PSX4Droid brings spiky-haired protagonists to your Googlephone (video)

The HTC HD2 did it, and so did the iPhone 3GS (assuming you jailbroke), but now you can get your blocky amnesiac ex-SOLDIER action on Android courtesy of ZodTTD and yongzh. Their PSX4Droid app just launched on the Android Market for $5.99, and -- despite a few glitches -- it emulates PlayStation games like a charm, complete with multiple scaling modes and save states. Watch a Galaxy S rock the likes of Final Fantasy VII and Ridge Racer after the break, plus Crash Bandicoot on a Nexus One and some paired Wiimote action with a Dell Streak. Then, challenge yourself to adhere to intellectual property law instead of immediately hunting down ROMs and a BIOS file. We dare you.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[techlord Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:39PM]

iphone 4 plz

[lars1110 Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:42PM]

@techlord no! wait isnt it already for the iphone if its jailbroke?

[Aklex7 Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:42PM]

@techlord

good luck finding it in the app store ;)

[kineticdamage Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:17PM]

@techlord

Seems a bit clunky, framerate wise ...

[Plazmic Flame Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:37PM]

I will wait for a more SD video that isn't a pain to watch but I see that it works. It's even more painful to see it running on a Dell Streak that isn't released in the USA....... FFS Dell....

[fpad77 Posted Jul 25th 2010 5:00PM]

@techlord who said android doesn't do games... ;)

[BallastatuzX Posted Jul 25th 2010 5:08PM]

@Aklex7 IPhone has had this for years lol it's in Cydia

[Peytral Posted Jul 25th 2010 5:21PM]

@techlord
My next phone for sure will be Android powered =D

[kamenwati Posted Jul 25th 2010 6:15PM]

@BallastatuzX yup and winmo has had it even longer :o)

[Bratyr Posted Jul 26th 2010 3:12AM]

@techlord
If you can jailbreak it, last I heard geohot had done it but wasn't releasing it and who knows when apple might manage to make it completely impossible?

[techlord Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:39PM]

does the roms included? first time i heard emulator charge $

[Broderbund Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:58PM]

You're paying for the dev's hard work, software isn't written in a day.

But to answer your question no, no roms are included.

I wouldn't be surprised if you had to search for the BIOS files yourself too.

[guises Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:06PM]

@techlord Most emulators are open-source efforts. At least the functioning ones.

I don't know the story behind this one, but it's very unlikely that it was written from scratch for Android. Probably a port of an emu that'd be free on the PC - an effort to cash in on previous work. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[ryn456 Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:10PM]

@Broderbund yea i dont mind paying for apps that do something though, i hate seeing facebook apps for like 2.99 and task killers for more then that. This looks more then the money.

[DefPoet Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:22PM]

@guises
You are an idiot. You should research before posting fud. This is based off of the psx4all. Which zodttd wrote.

[guises Posted Jul 25th 2010 7:06PM]

@DefPoet
"You are an idiot. You should research before posting fud. This is based off of the psx4all. Which zodttd wrote."

... What? Looking into this just a little bit: it was not written from scratch for Android, as I said. It's a port of the iPhone version, which itself is a port of PCSX - an open source emulator that's free on the PC. Exactly as I said.

Why the hate? I appreciate ZodTTD's efforts as much as anyone.

[alonsop Posted Jul 25th 2010 8:26PM]

@Broderbund you do lmao well i didn't get it off the app store it but when i opened it i had to do exactly that

[Squalor Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:40PM]

Awesome! I really can't say anything else.

[Arkv2 Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:09PM]

@Squalor
You can say that the guy has never played FFVII before lol.
Nice, although the framerate is not so smooth.

[Plazmic Flame Posted Jul 25th 2010 6:43PM]

@Squalor

This is so nostalgic... it's overwhelming.... a few games came to mind as soon as I saw this:

- Final Fantasy 7
- Breath of Fire 3 & 4
- Twisted Metal 2 & 3
- Vigilante 8
- Mega Max X2
- Bloody Roar
- Legacy of Kain (was epic and should be remade)
- Driver
- Einhänder (another epic game that should be remade)
- Grand Theft Auto 2

...and the list could go on forever. Playstation had a lot of great games. I would pay to get them all back.

[DefPoet Posted Jul 25th 2010 8:16PM]

@Plazmic Flame
ive spent the last 5 hours looking for any of the colony war games
damn it people need to upload them or im gonna have to drive two hours and spend days tearing apart my storage unit looking for a single disc

[Plazmic Flame Posted Jul 25th 2010 8:42PM]

@DefPoet

Emuparadise.org is your friend.... I saw it there....

=)

[DefPoet Posted Jul 25th 2010 8:48PM]

@Plazmic Flame
dude i love you LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

[kentoe Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:40PM]

Twisted metal II working over here on the htc droid incredible. However, can't find any R2 and L2 buttons :-/

[E30 Kid Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:54PM]

@kentoe
I'm going to have to try it on my Inc as well.

[BlackedOut Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:42PM]

I'll try it on my HD2... Again.

[Lundmark Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:41PM]

This is very cool, but it won't be of any real use. Very unplayable with touchscreen controls. Games really have to be made (or re-made) from scratch for touchscreen controls.

[JONNNathannn Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:45PM]

@Lundmark Are you kidding? Yeah, if there's one thing that makes or breaks an RPG it's the controls for working up and down those battle menus...

[vicsvenge Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:48PM]

@Lundmark I disagree. I think as long as controls can be customized by the user for each game that would be sufficient. Most psx games don't have particularly taxing controls or anything.... they're usually a few buttons for selecting menu items in RPGs, or a jump and shoot mechanism. Rarely did psx games utilize the full controller.

Controls are the least of my concerns. I'd like for audio to come through for once. The last few iPhone versions were horrible because the audio either didn't work, or worked at half the speed of the game. Here's to hoping the iPhone 4 does it better than the previous iPhones could.

[Lundmark Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:54PM]

@JONNNathannn

I am not kidding. Sure, RPGs without action elements might be among the easiest games to play, although I'd still argue they'd be frustrating.

However, many games since 1998 make use - or even require use of - the analog sticks. Also, many games make use of the L and R buttons as modifier keys. These won't be playable at all.

I'd even argue that iPhone games with virtual gamepads (looking at you, Gameloft!) are pretty hard to play compared to ones that have been designed for touchscreen

[Arkv2 Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:11PM]

@Lundmark

FFVII won't be unplayable but it of course would be better for Square-Enix to release the actual game for the iPhone or Android markets as with FFI or FFII with the revamped touch optmized touch interface.

[DefPoet Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:12PM]

@Lundmark
Your just wrong. Psxiphone is a blast to play.
You mention.1998 but you fail to realize the majority of games did not use the joysticks

[DefPoet Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:15PM]

@Lundmark
Also. It seems you have never played it on a touch screen. FF is easy as help to play.

[Lundmark Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:19PM]

@DefPoet
Not true. Most games from 1998 and later made use of the sticks, though only a few *required* them.
That said, I regard the L1/L2/R1/R2 issue much more severe in addition to the general suckiness of most on-screen d-pads and controls.

You're right, I haven't played this on a touchscreen but I have indeed played a lot of other emulated games on touchscreen devices. Even with the iPhone's brilliant touchscreen layer, games can be very challenging because of poor controls - native ones too!

[DefPoet Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:32PM]

@Lundmark
Custom on-screen layouts for controls. Will make it easier. Also button mapping for phones with keyboards help too. Your 1000% correct on the L2 r2 though

[gophergun Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:38PM]

@Lundmark Agreed, though I don't see why you couldn't remap the controls to the hardware keyboard.

[haas599 Posted Jul 25th 2010 5:03PM]

@Lundmark
*cough*Epic4GwithGameGripper*cough*

[mrrossicoe Posted Jul 25th 2010 5:12PM]

@JONNNathannn Too bad they don't have an app that allows you to use a wii controller on your android phone...

[DefPoet Posted Jul 25th 2010 5:56PM]

@mrrossicoe
are you beign sarcastic ? because there is a app that does that and this emulator and almost all others support it

[Relay3r Posted Jul 25th 2010 7:09PM]

@DefPoet he was being sarcastic. cool your jets, turbo.

[DefPoet Posted Jul 25th 2010 8:19PM]

@Relay3r
turbo .... reminds me of the Jingle All the Way movie

[hello5800xm Posted Jul 26th 2010 4:10AM]

@DefPoet would it really be so bad for sony ericsson to add a psp go slider to the bottom of the x10 and make an app that plays PSP games?

[ROFL Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:42PM]

Still running my PS3 emulator on my iPad

[VAVA Mk 2 Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:13PM]

@ROFL
No

[m66 Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:42PM]

Remember buttons? They sure were great.

[Demo22 Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:48PM]

@m66 Hopefully this emulator will allow for the physical buttons on the Samsung Epic to be used.

[Xstream Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:50PM]

@m66
droid, droid 2, epic 4g -> have buttons

[Pickaxe Posted Jul 25th 2010 4:48PM]

@m66 Can someone please confirm that this supports hardware keyboards?

Give me some next-er-gen processor/gpu with a keyboard and possibly Super AMOLED and I'm sold

[robertxkills Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:43PM]

You mean the same bios and roms that everyone is already using on our computers?

[JammySTB Posted Jul 25th 2010 3:45PM]

YES!