ePSXe 1.8!

[nullPointer]

It's pretty rare that I re-post emulation news, but this one had me up and doing the happy dance. After several years of hiatus, the ePSXe team is preparing to release the next version of their legendary emulator. I'm pumped for this release you guys! I've checked out the Android version, and it's pretty good! If you're at all interested in ePSXe, and have an Android device (as well as a spare $3.75) I'd encourage you to do the same. It's a great way to support the development of this project. </shameless_pandering>.

Any hoo, I'll let the ePSXe team handle the announcement, since they can probably do it better than I can.

After a 4 years hiatus, it is finally time for some news about ePSXe's development.

ePSXe 1.8.0 is almost finished and is currently in testing phase. If all goes well we expect to release it in a few weeks. This version will include compressed iso support (PBP), SBI support (such as used by redump.org), updates for multitap, disc change and spu and of course a lot of compatibility related fixes.

We were thinking of different ways to get funds for the development of ePSXe and finally decided to develop an Android port. If you want to support the ePSXe development please buy the Android port in the Google Play Market. It contains the ePSXe core, the internal SPU plugin, a new experimental internal soft GPU plugin and a new 2 players mode for tablets.

We would like to give our thanks to Gladiator, from www.psxdatacenter.com, for the thousands of tests he has done in the last 4 years. Without his help creating a version with high compatibility would have been almost impossible. Many thanks to you and your brother . We would also want to give our thanks to Shalma who worked on ePSXe Shark, several plugins and plugins "repairs series". He did a wonderful job, some would even consider it "magic", finding then fixing numerous bugs and deserves our most sincere thanks and admiration.

Finally we want to thank you the ePSXe users for supporting our 12 years old child "ePSXe"

We have created a twitter account "epsxeteam", where we expect your impressions about the emulator. Please don't use this account to request support and instead use ngemu.com forums.

Regards,

ePSXe Team.

[ClassicGMR]

Oh this is great news. I'm happy to see this resurrected from the dead!

[AlphaUMi]

I cant' wait!!!

[KRC]

Good News as this is one of my favourite emulators.

[u-man]

good news indeed. i have used epsxe all the time, but want to know from you what kind of PS1-emu do you prefer?

are there better PS1-emus ?

TIA u-man

[KRC]

The 2 main emulators PSX and ePSXe.

PSX offers better emulation but lacks in features, but ePSXe emulation is slightly not as good but is booming with plugins and hacks.

In a way they are pretty similar. I've got used to using ePSXe so thats what I do, I also think ePSXe runs faster than PSX.

Some people use both emulators for different games, but me I just use ePSXe, so I only have 1 PlayStation entry on my emulator list.

It's just a matter of what people get accustomed to.

[nullPointer]

For my part which PlayStation emulator I use depends on the game. Interestingly enough my favorite PlayStation emulator lately has been a custom build of ePSXe called ePSXe Shark (or Shalma’s Shark depending on who’s talking). Shalma managed to add several enhancements to ePSXe 1.7 as well as fix several existing issues all by way of DLL injection. Sounds like several of his adjustments are making it into ePSXe 1.8.

So if I’m adding new games to my list I’ll do a quick google search to see if any of the games have issues with specific emulators. Depending on what that turns up, here’s my order of preference:

ePSXe Shark 1.7 (via ePSXecutor): ePSXe probably has the best compatibility of any PSX emulator, but the compatibility you get depends on your plug-in configuration. The Shark build fixes several known issues with ePSXe 1.7 and ePSXecutor sweetens the deal even more by automatically loading game specific plugin configurations.

pSX 1.13: Hands down the best emulator to use through a frontend. Easy to configure, easy to launch. Focused on accuracy which is nice. Has an issue when used in conjunction with a virtual drive (this feature seems to be a bit tacked on). This emulator is no longer in development.

Xebra: This is more of an extended personal experiment. I really like this emulator, and I wish more people used it. It’s focused on accuracy and doesn’t use plugins (just like pSX). I find the graphics output to be preferable to pSX (you don’t see any ‘lines’ between polygons), but the sound isn’t quite as good as pSX (depending on the game). Configuration and User Interface is just the worst though. The emulator appears to be no longer in development, but the author (Dr. Hell) is a bit of an enigma, so who knows?

PCSX-R: Basically I find this emulator to be very similar to ePSXe, although many of the same bug fixes seen in ePSXe shark are here as well (Shalma worked on this emulator too). I usually only get this far if a game hasn’t worked on any of the above emulators. Still in active development as of this year, but no activity since May.

Interestingly enough the venerable PSX emulator, AdriPSX also appears to be poised for a resurgence in development. It’s a bit early to say, but I’m keeping an eye out for good things from this emu. It’s kind of an exciting time for PSX emulation!

[Stu1983]

It's pretty rare that I re-post emulation news, but this one had me up and doing the happy dance. After several years of hiatus, the ePSXe team is preparing to release the next version of their legendary emulator. I'm pumped for this release you guys! I've checked out the Android version, and it's pretty good! If you're at all interested in ePSXe, and have an Android device (as well as a spare $3.75) I'd encourage you to do the same. It's a great way to support the development of this project. </shameless_pandering>.

Any hoo, I'll let the ePSXe team handle the announcement, since they can probably do it better than I can.

This is good news, I've recently just made the switch from pSX to ePSXe for my HTPC build. I'm not a big Playstation gamer but the few games I tried worked just as well in ePSXe as they did in pSX but ePSXe offers far better graphics enhancements so the games look much better on a big screen.

Stu

[u-man]

thank you all guys... so i think i will stay with epsxe and maybe trying nullPointers mentioned Shark-version of it, or just wait till the update as most of the stuff will be implemented anyway.

loved all your answers... good job

[vsilvalopes]

Wow ! Great news !

I've run into some trouble when I changed my HTPC video card from Nvida to ATI.

The emulator simply lost focus, and I cannot manage to send joystick imput without using alt+tab.

After lots of tests, I had to switch the video plugin for an OpenGL one.

Hope that problem will be fixed on the next version!

[T. Goodchild]

I really hope epsxe 1.8 improves on 1.7. I started around the 1.5 mark and really loved 1.6. pSX however gave much less hassles in setup and execution and the only gripe I have against it is it doesnt support the redump images and the lack of high res graphical features. epsxe 1.7 I thought broke more than it fixed but had great high res support. I recently started using pcsx-reloaded since it is the only one I can mount multibin images of. Hopefully 1.8 will support the redump method and also fix some outstanding issues without having to dig too deep into plugins again.

[myonions]

I used to use ePSXe but as you say for a Frontend PSX is better as it is less complex and seems to be compatible with everything I have thrown at it.

PSX doesn't use the registry to save settings; reads compressed CDZ format roms if you want to use that.

It doesn't try to enhance the original PS1 graphics at all like ePSXe does which is a great thing in theory but can get a little confusing as settings may work well for some games but not for others.

None of these Emulators are compatible with multiple bin files though so this will be a big plus in the new version.

I have previously had to mount these and then convert to Bin/cue with Alchohol 120%.

I may well give this a try when it is released...

[nullPointer]

The day has arrived! ePSXe 1.8 has been released and is ready for action!

As promised ePSXe 1.8.0 for windows has been released.

You can find it in the downloads section.

The main changes are:

Many fixes to the cd-rom decoder and core that fixed almost 150 games

Improved input devices support

On the fly memory card change

Fixed changedisc feature

Support for SBI subchannel files

Support for PBP disc images

Cheat codes support

We hope you will enjoy this release!

Regards,

ePSXe Team.

I won't have a chance to put it through its paces until much later tonight, but I can hardly wait to do so.

[vsilvalopes]

Wow !

I will sure try it !

I have a sort of bug in my rig, when using Direct 3D plugins.

Let's see if this is fixed !

[ClassicGMR]

I've got the download on my HDD but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. Being in retail leaves very little personal time between now and Black Friday.

Any initial impressions?

[nullPointer]

Let me preface this by saying that the ePSXe team has done a great job with the 1.8 release. It’s a solid emulator, and easily one of the best for PlayStation emulation. Having said that, many of the perceived problems with earlier versions of ePSXe persist here (i.e. storing settings in the registry, no way to manage game specific plug-in settings without a third party tool, etc.). I was hoping for more changes to the core functionality of ePSXe whereas the 1.8 changes seem more like incremental improvements. Once again though, I’m not saying 1.8 isn’t awesome, I’m just saying I had pretty high expectations for this release.

[celly]

I'm sold on the 1.8 release. Just finished configuring it and it plays great. Honestly, I was using pSX to emulate since a few games played more accurate. I'm officially changing my whole set up now to ePSXe. I tested the big graphical glitch games that made me us pSX (the Tony Hawk Pro Skater(s), Jumping Flash, etc) and they perform on ePSXe the same if not better than pSX. Plus, the plug in options is nice although I'm noobish to that aspect.

[smd111]

epsxe 1.8.0 is out

[KRC]

Having not set this up yet, does anyone know if .ppf files still need to be applied for certain games?