PS2 Emulator

The nearest thing to a working PS2 emulator is the PS3 - and that doesn't work 100%.

>>but a friend of mine told me that a can buy/download an emulator for the computer to play PS2 games
They should download and sell it!  AFAIK there is still no fully functional PS2 emu available.

This is one of the E-E threads that gets most hits:

http:Q_20290446.html - opened in 2002 and last post 2005 -no emu
http:Q_21160481.html - opened in 2005 one emu running barely half a dozen games from modified illegal ROMs

There is a small band of enthusiasts out there working on this but there is still a way to go

Most PS2 emu downloads still turn out to be trojans

Hi andrewdunk,
I can see why you are fed up. Although PCSX2 is easily the most advanced PS2 emulator out there, it can still be very confusing to configure. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to get it working. (written as if for a n00b)
0) Uninstall/Delete any version of PCSX2 on your computer.
1) Download PCSX2 0.9.2 from here: http://cheesygit182.homecall.co.uk/pcsx2.zip (already set up).
2) Unzip pcsx2.zip and open the folder "PCSX2_0.9.2".
3) Double-click "pcsx2.exe" Wait for it to load, ignoring the black command window.
4) Click "Configure" then "Config" from the menu bar.
5) Check that "ZeroGS KOSMOS" is selected in the "Graphics" box. (if not, select the newest version at the bottom)
6) Select "Linuzappz Iso CDVD Driver" in the "Cdvdrom" box.
7) Click "Configure..." under the "Cdvdrom" box.
8) Click "Select Iso" and select the .iso file of the game you want to play. Click "OK". (.iso file? see FAQ below)
9) Check that there is a BIOS selected in the "Bios" box. (if not, see FAQ below)
10) Click "Configure..." under the "CONTROLLER 1" box.
11) Choose which keys you want to use for the different buttons on the PS2 controller, by clicking "X" and pressing the desired button etc etc. (if you have a USB PS2 controller, use that)
12) Click "OK". Click "OK" again.
13) Click "File" then "Run CD" from the menu bar.
14) Hopefully, play the game at a very slow speed! :)


--------- FAQ: ----------

Question: "Will '-----' game be playable?"
Short Answer: Probably Not.
Long Answer: Unfortunately, even with PCSX2 configured perfectly, running on the fastest computer available on the market, you would never get the same experience as playing on the PS2.
This is mostly because, if you think about it, PS2s are designed solely for running PS2 games, whereas your PC has many other things to do.
Instead of just being able to read the disk, process the info, and send the video stream to your (very low resolution) TV set, PCSX2 has to; tell windows to read the disk, wait for the data to come from the disk, tell windows to process the information, hope windows processes the information(lol), etc etc etc. The point I'm trying to make is that your computer's processor has much more work than your PS2's processor.
Anyway, have you tried looking at the PCSX2 compatibility list? Try searching for your game here: http://www.pcsx2.net/compat.php

Question: "What is a BIOS?"
Short Answer: A SONY-copyrighted file that runs the PS2/PS2 emulator.
Long Answer: All playstations come with a small piece of software saved in their memory that basically runs the game. It does a lot more than this, but that doesn't matter. The fact is, it is illegal to distribute. Unfortunately there is no way of getting it legally from your own PS2 without buying new hardware/software for your PC/PS2 (although there are many guides out there about how to do this - search "PS2 BIOS dump" on google). No playstation emulator will run without a BIOS file, therefore it is highly desirable. Please email me at chickenmayhemthemovie@hotmail.com for more information.

Question: "What is an .iso file?"
Short Answer: A copy of your game disk (CD/DVD) that can be saved on your computer's hard drive.
Long Answer: A "Disk image" can be in many formats, but the most common/compatible is ISO. It is often created when you try to copy a disk with only one disk drive in your computer. The software saves the disk as a .iso image then burns the .iso to a blank disk. In PS2 emulation however, it is much more useful. Instead of having to read from the DVD in your DVD drive (which wastes valuable system resources), all PCSX2 has to do is read the file on your hard drive(much faster). Therefore, for maximum playability you are best off saving your game to the hard drive. This can be done quite easily with most CD/DVD burning software(like nero/alcohol 120), even one of the "Cdvdrom" plugins for PCSX2 has a tool for dreating .iso images. A small free program for creating ISOs can be found here: http:// FREE ISO MAKER

Question: "Can't I just buy a better emulator?"
Short Answer: No.
Long Answer: PCSX2 is free/opensource software, I don't know of any PS2 emulators for sale.

Question: "pcsx2 is crap use '-----' instead"
Short Answer: MORON! lol xD
Long Answer: As far as i know, PCSX2 is the only PS2 emulator that has anybody working on it full time.
Any links/names of emulators that people may give are either fake, or won't play anything. Also, don't get PS1/PS2 emulators mixed up. There are many more PS1 emus than PS2 - "epsxe" is the most advanced PS1 emulator that I know of.

cheesygit182

P.S - Sorry for the long post, but there's lots to explain.
P.P.S - If you need any more info please email me at chickenmayhemthemovie@hotmail.com

Oops, i've just read over that and I made two mistakes  - in step 10) , "CONTROLLER 1" should be replaced with "First Controller" (you probably guessed that :) and the url for "FREE ISO MAKER" should have been http://cheesygit182.homecall.co.uk/ISOCreator.zip

Anyway, hope it helps.
cheesygit182

Really, you might be able to run some PS2 games on a dedicated gaming computer.

The problem is, it's slow, many games don't work, and any computer that can run the games well would cost more than a PS2.

Honestly, you're probably better off buying a PS2, especially now that the PS3 is about out, so prices should start falling soon.

Good luck.

Hey.

As previously stated by some others, emu for PS2 is not there (yet). However, you can go to Zohpar's website at www.zohpar.net (http://www.zophar.net/psx2.html at the time of this post), and see if you can get one of those to work for you...

________________
-Zir0 out.

To run a PS2 emulation, ull need a computer with the proper ps2 software. When you use windows, too much of the processor is used for other things, so its pretty much impossible to run a ps2 game at any quality or speed, even if you have the biggest best dell xps computer available. By that I mean massive processor, biggest available to buy anywhere and 8GB of Ram

>To run a PS2 emulation, ull need a computer with the proper ps2 software. When you use windows, too >much of the processor is used for other things, so its pretty much impossible to run a ps2 game at any >quality or speed, even if you have the biggest best dell xps computer available. By that I mean massive >processor, biggest available to buy anywhere and 8GB of Ram

Sorry but that made me laugh hard. It seems to me you have no idea of emulation whatsoever. And in no way have you ever looked at the existing PS2-Emulators and what they can so. Windows creates so little overhead compared to the amount of processing power needed for proper emulation of the PS2 that even a dedicated PS2-Emulator-OS would not help. Also when you mention Dell as the best/fastest computers, even if it is an XPS model, makes me believe you just make assumptions/retell things you have been told by someone who wanted to fool you.

Please excuse me this is not intended as bashing/flaming someone, but the answer is plain wrong and has to be corrected.

Umm actually u know very little about emulation.

U realise that PS2 emulators are still very poorly executed, and have A LOT of bugs in them. Believe me, I looked at them. Emulators have to create a harness for the games to run from. To do this, they've gotta take resources from the computer, to try and mimic the PS2 environment.
In something like a PS3, this is easy, because its been built into the hardware, with backwards compatibilty in mind, but a PC does NOT have this, so there is a big problem.

So far, the best thing created so far, that I've seen work is a program that changes the game as it plays, instead of creating the harness.

The perfect example of this is the 1 for Halo (cant think of its name right now) that changes how the game is actually read, and makes it more suitable for a PC environment.
Thats the best chance the guy has, BUT it too is very buggy, with a lot of problems in some machines, and none in others.

Just the luck of the draw.
My desktop couldnt play Halo using it, but a laptop with poorer specs could, so really its all down to luck.

To be honest, I dont know an awful lot about emulation, but I do know enough to have answered this questionkind of accurately ( I did forget to mention the type of emulator I mentioned here)

And I mentioned XPS, just as an idea of how powerful the classic emulator type would need to be, using a well-known and popular gaming brand.
I mean, I have custombuilt, but I couldnt really say all that without taking up a lot of space.

Just trying to clear the air, and make u realise Im not such an idiot as u thought.