We recently posted an article on how Android mobile phones are becoming a superb platform for classic and new RPG games. Not only is this thanks to GBA, SNES and Mega Drive emulator creators, but this is also thanks to the incredible PlayStation emulators now available for Android mobiles.
If you own a relatively newer smart phone with a more reliable 1GHz processor, you can enjoy quite a few PlayStation classics on your phone! Just like the GBA emulators we wrote about last, these PSX emulators cost a small amount to download (and it’s worth the £3 or £4 for the work that goes into them) but the games a free (ROMS). You may have noticed that we said you could enjoy “quite a few” classic PlayStation games? This is due to the emulators performance on some Android handsets. You see, emulators, games and apps are much more difficult to develop for an Android phone due to the sheer amount of Android handsets on the market. Put simply…it’s impossible to test these apps for every handset and rather than simply develop and test for an iPhone, devs pretty much have to do their best and prey these emulators perform reasonably across multiple Android platforms.
Android smart phones just got more interesting...but there's allot of the buggers!
PSX4Droid
No longer on the Android Market (due to copyright disputes over the “PSX” in its name) the PSX4Droid emulator was THE emulator to get for your Android phone. PSX4Droid could run Final Fantasy 7 perfectly and could also run (but with a list of bugs and other performance issues) Final Fantasy 8, Final Fantasy 9 and even Chrono Cross. There were quite a few other games this baby could run but customers got frustrated when its developer continued to charge for updates. Paying for something is understandable, but having to pay again and again for an updated that would improve a single games performance (if you were lucky) just wasn’t right. In fact…if you weren’t careful you may have found yourself paying for the price of PSX and a game!
Many gamers bit their tongues, but when PSX4Droid was set upon by Sony for copyright laws, they started posting how they really felt (ouch!). After PS4Droid got pulled from the Android Market, the developer (Zodttd) continued to release the emulator for FREE via his PXS4Droid official website. Check it out as the emulator is currently up to it’s 3.o.3 release! (as of 11/04/2011).
We think the dev learned a valuable lesson so we wish him all the best with his emulator and we can’t wait to play his future work!
PSX4Droid was a good emulator on the Android Market that gave us gamers back some of our all-time classics
FPSE
After PSX4Droid disappeared a new PSX emulator emerged. FPSE was a PlayStation emulator by a new author and although more complex than PSX4Droid, it shows a lot of promise for future releases. Updates are regularly seen on the Android Market and more importantly, customer aren’t charged for these updates. If the dev keeps pumping out updates then we’ll soon see a fast and reliable PlayStation emulator on Android. Check out the FPSE official website.
FPSE may be new but its developers head and heart are in the right place
Please remember that if you wish for your PlayStation Android emulator dev to iron out its bugs or other performance issues, then please support them and buy their work. Yes, we were against multiple update charges but you have no right to complain about any issue of an emulator if you haven’t financially supported it with that original purchase.
The Games
Lets all be honest, most of us were like kiddies in a sweet shop when we first heard of the Android PlayStation emulator. Flashbacks of Final Fantasy 7, Duke Nukem 3D, Die Hard Trilogy, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid and many other classic PlayStation games flooded our gamer noggins. But the reality was that these emulators were in heavy development and being as there are so many Android platforms, it was impossible to get every handset running them efficiently.
We know of a hand-full of playable classics, but we need more feedback from gamers
We want to start a comments list that helps others out with their Android handsets and emulators. If you’ve purchased the PSX4Droid (it may have been withdrawn but you can still play it if you purchased it) or the FPSE, or you plan on buying the new-named PSX4Droid once it’s live again, then get posting your emulator gaming findings here!
Please remember that your posts for how games run will only be helpful with the following info at the start:
1) The exact android handset you’re using
2) The exact version of the emulator you’re playing or have completed it on
Remember PSX4Droid may temporarily be down but many people paid for it and are still using it, so don’t hold back on those findings! Also please feel free to post findings on Zodttd’s latest website PSX4Droid releases. They may not be published on the Android Market but they are still designed for Android phones!
Ideally your comments would be superb if you finished the game (you’ll have a much better understanding of how it runs) but if you simply can’t wait to post your opinions, then please at least play the first 1hr of gameplay before posting your findings. Thanks.
Keep posting your findings and lets help everyone play their favourite PlayStation games!
Running the latest FPSe on At&t Samsung Galaxy S5. I believe the version number is 0.11.153. I’m trying to play FF8 and am using the 255AP cheat and it freezes after every battle. Anybody have any tips or tricks I can use? I’ve changed up the video settings a bit and I t tends to run a little better but still freezes when using cheats.
Anyone know how to move FPSXE saves from HTC phones to the Nexus 7 tablet? Really need to know. Thanks
FPse have released a ton of updates this month! :o)
Can’t wait to see an FPSE list for the Nexus 7! Just saying! :o)
I use a Lg Optimus Net
Spyro the Dragon , Spyro Riptos Rage, Crash bandicoot 2,3 all run alittle laggy the music is static-y but if music is turned off game runs smoothly
Psx4droid
Would love to see a 3DO emulator for Android. Would need the new quad CPU handsets but it would be amazing!
It was cool to see classics like Chrono Cross run on my mobile but I still can’t wait to play it on my Vita. I’ve heard this was out on the US PSN. Is that true?
@ Oliver
I’m pretty sure Android 3 (Honeycomb) was mainly used for tablet devices. There was a Motorola Zoom 2 phone with the upgrade, but I think it was a case of just being an ‘upgrade’ for some handsets.
Yeah, we all thought HTC would update a long list but they’re actually quite picky on what handsets they update, now
Pretty sure that issue was with older HTC phones. Newer ones (ideally dual core CPU handsets) should have no problems running PSOne emulators and games. But good advice though
I’m kinda confused with HTC handsets and Android versions. I have an HTC running Android 2.2. Then I read up on 2.3 (Gingerbread) but now I’ve heard of 4.0 (Ice cream Sandwich). What the chuff happened to 3.0????
Go easy when playing Final Fantasy games on your HTC. Some handsets have 360-like overheating problems that can lead to a continuously looped restart. If you’re playing and notice the underside off your phone is very warm, stop playing, switch to hibernate mode and wait until it cools.
I actually can’t wait to see Final Fantasy 8 and 9 (and maybe even 10) running on my PSVITA :O)
The last time I played FF9 on FPSE it had major sound issues and EVEN crashed after the brief tutorial on most handsets. I’m not sure if this was ever fixed as the creator of the emu remains busy on other projects.
So, did you have FF8 running perfectly? That too, was meant to have sound issues and major slowdown on the world map?
I have a samsung exzibit 2 and it runs alot if things but im trying f
to figure out hiw my fpse will run ff9. it works for ff7 and ff8 but im havimg trouble with 9. Please helpe
Hi Crazyboy,
Try older versions of PSX4DROID. It may seem silly, but it’s a common issue for newer updates to cause new problems. Trying an older version may make FF8 run a lot better. I’ve actually heard that one version makes it run and play great, but just with some sound glitches.
Not exactly sure which build that is but download a few older ones and try them out (link to the official PSX4DROID site is in the article above). If anyone else knows the exact build then it would be appreciated.
Hi guys,
I am using Galaxy tab – downloaded 3.06 PSX4droid – playing FF8 it freezes in any fight what am I doing wrongg? tried every setting 🙁 pleae help
I hope Zod is still working on PSX4Droid. His last post didn’t sound too good…
Street Fighter EX plus Alpha on HTC Desire – PSX4droid v1.7
Loads fine but suffers from major slowdown. Will have far to low fps for many but I must admit…Street Fighter EX plus Alpha is kinda cool when you’re ducking and jumping attacks in slow-mo LOL
A recommendation of the ideal version of PSX4droid for Street Fighter EX plus Alpha, would be much appreciated. Thanks.
HTC Desire – PSX4Droid 1.7
Duke Nukem Total Meltdown: Gets to main front-end and then freezes. Unable to play.
Final Fantasy 9 – PSX4Droid 1.7
Intro is almost perfect but audio is out of sync and choppy. First part of gameplay is fine (first 5-10mins) but as soon as first mission starts it crashes.
HTC Desire – PSX4Droid 1.7
Chrono Cross: Fully playable and stable but music will slow down when in battle and when moving character around map.
Buttons can be non-responsive and every time you hold the run button + D-pad: Down, you’ll enter the menu. Tad frustrating but I’m really enjoying the game.
If there is a better version where I can move my 1.7 saves to (I saved to card in-game) please let me know?
Thanks