek times, this enhancement might offer smoother experience, potentially reduced power consumption; it also shines when disc images reside on a network drive. Although keep in mind that preloading image would take some time, and it will require additional amount of RAM capacity. |
✗* | ? | ? | ✗ | |
Frame generation technologies (LSFG, DLSS-G, ExtraSS and AFMF) |
Implementing frame generation technology in an emulator is unfortunately quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible in the near future, however post-processing techniques such as motion interpolation is quite possible. Input latency will be a crucial factor, but its impact likely varies depending on the specific technique employed, it's recommended to use after applying the "Internal Framerate Hack". While AFMF or LSFG can be used with PCSX2, please be aware that some visual glitches and artifacts may occur at this time. | ||||
Post-Processing | Post-rendering AA (FXAA, TXAA and MLAA/SMAA) |
✓ | ? | ✓ | ? |
Post-rendering scaling (Sharp bilinear, Lanczos and FSR 1) |
✓ | ? | ✓ | ? | |
Filters NTSC filters, HDR tonemapping etc. |
✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | |
Shader Chain | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
TAS features | Macros/Scripts/Lua | ✓ | ✗ | ? | ✗ |
Rewind | ✗* | ✗ | ✗* | ✗ | |
Fast-Forward/Turbo Speed | ✓ | ? | ✓ | ✗ | |
Savestates | ✓ | ? | ✗ | ✗ | |
Movie recording/playback | ✓ | ✗ | ? | ✗ | |
Controls | True/dual analog control | ✓* | ? | ? | ? |
Mouse Injector Compatible | ✓* | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
Input lag-mitigating technique | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
Quality of life | Built-in Graphics mod editor/manager | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Built-in Cheat Manager | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | |
Built-in Custom resolution/CRTSwitchRes For using this on Windows OS you need CRT Emudriver. Another option is using EDID editor tool such as "Custom Resolution Utility". |
✗* | ✗ | ✗ | ~* | |
Streamable compression format | ✓ | ✗ | ? | ✗ | |
Per-Game Profiles | ✓ | ? | ? | ? | |
Command Line Options | ✓* | ? | ? | ? | |
On-Screen Display Showcases messages, controller input state which is useful for speedrunners, performance data, active settings, and various notifications. |
✓ | ? | ? | ? | |
Big Picture Mode | ✓ | ? | ? | ? | |
Misc | RetroAchievements | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ~[N3 1] |
Free Look Free Look is a enhancement feature that allows manipulation of the in-game camera. |
While freecam would be technically possible, its requires per-game patches like Gran Turismo 4 360 Chase Cam by "Vyerq/unko_". Said patches would require a significant amount of time to reverse the game's engine, which means that only someone talented with enough dedication to a single game could do it. There is a feature request for adding this enhancement feature to PCSX2 emulator. | ||||
Debug Features | ✓[N3 2] | ? | ? | ✗ |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 No PS2 game has trophy support or enhancements for PS3 backwards compatibility but PS2 games that received HD ports, do.
- ↑ Pull requests for PCSX2 debug features.
Hardware features and accessories
Side note: Please don't bump/spam GitHub threads/issues and feature request pages.
Name | PCSX2 | Play! | AetherSX2 XBSX2.0 |
Official Sony emulators[N2 1] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
System Menu | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | |
DVD player | ~ | ✗ | ? | ✓ | |
PlayStation Backwards Compatibility | ~ | ✗ | ~ | ✓ | |
Communication | PocketStation communication | ~ | ✗ | ~ | ✓ |
PSP communication | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | |
LAN (Slim models) |
✓ | TBD | ~ | ✓ | |
LAN tunelling | ✓ | TBD | ~ | ✓ | |
i.LINK | ✗* | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
Inputs | Pressure Sensitive Buttons | ~[N2 2] | ✗ | ? | ✓ |
Rumble | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Motion control (Tilt sensor)[N2 3] | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | |
DTS Surround (DVD-Video only) Dolby Digital 5.1 Dolby Pro Logic II |
~* | ? | ? | ✓ | |
Accessories | |||||
Network Adapter (Fat models) |
✓ | TBD | ~ | ✓ | |
Audio | USB Headset | ✓ | TBD | TBD | ✓ |
SingStar Microphone | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | |
Rock Band / Guitar Hero Konami USB Microphone | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | TBD | |
WebCam | Konami Capture Eye | ✓ | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Sony EyeToy | ✓ | TBD | TBD | ✓ | |
LightGun | Konami Justifier/Hyper Blaster | ✗ | TBD | TBD | TBD |
GunCon | ✗* | TBD | ✗ | TBD | |
GunCon 2 | ✓* | TBD | TBD | ✓ | |
Controller | |||||
Multitap | ✓[N2 4] | TBD | TBD | ✓ | |
DJ Hero Turntable | ✓* | TBD | TBD | TBD | |
Buzz! Controller | ✓* | TBD | TBD | TBD | |
NeGcon | ✗* | ? | ✗ | ? | |
Jogcon | ✗* | ? | ✗ | ? | |
Densha de GO! (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) | ✗* | TBD | ✗ | TBD | |
Pop'n Music Controller | ✓* | ✗ | ✗ | ? | |
Guitar | ✓* | TBD | TBD | TBD | |
USB Keyboard & Mouse | ✓ | TBD | TBD | ✓ | |
DVD Remote Control | ✗* | ? | ? | ✗* | |
Motion | Gametrak | ~* | TBD | TBD | TBD |
RealPlay | ~* | TBD | TBD | TBD | |
Printer | GamePrint① | ~* | TBD | TBD | TBD |
GamePrint② | ✗* | ✗ | ✗ | TBD | |
Epson printer | ✗* | ✗ | ✗ | TBD | |
HMD | Sony PUD-J5A | ✗* | ✗ | ✗ | TBD |
Storage | Hard Disk Drive | ✓* | ✗ | ? | ? |
USB Mass storage | ✓* | ✗ | ✗ | TBD | |
PictureParadise | ✗* | ✗ | ✗ | TBD |
- ↑ ps2_emu: peripheral support
- ↑ DualShock 2 can be used only with adaptes emulating DualShock 3. Bliss-Box API is not supported. DualShock 3 can be used only with DsHidMini community driver and a custom XInput proxy DLL. Support for official Sony driver has been dropped after moving from Wx to Qt environment. Althrough old v1.7.3771 Wx build still allows to run games with Official Sony driver support or you can wait for this pull request: native DualShock 3 support for Qt builds in Windows using official Sony driver. Other controllers with pressure-sensitive buttons like Xbox controller are not supported. This pull request completely replaces all pad code for Qt.
- ↑ SplitFish Motion FX Adapter attached to DualShock 2 and Fanatec Zero G Controller are controllers with implemented accelerometer support. They are allowing remap motion controls to right or left stick helping with camera control or steering vehicles by tilting controller left or right.
- ↑ Additional Memory Card slots must be enabled in the .ini file.
System Menu
Initial Program Loader (IPL) of the PlayStation 2 and its top level interface, allowing the player to load discs, change settings, and manage up to two memory cards at once. Use these dump files which will affect IPL’s console model number recognition positively when used with latest PCSX2 builds.
PlayStation Backwards Compatibility
Wikipedia:List_of_PlayStation_games_incompatible_with_PlayStation_2
- PCSX2: Partially compatible. Only PS2 BIOSes from original fat PS2's will be able to run PSX games. Due to the IOP changes Sony made on the slims, they simply won't run PSX games in PCSX2 right now.
- Play!: Play has no support for backwards compatibility.
- Official Sony emulators: PlayStation 3's ps2_emu firmware used for PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility and ps1_emu for PlayStation backwards compatibility. See Official_emulators for more information.
PocketStation communication
Wikipedia:PocketStation#Compatible_games
- PCSX2: PSX memory cards will appear in the PS2 BIOS as Pocketstation devices. This is due to a hack that was required for some Pocketstation compatible games to detect memory cards, and is strictly a visual side-effect with no performance or compatibility issues.
- Official Sony emulators: PocketStation communication with PlayStation 3 system is possible with a "memory card adaptor for PlayStation 3".
PSP communication
List of PlayStation 2 games with PSP connectivity
- PCSX2 has no support for PSP communication at the moment.
- Official Sony emulators: PlayStation 3's ps2_emu firmware supports PSP<->ps2_emu communication. This feature shouldn't be confused with PSP-PlayStation 3 direct communication.
i.LINK
S400 Firewire cable for connecting two PS2 console together and play split screen on separate TVs. Not all games supported it and it was dropped in later versions of the console. Currently no emulators support it.
Pressure Sensitive Buttons
The DualShock 2 has all buttons and sticks with variable pressure states (except for L3, R3, Start, & Select).
Most PS2 games do not require this feature, instead preferring to use the triggers and/or joysticks for pressure-sensitive actions (e.g., sneaking past the sleeping dog in Chulip), but a select few do. Some examples include:
- All three attack buttons in The Bouncer precipitate different attacks based on whether the press is light, medium, or strong. The same goes for the musical game Mad Maestro.
- Star Ocean 3 has a musical item that plays different melodies depending on pressure, and they're required for progressing.
Games requiring variable trigger pressure need physical controllers with analog sticks, which is fortunately a standard feature of most half-decent controllers on the market. Pressure-sensitive face buttons, on the other hand, haven't appeared on any standard PlayStation controllers since the DualShock 3 (DualShock 4 removed this feature), and it's very rare for a third-party controller to feature them either.
- PCSX2 wxWidgets builds guide
-
- To know if your controller supports it, open the LilyPad plugin settings by going to the PCSX2 menu and selecting "Config", "Controllers (PAD)", and "Plugin Settings". At the LilyPad plugin popup, select your gamepad from the list of detected controllers in the "Device Diagnostics" box in the lower left, then click the "Test Device" button. A small popup window will appear, showing a list of all the gamepad's buttons and their current state. 0.000 = indicates unpressed, 1.000 = indicates fully depressed. Roll either analog stick around. See how the values change from 0.000 to 0.xyz, with the .xyz values shifting incrementally. These changing .xyz values show how the plugin detects different changes in angle as you move the analog stick around. Now press any of the buttons normally used by games, i.e., the triangle/square/cross/circle buttons. See how the values immediately shift from 0.000 (unpressed) directly to 1.000 (pressed) If your gamepad really has pressure-sensitive buttons, you'll see gradual 0.xyz changes as you slowly press each button, just like the different changes in angle as you move the analog sticks around. If the buttons change from 0.000 directly to 1.000, that proves your gamepad buttons aren't pressure-sensitive and are merely tracking the pressed/unpressed state. The solution would be to either buy an official DualShock 2 or 3 controller (The Original Xbox Controller is not supported) and use an appropriate 3rd party driver such as SCP Driver Package.
- Also you can map the button to a rarely used trigger/stick in LilyPad;
- Open the gamepad plugin configuration and choosing a rarely used key - for example, the lower shoulder button L2 - and remapping it to the circle button and setting the sensitivity to 0.500 or thereabouts. In the game, merely use the remapped L2@circle button to deliver "light" tap/hold tunes, while the regular circle button can be used normally to deliver "hard" tap/hold tunes.
- Also you can map the button to a rarely used trigger/stick in LilyPad;
DVD player
PS2's DVD player was a versatile and powerful feature for its time, it supports PlayStation2 format DVD-ROM, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 1 format CD-ROM and offering great playback compatibility for the most common disc formats. While it lacked official support for DVD Audio and VCD, its ability to play DVD Video and Audio CDs, along with additional options like progressive scan and upscaling, made it a compelling choice for entertainment and multimedia playback. Also Interactive film/movie formats like DVDi and DVDPG supported.
- PCSX2 has CD-ROM and DVD-ROM support so you can boot your game directly from your physical discs (demonstration), however there are no official DVD-Video and Audio CD support at the moment. See feature request page for more information.
- The DVD player, including FreeDVDBoot, works in PCSX2's 987123879113 fork but only with it's MagicGate branch.
- Requires a complete BIOS dump (4MB ROM0 + 4MB ROM1 + NVRAM), use this dumper tool for ROM0, ROM1, ROM2, NVM and MEC files.
- Requires MagicGate key files (civ.bin, cks.bin, eks.bin, and kek.bin).
- Some remaining issues are described in https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/issues/1981 (2022-07 to 2023-02).
- PlayStation 3 has no PlayStation 2 DVD player interface support because: no emulation process needed to handle DVD-Video. PlayStation 3 already features a slot-loading 2× speed Blu-ray Disc drive for BD-ROM, PlayStation2 format DVD-ROM, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 1 format CD-ROM, Blu-ray Disc Video, DVD-Video, and Audio CDs. Having said that there is no support for VCDs for PlayStation 3 just like PlayStation 2.
- See this dedicated page for more information about home media playback support for emulation softwares.
LAN tunelling
- Offline multiplayer gaming on the PS2 home console over a LAN (local area network) multiplayer games, just like System Link for XBOX systems. Over time, most game servers have been shut down. However, computer programs such as XBSlink, SVDL and XLink Kai allow users to play multiplayer for LAN supported PS2 games by using a network configuration that simulates a worldwide LAN.
Accessories
Hard Disk Drive
The PS2 Hard Disk Drive was an official peripheral released by Sony for the PlayStation 2 console. It launched in July 2001 in Japan and March 2004 in North America. The HDD required the Network Adapter to function, because of this it's important to know that not all PS2 models supported the HDD. Only the fat models (SCPH-30000 to SCPH-50000 series) had the Expansion Bay needed to connect the Network Adapter for Hard Drive.
PlayStation 2 Hard Drive offered;
- Ability to install and run Linux using Linux for PlayStation 2 disc
- Extra network functionalities, such as: accessing online content (game demos and updates etc) from platforms like PlayStation Broadband Navigator and PlayOnline Viewer. Also some of the titles such as: Pop'n Music Puzzle-dama Online requires an installation to the PS2 HDD in order to play, as the game boots from the PlayStation Broadband Navigator or HDD Utility Disc, and does not require the game disc or a registration code.
As stated in the Network Adapter section, slim models comes with Ethernet functionality of the Network Adaptor has been integrated onto the motherboard, because of this slim models have no Hard Drive support.
EyeToy
The EyeToy is a device similar to a camera or a webcam. It's an accessory developed by Sony and manufactured by Logitech. It is used in some PS2 games to interact physically through motion detection. The EyeToy device can be emulated with PCSX2. It also works natively with the PlayStation 3.
DVD Remote Control
You can even play games with this remote controller other than multimedia functionalities, there's a setting in the System Config that says 'Remote Gameplay Function', set this to on for playing games with this peripheral.
USB plugin for wxWidgets builds
Some PS2 games use a USB adapter with a module/dongle consisting of two jack ports for microphones. Installments from the SingStar series on the PS2 could use microphones (Sometimes bundled with these game discs) with this method.
- These adapters could either formally or informally be called:
- SingStar USB Converter (Official)
- SingStar USB Converter Box (Official)
- SingStar USB Microphone Converter
- SingStar Microphone USB Adapter/Converter
- SingStar USB Converter Microphone Adapter
Steering wheels are also supported for many racing games via a USB adapter.
While PCSX2 isn't benefiting from a working USB plugin in its original release, Jackun, a PCSX2 plugin author, made a USB plugin that supports a microphone in most games and even a steering wheel for racing games.
- A compatibility list of the working titles with this plugin can be found here.
Hardware variations
Arcade
Notice that Play! is still in relatively early stages so the gaming experience might not be perfect.
Also there are pull requests and feature requests for implementing some of these variations or its features to these emulators, so it is being worked on actively.[2]
Konami Python 1/Konami Benami Python 1/Konami Python Satellite Terminal
- Currently, there is no emulator that supports this variation.
Konami Python 2/Konami Benami Python 2
Konami Python 2 is a Konami arcade system based on PlayStation 2 hardware.
- A fork of PCSX2 (987123879113) supports the emulation of the Konami Python 2 (Guide). This fork requires MagicGate key files into the bios folder (civ.bin, cks.bin, eks.bin, and kek.bin) and you must use "ps2-0190j-20030822.bin" BIOS.
- This fork does not and will never support Python 1 or system 246/256 games as those would require much more work than a simple USB device to make work. The MagicGate code being used in this fork also does not support memory card MagicGate encryption stuff properly (the memory card dongles used for Python 1 and System 246/256) so those platforms aren't really any closer to working compared to before.
- MAME romsets of Python 2 games won't work on this fork as they are missing ILINK_ID files.
Namco System 246 #1/Namco System 246 #2/Namco System 246 #3
Namco 246 is a series of Namco arcade system based on PlayStation 2 hardware, Featuring a MIPS II R3000A IOP Sub-CPU.
- Play! supports the emulation of this hardware. Security dongle images and disc images have to be placed inside the arcaderoms subdirectory of Play! Data Files directory.
Namco System 256 #1/Namco System 256 #2
Namco 256 is a series of Namco arcade system based on PlayStation 2 hardware, Featuring a MIPS II R3000A IOP Sub-CPU. System 256 comes with larger VRAM and overclocked CPU compared to System 246.
- Play! supports the emulation of this hardware. Security dongle images and disc images have to be placed inside the arcaderoms subdirectory of Play! Data Files directory.
Namco System Super 256
- Play! supports the emulation of this hardware. Security dongle images and disc images have to be placed inside the arcaderoms subdirectory of Play! Data Files directory.
Namco System 147
- Currently, there is no emulator that supports this variation, however it is being worked on in Play! at the moment.
PSX
Not to be confused with the original PlayStation.
The PSX is a Sony digital video recorder with a fully integrated PS2 console. It was also the first device to use Sony's XrossMediaBar (XMB) graphical user interface, which was later used on the PlayStation Portable, the PlayStation 3, some Blu-ray Disc players, and 2008-era BRAVIA TVs.
None of the PSX features have been emulated yet.
Twitter user @DiscoStarslayer claims to be working on bypassing the HDD encryption of the PSX, which could result in this hardware being emulated, and it would allow for replacing the HDD in those consoles. This user also encourages dumping the content of the HDD of your PSX using a guide made by a PCSX2 contributor called 987123879113
Emulation issues
Despite a large interest in PlayStation 2 emulation due to its sizable collection of games, it is still one of the harder consoles to emulate for several reasons.
First of all, many people believe that since the main CPU (Emotion Engine) runs at a clock speed of 294 Mhz (299 Mhz on later revisions), it would make emulation easy on recent hardware. But this isn't the case because the clock speed of the emulated CPU is not necessarily indicative of the ease of emulation (e.g. Sega Saturn emulation). Specifically, the PlayStation 2's CPU contains a multitude of custom sub-components and chips such as the FPU co-processor, 2 Vector Units, IOP, SPU2, Graphics Synthesizer, and SIF which together work asynchronously to comprise the 128-bit Emotion Engine. Emulating them perfectly with correct timing requires an enormous amount of power. Moreover, the PlayStation 2, just like PlayStation 1, uses the MIPS architecture instead of standard x86 code, thus making emulation slower.[3]
Another big problem is the emulation of PlayStation 2’s floating-point unit (FPU) because it doesn’t follow the IEEE standard. To keep it simple, just changing a couple of numbers will cause glitches to occur to the game’s graphic (VU) and logic (EE), resulting in things like broken AI, odd behaviors, and/or graphical bugs. While PCSX2 allows for either clamping/rounding on both VU and EE as a solution to fix these glitches, it remains by far not the most accurate way to emulate the PlayStation 2's FPU.[4][5]
To conclude the problems with PlayStation 2 emulation, we come to hardware rendering. The PlayStation 2’s graphics pipeline acts very differently from modern GPU cards, and emulating it in HW mode with any degree of accuracy is difficult. This is due in part to the versatility of the PlayStation 2, the fact that it doesn’t use fixed shaders, or that even the games themselves do not use a consistent formula to achieve different graphical effects. Various emulation enhancements like display resolution scaling lead to the typical “black lines glitch” because of the use of a non-integer resolution. While the Vulkan and OpenGL renderer backends on PCSX2 greatly improved on many of these issues, lots of games still require “software rendering” to fix many common glitches, which is significantly increases CPU ST performance requirement for the emulation and eliminating visual enhancement options. Always try Vulkan or OpenGL backends first because D3D backends blending levels is quite problematic compared to other backends.[6]
In summary, The PlayStation 2 is a very complex machine that even game developers struggled to work with. It is difficult to achieve close-to-perfection PlayStation 2 emulation with actual PC hardware but thanks to PCSX2 team it's now possible.
MagicGate
MagicGate, an encryption technology embedded within specific PlayStation 2 memory cards, relies on the MechaCon chip for security functionalities. MechaCon chip handles various tasks, including PlayStation 2 system security, game disc security, MagicGate, and KELF file decryption. Emulating MagicGate presents unique challenges because replicating its encryption process and hardware verification can be difficult and rightfully raising concerns about copyright situation [1][2]. However there is a PCSX2 fork for this you can use, although you need MagicGate keys. See Konami Python 2 or #DVD_player sections.
For more information about PlayStation 2 hardware and reverse engineering;
- The PlayStation 2: From Emotion to Emulation - Celebrating 20 Years of Reverse Engineering
- MVG: Why was the Sony PlayStation 2 so hard to develop games for?, How the Sony Playstation 2 Security Was Defeated
- Rodrigo Copetti's PlayStation 2 Architecture Practical Analysis
- ps2tek: Documentation on PS2 internals
- PSDevWiki: PlayStation 2
- (Reddit Thread) ELI5: Why do PS2 emulation be like that?
- PCSX2: Blog, Discord
See also
External links
- PlayStation 2 DataCenter - Tons of PS2-related things. Emulator files like plugins, game manuals, game configurations, and many tutorials are just some of the things you'll find here.
- arcadeotaku: Namco System 246/256
- digitpress forum - Master List of PS2 CD-Based Games
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 PlayStation 2 at Wikipedia
- ↑ Feature request: support for Namco Arcade systems based on PS2 for PCSX2, 2x6 touchscreen support for Play!
- ↑ https://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Why-is-PCSX2-slow
- ↑ https://wiki.pcsx2.net/PCSX2_Documentation/Nightmare_on_Floating-Point_Street
- ↑ https://github.com/PSI-Rockin/DobieStation/issues/51
- ↑ PCSX2 devs comment about HW backends