AetherSX2 PS2 emulator enters early access, is now available on the Play Store

playstation-2-logo-F384843875-seeklogo.com (1).png

Quietly arriving on Android's Google Play Store today is the new AetherSX2 emulator. Promising solid performance emulating PlayStation 2 games on mobile, you can now test it out for yourself and see how well AetherSX2 runs on your phone. As with other PS2 emulators, you will need a copy of your PS2's BIOS in order to play games, and if you're looking to get decent results, you'll want to use a device with at least a Snapdragon 845. The app is currently in early access, meaning it may be buggy or unreliable during this testing phase.

FAQ: https://aethersx2.xyz/

AetherSX2 is a emulator of the PS Two console for the Android platform. You can play games which you have dumped from disc on your portable device.

A BIOS image **is required** to play games and is not optional. This image should be dumped from your own console, using a homebrew application.

You need a high end device to achieve good performance. We recommend at least a Snapdragon 845-equivalent device. This means 4 large cores (Cortex-A75 level, 500 or more single core Geekbench 5). If you only have two big cores (e.g. Snapdragon 700 series SoCs), you should not enable multi-threaded VU, and performance will suffer as a result.

Devices with Mali or PowerVR GPUs will run the app, but performance will be much lower than Adreno GPUs, and the Vulkan renderer will not be available. This is because they are missing a critical feature (dual-source blending).

Features:
- System simulation
- OpenGL, Vulkan and Software rendering
- Upscaling of games to 1080p and beyond
- Widescreen patches for games without native support
- Save states
- Touchscreen and bluetooth controller support
- Games can be loaded from iso/chd/cso disc images
- Per game settings

Disclaimers:
AetherSX2 should only be used to play games you own and have dumped from disc yourself. To dump your games, you can use a tool such as ImgBurn to create a .iso for the disc, and then copy across it to your device over USB.

This app is not affiliated in any way with Sony Interactive Entertainment.

:arrow: Download
 

urbanman2004

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I'll let y'all have at it. Y'all can be the guinea pigs in the devs' beta testing :rofl2:. Keep me posted when this emu officially has gold master (RTM) build status :yay:
 

urbanman2004

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Understood because long ago I paid $10 for the other PS2 emulator and it was a train wreck ... now Drastic and the PS1 emulator works flawlessly and I paid for those I think I paid for an NEO Geo emulator also

I don't mind paying but if it's buggy I can wait... I think the Citra Emulator works well but I haven't tested that as much
I bought Drastic [best DS emu on Android] b/c the dev's anti-piracy checks rendered any crack efforts useless, and I also purchased a few other emus from the dev fms like "VGBAnext" and "MasterGear"... If I were you, I would suggest try using the unofficial build MMJ version of Citra which isn't available in the Play Store for better performance.
 
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Kioku

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Not really... Modern-day hardware is powerful enough to not need any of the shortcuts or hacks that ZNES implemented for widespread game compatibility.
It needs to come back because I miss its menu.
 

urbanman2004

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It needs to come back because I miss its menu.
Oh, w/ the 16-bit graphics UI and the snow? :rofl2::D
I mean, you can still actually download it by using Google and it works on Windows 10, but I prefer using more accurately rendering emus like SNES9x and bsnes.
 

Kioku

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Oh, w/ the 16-bit graphics UI and the snow? :rofl2::D
I mean, you can still actually download it by using Google and it works on Windows 10, but I prefer using more accurately rendering emus like SNES9x and bsnes.
I honestly just want the UI. If I could use it on Snes9x instead of the standard UI, I would.
 
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console

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dude what IS this thing, I can't even find the CPU specs on google lol
Easy to find answer is to download CPU Z from Google Play store to install on tablet / phone can tell system info to us.


CPU-Z

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cpuid.cpu_z&hl=en_US&gl=US

Android version of the popular CPU identification tool for PC, CPU-Z is a free application that reports information about your device.

- SoC (System On Chip) name, architecture, clock speed for each core ;
- System information : device brand & model, screen resolution, RAM, storage.;
- Battery information : level, status, temperature, capacity ;
- Sensors.

Requirements :
- Android 2.2 and above (version 1.03 and +)


B-)
 

tfocosta

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I've tried a couple of games on a Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 (CPU: Octa-core Max2.01GHz/RAM: 4GB) and here's what I have got so far:
- Kingdom Hearts - It's playable, but it's a bit slow during some parts where you have more graphical content.
- Kingdom Hearts II - Same as above.
- Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World - It has a bit of lag sometimes but it's playable.
- Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 - Menu navigation and movie contents are fine but gameplay during fights is slow, probably because my phone is not a high end device. I'm sure this should be fine on a better phone.

I have other games to try out, but need to compress them from ISO to CSO. They are all over 4GB.

So, on an average, I would give it 7/10 and fully recommend this emulator! Can't wait to get a better phone to take full advantage of its potential and play all my favorite games. :D
 

BigOnYa

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Anyone have the apk? I know there "isn't one" anywhere else other than the play store, but maybe someone has it offlined. My tablet will not connect to the internet and I can't download it.
Same with me. I want to try it but I don't have or I don't want to set up Google Store/Play services on my Amazon 10 tablet. Somebody please make an offline .APK for this please!
 
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duyeh

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FFX international, i got glitch in mushroom valley,the platform is lifted up,but my character is not

Sent from my POCO F1 using Tapatalk
 

player594

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but how do the Metal Gear games run on it? That's the real question
Metal Gear 3 Substance runs decent, but does have random crashing issues. Some slow downs during lots of action on screen. I can't get Vulkan to work at all on my S21+. It just crashes when launching any game.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk
 

AngryCinnabon

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Metal Gear 3 Substance runs decent, but does have random crashing issues. Some slow downs during lots of action on screen. I can't get Vulkan to work at all on my S21+. It just crashes when launching any game.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk
That would likely be because your phone may not be using a snapdragon cpu/gpu but rather samsung's in-house Exynos, i'd check a spec checking app on your phone to clear up if you're using a snapdragon S21+ or an Exynos one if you're unaware.
 

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