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.

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[Takeshineale128]

full speed opengl x1 on mi11 (snapdragon 888) with kishi controller. tested ff12

 

[matpower]

I get it but it doesn't make sense to release it early they should wait a bit... to my best knowledge the only PS2 emulator that works flawlessly is the one for the PC

If we are not getting that performance idk why download maybe that's just me

It is based off PCSX2 actually IIRC. The reason they're releasing is for wider testing and to kill off DamonPS2, which is basically malware.

 

[Goku1992A]

It is based off PCSX2 actually IIRC. The reason they're releasing is for wider testing and to kill off DamonPS2, which is basically malware.

I hope they make a compatibility list of the games that currently work on it

I paid $10 for DamonPS2 and it was a waste of money no games worked

 

[Marc_LFD]

Google Store finally has something that isn't garbage.

 

[LanHikariDS]

I get it but it doesn't make sense to release it early they should wait a bit... to my best knowledge the only PS2 emulator that works flawlessly is the one for the PC

If we are not getting that performance idk why download maybe that's just me

PCSX2 is absolutely not flawless, and no emulator for 3D titles truly is. That's just the nature of emulator development.

 

[the_randomizer]

PCSX2 is absolutely not flawless, and no emulator for 3D titles truly is. That's just the nature of emulator development.

It's not garbage either, contrary to what some people on here think.

 

[LanHikariDS]

It's not garbage either, contrary to what some people on here think.

Absolutely not, it does what it sets out to do fairly well, though my understanding is that PCSX2 is a rather nasty thing under the hood (Or rather, was, as the team has been working to clean up a lot of the game-specific hacks)

 

[Nerdtendo]

I wonder what this looks like on switch root. Probably not great but it'll be interesting when people post

 

[CloudStrife1901]

Playing Resident evil outbreak on my snapdragon s20 fe and the game works flawlessly!

 

[Marc_LFD]

PCSX2 is absolutely not flawless, and no emulator for 3D titles truly is. That's just the nature of emulator development.

I've never been much into the PS2 scene and like others, I thought emulation had been perfected, but actually not. Huh.

Then again, it's not surprising considering PS3s weren't flawless at playing PS2 games as they had some sort of an issue.

My personal recommendation remains to be a PS2 (Launch or Slim) with a genuine component cable and a reliable wireless controller (MadCatz were great and work without probs unlike PowerA who make controllers for new consoles and breaks after a few months).

 

[RAHelllord]

Quick testing appears to show it's working full speed on my Moto G100 (Snapdragon 870 which is "just" a souped up 865+) , but doesn't recognize the standard input on my GameSir X2.

Edit: The GameSir app allows a workaround where you can mimic touch inputs on the display and it works splendidly.

 

[LanHikariDS]

My personal recommendation remains to be a PS2 (Launch or Slim) with a genuine component cable and a reliable wireless controller (MadCatz were great and work without probs unlike PowerA who make controllers for new consoles and breaks after a few months).

OPL lets you use DualShock 3s and DS4s if you plug a compatible bluetooth reciever into the PS2

 

[Marc_LFD]

So much better than Play! and I am glad I didnt pay DamonPS2 PRO. AetherSX2 is right choice plays both Maximo games smooth on Galaxy Tab S7 6gb ram plus Note 10plus phone 12GB ram I better go grab kishi controller before it gone off shelves for while

It's currently selling for decent prices though with this announcement it may make it a very desirable accessory now.

Folks will finally have a Portable PS2 without paying excessive amounts.

 

[subcon959]

Burnout 3 is pretty tricky with touchscreen controls but it's running great. This is very impressive for an alpha.

 

[raxadian]

This is great but my phone is too crappy for it and my PS2 still works anyway.

 

[CloudStrife1901]

An xbox one controller with Bluetooth works straight away without remapping the buttons

 

[Marc_LFD]

An xbox one controller with Bluetooth works straight away without remapping the buttons

I've tried DualShock 4 and it worked perfectly on Android so that should work without issues.

Stadia works on Android too, but wired.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Downloading it now, I have an older Galaxy Note 9 Pro with a Snapdragon 845 so maybe it will be good enough lol

 

[zeyfuller]

Anyone try this on switch yet

I wonder what this looks like on switch root. Probably not great but it'll be interesting when people post

I could only get to 60% speed in Ratchet & Clank 3, and like 50% on the menus in Sly Cooper. Lowest settings. I stopped there but I did transfer over some other games.

 

[BigOnYa]

Sucks it requires Google Play!