PSVita News: Xerpi manages to port Play!, a PlayStation 2 emulator to the Vita – NOT an April Fool’s Joke but a real PoC!
Last year, we posted an article about a mostly finished GTA IV build for the PSVita being leaked on April 1st and that was indeed an April Fool’s Joke. However, this time around, we have something that IS NOT an April Fool’s Joke despite sounding like it and it’s a port of the Play! emulator by Xerpi!
Xerpi ports Play! to the PSVita
Xerpi’s known to achieve the seemingly-impossible on the PSVita and udcd_uvc is one clear example as it brings over a major selling point of the Switch to the Vita!
Ever since the dawn of the PlayStation Vita homebrew scene, a popular question has been whether the PlayStation Vita can emulate the PlayStation 2 due to its wealth of memorable titles and the answer has always been a flat no as the PSVita doesn’t have nearly enough power to emulate this beloved 6th generation console with playable performance. However, Xerpi has gone ahead to do the unthinkable and managed to port a PlayStation 2 emulator called ‘Play!‘ to the console while also publishing a video of the emulator in action.
For those who are unaware of Xerpi’s feats, he’s the developer behind udcd_uvc, a kernel plugin that allows you to stream your PSVita’s screen to a PC in real-time thus giving it Switch-like abilities as you can play games in both handheld and TV mode. Furthermore, he’s also been working on porting Linux to the console on-and-off so perhaps one day, we’ll see some lightweight distribution running on the console although things are still in early stages.
How does Play! perform? Can it play commercial games?
Xerpi’s Play! port can indeed run PlayStation 2 binaries but don’t expect it to run more than a few simple pieces of homebrew with non-abysmal performance
Before getting your hopes up high, it’s important to state that Xerpi’s Play! port is a proof of concept meaning that it was created to prove the emulator could run on the console. In a demonstration video posted on YouTube (below), the emulator is shown running the Teapot demo from PS2SDK not a commercial game and since it’s a proof of concept, we can conclude that if any games manage to run at all, they will probably be a slow slideshow at best.
It’s important to state the Play! emulator doesn’t give playable results even on the Nintendo Switch which is much more capable than the PSVita so even if Xerpi does indeed work his magic, commercial PlayStation 2 games will never be playable on the Vita although you could probably mess around with simpler PS2 homebrew if that’s your thing.
Conclusion
As of right now, there’s no VPK for a compiled build of Play! for the PSVita but you can run it on your console by compiling it as per instructions on GitLab. For those still thinking this is an April Fool’s joke, Xerpi personally confirmed its veracity but he made it clear that it’s just a proof of concept more than anything else!
YouTube Video Showing Play! Running on The PSVita (Direct Link)
oh GOD
Awesome!
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I wonder how many people believed this
Haha, nice try… xD
“Play! emulator doesn’t give playable results even on the Nintendo Switch”
Or PC. I tried it a week or 2 ago and couldn’t run ANYTHING on it.
Just use PCSX2 which can run nearly every game at 4K 60FPS? It’s been in development since the early 2000’s.
So, this article was mostly click bait. Hey! Look at this PS2 emulator…but it actually doesn’t do anything.
I DO use PCSX2. I like options, especially retroarch-compatible options. I tried Play because I hadn’t tried it in years and it’s better than it was back then. By far. But it still didn’t get very far in any games I have right now.
Plz Geforce Now on PS VITA !!
This is nonsense. The Vita doesn’t have the power to run a PS2 emulator. “He ported the emulator, but it doesn’t have enough power to run at a playable speed” still counts as not having enough power!
But its an emulator. It runs, even if not well. ergo its a ps2 emulator on the vita.
So the PS Vita could play PlayStation 2 classics. It’s too bad Sony underclock the PS Vita. PlayStation 2 Classics could be possible.
Nice try
With global pandemic causing people to self-quarantine, people like Xerpi, Electry or theflow could consider working out Vita native resolution for PSP games!!
Just a humble thought.