PlayStation Plus PS1/PS2/PSP Classic Games Emulators Tested - And They're Not Good Enough

Part of PlayStation Plus' revamp is the inclusion of PS1, PS2 and PSP titles running under emulation on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. So how good are the emulators, what extra features do you get, and what is the score with the inclusion of compromised 50Hz PAL versions? We gained access to the Asian PSN where the service has now fully launched - and John Linneman has this report.
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[@gaolbrake]

Sony have confused a 1:1 pixel mapping option, with a 1:1 aspect ratio. Given the size of the company, that's pretty incredible.

[@polynektar]

huh, i wonder if thats the case. it'd be incredible

[@flameshana9]

Just goes to show how much they care.

Exactly what it looks like to me as well. An absurd gaffe to make imho

[@spenny2cents]

Unacceptable. Cancelling my 3 year subscription and letting it lapse in 2026 because of this

[@GameslordXY]

@@spenny2cents Can that actually be done? Aren't you paying them all at once in advance?

[@joeykeilholz925]

Hard working legends that make these games run properly in open source emulators get associated with "piracy", yet the company able to legally sell an emulation product seems incapable or unwilling to make it good. Not sure what would be wrong with licensing an emulator when the work has already been done and it's x86.

[@GameslordXY]

Less profit, I imagine

[@bluedragon219123]

@@GameslordXY I'm sure if Sony contacted the owners/maintainers/administrators they, Sony, could likely get it for free. :)

[@Mopantsu]

Licensing is the issue here. Piracy does not suffer from such issues.

[@user-vs9dy5sq1j]

PS5 emulator is better

[@Ema-ic1zl]

Aplauses! Exelent statement.

[@fablecio]

It's crazy that unpaid people can make better emulators than Sony can. It should not be difficult at all for Sony to just let us put our old discs in or use our old downloads.

[@coreyharrell9079]

Those unpaid people do it for their love of games, Sony does it for the love of money....

[@googlewolly]

@@coreyharrell9079 Well said and so true.

[@ISSO1407]

Im not sure if the PS5 can even read ps1 discs. It certainly cant read music discs and a whole lot of other formats.

[@Shadowespeon17]

@@ISSO1407 they can't. It physically lacks the laser to read them

[@mspektor8523]

The Steam Deck runs these backwards compatible games better than the PS5, with the benefits of handheld and way more customisation options for both graphics and controls. Sony did the bare minimum.

[@BoolXor]

I'm not willing to give console makers the same benefit of the doubt when they mess up parts of the emulation because they should have the original Hardware along with access to the people who made the stuff, whereas lots of Emulators were made with guess work. Being on par or worse than Free Emulators is bad, especially for a paid service.

[@sulac4ever170]

So true! Another monument to Sony's half-heartedness, laziness and ignorance regarding their history, customers and (fanatically) loyal fans - it's just disgusting and incredibly sad.

[@krisridge1985]

Agreed

[@shaggytewsak]

Idk how y’all are surprised about all this, this is Sony we are talking about, everything they do is half assed, garbage fukin company

[@Hayden2447]

And it’s even worse when you look at how Microsoft does it, somehow they perfected original Xbox and Xbox 360 emulation, now granted original Xbox emulation is limited to not many games but what’s there works flawlessly in 4K and Xbox 360 emulation has hundreds of games, some having boosted resolution or frame rates. Microsoft with the effort managed to make the best original Xbox and Xbox 360 emulators, Sony should be able to do the same with their systems.

[@shaggytewsak]

@@Hayden2447 Sony is fukin tarded and has no clue how to do anything other than rip everything and everyone off poorly

[@Sakurina]

1:1 is not a “one-to-one” pixel mode, it’s a 1:1 (square) aspect ratio. The most galaxy brain of options

[@tjwood4523]

Their methods are beyond our understanding lmao

[@mar2ck_]

Instagram mode

[@Glotttis]

You are right, 1:1 is a square aspect ratio option and it appears to be doing just that. Not sure why John was confused about that. As for square pixels option it also appears to be working fine. This is what square pixel option does: so as you might know NTSC is 720 x 480 (3:2 aspect ratio) and PAL is 720 x 576 (5:4 aspect ratio), so neither of them are actually 4:3. So games and every other content had to stretch pixels to fill 4:3 screen, and this "square pixels" option reverses that. I think there are a handful of games where using square pixels option makes game look correct, but 99.9% of the time you shouldn't be using this setting.

[@AFistfulOf4K]

Sony of America probably farmed this out to the lowest-bidding ESL country who interpreted 1:1 literally.

[@joesterling4299]

@@Glotttis I was confused the first time I encountered this myself in VLC Media Player. I was after no stretching or shrinking of the displayed video (1 screen pixel per video pixel). But I quickly learned that's not what it means. It means a square display, regardless to how UN-square the pixels have to become to achieve it. Seems like a useless feature to me, but maybe advanced users would disagree.

[@CaptainEggcellent]

It feels like Sony really didn’t want to have to do this, but they felt they needed too because of what Microsoft has done in terms of back compat. It’s a shame because Sonys back catalogue is excellent!

[@bargaintuesday812]

The PS1 and PS2 are the top 2 best libraries in my opinion. They're sitting on a gold mine.

[@Stana999]

@@bargaintuesday812 couldn’t have said it better myself.

[@Rafikiuh]

@JC Denton Irony is I'm currently emulating PS1 games on my Series X LOL

[@hateWinVista]

Sony is standing besides a pile of gold and ignoring it. Same thing goes to PS Classic, literally a quick cash grab to say "hey we also have emulation services!" and that's it.

[@kolo5141]

@@Rafikiuh Browser or dev mode?

[@gennaroleggemanga2853]

The level of detail of these reviews is always outstanding. It’s sad the state of the service. I was really looking forward to it. I really, really hope they start fixing as Nintendo silently did after the “water tample fog gate”

[@SonicBoone56]

@@ramonandrajo6348 it's not even piracy when it's games this old

[@NickBFTD]

This situation is bizarre to me. A: Whoever they hired to create the emulators seems to have no idea what they are doing. (Such as 1:1 should show a wider image rather than a narrow image) B: Sony doesn't seem to appreciate their own back catalog.

[@Kniffel101]

"No idea what they're doing" is a big claim from somebody who, from what I can see, never wrote any emulator in their life. =)

[@WhirlingMusic]

@@Kniffel101 found the guy who did it. Do better

[@BleedForTheWorld]

@@Kniffel101 ad hominem

[@NickBFTD]

@@Kniffel101You missed out the 'seems' anyway I've never manufactured bicycles, but if a company produced ones with square wheels wouldn't I be correct in claiming they had no idea what they are doing ?.

[@szczur17l]

@@NickBFTD That was a good one xDD

[@mjc0961]

Considering the PlayStation Classic was a mess of PAL titles in all regions of the world, John's being incredibly generous in thinking Sony might give us NTSC where appropriate this time. I'm fully expecting Sony to screw this up worldwide again.

[@RealziesCuts]

Vouch They’re never gonna be able to top ultimate game pass with the Xbox Dev kit 💫

[@sigmatic2788]

@@RealziesCuts not even a dev kit makes their service worth it lol.

[@Sevent77]

They mostly likely will but it's because they most likely have no choice. People have seem forgot that this PAL vs NTSC issue hasn't started with the PS one classic but all the way back on the ps3 you could buy ps1 games digitally on the ps3 and it was the same issue, some games were NTSC others were in PAL. There were even huge difference in what games were available in what region, for example Dino Crisis and MegaMan Legends you could only buy on the USA PSN. All of this is simply caused by licensing issues, if Sony can't aquire full license of the NTSC version they have to settle for the PAL version, one major factor in this is USA license laws vs EU license laws.

[@Konic_and_Snuckles]

@@RealziesCuts Why would you need a Xbox dev kit too? What's wrong with just Game Pass Ultimate?

[@solarstrike33]

@@Konic_and_Snuckles That’s how you get into the emulation stuff with Series’ consoles.

[@jmi_music]

Let’s just take a moment to appreciate Johns fine analysis here. I wish whoever is in charge of the ps classics project cared as much as John does.

[@judgedeath2614]

honestly if Soony spent even half the effort that the emulation community puts into it we'd really have something

[@frankderossi795]

That's pretty much Jim Ryan's Sony America's attitude to classic gaming.

[@xTheReapersSpawn]

I feel the love for gaming from the modding communities. Definitley not, on the whole, from large developers and publishers.

[@chemergency]

Sony sure took the "it's better than nothing" approach with this one. Shame really.

[@akkibajaj705]

I think it’s best to wait n see they can still be working on emulation

[@KingGameReview]

This video makes me appreciate Xbox's BC quality that much more

[@spenny2cents]

You mean the same Xbox that is irrelevant if you have a half decent PC? If your goal is emulation why in the world would you be shopping for a current gen console

[@Hayden2447]

@@spenny2cents Either way it doesn’t change the fact Microsoft had some very high quality emulation, original Xbox emulation was known to be difficult and yet MS just got games running 4K on it without issue, Xbox 360 emulation which is still a work in progress on PC also works flawlessly on Xbox. Sure, the amount of games is limited which is a big downside but the quality of it all matches or beats the original experience. I can happily play Forza Horizon 1 at 4K on Series X without an issue. Safe to say MS may have superior emulators to what open source folks got, of course MS is limited because of legal issues, they can’t put the entire game library up because the consoles can’t install from the disc so the game must be listed onto the MS store which original Xbox games for example weren’t because there wasn’t a MS store. Of course if the Xbox Series X could nativity install from disc MS could bypass the legal requirements which would mean more games but yeah, not happening.

[@Regulo1d]

@@spenny2cents It's got a better price to performance ratio and many Xbox BC titles offer improvements that even something like Xenia can match just yet. Plus it's an easy plug and play solution to put into a living room

[@SlamBolts]

To the surprise of nobody... What's crazy to me is that, ironically, an Xbox Series is better at emulating PS1 through Duckstation than the PS5 itself. With how good emulators and computers are nowadays, people are better off using Duckstation, PCSX2 and hell, even RPCS3, which can make some games run even better than original hardware.

[@NonsensicalSpudz]

you mean better than sony in general

[@adrianhosein7698]

@@NonsensicalSpudz that's why Xbox always losing? Lol

[@e.777.r2]

Yeah Xbox Series X is a great emulation machine for old games, not much for current gen exclusives though.

[@THEcoolGAMER60]

@@adrianhosein7698 cope 😂😂😂

[@rinkumultani6515]

dude xbox been putting more work and money in to optimising the old games and making u play same old crap for years and years for generation without giving u new stuff trust me sony will fix these issue in due time just like last place forever loser brand xbox

[@anthonyguerrero4612]

You'd think the company and developers responsible for making these systems would understand things like proper frame pacing, aspect ratios, and emulation.

[@paweldurczok]

At this point I'm suspecting it's just deliberate incopetence. Very good PS1 emulators have been available for nearly 2 decades now, there's no good reason why Sony's efforts have been so poor in this regard. Unless they simply want to discourage people from still pushing them to provide backwards compatibility.

[@SC0RPI0NFURY]

This is correct, i agree, Sony don't want the focus to be on these services or their retro games as it could potentially fragment their userbase and shift focus away from the big stuff coming such as PS VR2

[@nicekix3038]

I disagree. Sony didn’t create PS5 with full backwards compatibility in mind. Jim Ryan is the same person that said, Sony believes in generations. This seems like it was a last minute thing they put together while Microsoft has put a lot of time, effort, and money into backwards compatibility

[@colonian83]

​@@nicekix3038 it's hilarious that you can even emulate ps1 games really well with retroarch on retail mode. shame they're not doing one of the most popular generations

[@qwertimus]

They had *excellent* in-house emulation back for PS3, PSP, & Vita. I can only assume the people responsible have moved on to other projects now...

[@symphonicangel88]

Nearly two decades... They are old games, what did you expect?

[@batmabel]

I really hope someone does a side-by-side comparison of what the PS5 emulator looks like when compared to an actual good emulator, like DuckStation.

[@Blur4strike]

Sony, once again doing a half-assed job of emulating their own legacy titles. Seems they've learned nothing from the "Playstation Classic" debacle in 2018. Once again the community is doing a better job of said emulation of Sony's legacy titles.

[@akkibajaj705]

They are still working on emulation

[@bunnyleaningonasquishedbun5542]

@@akkibajaj705 they really shouldn't have to given the amount of resources and money they have, if anything, a company like Sony should be called out for it.

[@fazzeai]

@@akkibajaj705 they are "working" on their emulation since ps classic release.

[@ericbenoit4825]

@@fazzeai crazy that ps3 and vita did it better

[@Kdkjdjewerdnxa]

Echochrome deserves more love. The soundtrack is incredible and its perspective based gameplay preceded many other games with similar concepts.

[@_gelon]

Super Paper Mario and Sega's Crush came one year before, but yeah, it was still very influential.

[@beardalaxy]

Echochrome is awesome!!

[@LeesChannel]

@Ángel Yeah, I had been thinking about it for years, Crush really is the progenitor of those perspective based puzzle games, I don't think it gets enough credit.

[@Solegor]

They should just port ps3 original

[@sebastianaliandkulche]

One of the best puzzle games ever made imo.

[@AzaiaMonota]

I love how multi billion dollar companies can't make emulators on par with single random people

[@WilliamGoldsbury]

That’s because those one-person projects are made with passion, as opposed to the begrudging heel-dragging that Sony has displayed. (From their execs I mean, I’m sure there are people at Sony passionate about this).

[@ShawFujikawa]

Emulator devs are hardly just ‘random people’, they’re usually very intelligent and passionate about their work.

[@kidrobot.]

i love how you think you know what you are talking about

[@AzaiaMonota]

@@kidrobot. I love how I'm right

[@halo3boy1]

you would think they would just idk, hire them?

[@kevythekevlar]

Craziness. PS1, PS2, and psp games legitimately run significantly better on even the Xbox series S compared to PS5. How did this even happen?

[@hurricane7727]

What Psp Games? They only have One Psp Games

[@AvaaSlays_Swiftie]

Sony just doesn’t flat out care. This was a cash grab options for a 20 dollar up charge and no reason to add more. You should be happy the gods of PlayStation even graced you with the most mediocre games of their classic library. Us peasants aren’t good enough for all the good games.

[@fasoooli2751]

​@@hurricane7727Now?

[@intelsilver]

Recent content has been amazing. Keep it up DF!

[@bogovix]

Sony has technical documentation of how both PS1's hardware and PS1's software work, professional developers, who get high salaries, the code of open-source PS1 emulators used on PC that can literally be used on PS5, as it is just an x86-compatible Zen 2-based system after all, and they still manage to fuck everything up and SELL a product that is worse than pretty much any free PS1 emulator on PC. In addition to the bad state of the emulator itself, they introduce a very small library of games and, to make things even worse, use PAL versions of these games. This is just an insult...

[@retrosoul8770]

...to themselves and their own great legacy and game catalogs as well. Baffling.

[@biquiba]

And it's exclusive to the highest tier subscription too.

[@edsonrzk]

@@retrosoul8770 its going to get better as they'll keep working and improoving the technology.

[@melxvee6850]

people working on PS5 wanna make PS5 best for PS5 games, not PS1 games, Why'd yall ask for this

[@Youraveragegamer_97]

@@melxvee6850 lmao wow you dont get it

[@Synkhan]

It would be nice to see you guys compare the feature list to something like PCSX2 for the PS2 and the various emulators out there.

[@Console_Gaming_Vids]

John, I firmly believe the video freezes at 7:11 purposely to show the issue with these PAL versions. Such a great touch!

[@grantdanasty]

"This is the original Ape Club....except it's not boring" YOOOO GET IN THERE JOHN!!!!!

[@iurigrang]

Honestly, all of these platforms are very well emulated by the community nowadays, even on mobile, and if this is the best effort Sony is willing to make, I'm don't even feel any shame of recommending you just download one of these instead.

[@sachoslks]

Seriously dude, right now the quality is lackuster compared to free fan emulators, it sucks. Also i dont know whats up with those low resolution targets 1440p for PS1 and 1080p for PSP and even lower for PS2. I can do 4K on PC emulators in all those consoles with my GTX 960...

[@colonian83]

​@@sachoslks doing 4k on series s duckstation lol

[@fabolousjada5070]

Bro give them a year lmao Xbox classics hardly work look at the reviews of jade empire etc

[@tomboy_kisser]

Thanks for being honest; it must have been difficult to come clean with an admission like that

[@1gta4gta]

@@sachoslks even a gtx750ti is enough lmao

[@Subninja2012]

Sony is really behind on emulation. I think they were trying to avoid it but Microsoft forced their hand.

[@sadgiantsfan3690]

Which is funny because they used to be decent at it 20 years ago.

[@Subninja2012]

@@sadgiantsfan3690 20 years ago no one cared. Now it’s a must have feature for consoles.

[@GameplayandTalk]

I really hope these emulators are improved over time, especially for the launch of this service in other regions.

[@pixeljauntvr7774]

Hopefully. But I get the feeling despite all the noise over retro and BC it's a very small fraction of gamers that actually engage with it.

[@solarstrike33]

@@pixeljauntvr7774 There’s no way Sony’s numbers are accurate. They pulled the same excuse with removing PS2 backwards compatibility with the PS3, but everyone I knew liked it.

[@shootermcgavin1208]

Don’t count on it.

[@poopikins]

Not a chance

[@Mantrahiroshima]

@@solarstrike33 man I love when people say their own anecdotal evidence from a friend group trumps data from the company THAT MANUFACTURES SAID PRODUCT 🤣. You realize how absolutely stupid you look doing that don’t you? You really think that because you and your five friends liked the service that the majority of console owners did as well, and sony lied about that fact so they could stop making money on it and remove that functionality to just throw revenue away? Because that’s what you’re saying happened. You honestly believe that?

[@ROBYER1]

The PSP 3000 did have horizontal scan lines visible on the screen so I think the retro classic filter for PSP is appropriate due to the different types of displays the PSP had

[@CaptainWheelies]

So it's proved that definitive way to enjoy classic PlayStation games on modern consoles is on an Xbox.

[@saho9447]

An emulation guide video in which the best setup for any given console is presented would be nice :) Superb analysis as always!

[@Bankenrepublik]

Like 20 years ago some random dudes spent their free time to make a PSX emulator which worked fine. However Sony struggles to implement a somewhat decent emulator on PS5. It's just shocking and inexcusable - especially since it's part of the expensive PS Plus Premium tier. We had a much better experience if Sony simply allowed third-party emulators or at least asked them for help. Heck, even on Xbox you could use Retroarch to access significantly more PS1+2 games in a much better quality.

[@Alex_Logan22]

You’re spending an extra $20 a year for them and other benefits, it’s not that expensive, you’re not spending $120 a year or an extra $60 a year JUST for PS1 games, that’s not how it works.

[@shootermcgavin1208]

@@Alex_Logan22 Yeah, I’m sure that’s what the Sony execs responsible for this abomination were thinking to themselves as well.

[@Alex_Logan22]

@@shootermcgavin1208 Perhaps, but I can see new titles being added monthly as well for a long time unlike NSO, since they have a lot to mine from the PS3's database (they're using the same licenses from back then since those old purchases are carried over).

[@RON_HART]

Ironic how the Series X is able to unofficially emulate these consoles much better than the official PS5 versions, FROM Sony themselves. If there was a way to use a Dev mode to install Retroarch on PS5 as well, that would be awesome. Jim Ryan really sucks compared to Kaz, Jack, and Shawn.

[@solarstrike33]

Jim Ryan, the best Microsoft employee of the year, folks!

[@DuckAlertBeats]

Series S even :) DuckStation is incredible on there too. Makes this whole official endeavour look even worse than it is. Nice work Sony!

[@Alex_Logan22]

Unofficial is always going to be better than official cause of licensing.

[@Nonlifting_breezy]

They need it because Xbox has no games. Just indy filler

[@nightdriver7216]

Under Kaz and Shawn you had PS3 games over cloud. How's that any better?

[@sadderthanyou7793]

OMG, what is this!? SONY has no idea how to emulate their own consoles.

[@vidaett]

Would love for Digital foundry to do more videos about emulators and handhel consoles able to play older games.

[@underwaves75]

I'd love to see a comparison video between series x and ps5 in terms of backwards compatibility comparing the same games. The Orange Box would be a good one, though we'll need to wait a bit for now until there are enough titles to really investigate the differences. However it pans out, as far as next gen consoles they are both incredible.

[@Alex_Logan22]

That would be streaming only and run exactly the same way it did on PS3.

[@codhesap4623]

Ps5 cannot run The Orange Box because this game is a PS3 game

[@infinitysynthesis]

Makes me appreciate Xbox's BC even more. It's just too good : D

[@notslucis9977]

And they stop doing that now! 🤗😂 lol

[@infinitysynthesis]

@@notslucis9977 They did tons. Much more than sony ever will.

[@notslucis9977]

@@infinitysynthesis Sony is just starting and Sony had more memorable classic games than Xbot!! 😂😅

[@segads]

@@notslucis9977 they did every game that can be done, now only license issues stop them.

[@notslucis9977]

@@segads so not all of the then! 😂😅 lol

[@paullucci]

You guys were very nice about this. I would call this effort piss poor.

[@colinhawkins7815]

You guys are amazing getting this out so quick

[@jazzylament9909]

I noticed that in Syphon Filter, there is actually no blood particles when you hit a target, only the texture turns to "bloody" when shot. These should be present on NTSC (I don't know about PAL), so how come there is this strange difference? They can't be modifying these could they? Or maybe they used an older version before those effects were added? Is that even possible?

[@LeesChannel]

Maybe Japanese version? Games in Japan often get blood and gore edited out, this was especially true back then. Keep in mind that the service is only available in Asia, and Japan is NTSC.

[@symphony137]

@@LeesChannel It is also available in Taiwan which is NTSC but they still got the same versions as the PAL countries.

[@jazzylament9909]

@@LeesChannel Oh...so there are still different versions even among NTSC games? Even if the language is still English in this one? So, maybe we will get the actual NA version when the service comes west?

[@LeesChannel]

@JazzyLament One can dream, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. It's a much more pleasant experience to emulate these games on PC or even Android, I'd never pay a subscription for an inferior experience.

[@jazzylament9909]

@@LeesChannel Yes, very true :) duckstation with the texture fixes and retro achievements is a lovely way to play the games. That said, I do already own the PS3 digital version of Syphon Filter for PS1, so I'll be receiving the PS5 version for free, and part of me thinks it's really fascinating to earn PS5 trophies for a PS1 game, so I'll probably play regardless haha :)

[@konga382]

I will never understand why a company with the resources of Sony is incapable of delivering a CRT filter on the level of one-man or small-team passion projects like CRT-Royale

[@Revariance]

it's ironic that back in the 90's and early 2000's Sony arguably made the best consumer CRT televisions on the market. I'm still rocking a Sony Trinitron for my retro gaming.

[@mark8200]

When it still a better experience to emulate most of this on a cellphone... and you don't have to wait for them to tell you what games you can play

[@arnaudc.6795]

Great video from John as usual :-)

[@retroreplay1980]

I appreciate Sony making this decision easy for me.

[@JadenXI]

I understand why PS3 games would be hard, but you would THINK they would want to launch their new more expensive tiers with at least SOME classic PS1 and PS2 games that make it worthwhile. Where are the classic Final Fantasy? Resident Evil? Squaresoft games? Or perhaps more than 1 decent game in a library of almost 20 THOUSAND games between the ps1 and PS2. I mean Ape Escape is nice and all but I don't know a single person who would pay extra per month to play that one game lol.

[@aadamkhan5217]

But why is it hard when Microsoft allow Xbox 360 games to be played on Xbox?

[@JadenXI]

@@aadamkhan5217 Because the XBOX 360 was built pretty standard hardware wise. The PS3 had the crazy CELL processor and weirdo system architecture that no other console had...so its way more work to emulate it.

[@dennis9139]

@@JadenXI So they made a stupid decision of trying to be too unique? Ever since they move to California (Playstation Hq) they been going downhill anyway.

[@NoExplosionsMcgee]

It really shouldn't be that hard to get PS3 to work via backwards compatibility. PS5 should be *more* than capable enough to handle them just fine natively.

[@Stana999]

@@dennis9139 I’m pretty sure the PS3 was made before the moving of headquarters.

[@vlesmeries]

Sony keeps dropping the ball. I guess Jim Ryan didn't feel like spending a little money to get things done right? Just hire the Duckstation emu author and call it a day.

[@solarstrike33]

Connor’s also been busy on PCSX2 (and I believe university too), so he’s a bit tied up. Still, really sucks

[@ohmnesia]

In the words of Jim Ryan himself: "Who wants to play old games?"

[@LukeWatson13]

As a person who owns both a PS5 and Xbox Series S, it is laughable and downright embarrassing that the Series S emulates older PS titles better than the PS5. Good lord, what a huge L for PS5.

[@Nonlifting_breezy]

Has nothing to do with the hardware bud. Idk why you don’t understand that.

[@LukeWatson13]

@@Nonlifting_breezy Who said anything about hardware? It objectively runs games worse than the Xbox because of Sonys lazy implementation of the software. If Sony wanted they could have the games running perfectly but they rest on their laurels yet again to the surprise of nobody.

[@jonessii]

@@Nonlifting_breezy certified fanboy moment

[@Nonlifting_breezy]

@@LukeWatson13 software as in the emulator Xbox users download. Not like an Xbox comes preloaded with the software to run PlayStation games.

[@LukeWatson13]

@@Nonlifting_breezy Yeah exactly, it's a bit sad that xbox users can download a fan-made Sony console emulator off the Internet that runs better than Sony software running on Sony's own console hardware

[@RikishiZH]

We have a lot of PS1 emulatiors from bleem for Dreamcast (this one is really crazy) to duckstation, yet Sony's own emulator for their own consoles ON their own console works worse than 3rd party! Again. Just, wow. Was a Playstation fan from ps1 to ps3 and psp, but currently I have a Series X and really love its BC. You can not only to download a digital version and play it enhanced, but also you can play from disc if you have one. Of course, I wish there will be more BC library expansions in future (which MS siad will not happen), there are still too much great games like Warriors/MK Shaolin Monks, etc, but still it is a WAY better than Sony's options. What a shame...

[@JonnyLin7]

I find it weird how out of all the major gaming companies, it's Microsoft who has by far the best approach to backwards compatibility and legacy content, and they have probably the least expansive library of backwards compatible games. Not only can you play a huge library of games, but many have enhancements through resultion increases and FPS Boost so they play much better than on the original hardware. Nintendo Switch only features NES, SNES and N64, and even then it's not even close to the full libraries, some games don't run that well and it's only available through the Nintendo Online subscription, you can't just purchase outright. It's strange because I thought Nintendo did a great job with this with backwards compatibility with most of their previous consoles, but Switch for some reason has been really disappointing. PlayStation finally releases some backwards compatibility and it's a limited selection with suboptimal performance.

[@ik4659]

The NES and SNES emulation on the Switch is actually much better than Wii (and especially Wii U); but the fact you can't purchase outright feels like a wasted opportunity. I know N64 emulation has had issues; but I once those issues get resolved, it's better than previous efforts as well.

[@JonnyLin7]

@@ik4659 I would say relatively speaking no. Yes, the emulation has improved over the Wii, but it's also way more powerful hardware with a decade separating the consoles. The emulation should be way better. The fact the Wii had a bigger library including several more classic consoles outside of NES, SNES and N64 and you could purchase games outright and Switch can't is silly. The Wii also had full backwards compatibility with the GameCube. The Switch has no GameCube, Wii or Wii-U backwards compatibility. I get the Wii-U and Wii some games have more complexity in adapting the control scheme, but it's crazy there are 0 GameCube games available still.

[@ik4659]

@@JonnyLin7 Oh, yeah. Sorry, I thought you meant specifically just the emulation of what's available on Switch. The Wii's was by far the best in terms of the RANGE of games available. But that actual emulation quality is better on Switch over the other consoles. Switch does offer Genesis now, though.

[@spenny2cents]

You just answered your own question in the 1st sentence… hilarious

[@Alex_Logan22]

None of them are back compat efforts, stop classifying them like that, there’s tons of Xbox games you cannot play. If you’re relying on licensing like all modern consoles do, then it is not an effort towards backwards compatibility. MS just put forth good licensing efforts with 360, but original Xbox is as limited of a selection as any of the others. For back compat, both Xbox and PlayStation only go backwards one generation.

[@mightylink65]

Sony god dammit, why can't you just get simple things right? This is why emulators will continue to exist because people want the NTSC versions of these roms, not the slower PAL versions.

[@SyamDaRos-EndoManno]

Or at least they could make avaiable different versions for different regions. I'm Italian, and if a videogame is avaiable in my language I want that version. They should give the PAL version only in the original PAL regions, and we all will be happy

[@xxnike0629xx]

I think what we need is disc based backwards compatibility with enhanced playback. Maybe even trophy support.

[@Shadowespeon17]

The PS5 physically lacks the laser for CD playback

[@Kiyuja]

Thank you so much for covering this. Haven't seen a Jak and Daxter since the PSP release. Really makes you wonder what happened to this iconic franchise... I mean Ratchet and Clank still get their games huh

[@Alex_Logan22]

Insomniac just works very differently from Naughty Dog.

[@Shawnredfield98]

Sony being Sony. This could've been great.

[@GetOffMyDick00]

It literally just came out calm down c0rnb4II. It'll get fixed in time. Even the xbox one emulation at launch wasn't perfect until the xb1x came out

[@ricln5464]

@Michael Better than Microsoft? You mean the Microsoft that have full backwards compatibility, with fps boost, 60+fps, gamepass, full Cloud gaming, next gen games on old gen consoles with the Cloud, day one releases on gamepass... And no games? In the next years Xbox will get so much games, they literally owns Bethesda and soon probably Activion, Blizzard and King.

[@Iamfirebird360]

Its crazy how little sony cares about their history. I'm personally tired of supporting companies that don't honor purchased titles. Its making the microsoft ecosystem more and more appealing.

[@SteddiFLo]

But you can buy the games without subscribing. Plus they do honor the PSP, PS1, PS2 games if you brought it on the PS3 or the PS Vita

[@davidmurphy7332]

@@SteddiFLo And what about PS3 games that are streaming? If I own a digital license - which I have around 100 of - or the disk for one of them, can I stream the game without subscribing? Can I f*ck, and there's literally no technical reason for that other than avarice and/or laziness. Sony is nearly as bad as Nintendo at honouring legacy game ownership currently.

[@SteddiFLo]

@@davidmurphy7332 Well SONY is better than Nintendo like I said in my earlier comment. Nintendo don't let you play your old Wiiu games and you can't even play your old digital games on the Switch. The PS3 is a crazy architecture. At least you can play it even though it's streaming. Nintendo still in NES, SNES, N64, and Sega. Bruh get to the GameCube, DS, Wii, Wiiu Era

[@AlphaDwg]

the truth is the microsoft ecosystem has always been better. quality of life has always been better. Where microsoft failed was in the xbox one generation when they stopped caring about gaming. But from the moment they entered the industry they had the better ecosystem. That is why xbox has always been my main console and i've only just had a playstation for exclusives. The only time xbox wasn't my main gaming was last gen when I moved to PC because of all the missteps microsoft was making. But now that they got their shit together series x is my main gaming device.

[@SteddiFLo]

@@AlphaDwg but why leave PC when you can play all of Xbox Series X games day 1 in better quality, better and more stable fps. I just got me laptop with a gaming gpu that I can get 1440p 120fps not like the Series X which would play games at 1080p at 120fps.

[@sebastianaliandkulche]

The only reason why i think they putted both Worms is that World Party has more content but Armageddon is one of the very few PS1 games with actual native widescreen support... i honestly dont think thats the reason, giving the actual quality of the emulation probably they didnt even tried the games itself.

[@d3athwillcom390]

I’m learning to emulate on my series x and ape escape was one game I was wanting to get working. Ape Escape was so fun, and I remember playing it all the time even though the controls were confusing to me as a kid

[@p3wx4]

Do a video comparing this against XBOX Series S/X Dev Mode emulation.

[@jlmurph2]

You don't need dev mode on Series X and S. You can play Retroarch in retail mode

[@pixeljauntvr7774]

What's the point? It's not the Xbox doing the leg work it's retroarch. I use retroarch through my PS Classic. Are we going to make a video comparison for that too?

[@p3wx4]

@@pixeljauntvr7774 Sure. why not.

[@SyamDaRos-EndoManno]

You forgot ti say "please"

[@mysticalos]

PGXP really should just be standard at this point, in all playstation emulators. Once you use it, you can't go back to not using it.

[@solarstrike33]

While I like the texture warping, it really should be an option too.

[@null140]

I agree that it should be an option, but to go against the grain here: I used it for a year or two with several different games, and then... went back to not using it... just like internal render resolution upscaling, etc. I ended up not wanting to 'boost' these games with upgrades to bring them up to where they 'could' be, but rather to view them as faithfully to the image that developers *believed would be seen* at the time. Someone once argued to me that developers would always want their games to look better than the achieved result (doubtless), but my preference is to stay faithful to a presentation that is as close to 'original' as possible, and short of running a PS1 through a CRT as I do at home, this means running at 1x resolution, using a CRT display/ scanline emulator of some kind, and disabling these neat little hacks that emulators can provide. It's some kind of aesthetic preference I have that values 'faithfulness' to an artistic 'whole' as designed by developers over and *above* any metric of visual 'quality' vis a vis 'how many points out of ten would I award this image on a scale measuring lifelike beauty?'. In other words, I want to leave a product looking and feeling like it did when it was 'signed off' and greenlit by the original creators (whether they botched it in some way or not...) since anything modified from that state was *not* signed off by those creators. There's something I find very important about visual and artistic cohesion that I would rather leave in the hands of devs. I feel the same very often against mods for PC games. fwiw; 'beautifying' mods usually just upend the work the devs did to give a game any sense of artistic voice and cohesion.

[@steffdia7080]

They cannot. The programmer, emulation belong to Duckstation. You cannot steal it.

[@otaking3582]

Having scanlines on PSP makes some amount of sense, since there were cables available to output onto a TV, but was only available in composite, for some reason.

[@sachoslks]

It would be awesome if you guys cold do a video comparing the PS Plus emulators to what you can get on the best PC emulators with similar hardware to the PS5, or even lower hardware really, you dont need much especially for PS1 and PSP emulators. Comparing mainly the image quality you get on PS5 vs PC using DuckStation, PPSSPP and PCSX2. I cant believe they are not doing 4K even for PS1 games, you can do 4K PS1 with a potato at this point. It would also be cool to show how the current games on the service would look like if they actually used perspective correction, the difference is night and day, essential imo to get a good upscale presentation.

[@DarkWingSpartan]

God, I feel bad for the people who worked on this. I don't know if Sony gave this to a really inexperienced team or gave them zero budget or what, but this cannot possibly have been what they were aiming for.

[@vlesmeries]

Given Jim Ryan's views on BC, I'd guess budget is near zero.

[@enrikekasijas705]

They added multiple new modes. They are updating the service as John was recording. Have more faith.

[@spenny2cents]

Imagine being such a drama Queen you are crying about unreleased services allowing us to play games from 20 years ago on a PS5 which was obviously designed to be forward thinking, not catering to the impossible backlog of their legacy titles

[@generalgk]

You’re just assuming that the developers had no fault in this for some reason.

[@TheSterlingArcher16]

@@enrikekasijas705 I have zero faith with Sony’s ability to implement BC. They had flawless BC for PS1 & PS2 when PS3 launched, and then it became a complete foreign concept once the PS4 launched.

[@NoExplosionsMcgee]

It always greatly confuses me why Sony and by extension Jim Ryan cares so little about their legacy content.

[@pixeljauntvr7774]

Because it doesn't make them much money.

[@solarstrike33]

To make their new stuff look better.

[@Not-Great-at-Gaming]

Didn't Jim Ryan state previously that he doesn't understand why someone would want to play PS1 games? He is obviously just doing it to compete with MS, whereas MS is doing it because they want to celebrate their history.

[@solarstrike33]

@@Not-Great-at-Gaming Channeling that Don Mattrick energy, huh?

[@ioannisdenton]

Like the new format john!

[@lucapook2]

You guys should make a video on the PS3 RSX overclock that came out recently. Would be nice to see a framerate comparison with and without the overclock!

[@IdeonFukkatsu]

It's just like Chrono Cross. Modern emulators like Mednafen/Beetle are just totally outclassing official releases.

[@da835t]

Duckstation would like to have a word with you

[@thanksbetotap]

Chrono Cross was quite the complicated beast of a situation technically, though. Nowhere near as simple for that game as just running a ROM in a PSX emulator.

[@CaptainKenway]

@@thanksbetotap What are you talking about? The Radical Dreamers Edition of Chrono Cross quite literally is the PS1 version running in an emulator. You only need to look through the files of the PC version and you'll find ISO rips of the two original PS1 discs, along with virtual PS1 memory cards. It's why it has issues like wobbly polygons, since they didn't even bother with the PGXP correction that's available in most modern PS1 emulators. Sure, they also created some hideous new graphical elements for it that you can inject into the experience, but that sort of replacement has been a thing in PC emulators for many systems for years.

[@thanksbetotap]

@@CaptainKenway You may be extrapolating too much from what I said. Of course it’s using the ISOs and using emulation. It’s just also a Frankenstein mess of various injections and technical approaches. Never said the results are the least bit good. However terrible the overall results, they did try to do things for certain reasons and improve elements where they could.

[@Khasim92]

Looks like the highest tier of the new PS Plus is something you can ignore for the first couple of months until they sort these issues out. It's not like these games will be gone if you don't stay subscribed.

[@Patrik1st]

Unless you do something else with those dollars it won't matter if they are the same dollars you will use on the service 2 months later.

[@mimimimeow]

I think the actual reason for PAL in this case is because Asian PSN regions from Hong Kong all the way to Malaysia and Indonesia are actually PAL.

[@mercuriete]

using Variable Refresh Rate to 100Hz, PAL games will be smoth. In Linux with amdgpu, the feature called "freesync video modes" they expose 50Hz on your freesync monitor. Apart from PAL frequency, amdgpu exposes 48Hz for cinematic 24fps movies. We need that on consoles as well.

[@Spectere]

The Xbox Series consoles support FreeSync. I'm honestly surprised that the PS5 doesn't given that it's using a similar APU. *Edit:* Apparently Sony rolled out VRR support in a patch last month. Still, kind of surprised it took this long.

[@timoratus_music]

Wait, you're telling me that Sony isn't a company that puts quality first?!

[@X2011racer]

I want to suspect that the PSP emulator used here is probably the same one for Parappa Anniversary Edition for PS4, but until more games get rereleased, we can only speculate until then.

[@shoked99]

Nice stuff. I searched but couldn't find a newer video than this. Was there an update?

[@TiagoTiagoT]

On one hand, it's good that they're offering official ways to get and play older games; on the other, it clearly is not even at the same level of unofficial alternatives, and there is a risk they'll use their half-assed attempt to compete as an excuse to eliminate competing options that actually offer better functionality...

[@Alex_Logan22]

Sony’s never gone after emulators.

[@exposingfreaks5733]

@@Alex_Logan22 virtual game station?

[@BeatmasterAC]

@@Alex_Logan22 *cough * Bleemcast *cough *

[@zaxbit]

Excellent deep-dive as usual, John! I feel like Sony will never put into anything more than the bare minimum to continue serving up their back catalog simply because classic Sony fans have had to forge their own path for years (whether through emulation, modding, or retrotink). I really don't see any reason to check out these on my PS5 when I have my PS1/PS2/PS3 sitting here modded still. It just sucks for new users that there's such a lack of care put into these things... they can get better though as demonstrated by Nintendo fixing N64 NSO problems. Let's hope they put some care into it, doubt they will though.

[@zaxbit]

I have a feeling that Sony has always been so luke-warm out of the big-3 about porting classic games because of how GIGANTIC their catalog & how reliant on 3rd parties they were in those eras (Square, Konami, Namco, etc). Any of their core properties seem to just get remakes instead. Am I wrong?

[@rayfincham1595]

Like you I will be playing on original hardware until they decide that on their newest console to be backward compatible with their older games already. Thanks for the information and great video. I hope that this is a small step to having our PS5’s to be backward compatible in the future.

[@CarlosBunn]

I remember playing PS1 emulated games where I have the option of fixing the floating point precision issue. Sony should hire people from the emulation scene

[@DeckWizard]

Did a video testing 12 of the PS1 games at 60Hz via Duckstation Emulator on the Steam Deck. I couldn't be more happy with them on there running the best they can and sincerely hope that Sony can fix these issues. They did release a fast bandaid 60Hz patch but it produces ghosting...

[@PCGGC]

I'm emulating PS2 and Gamecube on the deck as well and absolutely loving it. Wind Waker, Burnout 3, Downhill Domination, Animal Crossing all run fantastic

[@sigmatic2788]

I like puppies. Wanted to share some random info that does not pertain to the video as well.

[@speed3414]

Hey man, I like your Steam Deck videos 👍

[@solarstrike33]

@@sigmatic2788 And I like puppies too!

[@joesterling4299]

I've had the same experience with "1:1" in VLC Media Player. Apparently, the take is that 1:1 to them means a square *image,* with X=Y on the *screen,* and NOT square pixels.

[@flameshana9]

Sony devs are highly trained professionals.

[@TheLooking4sunset]

Great analysis

[@rexthesheep]

21:09 Toshinden spotted! I guess that long teased DF Retro is coming soon then? :-)

[@yellowbat79]

Now I'm even less surprised they couldn't get PS3 emulation working... This is not really great, hopefully it improves for those who decide to buy the Premium Tier

[@Atlink]

My thoughts: 1.) PS1 and PSP Emulation is being done with an emulator inside of an environment. Essentially, the individual games may have specific emulator settings and such, but each one is run via the same "PS1 PSP Emulator Environment". Think of it like launching a really stripped down version of Linux, which has a script to boot up an emulator. Maybe that's how it is, but I dunno. That'd be my only explanation as to why all of these share the same display options. 2.) PAL versions of games are selected because someone thought that they're more "universal" in terms of compatibility? This is a stretch, but it seems like someone said "Well, we can't do 60 Hz on a 50Hz display, but we CAN do 50 Hz on a 60 Hz display." This theory is kind of blown out of the water when considering that some games actually are running the NTSC version. There has to be a specific reason as to why they would have chosen the PAL version over NTSC. The absolutely baffling aspect is that they don't just region code these releases. They can definitely do this with other items on the PlayStation store, so why can't they just say "US gets NTSC, EU gets PAL, Japan gets NTSC"? It truly doesn't make sense. With that being said, however, it's POTENTIALLY possible that this is due to how those regions are using the new Playstation Plus program in those countries. It's a massively long shot to think that the US release will have actual NTSC titles, but who knows. Regardless, the games are at least playable. And I think that's what Sony is banking on - "eh, people will still play them, so what does it matter". The problem is, if you say "well im not paying for that" then Sony will just say "oh i guess the people didn't want this, so we'll just discontinue it". This is just an all around frustrating situation.

[@nicwilson89]

The thing is...even in PAL regions, all displays are 60Hz nowadays, unless you're running a TV from 20+ years ago at least, so all of the problems from putting the PAL versions up also apply in PAL regions nowadays

[@Atlink]

@@nicwilson89 and that makes it even more frustrating. I could understand if they wanted to keep games region specific because “pal people played pal games” but cmon.

[@nicwilson89]

@@Atlink Indeed. Honestly, I think it's just pure laziness. Sony have made it clear in the past that they don't care about old games and they want you to play new games (or something to that effect). This is just a move done to try and counter MS's backwards compatibility and everything they've been doing without any real care involved. It'd be sooooo easy to have done this right, but nope, it's just yet another half-assed business move

[@Atlink]

What do you know, it looks like my hope was right. They did include the US NTSC titles. Good on ya Sony.

[@Lock2002ful]

For 60$ extra a year, that’s not what a starting library should look like. I guess I’ll wait until there are enough games and good emulation quality until I buy in. Just bought into the Switch Online 64 upgrade. It’s too bad but sometimes it takes time.

[@Deadfistx12]

Haha I like that you threw a joke in there with the audio video sync lol

[@MelodyMecato6156]

So I guess Sony is following the Nintendo method of how to do emulation.

[@awilywolf]

@JC Denton Super Mario 3D All-Stars should have been a Nintendo swansong, but it has its issues and was ripped apart by several technical analyses.

[@THE_DEEZLE]

Bruh…. Sony really watched Game Pass go crazy for years and said “we got somethin cookin be ready”…. And gave us this lmao

[@GatMarksTheSpot]

i mean nobody is worried about indiepass sony wasnt in a rush thats why it took 4yrs

[@pixeljauntvr7774]

@JC Denton Nobody is jealous that you're getting stuff like AC Origins on Gamepass.

[@solarstrike33]

@Anthony You’re not helping, Mr. Warden.

[@solarstrike33]

@JC Denton Ayyy, you caught the change too!

[@nickkalister6291]

wow i expected weird and rough edges but this exceeds what I thought we'd see

[@norbertcsorba4639]

Actually browsing these games is a total nightmare. i'm not a plus member, i buy my games, but finding my PS1/PSP games that i bought back than is one hell of a search, one by one

[@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu]

yeah i've recently got my ps2 looking great on modern displays using a component cable and then a hdmi converter, looks great on my lg oled a very clean image. i'll have to see how ps1 games compare on it to say running them off of a ps3 which already has a hdmi port.

[@kriskater]

Whoa ! That’s very cool

[@flameshana9]

PS1 games run better on a PS2 unfortunately. On the PS3 they are interlaced, whereas on the PS2 they can be displayed at their native 240p.

[@b.o.353]

Thank you! THANK YOU! I hope SONY gets the message and everyone else demands some effort. This is inexcusable at the prices they are charging. Best video you’ve EVER done. Now I’ll watch it. Okay now I’ve watched it. No $ale for me until all this would be fixed and I’m not sure if ever will be knowing SONY.

[@heavenofmyhell2724]

bunch of nonsensical words

[@endgame213]

Bs you can play all the games free. You must work for Sony with that pseudo excitement 😆

[@jarde1989]

The only time Sony “gets the message” is when it trends on Twitter. They don’t give an F… It’s all about appearance.

[@trevindavis8890]

@@endgame213 it technically not free. You have to sign up for the service to get those games.

[@solarstrike33]

@Anthony This isn’t the age of Mattrick anymore.

[@Ertesd5]

2:43 strong spanish vibes

[@adams3560]

So, as I predicted 2 weeks ago, the USA release of the new service uses the NTSC versions of PS1 games. People freaking out after the release of the Asian version needed to relax. That includes you, Digital Foundry.

[@Raidxn96]

Had to come back just to make sure lol. Can confirm playing the American version of ape escape rn

[@MrWinnieP]

So I’m not crazy right? I saw Sony of America in the credits screen for Wild Arms PS5 and haven’t seen this issue their talking about. Wtf is this video? Misinformation?

[@DKFProductions]

I was excited to see Sony go all in with BC. They have a great catalogue of games. Guess I set myself up for disappointment

[@spicydeath82]

this is about what i was expecting. i have all the consoles, but this is a rather disappointing effort on sony's part. heck, i can put my old xbox one x into dev mode, load up some emulators on it and get superior emulation than this. sony really should have worked with the emulation community to get proper emulation going. their inability to do this properly is why we will likely never get back compat for ps 3 titles from sony. if they really wanted to do that, they could release some deeper specs for the ps 3 and offer a monetary bounty to a team who gets nearly flawless ps 3 emulation going first.

[@Alex_Logan22]

I would hold judgment for the NA launch, this region can’t even stream games.

[@Alex_Logan22]

@@spicydeath82 They did recently start up a Preservation team, and PS3 emulation has been hinted at before, so we just gotta wait and see.

[@JenovaDoll]

Just downloaded Syphon Filter because I already owned the game. The timeline feature is one of the best things that could happen to the emulator. Being able to go back in time at any moment with a press of a button is so awesome, especially for the PS1 classic were the controls can be a bit clunky at times. Now you never have to play half a level again after you die if you don't want to. But I am disappointed with the amount of PS1 games on PS Plus. It should be more like 50 to a 100 before I am interested in upgrading to premium.

[@chevyedwinhalevasquez2994]

I use my Vita. Such a underrated handheld that I spend days on psp/ps1 classics! As for PS2 I still have mine w/ games!

[@morethanfriendsproductions8045]

I'm really hoping that the classic catalog is more robust and that many of these technical issues are addressed by the time the updated service launches worldwide. Many of these decisions do seem pretty bizarre. Even still, I have to admit I'm excited to play Ape Escape and get trophies.

[@adilator]

PS1 and PS2 need to be played on a crt on original hardware. Don't forget all the great lightgun games you could play that will never be emulated correctly.

[@ChaossX77]

I love that John threw in that jab about the retrotink being better while being created by just one person. Lol

[@mr-simog4736]

The 1:1 option is there because on some devices (phones and laptops) Remote play streches the image. With the 1:1 option you can counter that strech so the end result is a normal image.😉

[@cristiancortes9]

By the way...4 those who havent played yet APE ESCAPE..do it..is a 10/10 game...so much creativity...and veryyyy fun

[@lucariotrainer16]

I don't know if this is a hot take, but aside from not being able to buy the games, Nintendo actually does have the better system compared to Sony. They seem to care about emulation enough especially since the N64 emulator continues to be updated to fix any glaring issues.