Emulators

What are emulators and what systems can I play on PS4?

• Emulators are applications that act/behave like a completely different system in order to play games released before / not natively made for PS4.
• On the PS4, there are 2 types of emulators: official (either made by Sony or the company that made/owns the rights to the emulated console) and ports (fan-made emulators).
• Officially the PS4 can emulate PS1, PS2, PSP & Sega Saturn.
• Ports allow the PS4 to emulate MSDOS, NES, every GameBoy, MAME, Atari Lynx, Neo-Geo Pocket, SNES, VirtualBoy, WonderSwan, Nintendo 64, PS1, Sega Genesis/MegaDrive, Nintendo DS, FB Alpha Arcades, Capcom PS1,2 &3, MSX, NEC PC-FX, NEC PC Engine, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, old PC games, Atari 2600, Atari Jaguar, Vectrex, PSP, various ports, 3DO.

Enough talk, let’s start…

Official Emulators (PS1, PS2, PSP & Sega Saturn)

PS1

• Before attempting, check compatibility list here (if a game is not on the list, feel free to test it): PS1 Compatibility List
• Download and extract PSX-FPKG:
  • PSX-FPKG
  • Backup mirror
• Download your favourite PS1 rom. Make sure it is in a .bin and .cue file format.
• Launch PSX-FPKG. In the Disc section select the .bin file.
• Rename the tile if it hasn’t updated to the game name. Add your own NP Title if it hasn’t updated.
• You can select a custom Icon & Background image to make it prettier on the homescreen and when you launch it.
  • Icon resolution must be 512x512
  • Background resolution must be 1920x1080
• Select Create fPKG and wait until it’s finished. For multi-disc games you must make new pkg but keeping the same NP Title. When you’re done playing a game that requires one disc, save then install and override it with the new pkg.
• Add the created pkg to the root of a USB drive and install it on your PS4 by navigating to Settings > GoldHEN > Package Installer.
• Done.

PS2

• Before attempting, check compatibility list here (if a game is not on the list, feel free to test it): PS2 Compatibility List
• Download and extract PS2-FPKG:
  • PS2-FPKG
• Download your favourite PS2 rom. Make sure it is either in a .ISO or .bin and .cue file format.
• Launch PS2-FPKG. In the Disc section select the .ISO or .bin file. Also select the other disc .ISO or .bin files in the appropriate section.
• Rename the tile if it hasn’t updated to the game name. Add your own NP Title if it hasn’t updated.
• You can select a custom Icon & Background image to make it prettier on the homescreen and when you launch it.
  • Icon resolution must be 512x512
  • Background resolution must be 1920x1080
• Select Create fPKG and wait until it’s finished.
• Add the created pkg to the root of a USB drive and install it on your PS4 by navigating to Settings > GoldHEN > Package Installer.
• Done.

  Fixing PS2 Games

• You might’ve noticed that the wiki has mentions for fixes or using different emus for PS2-FPKG.
• Fixes are found here:
  • PS2 Config Files
  • Use search bar (must be signed-in), search for your game and make sure you check “In this thread only”.
  • You will find mentions of what emulator to use, and CLI + LUA fixes.
  • CLI are .txt files and LUA are .lua files. Both can be done with any notepad editor (make sure you lua files aren’t .lua.txt!)
• Emus can be found here:
  • PS2 Classics Emus
  • Simply unarchive the files and put the emus folder in PS2-FPKG directory. Once you open the program, you will have a drop down list in emulator section.

PSP

• With the release of PSP Classics on PS Plus, new emulators have been developed by Sony.
• Before attempting, check compatibility list here (if a game is not on the list, feel free to test it): PSP Compatibility List
• Download and extract PSP-FPKG:
  • PSP-FPKG v1.0.1
• Download your favourite PSP rom. Make sure it is either in a .ISO file format.
• Launch PSP-FPKG v1.0.1. In the Disc section select the .ISO file.
• Rename the tile if it hasn’t updated to the game name. Add your own NP Title if it hasn’t updated.
• You can select a custom Icon & Background image to make it prettier on the homescreen and when you launch it.
  • Icon resolution must be 512x512
  • Background resolution must be 1920x1080
• Select Create fPKG and wait until it’s finished.
• Add the created pkg to the root of a USB drive and install it on your PS4 by navigating to Settings > GoldHEN > Package Installer.
• Done.

Fixing PSP Games

• You might’ve noticed that the wiki has mentions for fixes or using different emus for PSP-FPKG.
• Fixes are found here:
  • PSP Config Files
  • Use search bar (must be signed-in), search for your game and make sure you check “In this thread only”.
  • You will find mentions of what emulator to use, and CLI + LUA fixes.
  • CLI are .txt files and LUA are .lua files. Both can be done with any notepad editor (make sure you lua files aren’t .lua.txt!)
• PSPHD - Texture Dumping and Replacement can be found here:
  • PSPHD

SEGA SATURN

• Before attempting, check compatibility list here (if a game is not on the list, feel free to test it): Sega Saturn Compatibility List
• Download and extract SATURN-FPKG:
  • SATURN FPKG
  • Backup mirror
• Download your favourite Saturn rom. Make sure it is either in a .bin and .cue file format.
• Launch SATURN-FPKG. In the Disc section select the .bin file.
• Rename the tile if it hasn’t updated to the game name. Add your own NP Title if it hasn’t updated.
• You can select a custom Icon & Background image to make it prettier on the homescreen and when you launch it.
  • Icon resolution must be 512x512
  • Background resolution must be 1920x1080
• Select Create fPKG and wait until it’s finished. For multi-disc games you must make new pkg but keeping the same NP Title. When you’re done playing a game that requires one disc, save then install and override it with the new pkg.
• Add the created pkg to the root of a USB drive and install it on your PS4 by navigating to Settings > GoldHEN > Package Installer.
• Done.

Emulator Ports

• For the majority of the systems, RetroArch is the recommended option.
• Note that RetroArch has been unofficially ported, thus not all cores from PC version might be available.
• Games can be loaded via a USB drive formatted as exFAT. The roms can be placed in a folder.
• RetroArch and it’s Core Installer can be found here: RetroArch
• Alternatively, it can also be found via the Homebrew Store
• Order of installation: Retroarch Core Installer > Ok to install every core and then RetroArch.
• Done.

Troubleshooting

• I built a pkg file with its tool but game either crashes or black screens. In this case the game is not supported.