Convincing PSone emulator interface pics surface
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Apr 5th 2006 at 5:55PM }
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PSP Updates received some snapshots alleged to be depicting the PSP's forthcoming PSone emulator interface. The pictures suggest a simple process in which users select a PlayStation game from an alphabetized list and then, are given details about the title and an option to purchase and download the game. Pictured above, the Gran Turismo 2 detail shows a $15 price and 2–6-player Wi-Fi (infrastructure) multiplayer support. Elsewhere, another image reveals this list of "new" available games (quite a launch lineup):
- Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
- Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
- Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror
- Doom
- Doom 2: Hell on Earth
- Duke Nukem: Time to Kill
- Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes
- Final Fantasy VII
- Gran Turismo 2
- Grand Theft Auto 2
- Metal Gear Solid
- Twisted Metal 2
- Quake 2
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Thomas @ Apr 5th 2006 6:08PM
Im gunna call it fake..
Due to the fact that in the list of letters there is no #'s spot.. Cant tell me that there hasnt even been 1 game released for PSone that started with a number..
Benny @ Apr 5th 2006 6:09PM
I posted this on the official PS2 forums (UK) and it got locked and the links deleted very quickly. The mod said "Sorry people, until images/videos of any new PSP updates are released officially through either the PlayStation or PSP website, they cannot be posted on the Forums."
His wording made me believe that it is actually the real thing!
boots @ Apr 5th 2006 6:13PM
Maybe there are no numbers because it's a beta?
mercatfat @ Apr 5th 2006 6:13PM
"Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror
Doom
Doom 2: Hell on Earth
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill
Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes"
7 reasons it's likely fake. Why would they possibly pick those?
Sam K. @ Apr 5th 2006 6:13PM
Anyone worried about the price? $15 for a 5-10 year old game seems steep.
John @ Apr 5th 2006 6:15PM
Fake. There isn't going to be any multiplayer support on those old games, they weren't originally coded with multiplayer support.
Neuros @ Apr 5th 2006 6:15PM
#1, from the looks of it, im sure they're just picking a few good games to launch with and will release other games as the service progresses....
I cant wait to play GT2 :3
John @ Apr 5th 2006 6:17PM
Yes the game list is suspect as well. Also, the price $15. Can't you buy the orignal game for less than that? Too much and I think it would be something with .99 at the end like $4.99.
Anonymous Monkey @ Apr 5th 2006 6:24PM
Some here has stated costs to be a factor that this is a fake and that $15 is too much to pay for an old game. But remember folks, who was it that created that whole UMD movie business wanting to charge $20 per film?
Still I am calling this fake. Too much information on the screen.
tomL @ Apr 5th 2006 6:28PM
good luck downloading those 100+ mb files
Pal @ Apr 5th 2006 6:29PM
The text "DOWNLOADS" to the side irks me, looks fake to me. I also agree that $15 is a bit steep.
Seems that someone's excited about Final Fantasy VII. I hope there's another Squaresoft RPG in there that starts with an X.
bv @ Apr 5th 2006 6:31PM
Anyone notice that the Titles are not in alphabetical order?
'Duke Nukem: Time to Kill' should not appear before 'Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes'
and 'Twisted Metal 2' should definitely not appear before 'Quake 2'.
hemmy @ Apr 5th 2006 6:32PM
Multiplayer isn't out of the question however. The PS1 games aren't the exact versions you'd get on disc. They're going to be recompiled and repackaged as fit to take advantage/adjust to the PSP's controller layout and abilities, etc.
These images strike me as fake however. There were two released images ("Select a Game to Download" screen and the "Gran Turismo 2" info screen) - they both have the undulating wavy lines that we've come to know on the PSP in the background, but they're in the SAME EXACT friggin' place on both screens!
Nick @ Apr 5th 2006 6:38PM
Damn, if this turns out to be true, i may just regret selling my PSP.... naw :S I'll just borrow (read: swipe) a friend's!
Fuzz @ Apr 5th 2006 6:39PM
Fake.
No way in hell there will be multiplayer. It's just not gonna happen. Especially for GT. They threw it out of GT4 because of lag issues. If they couldn't make it work on a new game that they were designing it for, there is no way it''s gonna work on a 7 year old game on new hardware that used split screen multiplayer, and "recompile" the game to use wifi. Sorry, it's just not gonna happen.
CapAmerica @ Apr 5th 2006 6:40PM
$15 for a downloaded game that I could easly delete. No thank you.
I rather spend $10 and buy a copy from GameStop for the PSOne/PS2/PS3.
$15 would be good if Sony was releaseing it as UMD that I could pick up at GameStop but for a downloaded game anything past $5 is way to much.
Nick @ Apr 5th 2006 6:44PM
ummm.... #10..... X and XI and XII were all on PS2.... if you were thinking of IX, that starts with an I....
Exo @ Apr 5th 2006 6:54PM
he is talking about Xenogears.
DERRRh
Andy @ Apr 5th 2006 7:07PM
Fake, wavy lines are the same in both pics
Michael Gross @ Apr 5th 2006 7:08PM
#16. Um.... Xenosaga. Good work.
Michael Gross @ Apr 5th 2006 7:11PM
Oh durrr.... Xenogears.... (Chris Farley voice): I'm retarded.
Diego @ Apr 5th 2006 7:43PM
$15 for a 5-10 year old game? That's a bargain considering how Nintendo re-relases old games for the GBA and charges $29.99 and no one says a thing to them. $30 dollars for SNES and NES ports, SWEET !!!
mike @ Apr 5th 2006 7:48PM
Anyone worried about the price? $15 for a 5-10 year old game seems steep
---
pipe down. PSP users are desperate for some games. and now you have some cheap ones... that.. you've already beaten. back when you were in junior high.
i have a DS, and I'm not worried about this... zelda on the ds anyone? contact? okay i'm an rpg whore.
Lazlo Falconi @ Apr 5th 2006 8:34PM
Yeah, but why is Final Fantasy VII in bold, while the others aren't?
Ian @ Apr 5th 2006 9:31PM
Shouldn't it show the size of the download? I'm gonna go with fake....
B1gC72 @ Apr 5th 2006 9:47PM
yea this is fake, a nice fake, but a fake non-the-less. i say this 4 a couple reasons:
1) the "X" and "O" arent even with the "Download" and "Back" at the bottom of the screen
2) the background is exactly the same on both pics when just about anyone who has ever played a PSP knows that the background moves
3) that sideways "DOWNLOAD" thing is tacky. Sony would never put that there. its too much on 1 scene
4) come on. $15? i could get the same games at Game Crazy 4 $12. (not 2 mention the $40 i payed 4 it back in the day when i bought it the first time).(and it would b $14.99 anyway not $15).
5) and lastly, there is no "#" to select games that start with a number.
B1gC72 @ Apr 5th 2006 9:54PM
oh yeah i 4got 2 mention that little playstation symbol in the bottom right corner. it would more than likely b lite blue like the 1 on Playstation.com cause this 1 doesnt match and not 2 mention that's where the little loading circle ripple thingy goes
Lestrade @ Apr 5th 2006 10:12PM
Doom II never appeared on the Playstation; only Doom: Custom Playstation Edition (which contained versions of Doom and Doom II on one disc). I don't think this is real.
Trunks @ Apr 5th 2006 10:59PM
I'm pretty sure that if FFVII were to make it to PSP, I'd have to buy one. It's a shame.
I'm pretty sure that a lot of people would.
Justin @ Apr 5th 2006 11:03PM
What? No Vagrant Story? Also wouldn't you be required to have a 1GB mem stick for these?
Richard Perkins @ Apr 5th 2006 11:14PM
Is it possible to have a Play station 1 and 2 emulater for the xbox360. They did it with bleemcast in the late 90's. Why dont they do this. I'd pay like 60 dollars for that. Common hackers get to work
epobirs @ Apr 5th 2006 11:32PM
Yes, you'd need a high capcity Memory Stick but that isn't so bad. The 2GB models are being advertised for as little as $70 after rebates recently and will only get less expensive.
A bigger question is how you'll be required to store these game when not in use. Can we download the DRM wrappered and encrypted file to our computers and choose which ones we want to take with us and change our mind the next day? I don't mind if the files is tied to the UID of my PSP but I don't want to be limited to how much Memory Stick capacity I have when I can store far more files cheaply on my PC. If I have an RPG that occupies most of my Memory Stick but today would rather take a selection of puzzle games, I shouldn't permanently lose my download of the RPG (or the save game) or have to download it again from the service, even if there is no additional charge.
The emulator is the easy part. It's a well understood technical effort with all of the needed IP accessable to the coding team. The hard part is making the file management fair to customers and the service attractive.
epobirs @ Apr 6th 2006 2:57AM
#31
It would be very doable on a technical level to emulate the PS1 and PS2 on the Xbox 360 but there is the small matter of Sony owning the proprietary technology and having a vested interest in fighting Microsoft every step of the way. Bleem died under the cost of Sony's litigation. Sony never actually won the case but could afford to keep it up far longer than a tiny outfit like Bleem.
Microsoft could meet Sony at every turn but it would mean spending a lot of money and for what? That same money could license dozens or even hundreds of old arcade hits for sale on Xbox Live Arcade. On top of that plenty of companies like Sega would be perfectly happy to license the emulation rights for their old platforms. I doubt Nintendo's deal for Sega Genesis and NEC TurboGrafx emulation is exclusive but even if it were there are other platforms with some hits worth reviving. Those are just the two most prominent non-nintendo units whose games, except for those on CD-ROM,lend themselves to downloading in just a few minutes.
Microsoft or a middleware company could easily produce a virtual console framework that wouldn't be directly compatible with any of the old consoles but would greatly accelerate the porting of games by providing similar handling of things like multi-plane scrolling and sprites. This would let companies like Capcom or Konami do quick and inexpensive ports that would let the result be within the XBLA price range. (All of this just as readily applies to Sony and Nintendo, too.)
Until the unlikely event of Sony forsaking the console business the job of running old Playstation games should be left to Sony products. Sony and nintendo earned their library advantages and trying to shoplift those libraries would not be a good tactic for Microsoft when there are many better things they're already working towards.
Gareth @ Apr 6th 2006 4:47AM
To everyone who thinks this is fake simply because $15 seems steep - this is Sony - the company who brought you movies on UMD.
Evil Inside @ Apr 6th 2006 10:27AM
What if this were not actually screens of the PSone emulator that is supposed to coming out in the future, but actually a service to download small games? Something similiar to cellphone games.
A downloadable games service featuring games like Doom, Doom2, GT2, etc has not been announced by Sony, but that doesn't mean it's not in developement.
The PSP is perfect for running cellphone size games and since it's more powerful and has access to larger storage, it would make more sense to simply recompile and port some of these games to be downloadable instead of releasing an emulator.
A lot more money can be made from downloable games than from UMD games.
psp.boy @ Apr 6th 2006 11:26AM
Is this Sony's reply to Nintendo Virtual Console. If they do this Nintendo cloud answer with a New super GameBoy that would have VConsole built in for playing all retro Nintendo games.
Finch @ Apr 6th 2006 12:02PM
In some aspects it seems fake, but I'll let the jury stick with that thinking. I doubt that the final price point for these games will end up being $15 a pop. At the most they would charge fees based on the games value or popularity as it stands today (hopefully not). I heard rumors of purchasing point cards to buy the PSone games, so hopefully that's true. It would make sense since Sony's online service will be launching in the fall and you'll probably need an account for these kinds of services.
epobirs @ Apr 6th 2006 12:22PM
#35
So, you're suggesting they turn the PSP into an N*gage without voice functionality. I really, really, really doubt this is something Sony wants to do on the PSP. They already have a cellphone business in partnership with Ericsson. The difference in capability between the PSP and most cellphones is so great it would better to start from scratch than port a recent game designed for the limited cellphone environment.
They already announced their intention to offer PS1 games on the PSP at the recent Game Developers Conference. That part is established. The question is whether these images show the work in progress or are something whipped up in PhotoShop by a hoaxer.
One big thing for Sony is that they already own the PS1 IP and a bunch of PS1 games and plenty of third parties would be eager to offer theirs for new sales. While there are some multi-CD behemoths on the PS1 a lot of the better games are quite small. All of them can be made a LOT smaller by substituting compressed audio for the uncompressed audio that was used primarily on the PS1. A game that took up 350 MB of space on a CD could be as much as 90% audio tracks. Convert those to a modern compressed format (for which the PSP has hardware acceleration built-in) and the game now falls well below 100 MB, which is a reasonable download for the average broadband connection. (My DSL line would do it in under an hour while the costlier local cable service would cut that in half.) The hard part is writing the emulator to support trapping calls to the CD controller to start streaming an audio track and insert the compressed track in its place to play through the codec.
Memory and processor power won't be a problem. The PSP has 8 times the memory of the PS1 and much of the PS1 code will run natively on the MIPS architecture used by both.
Rayek @ Apr 6th 2006 1:44PM
If it is true, then it's probably just Sony getting back at the GP2X for making a better handheld, already emulating PSX very well, considering ;)
Rob @ Apr 6th 2006 4:22PM
It's a fake, here's the background used:
http://www.knalle.dk/psp%20style/PSP-background-thor64.jpg
Kahanamoku @ Apr 6th 2006 9:24PM
It's ignorant to think that it's fake simply by saying the original games weren't coded with multiplayer (assuming linked system) support. It doesn't take much for a person with half a skill in programming to write an emulator that wraps WiFi commands into multitap commands. My PSP is A1, and on our WiFi LAN we also have A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, B4. Wifi signals are transmitted based on controller activity, then translated in the emulation software to become Multitap controller inputs into the game.. and suddenly, you've got WIRELESS multiplayer on a game that was not originally programmed for networking.
Geovanny @ Apr 6th 2006 9:55PM
I thought it was real but am dont know whta to think anymore, but why would sone add the Games section and share games on the psp if we wont be using them??? sounds pretty stupid to me.
iamalec @ Apr 6th 2006 11:29PM
Look at the screenshot. It has QJ.net. QJ.net?! What the heck is that? The developer of that emulator? I thought Sony will develop its own PS1 emulator?
epobirs @ Apr 7th 2006 1:01AM
QJ.net is the site hosting the pictures. It is a common thing to put a site identifier on a high value image, much as TV channels put 'bugs' in the corner of the screen.
Mark @ Apr 8th 2006 10:41PM
This image is a fake
three main reasons...
1. 'DOWNLOADS' on the left... no psp designer would put this there... it doesnt fit with the normal theme.
2. playstation pic in the corner... why? i mean come on.. its never been there before, why start now
3. Probably the biggest reason... the font used for the writing is different to the PSP font - its probably some generic photoshop font hes used. This is most noticeable on the 'e'... just have a look. The actual psp font is taller. Also the general formatting of the text is just plain wrong.
Benny @ May 30th 2006 4:15PM
To "Kahanamoku" for your post about how easy it is to turn a multi-tap into wifi:
It's not ignorant, actually your post is fairly ignorant. Why? Because network based play is handled completely different than just controller work. Yes, some games only send controller input, however those games have been setup to run on several machines at the same time and make sure everyone is in sync while they are sending the controller data back and forth. Since the PSX games never had network capabilities, they never have to worry about the game being played on more than one console - so there is no code within the game to handle making sure the game plays the same for every "controller" connected to the system.
Not only that, but you would have to handle TRC requirements dealing with online play and adhoc/infrastructure etc...
Bottom line, It's never as simple as just making some crap wrapper - Every game would have to be custom fit into the PSP's wifi system before it could be playable in any mode other than single player.