So I want to play PS1 ISOs. What's the best approach?
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Playing them on the actual hardware it was originally designed for is the best way.
Depends entirely on your existing setup, how much you want to pay, and how much you care about experiencing the games the "original" way or if you just want to play the damn game.
PS1 with an ODE is about the closest you can get to the original way to play them, but that requires you to either have a working CRT or an upscalers / converter to hook it up to your modern TV. The latter option also introduces stuff like lag and an incorrect gamma curve if you don't know what you're doing and buying. All other PS1 solutions are pretty much identical, though burning your own discs can increase loading times and lead to stutters during cutscenes.
A PS3 would be easier to hook up to a modern TV and the emulation is plenty good so that you're unlikely to find many problems with whatever it is you're trying to play.
A PS2 is like the PS3 in terms of emulation quality, except it only hooks up like a PS1.
If you have a good PC Duckstation is also a really good way to play them.
For portable solutions you can go with either a Vita (slightly annoying due to the lack of shoulder buttons and stick clicking), a Steam Deck, or similar.
A Vita TV with a PS4 controller would effectively work quite well as well for a modern TV, but so would a PSP Go with a PS3 controller hooked up to a CRT.
Personally I have basically all options but if I can I try and use my original PS1 on my CRT these days, purely because it's nostalgic and the games look fantastic on a CRT with the intended smoothing the devs designed the games for. You load the game and everything just works and look splendid, no fiddling with settings or other distracting stuff required. And if I get stuck somewhere and need save states I'll play it on my PC or steam deck for a bit before transferring the save file back to my memory card. But that's also one of the most expensive routes to take to play those games.
PS1 with an ODE is about the closest you can get to the original way to play them, but that requires you to either have a working CRT or an upscalers / converter to hook it up to your modern TV. The latter option also introduces stuff like lag and an incorrect gamma curve if you don't know what you're doing and buying. All other PS1 solutions are pretty much identical, though burning your own discs can increase loading times and lead to stutters during cutscenes.
A PS3 would be easier to hook up to a modern TV and the emulation is plenty good so that you're unlikely to find many problems with whatever it is you're trying to play.
A PS2 is like the PS3 in terms of emulation quality, except it only hooks up like a PS1.
If you have a good PC Duckstation is also a really good way to play them.
For portable solutions you can go with either a Vita (slightly annoying due to the lack of shoulder buttons and stick clicking), a Steam Deck, or similar.
A Vita TV with a PS4 controller would effectively work quite well as well for a modern TV, but so would a PSP Go with a PS3 controller hooked up to a CRT.
Personally I have basically all options but if I can I try and use my original PS1 on my CRT these days, purely because it's nostalgic and the games look fantastic on a CRT with the intended smoothing the devs designed the games for. You load the game and everything just works and look splendid, no fiddling with settings or other distracting stuff required. And if I get stuck somewhere and need save states I'll play it on my PC or steam deck for a bit before transferring the save file back to my memory card. But that's also one of the most expensive routes to take to play those games.
I voted for ODE.
I played on a PS2 set with POPStarter, but still do prefer an real PS1.
Unlike what @RAHelllord said above, i think that PS1 can't be used with an YUV component cable, so if you go for a PS2, then i think you must have a 240P compatible TV (very old memories from the time i could fiddle with such set up).
As for ODE, i have the PSIO and i'm rather satisfied with it.
I played on a PS2 set with POPStarter, but still do prefer an real PS1.
Unlike what @RAHelllord said above, i think that PS1 can't be used with an YUV component cable, so if you go for a PS2, then i think you must have a 240P compatible TV (very old memories from the time i could fiddle with such set up).
As for ODE, i have the PSIO and i'm rather satisfied with it.
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id go emulation, its pretty darn good these days and finding old equipment to make it work just isnt worth it
For myself I rarely answer such questions with one option only. Why emulation or real hardware? Why not an "and" instead?
Emulation has a lot of benefits, but it never feels quite like the real thing. Optical drive emulators for the PS1 are expensive and not easy to install. My SCPH-9002 with PsNee reads just about any CD-R just like the originals – not seen the need for ODE yet.
Emulation has a lot of benefits, but it never feels quite like the real thing. Optical drive emulators for the PS1 are expensive and not easy to install. My SCPH-9002 with PsNee reads just about any CD-R just like the originals – not seen the need for ODE yet.
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guess it depends on if he wants to spend money, or if he has hardware, i still have my phat ps2 that plays ps1 but i wouldnt push it at its age to play games on anymore quite happy with emulation and being able to save state and come back when i want to, or apply filters and texture packs to pretty it up. most people are spoilt for emulation choice and how good and far its become, i still remember the days when snes96 had no sound and bleem got sued and u had a nes emulator called nesticle lol and glide wrappers and n64 HLE came along etc etc
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I mainly play PS1 on my PS2 (via Tonyhax) or on PSTV/Vita.
I occassionally play on my original PS1 (which has a mod chip) or on my CFW PS3.
I occassionally play on my original PS1 (which has a mod chip) or on my CFW PS3.
Honestly, I don't even know where to buy CD-Rs nowadays. ODEs like xStation are just so convenient, you slap the ISO on SD card and you're good to go and with a SD card big enough you can have close to the complete library accessible. Also no need to hope your laser is still good or any of the plastic of the laser assembly has bitten the bullet. I have a PVM on my desk and a Retrotink 5X on my OLED in the living room which delivers the best possible image quality out of the original console.
I think it's important for you to tell us what you have to work with already and/or what you're willing to spend.
The list of viable answers to your question in 2023 (without you providing more detail to narrow it down) is pretty long...
(which if you really think about it is totally awesome!)
Most of the time I'm d*mn lazy in this regard. Slap in CD/DVD (or cartridge), push power button, play game. No internet, no updates, no BS.
If I just want to play a game, well… I just want to play a game. Not configure an emulator, apply filters or textures or whatever while hoping the emulating device can handle the overhead. Simplicity is the strong point of old consoles. If the plasma TV with the multitude of analoge inputs bites the dust it will most likely become a bit harder, but I won't retire the old gaming devices any time soon.
(And then somebody comes around telling me emulation is easier… *Looks at RetroArch configuration*)
About the save state thing: A blessing and a curse. Especially for games from the NES era it is tempting to cheat with save states – effectively ruining the style of said games (they were hard because they had to be short from technical side).
What? Okay, it is far from mainstream nowadays, but blank optical media are readily available if you aren't in search of something very special (74min CD-R or even 63min CD-R, M-DISC DVD, RITEK-G04 for GameCube or something really obscure like a Formazan CD-R).
AFAIK all (or at least most) PS1 versions output native RGB and composite video, HDRetrovision does sell an adapter to use their YPbPr genesis / Mega Drive cable with a PS1. It's the option I use for mine and it works great, but it's a bit pricey if you're not inside the US. If the PS1 is a PAL model and the OP lives in PAL regions then just getting an RGB scart cable of decent quality is a trivial matter.
But even then just composite still looks good on a consumer grade CRT at the proper viewing distance, the difference isn't as pronounced as it would be when running it into a 4k TV.
Bought my last 50 CD-R spindle a couple of years ago and it looks like it will last me a lifetime, currently. I honestly have no idea where I would go if I needed to buy a CD-R right now.
CD-Rs and DVD-Rs are a thing of the past, they're even more prone to disc rot than pressed media, if you have PSX discs from 25 years ago you should have a close look at them because I bet there are small holes of rot in them if you look at them against light.
This is a PSX disc I burned more than 20 years ago:
I'm just so over physical media that degrades like CD-Rs/DVD-Rs do. I'd rather shuffle my data from HDD to HDD as I expand space and retire old drives.
Last edited by enarky,
I recently flashed my own modchips, and installed them onto a PSX and a friend of mine installed one for me in my PSOne.
I own a CRT TV with Composite, Component, and S-Video options.
Currently I'm okay with using Composite, but I do own an OSSC, and I could purchase a high quality SCART cable to use with it and upscale onto my 4KTV.
I won't lie though, playing on CRT is nostalgic for sure, and hearing that original bootup sound isn't something to forget.
If you have a strong PC and you don't mind dialing in a lot of configuration or options, then emulation with a PSX controller to USB adapter might be the way to go, but if you're wanting original feel without the need to configure things, I would go with PSX and modchip.
Also glad to see no one here has mentioned a PS Classic. I bought one of these pieces of garbage and even when modified it's still pretty much a paper weight.
I own a CRT TV with Composite, Component, and S-Video options.
Currently I'm okay with using Composite, but I do own an OSSC, and I could purchase a high quality SCART cable to use with it and upscale onto my 4KTV.
I won't lie though, playing on CRT is nostalgic for sure, and hearing that original bootup sound isn't something to forget.
If you have a strong PC and you don't mind dialing in a lot of configuration or options, then emulation with a PSX controller to USB adapter might be the way to go, but if you're wanting original feel without the need to configure things, I would go with PSX and modchip.
Also glad to see no one here has mentioned a PS Classic. I bought one of these pieces of garbage and even when modified it's still pretty much a paper weight.
There are varying qualities of writable media. The "cheap" ones will degrade much faster. It's rather trivial to buy CD-Rs (of both poor and decent quality). While they're not as widely available at brick and mortar stores as they once were, some retailers still carry them and they're very easy to shop for on the web.
I must have dreamed they are still available with two clicks. Absolutely no offerings. Silly me…Not for me.
This doesn't gain anymore truthfulness by repeating over and over again with no evidence. Just because a few garbage CDs failed, it doesn't mean there are none that last a few decades. Besides: I did an analysis in this regard last week. Result is: Burned optical discs fare pretty well; better than most other stuff. Media quality and storage conditions absolutely matter. The discs without proper coating/label from factory on are prone to damage.
You lost that bet. Mine are still all fine.
Then you share your wisdom with us: Which storage medium does not degrade/decay? What medium solved the problem of long-term digital data storage? Two decades isn't bad for digital storage. Most flash memory devices I had didn't even reach the age of 5.
I know none that would last forever. What do you think I have this signature for?
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This condescending way of talking about anything that wasn't released in the last two days slowly but surely makes me sick.
I guess I struck a nerve, @KleinesSinchen? CD-Rs and DVD-Rs degrade, that's just how it works. You would be the first person I meet that has never encountered bitrot in an optical media collection. You do your thing, I'll do mine and I'll surely don't want to force you to change your ways.
My absolute favorite way to go about it is via burned discs and a PS1 with a cheat device or mod chip, although an ODE is likely gonna be more reliable. Bonus points if you can find a CRT on local classifieds, makes the experience even better- all the perks of original hardware without paying exorbitant prices for the software.
