Guide to Playstation Emulator on Ubuntu

Playing playstation games on Ubuntu can be achieved easily with an emulator. Currently, the two most popular PS emulators are ePSXe and pSX. In terms of gaming capability, both emulators worked equally well. However in terms of installation and configuration, pSX is a clear winner since there is really nothing much to configure. It just worked out of the box.

The installation is tested on Ubuntu Gutsy.

Installing dependencies

pSX requires OpenGL library and gtkGLext to work. Download the libgtkglext deb file. Click on the downloaded file to install the library.

Installing pSX

Download pSX from http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/pSX_linux_1_13.tar.bz2 and save it to your home folder.

Untar it. You can either use the Archive manager or via terminal:

tar xvf pSX_linux_1_13.tar.bz2

Installing the bios

The emulator needs a bios file in order for it to work and pSX does not come with a bios file by default. You will have to search for it in Google. (A point of caution - it is illegal to own and use the bios. Download it at your own risk.)

Google search scph1001.bin. Download the file and save it in the bios folder under the pSX folder. (If the downloaded file is in zip form, you need to extract it. Only place the .bin file in the bios folder)

Download ROM

In order to play PS game, you need to have the game images (or game ROM). You can find lot of game ROMs available for download in mininova or amule

Once you found the ROM you want, download and save it to the cdimages folder.

Activate pSX

To open pSX, in your terminal:

cd /home/your username/pSX
./pSX

Upon loading, it will popup a window saying that it can’t locate bios. Click OK

Another window will appear to allow you to select the bios, click on the ’scph1001.bin’ and click OK.

The default playstation will now appear.

Load your ROM (File -> Insert CD Image).

Done. You can now play your PS game in your Ubuntu machine.

Adding pSX to Game menu

Right click on the menu bar and select ‘edit menu‘

On the left pane, select ‘Game’.

On the right, click “New Item”. A popup window will appear.

Enter the following:
Name: pSX
Command: /home/your username/psX/pSX

click Ok

Click Close.

You can now launch the pSX from Applications->Game->pSX

More screenshots

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