Emulated PS2 titles coming to PSN

[Trejser]

Looks like software emulator is working, at least for part of the libary.

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/sony-pushes-psn-exclusives-with-only-on-psn-program/

Starting on October 4, every Tuesday in the month will see several new exclusives on PSN, including Pub Fund titles like Eufloria and Okabu, as well as inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood and PixelJunk Sidescroller. And the program will also feature a selection of "rare classic games" added to the store on October 4, including God Hand, GrimGrimoire, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Odin Sphere and Ring of Red.

From NG user:

About time they announced this. So sony have been working on this for a while now, they just finished with their QA testing in Liverpool 2 weeks ago. Here's basically what I know:

• No remastering, just smoothing/screen size options like PS1 emulation.
• Not all games are supported, shadow of memories & Hitman 2 are examples of games that just didn't work and they don't plan to try and get them to work. They also seem to be covering a huge list of games even fairly unknown games like The Seed: warzone.
• No button remapping options, like PS1 emulation, for now.
• No trophies or anything along those lines.

Apart from that everything should be what people are expecting. There doesn't seem to be any bells and whistles on it, it's straight up PS2 emulation.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=31476639&postcount=299

 

[Brad Grenz]

The announced titles make sense for pure emulation. The VanillaWare 2D titles and a very early game like Ring of Red should be achievable in software far more easily than later games like MGS3 or the God of War games...

 

[Nesh]

How will this work? Are they going to update the PS3 firmware so that all can run some PS2 disks?

Or will we be able to play only some PS2 games that are available in DD form?
i.e will I be able to play Maximo on my PS3 if I have the disk?

 

[Brad Grenz]

I think it will only work for the versions you download.

 

[kagemaru]

This is awesome news! I wonder what difference there would be between the download and disc versions.

 

[patsu]

The official blog has more info:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011...n-for-new-exclusive-games-throughout-october/

The new PSN titles look interesting too.

The emulated PS2 titles will be priced @ $9.99 according to Destructoid:
http://www.destructoid.com/psn-promo-brings-back-classics-god-hand-odin-sphere-212813.phtml

These titles will appear on the PlayStation Store throughout the Only On PlayStation Network promotion, beginning October 4. All titles will be priced at $9.99 -- not a bad deal when you consider that some of the originals can be $50 or more on eBay.

 

[-tkf-]

Let me insert my PS2 disc and then get a a free download of the game please

 

[patsu]

Heh heh, that would be UltraViolet type of DRM, but they need an out-of-band mechanism to prove that you own the PS2 discs though. Someone can borrow, transfer or burn PS2 discs from their friends and libraries to claim ownership.

 

[Prophecy2k]

Ring of Red is the single greatest stretegy rpg game ever created (followed closely by Valkyria Chronicles and the first Vandal Hearts).

That is all...

 

[patsu]

Ring of Red is better than Valkyria ? -_- <--- suspicious but willing to give it a try look.



Anyway, here's the PS2 emulator patent back in 2009:
http://www.siliconera.com/2009/06/2...ine-emulation-technology-for-cell-processors/

The run-time uses a third kind of virtual storage, different from the virtual memory card used by h/w BC PS2 games.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Very tempted to buy Grim Grimoire. Vanillaware games don't need native hd resolutions to look. stunning.

 

[TheD]

Ring of Red is better than Valkyria ? -_- <--- suspicious but willing to give it a try look.



Anyway, here's the PS2 emulator patent back in 2009:
http://www.siliconera.com/2009/06/2...ine-emulation-technology-for-cell-processors/

The run-time uses a third kind of virtual storage, different from the virtual memory card used by h/w BC PS2 games.

That is for an emulator of the EE, something that the PS3s without the EE but with the GS had (also incorrectly called the "software" BC PS3s).

 

[patsu]

Do they have a new patent for the new BC mechanism ? Most people thought it's impossible to emulate PS2 on PS3. Sony probably pre-processed these games and then run them natively on PS3 ?

 

[Npl]

Do they have a new patent for the new BC mechanism ? Most people thought it's impossible to emulate PS2 on PS3. Sony probably pre-processed these games and then run them natively on PS3 ?

Its not impossible to support a few games at a time , with maybe custom patches required.
Impossible, or nearly impossible would be an emulator that just works with a big number of existing PS2 games without any per-game hacks/patches.

 

[Gitaroo]

are those PS2 games atleast output at native 480p now? Since the rendering are being done on the PS3 hardware, not the PS2 one like the old PS3.

 

[KongRudi]

How will this work? Are they going to update the PS3 firmware so that all can run some PS2 disks?

Or will we be able to play only some PS2 games that are available in DD form?
i.e will I be able to play Maximo on my PS3 if I have the disk?

Torgo spoke about it on this weeks PSNation podcast.

They put a software-wrapper around the PS2-ISO, wich emulates the part of a PS2 wich the game use. So if you didn't fork out for the old backward-compatible PS3's, you won't be playing Maximo.

Also savegames, from the old PS2 memory cards won't work with the new downloadable version, even if you have that PS2=>PS3 memory-card adapter, wich were made for the PS3 when it had BC.

 

[patsu]

They put a software-wrapper around the PS2-ISO, wich emulates the part of a PS2 wich the game use. So if you didn't fork out for the old backward-compatible PS3's, you won't be playing Maximo.

Huh ? The PS2 titles on PSN should play on every PS3 right ?

 

[Brad Grenz]

I think he means these releases won't make non-BC models of the PS3 capable of playing disc versions of these games.

 

[Commenter]

Do they have a new patent for the new BC mechanism ? Most people thought it's impossible to emulate PS2 on PS3. Sony probably pre-processed these games and then run them natively on PS3 ?

If it's simply an engineering problem then I don't know why it would be impossible. It's obviously very tricky to get emulate the PS2 properly though.

 

[patsu]

Well... for a start, I'm not sure if it's emulation or a convert-and-run approach. I am more inclined to believe it's the latter. The PSN PS2 games are not really PS2 images right ?