Sony using open source emulator for PlayStation Classic plug-and-play
Sony's upcoming PlayStation Classic uses the open source emulator PCSX ReARMed to recreate its selection of 20 classic games. Kotaku's recent hands-on report with the plug-and-play HDMI system noticed an on-screen menu listing a legal license for the emulator.
ReARMed is a popular, modernized branch of the original PCSX emulator, which was actively developed from 2000 to 2003 for Linux, Mac, and Windows. A new branch called PCSX Reloaded picked up that development later in the decade, adding new features and fixing bugs and eventually leading to the ReARMed fork. The emulator supports network play and a "save rewind" feature that lets you easily reverse recent gameplay, two features that seem to be missing from the PlayStation Classic.
Some commentators have already attacked Sony for "laziness" by piggybacking off the work of the open source community rather than coding a new "official" emulator for this new release. But Video Game History Foundation Founder Frank Cifaldi instead sees the move as "an acknowledgement that an 'amateur' emulator can be just as valid as an 'official' one (and they're usually better!)…
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Sony using open source emulator for PlayStation Classic plug-and-play PCSX emulator line dates back to 2000 on Windows, Mac, and Linux. |