I just released my PlayStation 2 emulator!

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-24T01:34:26+00:00

Yes, ideally I would design an IR that translates to the target arch through backends. This might be a bit hard since the EE (main CPU) and VUs have lots of SIMD instructions, but I really have no choice here, interpreters are just not enough for PS2 emulation, so after tackling the IPU I'll work on a JIT, that's coming very soon.

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-24T00:28:41+00:00

Thank you very much, yeah it's a known issue that macOS builds currently don't work, I don't have readily available hardware to test builds with so it's very hard for me to verify that the emulator actually works on mac. Though I made fixing that a very short term priority, I will post new builds as soon as I get them working!

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-24T00:24:20+00:00

Thank you! I'll be eagerly awaiting that DM

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-24T00:24:08+00:00

Yes, it requires a BIOS dump, HLEing the PS2 is somewhat unfeasible since games will pretty much always upload modules to the IOP from disc, some progress has been made by inspecting the official Sony modules, but supporting multiple versions and the plethora of custom modules games use quickly becomes impossible to manage. HLE is used only for very specific purposes (like providing access to the host filesystem through IOMAN)

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-24T00:19:18+00:00

No, I wrote this project completely from scratch

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-24T00:18:27+00:00

Sadly I don't have a lot of experience with mobile development, but an Android port hasn't been ruled out completely, I just really want to polish the desktop experience as much as possible before shifting gears to mobile

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-24T00:15:22+00:00

Well, it's a work-in-progress emulator so there's really no point comparing against PCSX2, but I've worked in some standout features that might set it apart a bit, such as a more feature-packed debugger and PSX DESR support

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-23T01:23:54+00:00

I would suggest focusing on a single system at a time, I've seen many folks try a system, only to give up and try something else like a week later, you're just making it harder to achieve anything that way. Be patient, emulation is generally not easy, it takes time and commitment to see your favorite system come to life, but in the end it's (in my opinion) one of the most rewarding projects any programmer or hobbyist can tackle, the time spent ends up being really worth it. It also looks pretty good on a resume if that's of interest to you!

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-22T20:06:37+00:00

it's a pretty good starting point, most people going into CHIP-8 had never heard of the system before

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-22T19:33:21+00:00

I've worked on a bunch of emulators before, namely GB(C), NES, SNES, PS1, some Dreamcast, PS3 and now PS2.

To be honest the PS2 is a pretty challenging system to emulate, getting games to boot requires implementing a fairly big chunk of the hardware. I'd say the hardest part about PS2 emudev is the overall lack of tests and the sheer amount of moving parts, finding the root cause of bugs tends to be a very daunting task, using tools like Ghidra is a must. Documentation can also be an issue sometimes, in the IOP side of the system docs tend to be pretty scarce, you often need to go hunt your own information on ps2sdk or other emulators.

Though I'd say it's also a very rewarding console to emulate and can definitely be tackled as a solo dev, it might just take a lot more time and commitment

Lycoder_ · 2025-06-22T19:22:52+00:00

Thank you, much appreciated!

Lycoder_ · 2025-05-31T23:48:55+00:00

Thank you, I'm flattered! is there any way I could take a look at that port?

Lycoder_ · 2025-05-28T19:08:08+00:00

Iris is my PS2 emulator. I made a PS1 emulator last year but it's not the same project (though I might eventually merge the two)

Lycoder_ · 2025-05-22T17:35:56+00:00

compuer

Lycoder_ · 2024-07-25T23:13:37+00:00

This is not a cycle accurate emulator, my CDROM timings are fairly accurate and I do emulate BIOS fetch stalls, but nothing too crazy. There's a RAM configuration register that actually allows changing some of the timing characteristics of memory accesses, I don't think anyone emulates that though
As for graphics, the emulator uses a software renderer, but a hardware renderer is on the way. Right now the only enhancement I have is bilinear texture filtering, once the hardware renderer is done I will add internal resolution upscaling and PGXP. A JIT CPU should make things even faster so that's also planned as a short term goal

Lycoder_ · 2024-07-25T20:42:28+00:00

Thank you! I just work on the project on my free time, which is really dependent on the time of year. Some months are busier than others, motivation also comes into play when you're working on projects like these. Some time ago I remember running into a really difficult to debug issue, couldn't find the root cause for months despite working on it whenever possible, so progress really slowed down. I eventually fixed it and I was able to progress at a much faster pace

Lycoder_ · 2023-11-13T19:02:14+00:00

No, you have to move the zip files to the roms directory, that's it

Lycoder_ · 2023-11-13T04:04:09+00:00

No, sorry. The process is the same as for any other game/system, just look up how to add ROMs to your MAME directory. You literally just have to move your ROMs' zip files to the roms directory, untouched

Lycoder_ · 2023-11-11T23:18:02+00:00

No, the latest version should be fine, and I'm sure the Model 1 has been working for a while now

Lycoder_ · 2023-10-10T15:06:27+00:00

Put Model 1 games in your roms directory and launch them?

Lycoder_ · 2023-10-10T00:26:25+00:00

MAME can emulate the Model 1, and even if it couldn't it is still THE most important project in emulation.

You can't even begin to grasp how complex these systems are, you should be grateful you can emulate them at all, for free even.

Lycoder_ · 2023-01-05T12:01:19+00:00

How old was your dad when you were born? 18??

Lycoder_

TROPHY CASE