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PlayStation emulator for Android goes free and open source

by Mike Schramm on Apr 8th 2011 12:30AM

PSX4Droid, the PSOne emulator for Android that got the smackdown from Google recently, has found a surefire way of getting around the ban: Go free and open source. The latest version of the software does just that, skipping out on Google's market completely and putting both the app and the source code online for anyone to download and check out.

Developer "ZodTTD" says that the original Sony complaint only had to do with a trademarked logo that had snuck into the app's icon, but since then, Google has closed both his Android Market and CheckOut accounts, leaving him unable to publish any apps. As a result, he's self-publishing PSX4Droid, and will be exploring other third-party markets to sell the app in. In the meantime, you can go enjoy the new version, which adds better compatibility and performance, though save files from the previous version will no longer work.

Source: SmartKetai

Tags: android, android-market, emulation, emulator, google, mobile, playstation, psx4droid, sony, zodttd

Reader Comments (35)

Finally

@ChitownPnoy

And more work for the lawyers of sony, they are going to attack this guy like if he had break the ps3 ..........not that is going to be useful, just like their other attacks........

@Hunter141072
Actually sony wouldn't have a leg to stand on in this case.
Emulation of game consoles in itself is not illegal, although if he had been distributing ps1 bios or isos it would have been be he wasn't.

see the Sony v Bleem case for more.

@lyons

Bleem! was basically sued into oblivion though. They may have been right, but they couldn't afford to be. The same thing can happen here unfortunately

@lyons

Exactly like EGOvoruhk said Bleem was beaten to a pulp, i think that sometimes people forgets that companies hates emulators almost as much as piracy, for them is the SAME. Why? well, it obvious, they want to charge you 30 bucks for playing god of war in your android, with an emulator you can do it free, so of course they want to destroy them. They did it right now, that´s why this emulator went free and open source, to avoid sony ´s crazy group of lawyers.

So, hes going to explore other third party markets... while making it free?

That makes no sense lol

@Faenix Distribution method, update management, paid/donation version. It makes perfect sense.

@Taedirk

But its out there, free... and sourcecode released. Why would you ever buy it if he decides to do that? Wait for the next guy to come along and update it free and make it better for free

@Faenix

Hence: Donate. Meaning, if you aren't an asshole you can donate to someone who spent their time on developing a really good emulator.

Not paying him is like not putting your change into the jar at the convenience store.

@Faenix

I rather think since the official market essentially froze him out that they mean an alternate market place for future projects.

Didn't this guy also make some iPhone emulators? I seem to recall that name from somewhere..

Isnt that why he got removed from the marketplace? He used GPL source code and didnt release the source?

@Einlander Precisely. He's now just getting around to doing what the licensing requires him to do.

Wow they really just put the banhammer on the guy. Since when was it so hard to just ask "Change ur logo, plz?"

@The Only Girl You forget. Sony's shareholders get all antsy when even an emulator not under their jurisdiction gets released.

That's kinda a harsh move on googles part. They just lost some points with me

@joer22784 Yep, amazon marketplace just got a few more customers.

@onan I think they care more that you are being tracked as an Android user.

Cool. It's open source, yeah.....ahem....

Sucks being so dumb with PC's. I feel like this is great news.

ZodTTD is wonderful! Thanks to him, I'm currently on my fourth playthrough of FF9, and after that I'm gonna start up a new game of FF6 for game boy advance. All on my iPhone.

Ahh... mobile nostalgia. Plus, save states!

Can anyone confirm if installing this will kill my existing purchased installation of PSX4Droid? I hope not.

@onan Do you mean that in the sense that, if the new version doesn't work you want to be able to roll back to the old version? If so, you can back up the .apk (application package file) with another app and then manually re-install it later if you want. Astro filemanager is free and will do this.

@geeksunny Thanks, I had no idea it could backup apps.

In case anyone is wondering, it installed a second PSX4Droid on my list. My Marketplace-purchased version was named "PSX4Droid v2", and this new one was missing the "v2" (but is actually ad-supported version 3). Also easy to distinguish because the new one uses an image of the white PSOne console refresh as the icon, while the previous one retains the copyrighted PlayStation black and white logo.

@onan I went back to V2. It looks like the new apk won't let me save any settings or savestates for some reason.

Lawsuit in 3...2...

Google's pathetic. I don't care what sort of great stuff they churn out, they also churn out plenty of crap. Closing his accounts without a second chance, it would seem. Bleh, big corporate companies suck.