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

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

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 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. Th ...

-based PC hardware with

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

, 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 grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing the software or modi ...

with the exception of the

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that des ...

(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 emulator ZSNES. 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., being followed by 1.9.0 in 2013 and ePSXe 1.9.25 in 2015.

Features

ePSXe was one of the early emulators to make use of plug-ins to emulate GPU, 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 computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

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 hard disk drive platter, pla ...

. 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 a type of firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization d ...

. Since the various PlayStation BIOS images are

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal 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, ...

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 ...

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a Language-independent specification, cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D computer graphics, 2D and 3D computer graphics, 3D vector graphics. The API is typic ...

, or the Glide API, and are available as

freeware Freeware is software, 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 free ...

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

. 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 Retrogaming, 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'' ...

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) 2000 software Android emulation software Linux emulation software PlayStation emulators Windows emulation software Proprietary video game console emulators