DuckStation

4.1
9.68K reviews
1M+
Downloads
Content rating
Everyone
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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 or other means. These are usually dumped as "scphNNNN.bin" or "ps-NNN.bin", where NNNN is the model number or ROM version, and should be 512KB in size. 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 convert or 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 (recommended) 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
- 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
- Rewinding (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.

**For high upscaling (more than 2x) you will need at least a mid range device. This is because of how many pixels the emulator needs to render/shade - it is not a question of optimization.**

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

Instructions:

1. Install and run the app for the first time.
2. Add game directories by tapping the add button and selecting a directory. You can add additional directories afterwards by selecting "Edit Game Directories" from the menu.
3. Tap a game to start. When you start a game for the first time it will prompt you to import a BIOS image.

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

"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
Updated on
Apr 25, 2023

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
No data shared with third parties
Learn more about how developers declare sharing
No data collected
Learn more about how developers declare collection

Ratings and reviews

4.2
9.2K reviews
D'Angelo Scisney
May 22, 2023
I like it, BUT I hate that everytime I close it and reopen it again, it has to rescan my roms. And I have more than 100 PSX roms. A lot more lol. So in order to play roms asap on the go, I have to ALWAYS have this app running in the background. It takes 5 mins or more each time when it comes to rescanning. Especially when I turn my phone off. It has to rescan when using it again after turning my phone back on. Smh. Please fix! This is the only emulator that gives me this issue.
7 people found this review helpful
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Jsunrise2thetop
May 17, 2023
Was great until the update. Now the games that were working are having issues and struggling. The fastforward button at full 1000 percent speed isn't as fast as the original. I had to re import all my save files and more.. it was perfect the way it was. Simple and functioned amazing. Now it's got more features but runs worse.. sometimes when something isn't broken don't try to fix it.. one star until they resolve the issues.
8 people found this review helpful
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Hipcat
May 1, 2023
Great! The latest update has lost my saves though. Following the instructions I get a message saying that no importable files were found. HUGE bummer there. I can see the files. The app can see the files. Not sure what is wrong or where to manually move the files too. Going to try to move them, delete the folder, create a new save, then move them to wherever the new folder is. I guess. Hopefully that works. Edit- It didn't work. Where are the New version files being saved?
20 people found this review helpful
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What's new

Massive UI revamp, tons of new features.
Performance and accuracy improvements.
Move entirely to scoped storage and target API 32.

Your saves ARE NOT LOST, but you MUST reimport them. Follow the on-screen instructions after updating. Here are the steps:

1. Swipe from the left to open the nav menu.
2. Select "Transfer Data".
3. Select "Import".
4. Navigate to the "duckstation" directory in internal storage. You may need to select "Show Internal Storage" in the menu.
5. Follow the prompts.