A few days back I shared a post asking for suggestions on what PS2 games people here might recommend I play. Having not been one who played PS2 at any stage (it was a bit before my time), my experience with the systems and games is slightly limited.
What I did love though, was seeing how many here shared games they clearly loved, and who spent so long convincing me that what they recommended would be the perfect game. One thing I’ve learned…all of you in this community love the PS2!
Anyway, the only PS2 games I have played through have all been through PCSX2 - the ubiquitous and decades-old PlayStation 2 emulator. I’ve bumped the resolution, I’ve activated RetroAchievements, and I’ve applied HD texture packs. Each time I’m shocked at how amazing the games are, despite their age.
So, while I was setting my collection of games up I thought it might be nice to reach out to the PCSX2 team and ask if anyone wanted to chat about their experiences in creating and maintaining the emulator! Two of the devs (fobes and GovanifY) said they’d be more than happy to, and so I’ve got a little interview with them to share with you :)
Love pcsx2!
over two decades of development
Jeez that long? I remember testing out games and being excited to see Medal of Honor Rising Sun get in-game at 1-5 FPS. Can’t remember if that was on an Athlon XP 2500+ or Core 2 Duo Q6600. It was entirely out of curiosity since I had a Swap Magic modified PS2.
no per-game configurations, no automatic configurations
Those were dark days. Nobody used PCSX2 wiki because nobody (besides us nerds) thought to look for one or knew about it, so emulator reputation was worse than it could’ve been.
Still, it was very annoying having to reference the wiki every time I changed what game I was playing.
Oh nice thanks. Ill give it a read!
Can you run it on steam deck? Should be powerful enough right?
It absolutely is!
I have a screenshot in the article of me doing just that. In fact it handles it so well that you can upscale the resolution a ton, and you can add HD texture packs. So it plays unbelievably well. Check my linked post up the top in this post and you’ll find some details I go into for getting it to work with HD texture packs!
Awesome, thanks!
Can it save anywhere by any chance? I haven’t looked into it at all but I’ve always wondered if a good emulator could just take a snapshot at any moment to act as a save anywhere function.
I use RetroDECK, which in turn uses the left-hand trackpad on the SteamDeck as a ‘radial dial’. I touch it, then select ‘quick’ then select ‘save’ - and it then makes an instant save state. So I don’t have to use any menu or loading point. I just start a game, then use the touchpad to ‘load’ that state and it is instant!
Save anywhere, any time. And load the same way. :)
