PCSX 2 Playstation 2 Emulator

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 24, 2007
Updated • Dec 25, 2012
Games
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17

Many regard the Pcsx2 emulator as the best Playstation 2 emulator in existence and I have to say that it really does an awesome job as long as your computer is fast enough to handle the emulation. There are two prerequisites that are a big hurdle for many users. The first is that you do need a Playstation 2 bios file.

The developers can't supply one because they would infringe on Sony's copyright. It is possible to use tools to extract the bios of your own Playstation 2 but that requires at least some technical knowledge to get started.. Iknow that most P2P networks have those files available as well. Note that it is not legal to download the bios from these sites though. Besides the Bios you also need a game obviously before you can play Playstation 2 games.

Those games can be in all image formats like iso, img or bin. A plugin also adds compatibility to put Playstation 2 games in the CD or DVD drive and play them from there. I highly recommend playing games from disk images as it is not only a lot faster, due to faster loading speeds, but also better for the original PS2 discs as you do not have to use them while playing the games on your PC.

The compatibility list is incredible. It lists 1858 Playstation 2 games of which 748 play perfectly. New versions of the emulator will surely increase game compatibility further.

I would like to point out two important features of PCSX 2. The first is that you can add plugins to it that enhance the functionality much like the one I mentioned above that is adding the possibility to load CDs and DVDs from the drive directly.

The second is that you should consider playing those games with a Playstation pad because it is really awful to play a game like Tekken with the keyboard.

Update: The Playstation 2 emulator has been updated throughout the years. The version at the time of writing supports more than 2300 PS2 games of which almost 75% play fine. A good starting point is the compatibility list which you should check out first to make sure the games you own play fine in the emulator.

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Comments

  1. Vince.F said on February 13, 2010 at 11:18 am
    Reply

    use MS-DOS instead of windows or max os! it has the same functions and works on the shittiest of processors ..less crashes…no glitchy GUI bugs…extends your laptop battery life while exuding a minimalistic sort of elegance that is absent in bloatwares like windows and mac os.

    use MS-DOS

    easy, more control over your system, less crashes, all OS created after 1979 sucks!

    why bother with new popular uber games like FFX,FFX-2 and such when there is good old ASCII based minesweeper!

    XD


    and that…was how I interpreted the post above me

  2. someoneonearth ithink said on January 28, 2009 at 12:25 pm
    Reply

    use ps1 emul. yes its only ps1 but who cares, its WAY mor developed and word on the shitiest of computers while looking good on the new ones, fps without framelimit: 240,,

    use EPSXE 1.7.0

    easy, more configurability, more fun, all ps2 emul’s suck!

  3. taofik hidayat said on January 22, 2009 at 3:49 pm
    Reply

    I Want To try Game Emulator PS2 For my PC

  4. ffmaniac (the original) said on November 1, 2008 at 9:06 am
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    First off i have no idea how old these postings are cause they don’t list any date, but i don’t care. (holy crap i just looked at the page path this thread started almost a year ago XD)

    I remember when PCSX2 was just in the baby stages of development and thought the PS2 was to advanced to see any real working emulator for it anytime soon.

    Yesterday (10308) i wanted to play ff12 but could not use my ps2, so i started looking for emulators and it had been awhile since i checked up on PCSX2 (like a few years) I was surprised how far along it’s come. i managed to get it working and soon i was playing ff12 again at a pretty decent frame rate 30-45 fps. I’m going to try other games to see how well they run.

    BTW, if you want your game to run at a PLAYABLE speed these specs i would strongly recommend.

    2gz+ dual-core or better processor
    1gb+ (windows XP) 2gb (windows vista) ddr2 800mhz+ memory
    Radeon x1900 Pro / NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT or better DX9/DX10 Video Card 256mb+

    Also if you have ample hard drive space rip the game, it helps a lot on loading times for game play and videos.

    Dr. Mike is right btw having a controller makes playing a lot more comfortable.

    well i’m outa here laterz all!

  5. Dr. Mike Wendell said on September 19, 2008 at 12:27 am
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    Works great for me. Playing Kingdom Hearts on my laptop, I get about 45 fps. Using a 1.8 with 512 megs of memory. The video memory is separate and not shared so that probably has something to do with it.

    And yes, playing with the keyboard and touchpad sucks.

  6. Gurl said on August 14, 2008 at 7:53 pm
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    I play ff x-2. It was very slow. I don’t know how to configure it. I use windows vista ultimate edition. Please help me.

    1. Tural said on April 23, 2011 at 11:15 pm
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      if you want to play faster you must install win xp or upgrade your comand dont use zerogs plugins!

      1. Tural said on April 23, 2011 at 11:23 pm
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        remember ps2 comp created in before 2000 year but todays normal comps cant run this ganes as well as ps2

      2. Tural said on April 23, 2011 at 11:20 pm
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        hey guys, open your eyes and see truth.cant todays pc open ps2 games as wel as ps2??!.businessmans are playing with us!!!

  7. marko said on July 23, 2008 at 6:38 pm
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    This emulator is very very slow, I have about 1-3 fps, it is sucks.
    I try almost all plugins and all of them is same slow.
    I have P4 2.8 Ghz, 1Gb ram and Nvidia fx5500 128 mb!
    This emulator is very slow i try with game Dbz budokai tenkaichi 2 it is 4,3GB

  8. Ibrahim said on July 19, 2008 at 5:02 am
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    Can anyone please email me and tell me how to pick up game speed on laptop cuz the emulator is mad slow…it works very evry slowly….i need something to make it work much faster….what should i do in the options…plz email me if u know..thnx

  9. PS3 luv said on February 13, 2008 at 9:03 am
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    Emulators are awesome. Im running game ex at the moment but I dont think it supports PCSX2 which kinda sucks. Gonna have to check this out and dust off my old ps2 games just to check it out.

  10. free said on December 25, 2007 at 6:21 am
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    I’ll have to check this out again. I remember looking at PCSX2 back in the day before it was practical. Granted I already have a PS2 that still works (and a PS3), but i’m interested in emulation so I’d still like to see how well it runs (and how well it runs on my PC in particular). I don’t see a recommended specs list on their website.

  11. chris said on December 24, 2007 at 8:34 pm
    Reply

    EDIT: Thanks, already found it :D

  12. Wong Bater said on December 24, 2007 at 5:10 pm
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    a reminder on Linux (prob windows too) u need pixel shader 2.0.. its mandatory requirement

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