PlayStation emulator coming to Android, courtesy of yongzh and ZodTTD

If you don't know the names yongzh and ZodTTD, you can certainly be forgiven, but they're basically the cell phone emulation dream team -- where the former has been cranking out high-quality Nintendo and Sega emulators for Android, the latter is the one who brought PSX to iPhone, iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre. Today, we hear they're collaborating on a PSX emulator for Android that's running faster than the 3GS version -- before Froyo's even factored into the equation -- and that when his domination over the PSX is complete, ZodTTD intends to begin work on an Nintendo 64 emulator for Android, and then VLC. Without letting our enthusiasm get the better of us, let's just say it's an exciting time to be an Android owner, to say the least.

[coitis1 Posted Jun 4th 2010 11:21PM]

Can't wait to try out some of my old faves when this is released!

[Wesscoast Posted Jun 4th 2010 11:32PM]

And everytime we talk about the Original Playstation, we must show a shot of FF7, the only game anyone wants to play.

Guys, are you aware this game was released on the PC like 10 years ago? You can go pick it up for like 5 bucks.

And.. um.. the game's not that great after you've beaten it 5 times.

[tricheboars Posted Jun 5th 2010 1:11AM]

@Wesscoast

Troll!

[osk Posted Jun 5th 2010 3:24AM]

@Wesscoast FF7 revolutionized RPG's. It is a different experience every time.

[Wesscoast Posted Jun 5th 2010 3:39AM]

@osk

LOL. Delusional.

To the Troll comment, that's crazy, I played FF7 like 3 times already, and Chrono Trigger and FF3 a bunch of times. I get it. It was Square's prime. But rational minds beg to differ... Instead of trying to illegally get this on your Android phone with a serious lack of buttons (either real of virtual), just get this on your PC and play with a beautiful framerate, for like 5-10 bucks.

As usual, the pirates/hackers/open source community can't see the forest for the trees

[willwillywilson Posted Jun 4th 2010 11:33PM]

How is it they can get this PS2 crap working but I still can't play Robot Unicorn Attack on my Eris? http://games.adultswim.com/robot-unicorn-attack-twitchy-online-game.html

[techtroll Posted Jun 4th 2010 11:37PM]

Great!!! I want to play Suikoden II on it.

[Eternity Posted Jun 4th 2010 11:46PM]

Yay! something to finally take advantage of the Galaxy S gpu! This plus 4" Super Amoled display + QWERTY= SEX

[DevilGear Posted Jun 5th 2010 12:30AM]

you know what would be awesome, being able to use something like a wii-mote to play it with. i would gladly pay 10-15$ for an emulator with that kind of ability.

imagine you go to a mcdonalds order your food sit down flip out your kickstand on your htc evo, pull a wii-mote out of your pocket and just start playing something would be so epic.

[StalkyTheFish Posted Jun 5th 2010 2:22AM]

@DevilGear

Um... you can today... for about $5. GBA emulator and Frawley's Wii Controller IME, for example. Works like a charm.

I think Frawley ran into some problem with HTC SenseUI phones though. Not sure if he found a workaround yet. Works great on N1 though. 8^D

I heard there is another Wii controller driver out there, but I haven't tried it.

[trihy Posted Jun 5th 2010 12:34AM]

And they make phones without buttons... go on with that thinking... Ill save money!

F?ck to all cellphones without buttons or dpad!

[Philms98 Posted Jun 5th 2010 1:40AM]

going to take a while to match what they have going on windows mobile/phone. the FPSECE psx3 emu runs great on an HD2.

[dalex7777 Posted Jun 5th 2010 2:18AM]

This is going to run sweet on my EVO.

EOF.

[Faxmonkey Posted Jun 5th 2010 2:38AM]

This is where you suddenly want that keyboard. Playing emulated games on virtual on-screen controls is maddening for several reasons. For starters, its not tactile so you have to watch your hands and the game at the same time. But moreover because touch panels are least accurate near the edges which is exactly where you would put the controls.

[tbhuang2 Posted Jun 5th 2010 2:57AM]

You need more buttons than that to play FF7.

[stuffman Posted Jun 5th 2010 4:12AM]

Zod is the man... I remember "back in the day" when he got a good PSX emulator running for the Sharp Zaurus PDA. If he could do it with that hardware, he can do it with anything. Can't wait.

[zodttd Posted Jun 5th 2010 7:50AM]

@stuffman Hah yes, thanks. PalmPSX / ZodPSX! :D I still have my Tpawave "Zod"iac. :D

[Ikkari Posted Jun 5th 2010 4:31AM]

There is no better Playstation Emulator on mobile phones than FPSEce for Windows Mobile! It runs almost every PSX game at full speed on HD2 ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohs9FhchFlc&feature=related
http://www.fpsece.net/

[jareth86 Posted Jun 5th 2010 4:35AM]

As someone who hasn't played FF7 and longs to play bomberman 64 again, I seriously cannot wait!

[Pdexter Posted Jun 5th 2010 4:41AM]

Old news. N900 has done this long time ago. ;)

[zodttd Posted Jun 5th 2010 7:57AM]

@Pdexter The N900's PSX code is based on this same emulator of mine. Though I just helped out a guy (by the name of smokku on Twitter) get psx running on the N900 much better.

[TareG Posted Jun 5th 2010 5:14AM]

You see that's why it pays off to have a high-end qwerty Android.... Bring on the Samsung Galaxy Pro already.

[graey Posted Jun 5th 2010 5:55AM]

The article suggests that Froyo might speed this up even further, but that is actually very unlikely. The speedup applies only to apps that run with Dalvik, and emulators like this are created not using the SDK, but rather using the NDK, which generates fully native binaries that already are as optimized as can be.
Still, awesome news.

[zodttd Posted Jun 5th 2010 8:00AM]

@graey You still need to use the JNI to go between native code and Java for blitting routines and audio. It will help to a degree of 1-2ms off each frame, I'm guessing. Not too much but will help. I will test soon.

[graey Posted Jun 5th 2010 8:07AM]

@zodttd
Ah, I did not know that. Strange, that there are no native bindings for screen/sound output (yet).

[ounkeo Posted Jun 5th 2010 6:26AM]

Please hire a UI designer. Those buttons are in the wrong damn place.

[runadumb Posted Jun 5th 2010 6:47AM]

Now all we need is a phone with a slideout controller ala the psp go. Unlikely but man that would be cool

[zodttd Posted Jun 5th 2010 7:54AM]

Really well done article here, as usual Engadget. :)
I'm open to questions anyone has.

Also be sure to follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/zodttd
And if you could, say a friendly hello via comments at the source of this article: http://digitaldisbeliever.net/2010/06/zodttd-is-showing-some-love-to-android/

Looking forward to going full force into the Android platform.
Thanks for the support!

[Warzone Posted Jun 5th 2010 8:38AM]

PSX and N64 for Android plus to top it off VLC!?!?! *mind explodes*

[Buckoman Posted Jun 5th 2010 11:55AM]

You like your MAME emulator for your iphone or android device? You should thank me. I explained to the mame team and the MAMEdevs that ZodTTD wasn't selling the emulator through a donation link. He didn't thank me, he didn't respond to my email about my account being deleted, and he takes all the credit for himself. He's an ass. Sure, he makes awesome emulators for devices like the iphone and android, but he is a self-centered jerk for not giving credit at all for helping or even saving his emulator. The only way he can be forgiven is if I got his email wrong. That still doesn't excuse the fact that he didn't thank me for anything. I don't use his emulator just because of that. Take whatever side of this you want, but I think he's a jerk. If you are reading this ZodTTD, you know who I am and you know what I did. Period. I speak of my personal experiences. Period.

[Buckoman Posted Jun 5th 2010 11:58AM]

@Buckoman
And anyone who reads this will surely be turned off. I helped. Even in the minimal point of view and you know it Zod. You even declared that your MAME emulator would be shut down as a project because of these guys. Don't pretend you don't know what I mean.

[Buckoman Posted Jun 5th 2010 12:07PM]

What I said was wrong. I acted out of anger and I'm sorry. I respect and I like what u do. I guess I was mad for not getting a thank you... sorry. Disregard any comments by me from the above, and I hope u can forgive me, Zod and I'm sincerly sorry, man. I will definetely check this emu out though...

[AstroSeven Posted Jun 5th 2010 1:05PM]

@Buckoman

wow...that was a bit of a soap opera moment. I hope you guys have sorted it out. Talented coders are a treasure to the tech community, we appreciate all of your combined efforts - kudos !!

A7

[Buckoman Posted Jul 30th 2010 11:28AM]

@AstroSeven hahaha i bet he won't remember me anyway thats kinda why i posted it in the first place... :D

[Rob Bourne Posted Jun 6th 2010 7:27AM]

I know Frawley has already said he's gonna add controller support to his app, but everyone needs to get this:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=672884

This guy has full classic controller support, total customisation and the analog sticks work nicely. Best of all, it's totally free and the dev is very responsive and helpful.

[Rob Bourne Posted Jun 6th 2010 7:28AM]

@Rob Bourne

*This app, not this guy -_-

[zodttd Posted Jun 7th 2010 10:37PM]

No problem Buckoman. Thanks for the support with MAME. First time hearing about this.