Now that is what I call cooooool. Nothing like a decent PS2/Xbox emulator to cheer you up. Its a little depressing that those great games where almost completely forgotten at one point: Halo, Halo II, Ratchet and Clank (PS2) and etc... How nostalgic

Too bad PS2 emulators still aren't perfect - wish I could play games from when I was like 14.

from when I was like 14.

I was waay younger than you back then... not. I was around 10 when I got to know the PS2... Although it was released when I was bout 8 or 9. Those where the good old days. My philosophy since then has been more of why do we need still better graphics? I find the PS2 gave me enough detail to make out what was happening on screen. Now the PS3 is a little overkill if you ask me; more graphics from developers less gameplay from games or so the trend goes. Its rather sad really.

When I was 10 - 14, I was playing on my NES. Though I eventually got a SNES to play Donkey Kong Country not too long after around 1995.

Speaking of PS2. Does anyone remember the Vector Pascal open source compiler? It was able to handle MIPS architecture, something that you needed to compiler for the PS2.

Originally Posted by WILL

Speaking of PS2. Does anyone remember the Vector Pascal open source compiler? It was able to handle MIPS architecture, something that you needed to compiler for the PS2.

Not really. Sounds interesting. But the PS2 is getting out of use, unfortunately. I wish there was a (at least) 90% working emulator like the one for the PSX.

It makes me wonder - why cannot the emulation be done smoothly? Today's CPUs are really awesome and can't be compared with the PS2 unit. What's the problem?

Originally Posted by Brainer

What's the problem?

The problem is in the way PS2 was designed. It's CPU and GPU, the Emotion Engine, consisted of several parts, which need to be in sync, and it's something that is hard to emulate. Also, it uses different architecture and instruction set, so these things need to be interpreted and recompiled, which slows things down. Also, the PS2 RAM was shared for both graphics, sound and game data, instead of having separate RAM for graphics and the rest (like computers do). The RAM in PS2 was directly incorporated on the Emotion Engine, and it is very fast. It is the significant difference in architecture that makes emulating the PS2 difficult and slow.

Using PCSX2 and a more powerful processor (e.g. Intel Core i5 or i7, or similar) a smooth emulation can be achieved. I can run Final Fantasy X on a Athlon II X2 240 (2.8 GHz), but it's not smooth, and it can slow down on complex scenes. It maintains around 70 - 90% of normal speed.

Originally Posted by de_jean_7777

The problem is in the way PS2 was designed. It's CPU and GPU, the Emotion Engine, consisted of several parts, which need to be in sync, and it's something that is hard to emulate. Also, it uses different architecture and instruction set, so these things need to be interpreted and recompiled, which slows things down. Also, the PS2 RAM was shared for both graphics, sound and game data, instead of having separate RAM for graphics and the rest (like computers do). The RAM in PS2 was directly incorporated on the Emotion Engine, and it is very fast. It is the significant difference in architecture that makes emulating the PS2 difficult and slow.

Yep, I know that there's the difference in architecture, but is it really that complex to emulate? Take a look at the PSX - it can now even be emulated on mobile phones. Is the Emotion Engine that hard to reconstruct on the PC?

Originally Posted by de_jean_7777

Using PCSX2 and a more powerful processor (e.g. Intel Core i5 or i7, or similar) a smooth emulation can be achieved. I can run Final Fantasy X on a Athlon II X2 240 (2.8 GHz), but it's not smooth, and it can slow down on complex scenes. It maintains around 70 - 90% of normal speed.

I've got Intel E7400 2,80 GHz and still can't run Tekken V. The menu is playable while it's slow as hell in the game itself.

Originally Posted by Brainer

I've got Intel E7400 2,80 GHz and still can't run Tekken V. The menu is playable while it's slow as hell in the game itself.

I'm not sure. It should go a lot faster, since you do have a faster CPU than mine. Then again, I have not tried Tekken V so I can't tell. Make sure you've enabled multiple-core processing in the options.

They have made performance-wise improvements in latest PCSX2 versions (0.9.6 & 0.9.7), but it does no miracles. From what I gather on the PCSX2 website, it certainly is not easy to emulate the PS2.

Originally Posted by de_jean_7777

I'm not sure. It should go a lot faster, since you do have a faster CPU than mine. Then again, I have not tried Tekken V so I can't tell. Make sure you've enabled multiple-core processing in the options.

I have it enabled, though the website states the game's "playable", but in their belief, "playable" means:

You can get from 'new game' to 'end credits'. This is regardless of FPS, it simply means you could with a great deal of patience, complete the game! eg: Slow, but stable!

One thing I can say is that the difference between DDR2 and dual channel DDR3 RAM in this instance is a massive performance boost; regardless of gHz. A rule of thumb I have found quite commonly is that you need around 7x the computational power of the original machine to emulate it at 100% speed if using a different architecture. That rule of thumb I find quite accurate, especially on NDS as it has a smaller footprint and thus is a lot more accurate at scaling comparisons than larger systems as the NDS runs at full speed a lot more of the time due to its limited resources - it needs more of its power for simple tasks compared to other devices.

On average I find and NDS emulator sapping over 1.2gHz of power on my cpu... More than its rated 100mHz odd cores. I did try emulating a PS2 for ratchet and clank (great game) but I found it topped out my PC, even when I custom nlited and vlited the OSes it was running on for best performance... Wouldn't it just be easer to use a real PS2 I was told - I wonder.

Originally Posted by code_glitch

Wouldn't it just be easer to use a real PS2 I was told - I wonder.

Guess it would, but you need the acutal console + games. Of course you can jailbreak it, but you still need cash for that. Having an emulator undoubtely is a less expensive option, don't you agree?

And I do agree - hence why I started emulating my games.... It was a no brainer for tight and broke people like me (pun slightly intended)