AetherSX2: The Best PS2 Emulator for Android - Download and Play Now
The simple thing that you first need to do is download immediately to your computer a PS2 emulator. One of the prized PC emulators is PCSX2. The software supports both Windows and Mac OS operating systems. By connecting the controllers, your device is now no less than the original PS2. For Android devices, you can use the Aethersx2 emulator to run PS2 games with 60FPS along with controls optimized for the touch screen.
What these macOS emulators have in common is that they are written to run on Intel Macs, and not the new generation of Apple Silicon machines. In other words, they have to run through the Rosetta 2 translation layer, which itself has a performance cost and occasional compatibility issues. In our tests with PCSX2, we could never emulate PS2 games at full speed.
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You can also navigate to the Three-line menu button > App Settings > BIOS to add the BIOS this way. Forgot to add your directory of games during the setup wizard? Then you can get this done via the Three-line menu button > App Settings > Game List > Plus icon.
This is far from comprehensive evidence of how your experience will go, as this is just a small selection of games with basic tweaks being used at best. Still, it should give you a rough idea of what each phone segment is capable of. But it suggests you might want to opt for an older flagship instead of a new budget phone.
That's it. Used Playstation controllers are easy to come by as are used games. This is relatively cheap endevour as there's a good chance you already have a controller and a USB cable to connect it to your Mac and even possible the games.
For the first step, you'll need to download the correct emulator for your Mac. Since Metal is a recent addition to these emulators, we'll want the bleeding edge versions. Intel Mac users will download the nightly build of PCSX2 and Apple Silicon users download the nightly build of AehterSX2.
Next, you will need to obtain the Playstation 2 bios. Bios is the firmware for the Playstation 2 that also contains its basic operating system. However, downloading it is legally grey at best, so I will not directly link it, but it can be easily found using popular search engines or manually dumped from a physical PS2 for those who want to be 100% legal.
Physical PS2 games can be dumped into ISO or even inserted into a DVD drive and played on your Mac (if you have a DVD drive). Games dumped as ISOs can be placed into a folder and displayed in a list format for easy browsing. From the Preferences, select the games list and add your folder to the games directory. If your folder has folders inside of it, allow it to scan recursively.
While you can play PS2 games with a mouse and keyboard, the best way to enjoy PS2 games is to use a controller, preferably a Sony Playstation controller. The Sony Playstation 3, 4, and 5 controllers are all great candidates as they can be directly plugged into your Mac via USB. Once plugged into, go to Controllers under the settings menu and select first player controller. In the upper right-hand corner, select Automatic Binding and find your controller from the list. The emulator will automatically map the controller buttons.
Easily one of the best features of the PS2 emulator is the ability to enjoy old titles in HD. 3D games (games using polygons) will render natively, even up to 4k (or beyond), resulting in much sharper and clearer graphics. From the settings menu, select graphics. Make sure the emulator is using the Metal renderer.
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The Rendering tab contains a plethora of options, but the two that are of the most interest are the Internal Resolution and Anisotropic filtering. The internal resolution will define what resolution you are playing games at. Anisotropic is a less noticeable but loved feature that affects how textures are rendered at extreme angles. The higher the filtering, the sharper textures will be when viewed from extreme angles. Both features come at a significant performance cost. It's best to play with the settings to find out what works for your Mac. Modern Macs with beefier CPUs and GPUs will be able to produce better results.
Some of the graphics fidelity options is a trial and error approach as not all games will perform the same, and different portions of games may perform differently. I suggest playing around after you've managed to successfully play a few games for a bit then experimenting.
The original PS2 shipped with 8 MB cards and supported up to 64 MB cards. For a modern computer these are trivial amounts of space, and memory cards can be created and managed in the emulator's Memory Card section in the settings. Virtual memory cards can be downloaded from various sites with preloaded save states.
Like other PlayStation 2 emulators, you will need your own BIOS and game dump to play here. To enhance the experience further, they are providing Bluetooth controller support along with 1080p upscaled textures.
The primary focus of Play! portable PlayStation2 Emulator is to make PlayStation2 emulation easy and accessible. Play! automatically configures and optimizes your games to enhance the gameplay experience.
The next best Emulator for emulating the Sony Play Station games is Pro Playstation. You can enjoy authentic gameplay using this PS2 Android Emulator, and its clean and simple UI acts as the icing on the cake.
Similar to the other emulators on the list, Golden PS2 is compatible with a plethora of ROMs. Furthermore, Golden PS2 supports high-graphic gameplay. In addition to PS2 games, you can also use this Emulator to enjoy PSP games.
It is worth noting that the performance of this Emulator heavily relies on the hardware configuration of your Android smartphone. Free Pro PS2 Emulator also supports most mainstream game file formats like .bin, MDF, .pbp, .toc, .cbn, cue, zip, 7z, etc.
The next Emulator on the list might have a synonymous name, but it packs some unique features. Free HD PS2 Emulator one of the fastest Android emulators for playing PS2 games. This Emulator claims to offer HD gameplay experience.
If you want to play Playstation 1 games on your smartphone then FPse might impress you. Well, FPse is developed by Schtruck & LDchen. FPse is capable of displaying all PSone games in high resolution and it does so by using OpenGL.
EmuBox also allows users to plug-in and play with an external controller. You can even play around with the emulator settings for optimized performance. Lastly, the ability to fast forward the gameplay can help you save some time.
Moreover, this emulator offers a very well developed user interface. Some of the major highlights of Rapid PSP Emulator are easy game controller settings, maximum PSP game compatibility, good gameplay speed, excellent picture and sound quality.
No, Emulators are legal to download, share and use. However, redistributing and illegally downloading copyrighted ROMs online is illegal. You should legally acquire ROMs and then use them for playing games on your smartphones.
The Retroid Pocket 3 is available in two versions: 2GB or 3GB of RAM. The price difference is $10 and well worth it for the 50% increase in RAM. This will make the Android interface feel snappier and will also help with running Android games. The 2GB model is currently being sold on AliExpress as well. Between the RP2+ and the RP3, I would recommend the RP3 as it is an improvement over the previous model in just about every way. However, I would say if you prefer 4:3 aspect ratio screens or want the absolute cheapest model available, then the RP2+ might still be worth considering for you.
Here is a general list of systems that can be played on the Retroid Pocket devices. Those noted with an asterix cannot play every game at full speed, and so performance may vary. For PS2 and GameCube, I recommend getting PAL region ROMs, because they cap out at 50Hz which will give you better performance than struggling to reach the standard 60Hz found in NTSC region ROMs. ROM file sources will not be shared on this website.
One of the greatest resources of the Retroid Pocket devices is the fact that it is a popular handheld device with a large community surrounding it. This gives you the ability to leverage the talent and time of other community members to find the best tweaks and settings for each of your games. A great example is the Retro Handhelds community RP2+ compatibility spreadsheet, which is also relevant for the RP3. This spreadsheet will show different tabs for the most popular systems, and will include a list of games that have been tested and recommended tweaks.
Be sure to check out the starter guide video above for tips on how to get RetroArch up and running, and to integrate it into your Retroid Launcher. You will also need to map your keys initially by going into the Settings > Input > Port 1 Controls so that all the buttons are working correctly. Additionally, the table above will show you my recommended hotkeys for the easiest gameplay experience when using RetroArch-based emulation like for classic systems (Game Boy through Super Nintendo).
Notes: The Retroid Launcher frontend currently does not have Amiga or other systems listed as a possible option. If you want to use the Retroid Launcher as your primary launcher but still want to play those games, I recommend setting up RetroArch playlists.
Below are more specific options for certain systems. Additionally, I would recommend consulting the community compatibility guides for your device to see if there are any game-specific tweaks that are recommended:
To improve the navigation experience, go into Settings > Input > Show in-game menu > When slide gesture is used. Now, you can swipe from the left side of the screen to bring up the Mupen64 side panel when in a game, to easily save your game, exit, etc.
When using a frontend launcher like Daijisho or the Retroid Launcher, autosave and autoload will not work properly. Instead, you can either launch games directly from the standalone emulator, or use the Save/Load State functions within the emulator quick menu to manually save and load states. In-game saves still work fine either way.