PS1HD PlayStation Emulator

PlayStation returned to classic system emulation with the launch of a refreshed PlayStation Plus tiered subscription service in mid 2022.

New PS1 (PlayStation / PSOne) and PSP (PlayStation Portable) emulators were introduced, which included support for rendering the emulated games at higher resolution, support for save states and instant rewind, along with support for earning PlayStation trophies.

This website focuses on the PS1 emulator, dubbed "PS1HD", and attempts to take a look under the hood through the benefits of custom firmware on the PS4, with the aim of gaining an insight into the capabilities and evolution of the emulator, along with sharing information which may benefit CFW users who are attempting to configure this emulator to run their own PS1 games using a CFW capable PS4.

History

Official PS1 emulation on PlayStation 4 was a long time coming. Digital Foundry had reported in January 2014 that sources within Sony had confirmed there were plans to release PS1 and PS2 titles running under local emulation on the PS4, with the potential of the emulation applying visual enhancements.

While the first emulated PS2 titles eventually arrived in November 2015, the PS1 emulator remained elusive. Perhaps deferred in favour of the somewhat ill-fated PlayStation Classic mini-console, which released in December 2018 and had opted to use the open source PCSX ReArmed emulator instead of an in-house Sony developed one, the PS1 emulator for PS4 finally broke cover in October 2019. Bundled inside the MediEvil remake, this was likely the first public release of PS1HD, and it enabled players access to the original PS1 version of MediEvil as a reward for completing tasks within the new game.

PS1 emulation on PS4 (and also PS5) finally become a reality in May 2022, some 8 years after it was first reported as being in the works, with the release of 13 PS1 titles. To date 33 titles have been released from publishers including SIE, Namco, Disney and Capcpom.