DuckStation

Stenzek

About this game

DuckStation is an simulator/emulator of the Sony PlayStation(TM) / PSX / PS1 console, focusing on playability, speed, and long-term maintainability. The goal is to be as accurate as possible while maintaining high performance.

A "BIOS" ROM image is required to start the emulator and to play games. A ROM image is not provided with the emulator for legal reasons, you should dump this from your own console using Caetla/Unirom/etc. Games are NOT provided with the emulator, it can only be used to play legally purchased and dumped games.

DuckStation supports cue, iso, img, ecm, mds, chd, and unencrypted PBP game images. If your games are in other formats, you will need to re-dump them. For single track games in bin format, you can use https://www.duckstation.org/cue-maker/ to generate cue files.

Features include:
- OpenGL, Vulkan and software rendering
- Upscaling, texture filtering, and true colour (24-bit) in hardware renderers
- Widescreen rendering in supported games (no stretching!)
- PGXP for geometry precision, texture correction, and depth buffer emulation (fixes texture "wobble"/polygon fighting)
- Adaptive downsampling filter
- Post processing shader chains (GLSL and experimental Reshade FX).
- 60fps in PAL games where supported
- Per-game settings (set enhancements and controller mapping for each game individually)
- Up to 8 controllers in supported game with multitap
- Controller and keyboard binding (+vibration for controllers)
- RetroAchievements in supported games (https://retroachievements.org)
- Memory card editor (move saves, import gme/mcr/mc/mcd)
- Built in patch code database
- Save states with preview screenshots
- Blazing fast turbo speeds in mid to high end devices
- Emulated CPU overclocking to improve FPS in games
- Runahead and rewind (do not use on slow devices)
- Controller layout editing and scaling (in pause menu)

DuckStation supports both 32-bit/64-bit ARM, and 64-bit x86 devices. However, due to it being a more accurate emulator, hardware requirements can be moderate. If you have a 32-bit ARM device, please do not expect the emulator to perform well - you will need at least a 1.5GHz CPU for good performance.

If you have an external controller, you will need to map the buttons and sticks in settings.

Game compatibility list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H66MxViRjjE5f8hOl5RQmF5woS1murio2dsLn14kEqo/edit?usp=sharing

"PlayStation" is a registered trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited. This project is not affiliated in any way with Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Duck icon by icons8: https://icons8.com/icon/74847/duck

This app is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International License (BY-NC-ND 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Games shown are:
- Hover Racing: http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=636
- Fromage: https://chenthread.asie.pl/fromage/
- PSXNICCC Demo: https://github.com/PeterLemon/PSX/tree/master/Demo/PSXNICCC

Ratings and reviews

Great PSX emulator, plays what I want no issues. I can't recommend it on Android 13 though.. All the system files like save data is hidden behind android/data folder for the app. So you won't have access to save files unless you directly connect it to a pc to get it. Third party apps like Zarchiver or FTP cannot access it either. The hassle to backup your saves is a concern. Devs should add option to have save files stored in a more accessible area, also option to edit cheat files. A+ otherwise.

So, I've tried multiple PS1 emulators, with varying degrees of quality in games. Vagrant Story has always given me issues with graphics and audio. Until I tried Duckstation. Ran flawlessly with default settings. Running on a Samsung A53 5g, low to mid-range device as of last year. Not sure about some of the low ratings. Easy to set up, though it does take little software knowhow to do so. Lots of features, and - free.

Great emulator but unfortunately cannot recommend right now due to storing all the memcards, states, ect in /Android/Data. I use SyncThing to sync my states, ect between PCs but Android has limited access to this directory. Not Duck stations fault, but a deal breaker. 5 stars if they do what epsxe does and add a dedicated folder to the internal storage directory. Edit: bump up to 3 star with import/export feature. I'm now syncing a random folder on my phone with my server, and then using this

What's new

Hotfix update:
- Fix crash with Vulkan and fast forwarding.
- Fix VRAM replacement loading.
- Fix "Match Display" aspect ratio.

This DuckStation update includes:

- Performance improvements
- Disc changing for bin/cue (from scanned games)
- Post-processing shaders (GLSL+Reshade)
- Enhancement compatibility improvements
- New, faster recompiler (NewRec, still experimental)
- Switch to rc_client for RetroAchievements
- Unify hardware renderers

No configuration changes are required.