What this tutorial does:
Explains how to obtain and configure an emulator for the Playstation console on a windows computer.

What this tutorial does not do:
Deal with the Playstation 2 (since there are no good emulators for it yet)
Support or promote any illegal activities.
Work with L:inux, although this could probably work as a base guide for Linux machines

Step 1:
Preparations

For this tutorial, you will need:
Software
ePSXe (latest version is currently 1.6.0)
Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.8
Eternal SPU Plugin 1.50
P.E.Op.S. CDR Driver 1.4
A BIOS File from a Playstation or PSX
An ISO file for every game you want to play, or the real disc and a DVD drive.

Hardware
Preferably a SCSI CD Drive
An OpenGL2 Capable video card

Step 2:
Obtaining the files

Most of the necessary files can be obtained from the links above.
The BIOS can be obtained by dumping the BIOs from your own console. Please note that a PS2 BIOS will *not* work. Also, if you do not own the console, it is illegal for you to have a copy of the BIOS on your computer. The BIOS file should appear as scphXXXX where the Xs are digits and should be saved to a .bin file.

Games are easy to obtain. It does not matter whether or not you have the real game disc or an ISO although ISOs may run a teeny bit faster depending on how old your DVD drive is. It is illegal to posess an ISO file for a game you do not own.

Step 3:
Installation

Download the zip file (remember, this is a tutorial for windows machines) and unpack it to the folder of your choice. Now, navigate to that folder, and there should be a folder called bios. Copy the dump of your BIOS into the bios folder.

Congratulations, you've completed installation.

Step 4:
Configuration

The first thing to configure is the BIOS file. Fortunately, this is the easiest to configure. Navigate to the folder containing the bios folder (go up one level) and double click the ePSXe executable file. On the menu, click Config, and then click Bios. Click the select button on the dialog that appears, and browse to your BIOS file (should be in the bios folder). Select it and click OK.

Next you should configure the CD plugin. Extract the P.E.Op.S. CDR Driver 1.4 zip file into the plugins subfolder of your ePSXe directory. Now, restart the ePSXe and once again click Config, but this time click Cdrom and select the P.E.Op.S. CDR Driver 1.4 from the drop down list. Now, select the click Configure on the dialog that appears. From the interface drop down, select either the Win2K/XP or 9x scsi interface if you have a scsi drive (most drives are) or else select the raw readning for XP/2K. If you have 9x and a non-scsi device, search the plugins page where you got the other plugins for one that caters to your type of drive, but don't count on it working well. If you plan to run all of your games from ISO files you can just select none.

From the drive drop down menu, select your DVD drive. From the read mode select try autodetection, but be sure you have a PSX game disc in the drive. Do not limit the drive speed, but do check the box to allow for reads when the drive isn't ready. Check both boxes under error handling, and leave the rest of the configuration alone, click okay. Now, click Test. If no error is reported, click okay.

On to the Sound plugin. Extract the Eternal SPU Plugin 1.50 into the plugins folder and restart ePSXe. Click Config, then Sound, and select the Eternal SPU Plugin 1.50 from the dropdown list. Once more click configure. In the Ausio device box, select direct sound from the drop down list, and make the buffer a decent size (mine is 128). For the audio out method, select thread. Under Misc, select wait until the XA buffer is free and cache VAG decode. Leave fine tune at 0 and reverb at 0. Under special game fix, xhexk only the ones you need. Then click okay. Now, check Enable Sound, Enable XA Sound, and if you are playing from a CD, Enable CDDA Sound. Then click Okay. Do NOT check Enable SPU IRQ hack unless a specific game does not work, in which case you should disable the XA Sound.

To Configure the video plugin, extract Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.8 to the plugin folder. Restart ePSXe and click Config -> Video. Select Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.8 from the drop down list and click Configure. At the top, select full screen or widescreen according to your preferences. For the first 2 drop down menus, select the setting one, for the third select setting 0, and for the fourth, select setting 2. Then, for texture filtering, for really good cards (NVIDIA Geforce 6 series and above or comparable) select option 6, for good cards select option 5, for decent cards option 4. For the High res textures, select option 1 for good cards and option 0 for decent cards.

Be sure to select frame rate limitation, deselect frame skipping. Now, either select auto-detection of frame limit, or hard set it at 60, since all PSX games are designed for 60 FPS. For Compatibility, select option 1 for the first drop down menu, option 2 for the second, and option 1 for the third. Check only the first box in Screen Filters, leave everything else alone.

For the miscellaneous, disable scan lines, enable everything else. Be sure for special game fixes that you click the button with three dots in it and select only the game fixes relevent to your hardware and games. Then click okay, and click Test. If no errors are reported, click okay.

Now, restart ePSXe.

You have finsihed installation.

Step 5
Configure controls:

Default controls:
No analog
Digipad is the arrow keys
Cross is the "Z"
Circle is the "X"
Square is the "S"
Triangle is the "D"
Start is the "V"
Select is the "C"
Esc gets you out of the game and back to the main ePSXe screen.

To change the controls, click Config -> Game Pad -> Pad 1 or 2 depending on which needs updating. To change anything, simply click it and type the new key or press the game pad button.

Step 6:
Play

To play a game, either click file -> Run ISO or File -> Run CD and navigate to the game. Note that introductions may be a little slow, but once he actual game is started, speed should increase to around 60 FPS. If it doesn't, check your hardware acceleration. If it is at maximum, go back to the Video Plugin configuration and alternate decreasing the settings on Textures and on Framebuffers. If need be, enable frame skipping.

Questions or comments, post.

~Viz
To play a game, either click File -> Open Irun

hey thankx .. i actually needed something like this .. wanted to play burnout for a while .. but since i didnt have a PS2 .. i chucked the idea. Will work on what you mentioned in the tutorial and give you my feedback ..

Regards
Dhanesh.

If you need a PS2 for Burnout, do NOT run it with this emulator, it's PSX and PSOne only. The best PS2 emulator is PCSX2 which is supposed to be compatible with a wide range of PS2 games. I don't recommend it because the only game I've tried it with (Final Fantasy VIII which is not a PS2 game) caused an immediate program crash. I'm doing more tests with it to look into why, and will report when I figure it out or get it to work.

~Viz

Yea, i tried PCSX2 2 weeks ago on my dualcore 3.4ghz... onboard 128 gfx... 1 gb ram


I needed the bios files... which are approx 14 mb..
i could only see the PS2 welcome screen (the blue scrren with fog)
when i tried some games i could only see the intros
the game i tried included gta san andreas, battle field, and all 3 versions of harry potter....
in all cases i only got to see the intros of the games, as PCSX would crash after that.

I think my onboard gfx isnt powerful enough

ATICE

This tutorial worked great for me. You have no idea how much help you've given to a lot of people.

Wow Feedbacker you're bumping a lot of old topics...

How do I get the bios file off the Ps1?

about epsxe
Playstation Emulation

When I got to file run cdrom on my epsxe it interupts me with an error report. How do I solve this problem.



-matt z

Thanks!
Playstation Emulation

I recently started playing FF-VIII through the ePSXe emulator and your video set-up instructions helped clear up the lack of visual battle commands problem I was having. Just wanted to show my gratitude, thanks.



-reply by Chuck Steak

I followed this tutorial to the letter, and now I can't play any games on my PSX emulator. Before they even begin to load, I get the error messages



Missing render-rexture extension

And

No Pixel Format Available



Someone help me out please.



-reply by JTay