Leaked shots of Sony's PSone emulator for the PSP

We can't call these pics 100 percent legit, or even 57.5 percent legit, but we can call them what they claim to be: pics of the forthcoming PSone emulator download store for the PSP. According to the fairly convincing screenshots, games cost will $15 each -- which sounds steep, but not unreasonable -- and will even be able to do multiplayer via WiFi networking. Of course, there's still no word on when this will be actually available, and the pics are from a tipster's "friend" who works as a "designer at Sony" (yeah, haven't heard that one before), which doesn't lend a whole lot of cred, but we'll let the pics speak for themselves.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

[Tonicboy @ Apr 6th 2006 1:49PM]

Considering how slick the rest of the PSP interface looks, this screen is just way too amateurish. And the inclusion of Final Fantasy VII, which is a HUGE game to download, is also suspect. I call shenanigans!

[TheSandman @ Apr 6th 2006 1:55PM]

I call BS...but we'll see. It would be nice; but they really need a better way to compress the games; not everyone has a 512mb stick..or even 1 gig.

[Scarpad @ Apr 6th 2006 1:59PM]

$15 for a PS1 game ???? What are they smoking? I can buy them for about $3.00 at the local used game store. It's not worth the money just to play on the PSP, this sounds like UMD Movies all over again

[OK @ Apr 6th 2006 2:02PM]

FAKE! http://pspupdates.qj.net/PSone-Emulator-leak-fake-/pg/49/aid/14573

[CapAmerica @ Apr 6th 2006 2:03PM]

Boy Engadget you guys are slow, this was posted early yesterday on Joystiq and was already confirmed that they're fakes.

[Zack @ Apr 6th 2006 2:06PM]

At the look of this pic, there seems to be 4 games downloading at once, hmmm, lets see, every ps1 game is on a 700 meg cd, which means thats gotta be well over 1.5gig of data or so. This just doesnt seem practical to me, now if they made an app for pc that can download them to your hdd then transfer, i can see how that could work, but downloading 4 games at the same time to how small the memory cards are now? Come on.

[Jeff @ Apr 6th 2006 2:11PM]

"every ps1 game is on a 700 meg cd"

Which doesn't mean they take up nearly that much. I mean come on, DOOM? That game eats up probably 20MB at most. I remember downloading it on dialup when it first came out for PC.

Anyway, the screenshot is definitely fake, no doubt about it, but there's nothing that precludes you from having 4 games on a memory card at once. No, you're not gonna have GT2, FFVII and FFVIII on there at the same time, but DOOM, Jazz Jackrabbit and Bust-a-Move? Probably.

If this whole thing really comes off well, it might tempt me into finally buying a PSP to go with my DS. (Combined with the price drop, of course, which is the other necessary component to fully pique my interest.)

[Brent @ Apr 6th 2006 2:13PM]

Last time I checked, "Q" comes before "T" in the alphabet...better luck next time.

[Azhar @ Apr 6th 2006 2:15PM]

Hang on.... Both Brooken Swords and Gran Turismo 2..... Oh my days.... This is amazing..This better be real... It looks a bit tatty for sony doesnt it... Look at the interface on the psp and compare it ot this..

[Kill Fat People @ Apr 6th 2006 2:20PM]

How do all 3 cd's of Final Fantasy VII fit on a memory stick? If that was possible I would go out and buy a PSP just for that game alone.

[zak @ Apr 6th 2006 2:29PM]

final fantasy VII for PSP is reason enough for me to buy a PSP, hopefully this is true. id love to have a mobile version of FFVII, seeing as how computer emulators are slow.

[djSyndrome @ Apr 6th 2006 2:34PM]

10. "final fantasy VII for PSP is reason enough for me to buy a PSP, hopefully this is true. id love to have a mobile version of FFVII, seeing as how computer emulators are slow."

Or you could, you know, get the PC version of FFVII, which is superior to the console version in almost every way.

[autocorrelation @ Apr 6th 2006 2:39PM]

PC version better than the console? Are you kidding me? Fixed resolutions, control issues, and compatibility issues.

I'll take the console version any day.

[torkhum @ Apr 6th 2006 2:39PM]

why would need an psone emmulator? going backwords perhaps make some happy -but lets try to go forward and leave the past behind.

[Kill Fat People @ Apr 6th 2006 2:52PM]

#11 djSyndrome: "Or you could, you know, get the PC version of FFVII, which is superior to the console version in almost every way."

-Did you know the PSP is PORTABLE?

[Your Mom @ Apr 6th 2006 3:06PM]

Not vouching for the credibility of the screenshots, but I do want to point out that it would be possible to fit multiple games, or even multi-disc games on a Memory Stick. I doubt too many developers were concerned about the size of their games when they were on CD because the media is relatively inexpensive, but look at N64 games at that time: Flash memory is expensive, much more so 5+ years ago. The largest N64 carts, such as Zelda and Turok 2, were 128 Mbit (128 megabits = 16 megabytes). I'd imagine that Nintendo's carts used some type of compression, but PSone discs didn't for the shear fact that load times already sucked and compression would make it worse. I don't see it inconcievable that these games could be squeezed down to 100MB. The PSP gigapack comes with a 1GB stick standard, probably in anticipation for the emulator. And regarding multi-disc games, a game like FFVII that took 3 discs would have to have alot of things repeated on each disc (character models, textures, certain FMV animations, etc) so having the whole game in one file would cut down significantly from the approx. 700MB x 3 of the original game.

That is all.

[Kevin @ Apr 6th 2006 3:07PM]

Don't you think if it were real, Quake would be list before Twisted Metal just for the sake of alphabetization and not look like a completely illiterate tool?

[Raymond @ Apr 6th 2006 3:15PM]

"Did you know the PSP is PORTABLE?"

For a couple hours anyway...

[Charles Garcia @ Apr 6th 2006 3:25PM]

Does it matter that these perticular shots are fake? The freakin emulator has been confirmed... who cares that someone who was way too bored for words made a screenshot that was totally unneeded... until I see the thing in action on a psp (going from a menu into a game) I don't think there is much purpose in a screenshot.

[djSyndrome @ Apr 6th 2006 3:38PM]

"-Did you know the PSP is PORTABLE?"

Did you know that my comment was in response to someone talking about PC emulation of the PS1, and had nothing to do with the PSP? You did not? Oh no!

No-one has mentioned that half of the games on that list - fake as it may be - will be completely unplayable without some serious tweaking to the control schemas, as the PSP is one analogue stick and two digital buttons shy of the Dualshock. Let's face it, folks, you're not getting good games like Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy. You're getting crap like Jumping Flash!, Namco Museum and the first Tokyo Highway Battle.

[baxter madu @ Apr 6th 2006 3:40PM]

"Your Mom" (lol), not exactly.

N64 did have to use compression for images,sounds etc, however the large majority of things were real time rendered because it had very little memory in the carts for textures. If they used textures, they'd be so low res that everything looked fuzzy to compensate, thus all N64 games had pretty much the same crappy look. This is different from the FF7, where basically every screen is a prerendered image (gobs of memory) because the PS1 did not have the power to render them, and devoted much of the resources to character models.

The majority of the space is FMV sequences though, and they will probably compress each to MP4, but even then an FMV heavy game like FF7 will clock in much heavier than 100MB.

[zak @ Apr 6th 2006 4:10PM]

for those of you that seemed to want to bash what i said about using an emulator to run FFVII, the only laptop i have and am willing to use when i go anywhere is my PowerPC mac, there is no such thing as a mac version of FFVII, but i do have the one for PC. as for it being superior to the FFVII for PSone, thats a load of crap, ive tried playing it numerous times on my PC and its horrible, not to mention the lack of controller.

i do though, have a emulator that runs PSone games for my mac, the problem with that is, its laggy as hell, therefor i would prefer to have it on a handheld, such as PSP.

make sense now?

[Dirk Jello @ Apr 6th 2006 5:52PM]

Hello! Without even needing an official confirmation from anybody, you can tell by the screen that it is fake! Ask yourself for a second, why Sony would put the word "DOWNLOADS" on the side of the screen? This is too easy to fake anyways. The author photoshopped various known PSP image components together and then displayed it with an image viewer program on the PSP. Shouldn't these people be working or doing something productive?

[Matt @ Apr 6th 2006 6:43PM]

I hope Sony doesn't charge much for the PS1 games. So Nintendo would follow and offer their N64 games for cheaper.

[Maxwell @ Apr 6th 2006 7:15PM]

First of all these screens are fake, look at how crap they are. Not even in alphabetical order!

Secondly, PSOne games are mostly quite small apart from the GTA/FF games etc but they could cut down the pre-rendered backgrounds if they wanted to and make them fit the 16:9 480x272 PSP screen (Else they might look shite). Although, wasn't the PSOne resolution shitty anyway?

Thirdly, Will Sony be allowing us to transfer our already owned games to the console? I mean if they're $15 to buy then fine, but if I already own the actual game can I make my own image? Hell, I know that will stick a fat twinkle in every pirates eye but they're old games anyway, let us play them for free if we already own them. It will be like itunes for games, people know they get get music for free but why risk it, pay for the songs and stear clear of trouble. Most people don't want to rip off anyone, it's just easier. If it's easier to play my own games for free, I'd be happy, even if the emulator cost me a few quid itself.

Oh, btw Sony, well done for doing what Nintendo are doing for the Revolution it just makes sense! What's the point in trying to make such new games when a platform comes out? I'd love to play Gta3, Driver1 and Mgs on my PSP (not a crappy card game either!). The Psone versions were amazing and I miss them.

[astareus @ Apr 6th 2006 9:09PM]

ffvii for the pc really did blow...
limited to 640x480, nasty video compression, lack of the ps controller, different sound due to lack of ps synth, different FONT (!?), and the backgrounds were seriously just disgusting looking.

granted you could use save game editors, so that was cool, but it didn't contribute too much to the experience.

in the case of ffvii, my two concerns would be space and display. i'm not too worried about their ability to shrink the file size, due to the aforementioned repeating data and better video compression, but would it be played in 4:3? you can't really get away with cropping or stretching it, and because of the pre-rendered backgrounds it's not like they could change the engine...

still pumped though. portable final final fantasy? hells yeah.

[slippy @ Apr 6th 2006 10:12PM]

The idea of charging gamers $15 a pop for old PS1 games is absolutely sickening. It's no wonder more and more people are reverting to piracy, when companies are trying to squeeze every last dime out of "honest" consumers.

For god's sake, I can get old PS2 games for $15!! Old PS1 software should be no more than $3 to $5.

[Muffin Man @ Apr 6th 2006 10:45PM]

I myself would pay for ffVII on umd, I don't want it taking up ALL my memory.

[Omega @ Apr 6th 2006 11:32PM]

umm this has been proven to be fake

[Jason @ Apr 7th 2006 12:10AM]

fake, the design doesnt feel like sony.

[AppleFunatic @ Apr 7th 2006 2:51AM]

Does it download a PS1 rootkit emulator? Ha ha... I'm so funny... hehehehe

[darthbane2k @ Apr 7th 2006 4:32AM]

>>>portable final final fantasy? hells yeah.
Posted at 9:09PM on Apr 6th 2006 by astareus

[darthbane2k @ Apr 7th 2006 4:35AM]

**** portable final final fantasy? hells yeah. -astareus******


Portable Final Fantasy ALREADY exists on a handheld called the Nintendo DS. With FF3, FF4 and soon FF5 and FF6 (both superior to any Playstation FMV shitfest) it seems the DS is the console of choice that Square Enix are supporting, and NOT the PSP. That god awful Final Fantasy 7 movie doesnt, doesnt count

[Anthony @ Apr 7th 2006 8:18AM]

I call complete B.S. on this pic ��the PSP visual identity is one of the strongest I've seen in recent times and they would not use a font that's not Eurostile (or its similar equivalent) on anything operating system related. Complete B.S.

Although, it would be v. cool to be able to play PS1 games on PSP.

And to all the haters, FFVII was the best out of the series, hands down. Stop drowning yourself in 16bit nostalgia.

[Elranzer @ Apr 7th 2006 10:23AM]

"I hope Sony doesn't charge much for the PS1 games. So Nintendo would follow and offer their N64 games for cheaper."

Nintendo FOLLOW? Hey buddy, Nintendo announced their Nintendo Revolution with the ability to download/buy N64 games BEFORE Sony announced the PS1 emulator for PSP. They already mentioned a price point range, with $15 not being close to the max they'd charge for N64 titles.

[Wildoman @ Apr 7th 2006 11:04AM]

I myself can't call these pics 100 percent legit, or even 57.5 percent legit or even 10 percent legit

[e=mc2 @ Apr 7th 2006 1:26PM]

There are already methods by the gamer underground that shrink umd game size down. Example the psp game Midnite Club 3 Dub Ed runs in at 1.7gb but can be reduced down to a fully playable 238mb using Dax compression.

A game like FFVII would easily reduce down to under 100mb.

[docca @ Apr 9th 2006 11:01AM]

For the folks complaining about PS1 emulator quality on PCs, you should try this one:
http://adripsx.psxemu.com/index.php?page=download

go for the "ILE" version.

Add a cheap parallel port adapter (what, $5 or build one yourself), or an USB adapter... and you can use your PSX controllers, the emulation is 98% accurate.

[TheKhakinator @ Apr 26th 2006 10:38PM]

I would say that while the pic is obviously fake, an emulator is almost a definite yes. $15 is hugely overpriced, though. And I'd say that if you can fit MC3 on a UMD, you can fit FFVII on a memory stick.

[D3ADLUS @ Jul 30th 2006 8:02PM]

"why would need an psone emmulator? going backwords perhaps make some happy -but lets try to go forward and leave the past behind."

Try telling that to the Nintendo Fans. You'll probably be killed...

[tehmacuser @ Aug 29th 2006 12:05PM]

Do you think the PSP (when it allows for PS1 emulation) will allow you to use an ISO of a game? I have like 3 games from my old PSone (lost most of em) and I'd really hate it if they made you redownload the games...

[the angel of disgrace @ Sep 1st 2006 3:08PM]

dude that's fake... it's obvious... that sony dude at E3 had shown a ps1 game being played DIRECTLY from the memory stick, not having to open some emulator... yea it there will be an emulator, but it will be built into the psp system so u it'll be running all the time, but won't really activate until u choose a game.. but hell i can't wait for the ps1 emulator... i finally get to play some of my favorite games again...

[juan @ Sep 14th 2006 12:34AM]

yeah i heard about the pson emulator on psp and i thought it was awesome. i heard that the original ridge racer isnt that big of a game its only like 4 megs. so i think its more than reasonable to assume that if the games are compressed most of them souldnt be more than 10 or 20 megs not counting the fmv heavy ones.

[dave @ Sep 24th 2006 10:27PM]

not the PSP system font. obvious fake, just like when people make fake apple ads with non-myriad fonts or fake ads depicting microsoft OSes(other than that of the zune) that actually work.

[qui @ Aug 2nd 2007 8:05PM]

HI! how u guy put game dowload on psp . i have 3.51 verizon .how u gy but on psp help me out with that THANK.......