Also, thats the first time I’ve looked at the recommended specs in a long time. They’re reasonable, but man I remember running pcsx2 on a Core 2 Duo back in the day lol
I still have my PC with Core 2 Duo (not using it). The highest I would have tried to emulate was Playstation 1 back then, wouldn’t even think of trying PS2 emulator. Let alone the emulator wasn’t as good as it is now.
I’m pretty sure I got through persona 3 on that core 2 system. Either an e8400 or q6600. I swapped back and forth a couple times because turns out quad core wasn’t a straight upgrade at the time.
Mine is the e8400 and it has 2 cores (+2 hyperthreading). The q6600 has 4 (but no hyperthreading, I think). BTW I was thinking to upgrade to it back then. Off course it also depends on the GPU and RAM too. Did some research and found someone reporting with a similar setup I had (minus the CPU, as mine was e8400):
I’m trying to run as many (good) japanese PS2 games as I can on a computer that has an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2,40GHz, 8GBs RAM, and an AMD Radeon HD 5700 series, and to my surprise, I’m very limited by the number of titles that run more or less decently, when this PC hardly has a problem running most Gamecube games (with Dolphin), or Dreamcast (with Flycast) games I feed it. Heck, for what very few original XBox titles I more or less managed to run (with Cxbx Reloaded), they run better! Castlevania Curse of Darkness for example.
Now this bugs me even more, because I should have tried Dolphin and Flycast too. Would be fun to bring it out again and see what it still can do. But I’m not that bored enough to do that right now.
Dolphin was a pretty mixed bag at the time. I got through Xenoblade Chronicles on that system, but I remember one of the regions on the mechonis(?) would only do like 7fps at best, but other areas would do 20-30. But monkeyball worked pretty well, as did some of the other GameCube games.
But I was using that system when Sandy Bridge was already out, and still using it when Haswell came out, because I was a broke student. So the software may have been a little more developed than when you were messing around with it.
Also I don’t think the e8400, or any of the core 2 duo/quad cpu’s had hyperthreading. I know the Pentium 4 had it, not sure about the Pentium D
You are right, I misremembered it. The e8400 didn’t have hyperthreading. I guess the drawback of the q6600 with 4 cores was, it had lower speed at 2.4ghz compared to the 3ghz on the 8400. And that hurts a lot the single core performance, which is much more important for emulators. That’s why you had this back and forth between both CPUs. I also didn’t really understood all of that back then.
The RetroArch community recently started a new fork of PCSX 2. And I don’t mean the LRPS 2 core, that is a hard fork and developed differently from the original. The new fork is called PCEE 2: github.com/WizzardSK/pcee2-libretro This is much closer to the original PCSX 2 emulator, trying to be as updated as possible. And it can be found in the RetroArch updater too (if you can use the builtin updater of RetroArch), at least on a desktop Linux, not sure about other platforms.
I did not test it yet, will need some dedicated time for this kind of stuff. Its still quiet early (as in time, not development, this is close to the original). The RetroArch forums started discussing about it recently (it was mentioned before, but most didn’t care at that time). I assume with “sensitive pressure” you mean the 4 face buttons? I don’t know if RetroArch itself supports sensitive pressure at all (i honestly doubt it, because I never saw such an option before). I also have no Dual Shock controller to test that.
Neat! I don’t really have fond memories of the PS2 because I bought it I’m pretty late in it’s lifespan and modded it to play burnt games (free games=less emotional attachment).
Other than FFX and Shadow of the Colossus, do you guys have any recommendations?
I skipped the PS2 gen entirely when I was a kid (went from PS1 to X360), so I don’t have fond memories either, but I have a few titles in my bucket list that I’ve played/been wanting to play for a while now.
Since you liked Shadow of the Colossus, you should try Ueda’s other PS2 game, Ico. It’s very sweet.
As a huge Ace Combat nerd, I also recommend the PS2 trilogy (Ace Combat 04, 5 and Zero). My favourite of the three is 04, which has a more grounded and somber story and consistently good gameplay. 5 is like a Tom Cruise action movie, but I find the gameplay subpar compared to the others. Zero is like the MGR: Revengeance of Ace Combat lol
Zone of the Enders 2 is my favourite mecha game ever, with exhilarating battles, an awesome soundtrack and great set pieces (the Crevasse battle is absolutely humongous and I still can’t believe that nothing similar was ever replicated on consoles that are thousands of times more powerful than a PS2).
The game’s got a re-release on modern consoles and Steam, and you can mod it to have Jap dub (which you probably want, the Eng dub is atrocious) with Eng subs, which for some reason is still not an option in the official release.
If you like mascotte platformers, I’ve heard great things about Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, Jax. I’ve only played a few levels of the former and it gave me huge motion sickness, though :/
There’s also Klonoa, but i think that one’s got a remastered version on modern platforms nowadays.
People mostly remember the Final Fantasy titles, but there are a LOT of JRPG games on PS2, although I haven’t played them myself and I can’t attest to their quality (sometimes people’s nostalgia is just… Off the charts lol).
Star Ocean: Till the end of times is consistently praised among both the Star Ocean community and the larger JRPG crowd. I can’t attest to that as I don’t have nearly enough time to play a JRPG title nowadays, but I liked the PS1 title (2nd story), and I’ve always heard people putting it above or slightly below that one, so it looks like I’m missing out.
I’ve also heard good things about other titles such as Rogue Galaxy, Ar Tonelico, Grandia 3, Legaia 2 (I’m very fond of the first one, although the story was nothing to write home about), Wild Arms, a few Tales Of titles, and probably many more I’m forgetting about. Maybe look out for some of those if you’re into the genre.
I’ve tried a few times over the years and always lost patience before figuring out which bit went where. It was always missing a file that was “super-illegal to distribute but you can get it somewhere winkwink” but it was all region locked or something and I’m losing the will to live just trying to remember it.
Both Duckstation (PS1 emulator) and PCSX2 (PS2 emulator) are quick and easy to set up nowadays, but you have to download the bios file, which I guess is the “super illegal” file you were talking about.
It’s as easy as typing “ps1 bios download” on Google though.
Yeah the bios thats the word I was blanking on. Maybe i just ended up in the wrong places but it turned out there was like 8 different versions and multiple regions of each version and I kept running out of patience before running out of options.
Some great improvements!
Also, thats the first time I’ve looked at the recommended specs in a long time. They’re reasonable, but man I remember running pcsx2 on a Core 2 Duo back in the day lol
Excuse the rancid salvaged screenshot from my old defunct photobucket account:
That was when I had an Athlon XP 2500+ 1.83Ghz single core trying Medal of Honor.
Going from that to a Core 2 Quad 6600 was magical for PS2 emulation!
Metal Medal of Honor Rising Sun was such an amazing game. I don’t remember if I ever beat it, but nothing will outdo the opening Pearl Harbor attack.
OH MY GOD, WE LOST THE ARIZONA!
Edit: Medal, not metal of Honor
Ah yes, the famous rhytm game spin off from Medal of Honor. Haha sorry, just poking and joking around your typo. Loved it to read.
The Most Brutal of all video games, Metalocalypse of Honor is where my brain went haha!
Since it had couch co-op I played through it quite a lot with my sister haha. The game was super impressive at the time yeah.
Heck yeah! Something me and my brother and some strangers on the internet have in common!
You also reminded me the game had the option to do either vertical or horizontal splitscreen, something I don’t think I’ve seen since.
I still have my PC with Core 2 Duo (not using it). The highest I would have tried to emulate was Playstation 1 back then, wouldn’t even think of trying PS2 emulator. Let alone the emulator wasn’t as good as it is now.
I’m pretty sure I got through persona 3 on that core 2 system. Either an e8400 or q6600. I swapped back and forth a couple times because turns out quad core wasn’t a straight upgrade at the time.
Mine is the e8400 and it has 2 cores (+2 hyperthreading). The q6600 has 4 (but no hyperthreading, I think). BTW I was thinking to upgrade to it back then. Off course it also depends on the GPU and RAM too. Did some research and found someone reporting with a similar setup I had (minus the CPU, as mine was e8400):
- …pcsx2.net/Thread-LIST-The-Most-CPU-Intensive-Gam…
Now this bugs me even more, because I should have tried Dolphin and Flycast too. Would be fun to bring it out again and see what it still can do. But I’m not that bored enough to do that right now.
Dolphin was a pretty mixed bag at the time. I got through Xenoblade Chronicles on that system, but I remember one of the regions on the mechonis(?) would only do like 7fps at best, but other areas would do 20-30. But monkeyball worked pretty well, as did some of the other GameCube games.
But I was using that system when Sandy Bridge was already out, and still using it when Haswell came out, because I was a broke student. So the software may have been a little more developed than when you were messing around with it.
Also I don’t think the e8400, or any of the core 2 duo/quad cpu’s had hyperthreading. I know the Pentium 4 had it, not sure about the Pentium D
You are right, I misremembered it. The e8400 didn’t have hyperthreading. I guess the drawback of the q6600 with 4 cores was, it had lower speed at 2.4ghz compared to the 3ghz on the 8400. And that hurts a lot the single core performance, which is much more important for emulators. That’s why you had this back and forth between both CPUs. I also didn’t really understood all of that back then.
This is insane how many improvements they’ve made
I literally just got back into PS2 emulation this week after ~10 years so it’s blowing my mind how good 2.6 was and then bam 2.8!
I did too recently so I’m not sure exactly when this was added but the Retro Achievement integration really brought emulation next level
Colors in the graph remind me of something 🤔
yes that and the profile pics
Still no libretro?
The RetroArch community recently started a new fork of PCSX 2. And I don’t mean the LRPS 2 core, that is a hard fork and developed differently from the original. The new fork is called PCEE 2: github.com/WizzardSK/pcee2-libretro This is much closer to the original PCSX 2 emulator, trying to be as updated as possible. And it can be found in the RetroArch updater too (if you can use the builtin updater of RetroArch), at least on a desktop Linux, not sure about other platforms.
Wow thx, it works good? Sensitivity pressure for dualshock is available?
I did not test it yet, will need some dedicated time for this kind of stuff. Its still quiet early (as in time, not development, this is close to the original). The RetroArch forums started discussing about it recently (it was mentioned before, but most didn’t care at that time). I assume with “sensitive pressure” you mean the 4 face buttons? I don’t know if RetroArch itself supports sensitive pressure at all (i honestly doubt it, because I never saw such an option before). I also have no Dual Shock controller to test that.
Thanks for the infos
Neat! I don’t really have fond memories of the PS2 because I bought it I’m pretty late in it’s lifespan and modded it to play burnt games (free games=less emotional attachment).
Other than FFX and Shadow of the Colossus, do you guys have any recommendations?
Yugioh the duelists of the roses
I skipped the PS2 gen entirely when I was a kid (went from PS1 to X360), so I don’t have fond memories either, but I have a few titles in my bucket list that I’ve played/been wanting to play for a while now.
Since you liked Shadow of the Colossus, you should try Ueda’s other PS2 game, Ico. It’s very sweet.
As a huge Ace Combat nerd, I also recommend the PS2 trilogy (Ace Combat 04, 5 and Zero). My favourite of the three is 04, which has a more grounded and somber story and consistently good gameplay. 5 is like a Tom Cruise action movie, but I find the gameplay subpar compared to the others. Zero is like the MGR: Revengeance of Ace Combat lol
Zone of the Enders 2 is my favourite mecha game ever, with exhilarating battles, an awesome soundtrack and great set pieces (the Crevasse battle is absolutely humongous and I still can’t believe that nothing similar was ever replicated on consoles that are thousands of times more powerful than a PS2).
The game’s got a re-release on modern consoles and Steam, and you can mod it to have Jap dub (which you probably want, the Eng dub is atrocious) with Eng subs, which for some reason is still not an option in the official release.
If you like mascotte platformers, I’ve heard great things about Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, Jax. I’ve only played a few levels of the former and it gave me huge motion sickness, though :/
There’s also Klonoa, but i think that one’s got a remastered version on modern platforms nowadays.
People mostly remember the Final Fantasy titles, but there are a LOT of JRPG games on PS2, although I haven’t played them myself and I can’t attest to their quality (sometimes people’s nostalgia is just… Off the charts lol).
Star Ocean: Till the end of times is consistently praised among both the Star Ocean community and the larger JRPG crowd. I can’t attest to that as I don’t have nearly enough time to play a JRPG title nowadays, but I liked the PS1 title (2nd story), and I’ve always heard people putting it above or slightly below that one, so it looks like I’m missing out.
I’ve also heard good things about other titles such as Rogue Galaxy, Ar Tonelico, Grandia 3, Legaia 2 (I’m very fond of the first one, although the story was nothing to write home about), Wild Arms, a few Tales Of titles, and probably many more I’m forgetting about. Maybe look out for some of those if you’re into the genre.
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Is PS1/2 emulation “out-of-the-box-easy” yet?
I’ve tried a few times over the years and always lost patience before figuring out which bit went where. It was always missing a file that was “super-illegal to distribute but you can get it somewhere winkwink” but it was all region locked or something and I’m losing the will to live just trying to remember it.
Both Duckstation (PS1 emulator) and PCSX2 (PS2 emulator) are quick and easy to set up nowadays, but you have to download the bios file, which I guess is the “super illegal” file you were talking about.
It’s as easy as typing “ps1 bios download” on Google though.
Yeah the bios thats the word I was blanking on. Maybe i just ended up in the wrong places but it turned out there was like 8 different versions and multiple regions of each version and I kept running out of patience before running out of options.
Just download the most recent/updated for each of the regions (JP, EU, USA), although you’ll almost certainly only need the US one.