ePSXe (''enhanced PSX emulator'') is a

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

video game console emulator A video game console emulator is a type of emulator that allows a computing device to emulate a video game console's hardware and play its games on the emulating platform. More often than not, emulators carry additional features that surpass ...

for

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

-based PC hardware with

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

, as well as devices running Android. It was written by three authors, using the aliases ''calb'', ''_Demo_'' and ''Galtor''. ePSXe is

closed source Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and inte ...

with the exception of the

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how t ...

(API) for its plug-ins.

Development

For half a year, ePSXe was developed in private, with part of this initial development being carried out by _Demo_, previously known for his work on the

Super Nintendo The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Euro ...

emulator

ZSNES ZSNES is a free software Super Nintendo Entertainment System emulator written mostly in x86 assembly with official ports for Linux, DOS, Windows, and unofficial ports for Xbox and macOS. Background Development of ZSNES began on 3 July 1997 an ...

. When released on October 14, 2000, ePSXe was a revolution in the Playstation emulation scene, boasting higher compatibility and performance than other emulators of the system at the time. After ePSXe 1.6.0 was released on August 5, 2003, its development seemed to halt, with speculation that the source code had been lost due to a

hard disk failure A hard disk drive failure occurs when a hard disk drive malfunctions and the stored information cannot be accessed with a properly configured computer. A hard disk failure may occur in the course of normal operation, or due to an external factor ...

. However, on April 5, 2008, the developers of ePSXe made a public statement revealing that in the summer of 2007, they had decided to continue development of the emulator, due to encouragement from users. On May 24, 2008, ePSXe version 1.7.0 was released. After another hiatus, the developers came back on August 30, 2012, announcing the release of ePSXe for Android, as well as stating that ePSXe for Windows was in testing of version 1.8.0. This version was released on November 9, 2012.

Features

ePSXe was one of the early emulators to make use of plug-ins to emulate

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

, SPU (sound), and

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

drive functions, a model first established in PSEmu Pro. Games can be loaded from the computer's CD drive or from one of many types of CD images directly from the user's

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

. A patching feature allows the user to apply game patches. Games that do not necessarily run properly, or even start at all, can be fixed and played via the use of ePSXe patch files in .ppf format. Not all games prone to bugs have ppf patches written for them. Until version 1.9.25, ePSXe could only function with an image of an official Sony PlayStation

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...

. Since the various PlayStation BIOS images are

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

ed by Sony, it is illegal to distribute them. For this reason, ePSXe does not come bundled with any of the PlayStation BIOS images, requiring the user to provide one for the emulator. Version 1.9.25 added HLE BIOS support, allowing it to mimic the effect of the PlayStation's BIOS, although compatibility is currently lower than an official BIOS.

Plug-ins

* GPU: Most GPU plug-ins run with either

Direct3D Direct3D is a graphics application programming interface (API) for Microsoft Windows. Part of DirectX, Direct3D is used to render three-dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D uses hardware a ...

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

, or the

Glide API Glide is a 3D graphics API developed by 3dfx Interactive for their ''Voodoo Graphics'' 3D accelerator cards. Although it originally started as a proprietary API, it was later open sourced by 3dfx. It was dedicated to rendering performance, supp ...

, and are available as

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

. Many GPU plugins require game-specific hacks to run games. * SPU: The SPU plug-ins can emulate everything from music to sound effects, with varying degrees of success depending on the plug-in settings, and of course the plug-in being used * CD-ROM: ePSXe comes with a core CD-ROM plug-in, but many others are available for freeware download and many can emulate up to seven different types of read modes * Input: The core plug-in is sufficient, but there are others that allow for more functionality.

Compatibility

ePSXe is able to run most PlayStation games somewhat accurately. Few games run flawlessly without extensive configuration and trial by error testing. In the case that a game does not run successfully, patches written for the game in question can be used, though few games have patches available.

Releases

For PC

For Android

Reception

Retro Gamer ''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' soon became ...

called ePSXe "the best free PlayStation emulator". Techtree stated "ePSXe is the best free PlayStation emulator".
Pcnexus
says "the easiest PS1 emulator for android with downloadable cheat codes and great game compatibilty with PS1 roms".

References

External links

*
Download version 2.0.5 for WindowsDownload version 2.0.5 for Linux
{{PlayStation (console) Android emulation software Linux emulation software PlayStation emulators Windows emulation software Proprietary video game console emulators