How does this compare to ePSXe and other emulators

[invalidusername]

Any reviews or anything?

I'm playing Parasite Eve on it, and it's almost like what ZSNES is to SNES games and Gens is to Genesis games...I'm impressed.

[Gamesoul Master]

Well, not quite like ZSNES or Gens to their respective systems. Actually, I rather regard this emulator as one of the first of its kind, because it's primary focus is emulation, with little regard to any enhancements whatsoever, whereas every other emulator I've seen has at least a secondary focus on enhancement.

I regard this emulator as one of the few playstation emulators still currently being worked on, as well as being one of the most compatible.

- Graphics: 9 (most accurate rendering I've seen from any emulator without having to do any major tweaks... quite impressive. Very few problems)

- Sound: 7 (very accurate sound emulation, but many games have minor sound glitches with this emulator that can still be worked out (like Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics, to name a couple))

- Controls: 8 (compatible with most controllers, and the choice of PS controller-type is a definite "plus", as well as being able to select which controller to use (if you have more than one plugged into your computer). Just a few compatibility issues remaining, though none are major)

- Game-reading: 9 (very awesome is the ability to load image files or use a mounted image, as well as the original game disc in your drive. Subcode reading is another great feature. Didn't get a 10 simply due to some very minor issues, and the lack of ability to set a default disc drive. The CDZTool included with (and integrated into) the emulator allows the compression of game images, for those who have limited disc space, or just want to use less space anyway, and the great thing is that the emulator can run these compressed images as well as if they were uncompressed)

- Accessories: 6 (memory card reading is quite impressive, but I can't help but feel that there could be more compatibility for other accessories. However, what it does support, it supports very well)

- Interface: 7 (save/load feature of savestates is nice, but lack customization functions. Fast Forward could use a "toggle" option. Otherwise, very nice and robust interface)

- Compatibility: 8 (very good compatibility, it gets an "8" more because of the minor problems with working games than a lack of working games)

- Overall: 9 (although the numbers don't average out to this, I feel that it should get this overall score because it does very well what it is meant to do, and improvements are constantly being made to make this emulator as perfect as possible. It runs faster than any other playstation emulator on nearly any system it's used on, meaning more people are able to use this emulator than any other emulator. Its "out-of-the-box" functionality is a definite boost to this emulator's greatness, and its features are useful and easy to work with, even for people using an emulator for the first time. With the help and contributions of all the people on this forum, this emulator can do nearly anything that a person could want out of an emulator (including using cheats, and utilities to adjust settings before running the emulator))

[Firehawke]

I'll give a SLIGHTLY different review, but I'm pretty sure my opinions mesh pretty well with the above.

Compatibility gets a B for the time being. There're still a number of hairy, flaky games out there, but compatibility is remarkably respectable and meshes well with the other emulators out there for coverage. Between this, VGS, and ePSXe, you should be able to run MOST anything.

Interface gets a B+. It's clean, gets the job done, no unnecessary frills. This is a good thing. My one grumble is that it's a bit of a pain to get to the memory cards (it's multiple steps-- I'd say put up a memory card menu option off the main menubar that goes to the correct config tab automagically, but that's me.) Not much to complain about; even control config is easy and you can define keyboard AND joypad easily enough.

Sound is probably one of the weaker points at the moment, but that will improve in time. A fairly large number of games have small audio glitches, but there aren't all that many with major problems. More concerning would be the list of titles were audio just isn't present at all-- but again, this WILL get fixed eventually. C for audio.

Graphics gets an A-. I'd give it a +, but when there ARE problems with graphics they tend to be fairly severe. On the other hand, what it does do is give an authentic Playstation look. All the way down to the low resolutions and shudder in motion. This is definitely the most accurate-looking emulator out there. Now, this isn't to say I wouldn't mind playing games in highres, but I'll do THAT in ePSXe for the games I really prefer upgraded. (and pay the resulting price in compatibility and tweaking time.)

On a side note, I'm still wondering if the pSX architecture couldn't be tweaked to allow a backup DirectDraw blitter when Direct3D isn't available for whatever reason. It'd help with some of the more marginal machines that have the raw CPU but not the 3D support (blame Microsoft's dropping of the reference rasterizer...) I'm pretty sure that it would take at least a noted amount of effort to make this work, though, and thusly won't ever be looked at.

Control support: pSX has a wider range of control support than any other emulator out there that I know-- I'm pretty sure there aren't any emulators with better GunCon support at the very least. pSX only has a few minor omissions in this area-- mouse support (but what really uses that?), multitap, analog flightstick, and a few other smaller controller types (NegCon, JogCon).. There ARE some known game issues with the controls, though, but few games have major issues. So, despite these issues, this gets a pure A and stands to only get better in the future.

Optical drive: This emulator doesn't have to be reconfigured every time you want to change drives. That speaks VOLUMES about this area. CDZ support adds quite a bit to the mix, although the format being still in so much flux adds a few headaches (aka "Am I going to have to decompress and recompress these images I made to take advantage of the improvements in this version? Ugh..") Still, it reads just about anything you throw at it and with less complaint than any other emulator I've tried. A+.

Updates: The author hasn't burned out on this project yet, and that gives it some hope of achieving the potential it has. While there are issues, as long as the author keeps working on it these issues WILL eventually get solved. The fact that we generally see a revision a month is just icing on the cake. Even if the update interval slows dramatically, we're talking about an emulator that can overtake ePSXe's compatibility within a year or two easily. A+

Overall (not an average): pSX is an emulator that hasn't yet achieved its potential, but is well on the road to getting there. It's not every day you see an emulator rise from nothing to get this good in so short of a time. Consistent updates, good compatibility, good controller support, authentic graphics, and a clean user interface make pSX one of the emulators you should keep around. I recommend using ePSXe when you have a game that graphic enhancements work really well with, and pSX for anything else. (Oh, and VGS if nothing else will work. It still has the lowest system requirements of all even if compatibility is hairy.)

That's my take on it.