PPSSPP - PSP emulator for iPad

The emulation of which was mastered even by very weak, by today's standards, computers. Using emulation, it was possible to play such consoles without problems ten years ago, but now, even more so, because almost the power of a coffee maker is enough for them. Another thing is the PSP, which is still selling successfully and its games are still impressive.

Naturally, I was interested in the issue of emulating this console. Especially after I saw a topic a couple of weeks ago on a well-known forum dedicated to mobile devices, where people were smartly discussing a certain “PPSSPP” emulator, which supposedly perfectly runs a lot of psp games already. Then I tried it and was very disappointed, because out of five games, such as: "Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles", "Ghost Rider", "Little Big Planet", "Mortal Kombat Unchained" and "Tekken Dark Resurrection", which according to the description should have worked perfectly or very well, I could only run Mortal Kombat Unchained normally, and then with doubling the characters. Plus, I got such glitches as: settings not being saved, a problem with creating a memory card, constant crashes and freezes. A little later, I managed to launch Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles, which for some reason went only to iPad2, and crashed on iPad4 at the very beginning of the demo with a cart, but this did not brighten up the bitterness of disappointment from the emulator. Therefore, then I wrote down and did not even begin to write a review, because I did not see much point in it.

However, "PPSSPP" is really developing very quickly. After downloading its new version - 0.7.6-871 (before that I had 0.7.6-565), I saw that most of the bugs and glitches were fixed, and those games that did not work on the old version started here without much problems. And this is already quite enough for the review.

You can download the fresh version of the PPSSPP emulator in the repository http://cydia.angelxwind.net. Roma games are thrown into a folder - private\var\mobile\"games folder". Immediately after starting the emulator, I recommend that you set the Russian language in its settings (Settings - System - Language - Russian), and also check that the system parameters have checkboxes on the options "Dynamic recompilation (JIT)" and "Fast memory" - this greatly improves performance in games. You can also turn on the display of FPS, but this is purely for self-hypnosis - you will not see much difference between the same 30 and 60 frames, since, in my opinion, there are brakes both there and there :) Now exit the emulator and go back into it so that the settings are saved correctly. Graphics settings already need to be selected depending on the game and personal preferences. "Vertex Cache" and "Hardware Transformation" should be enabled - it gives a good speed boost. All sorts of anti-aliasing and filtering visually improve the picture, but reduce performance.

The "Buffered Rendering" option is very interesting. When it is turned off, the picture becomes clear and smooth, the games look very modern, but in some of them the visual effects and even the background may disappear. This is especially evident in the game Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles. The first picture - with rendering turned on, the second - with it turned off (clickable).

Inside the locks, I turned off the rendering and nothing was missing there. See what a beauty, almost NextGen :)

In general, out of the five games tested, Castlevania went the best. If it were not for the sound jamming (and there are problems with sound in all games without exception), everything would be almost perfect. Although there are almost no bugs in Little Big Planet, Ghost Rider and Tekken Dark Resurrection. They work only slowly, and the last two like to hang when loading. Also note that Ghost Rider only works with Render Buffer disabled.

"Mortal Kombat Unchained" in addition to the brakes shows us the doubling of the characters and the disappearance of textures.

I did not test other games, since the general meaning is already clear. Despite good compatibility with many games, the emulator still needs serious refinement in terms of improving sound and speed. The current indicators are still not enough for me to enjoy the game, although someone who is less demanding may be comfortable. To appreciate this moment, the video in which I filmed the launch of Little Big Planet, Ghost Rider and Tekken Dark Resurrection will help to appreciate this moment. We look.

Video from the new version of the emulator.