Though there have been several generations of consoles released over the years and have tried to constantly revive Sony classic PSX games, there are other great alternatives on how to play some of the best classics on your PC by installing an emulator. Though there are a ton of emulators out there, the most suitable when it comes to playing PS1 (codename PSX) games on your PC is the ePSXe is the best PlayStation emulator out there for PC, as it provides the most compatibility and is designed to add new capabilities and functionalities on the baseline. Once installed, you can easily configure it to make your PSX rom look much better than on the original PlayStation platform. In this article on how to play PS1 on PC, I’ll walk you through how you can achieve this:
Download ePSXe
● The first thing you will need to do is to download the ePSXe emulator online. Since there isn’t any installer file, all you need do is to unzip the folder and then move the files to the space you choose on your PC. Note that ePSXe is a 32-bit app, so it is recommended that you save it in the x86 folder.
● Then you run the app; if you are running it for the first time you may probably see a dialogue that tells you to extract additional files. Extract the files and then power up ePSXe by double-clicking on the app icon (it looks like a PlayStation controller).
Set Up ePSXe
● To set up the ePSXe emulator, you will need to follow these steps carefully to enable you to get everything set up. If you have yet to install the PlayStation BIOS installed, a warning will appear on your PC screen. To rectify this, simply run a search online for “ePSXe HLE BIOS” and grab the file labelled “scph1001.bin.” Once you have downloaded it, you can extract the zipped file to the BIOS folder from the ePSXe folder.
● If this is done correctly, “SCPH1001.bin in C:\Program Files (x86)\ePSXe\bios” will appear
● Next, a drop-down menu with different graphics drivers and some suggestions will appear, if you want to make specific adjustments for your game graphics, you can do that from the menu box; textures, resolutions, full-screen, frame rate limiting, and other settings are available. If you have a modern graphics card installed, you should be able to run very high settings without an issue. When you’re done, click on “OK” at the bottom of the screen and then click on “Next” in the configuration window. If you are not interested in making any changes to the settings, simply click on the “OK” button. To change these options, you can always do so whenever you feel the need to; just navigate to the “Config” window to do so.
Sound and Controller
● In case you don’t want the default ePSXe driver, there are others available that you can choose to configure the sound.
● Navigate to the “Config” box and then select the options you want and click on “OK” and then “Next”
● Next, you will need to select the CD-ROM plugins depending on the version of your PC’s Operating System, select “ePSXe CDR WNT/W2K core 2.0.0” and then click on “Next.”
● If the above doesn’t work for your PC, you can also configure your graphics plugin, by clicking on the “Configure” button that is underneath the drop-down menu displaying your plugin name.
● For the final step, you’ll need to set up your controllers. ePSXe supports a variety of different controller setups. From the menu, click on the top-right corner to select the device you’ll be using and the set-up for using a standard keyboard. Once you have the keys mapped how you want them (by simply clicking on a letter and tapping on the key you want to replace it with), click on “OK” and then “Next. “ Alternatively, you can configure the controller set-up by locating the option by clicking on the “Config” drop-down menu, then navigating your mouse over “GamePad”, then “Port 1”, then clicking on “Pad 1”. Another method to change any of the controls is by clicking on the little grey boxes and typing in the new key on your keyboard. When you are done configuring your digital controller, click on the “OK” button.
● A message stating that ePSXe is configured will appear, and you’re ready to game.
You can click on “File” and then “Run ISO” when you want to start a PSX game. Select your psx rom and then the game will start enabling you to play PSX games on your PC using the ePSXe emulator.
When you run a game, it hides the current window and a new window just for the game itself pops up, in order for you to get out of the game, you have to press the “Esc” key on your keyboard. Subsequently, you can play the games using any control scheme you decide to use. A few more tips to make your experience better:
● To get out of emulation, press the “Esc” on your keyboard and it takes you back to the main screen. You can then adjust options or consult your controller mappings form there. To get back into the game, click on “Run” and then click on “Continue”.
● If you want fast saving and loading, you can use the speed-keys F1 and F3 respectively.● When you are done playing the game, you must use the “Esc” button on your keyboard. When you want to exit your emulator, you need to click on the “File” drop-down menu and then click on “Exit”
● Only clicking on the “X” button to exit out of the emulator may not suffice, because the emulator process is left running in your task manager. And when next you decide to run the ePSXe emulator, it becomes. You need to fully end the process by pressing “CTRL + Alt + Delete” keys together, opening up your task manager and then clicking on the “Processes” tab to locate the ePSXe process and then clicking on the “End Process” button or by simply restarting your computer.
