PPSSPP brings PSP emulation to iPhone

It’s PlayStation Portable’s turn to get an emulator on the iOS App Store thanks to PPSSPP, which aired today. This emulator, from developer Henrik Rydgård, has been in development for over a decade and is free to download for iPhone and iPad.

Rydgard says in a blog post that the version approved this morning has some limitations compared to previous versions of the application that were available through various exploits and workarounds. The biggest is that Apple doesn’t allow Just-in-Time recompilers which retranslate code for the operating system and can lead to smoother performance. (Which is why we may never see a GameCube/Wii emulator.) “Fortunately,” he writes, “iOS devices are generally fast enough” for almost all PSP games.

Additionally, Rydgård said that iPad Magic Keyboard support had to be removed because “the old method used an undocumented API,” but that the feature will return. The emulator’s RetroAchievements feature is also disabled. Rydgård didn’t explain why, but says it will come back later “with a better login interface.” The same goes for Vulkan graphics API support, which he says will also return, possibly with “a native Metal backend.”

I never had Sony’s first portable PSP, but I did some research Border employees and was informed Valkyrie Chronicles II, Patapon, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, It is Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII These are excellent reasons to check out PPSSPP. Lamps deserves a mention too. Most of these games were later released on other consoles, of course, but they represent the types of experiences that were available on the system.

PPSSPP works on iOS 12 and above, iPadOS 12 and above and can also be played on the Vision Pro. Although the app is free, Rydgård’s paid version will be available soon for $4.99, he said On the edge via email. Assuming it’s something like $5 Android versionmay not be functionally different from the free app – it exists to support Rydgård’s efforts.