Playstation Portable Emulator Review and How To: the JPCSP Emulator

Written by: JasonKocemba • Edited by: Bill Fulks
Updated Jul 23, 2010 • Related Guides: Psp Games | Java

Explains how to set up and play PSP games on your PC using the fledgling Playstation Portable emulator JPCSP.

Introduction

The JPCSP emulator is a Java emulator for the Playstation Portable (PSP).

PSP emulation is still relatively new with few emulators that can play more than a few games, however the JPCSP team have begun well.

If you wish to experiment or make your own PSP 'homebrew' games or demos then having the JPCSP emulator to develop on is a useful development tool.

The JPCSP is a young emulator with a fledgling community - but it is growing and development is continuing. They have recently ported the Java version of the emulator to C++ so that should enable people with less able PC hardware to use the system at decent speeds. Or that is the hope. This review is for the Java version, but it is encouraging to see further development to improve the performance of the emulator.

DISCLAIMER: It is the reader's responsibility to establish the legality of these techniques in their legal jurisdiction. The author and publisher accept no responsibility for outcomes of following this advice. That is, downloading games is illegal.

Games on the JPCSP Emulator

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

The Official JPCSP emulator website has a games compatibility list which includes only 7 games at the time of writing.

Having a compatibility list as part of your emulator's website is a growing trend and is a hugely useful tool to users of the JPCSP emulator to ensure that the games they own will run on the emulator.

The JPCSP website also includes a forum for the JPCSP emulator so if you are having trouble with a particular game you should be able to find help here. Although the community is small at this point - there have been consistent posts to the forum, and most days see some activity. Also check the forum for an up-to-date list of compatible games - they have forum sections for playable games, 'half' playable games, games that get to the Intro screen, games that are loadable.

Configuration of the JPCSP Emulator

The demos that come with the download all work straight away after installation with no additional configuration.

The configuration options are simple in that they are mostly to do with experimental features, compatibility features (that is, tweaking these one at a time to try to find a combination that will work with a particular game), or setting your preferred controls setup.

You don't need to know the terminology or jargon to try tweaking the compatibility features. Just make sure you take a note of the settings before you start tweaking them so that you can get back to where you were before you started. Since everything is emulated is is incredibly unlikely that you will do damage to your PC by changing the settings - all that will happen is the game will not work correctly. Just restart the emulator, reset the settings to what they were, load the emulated software then try again.

Summary
Rating

I was pleasantly surprised by the JPCSP emulator. I didn't know what to expect - but it runs well although it is still a little rough around the edges (it shows its youth). If the JPCSP emulator gets more development work I think it will become a great tool for demo makers, homebrew developers and emulation enthusiasts alike.

Installation 9/10 (you need to install the latest Java runtime first)

Configuration 9/10 (nothing much to do, except tweaks for compatibility)

Compatability 6/10 (homebrew/demos work without a hitch, compatible games list is growing)

Overall 8/10

Now that you have read the review and seen what I have had to say – you would like to install it and have a go yourself, right? Right. The how-to is on the next page.

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Sigitsugianto18 Oct 30, 2011 8:18 AM

RE: Playstation Portable Emulator Review and How To: the JPCSP Emulator

hey , when I double click jpcsp0.2.bat,it's not appeared the jpcsp

Dan Yema Oct 26, 2011 8:43 AM

Critical Error Appears and Check Console Details thingy<br>

Dan Yema Oct 26, 2011 8:20 AM

God of War shows up in Load Umd but when I click "Load" Nothing Happens.. What seems to be the problem?

William Decker Oct 21, 2011 2:47 AM

you probably need to download the other 64bit version or the 32bit depending on what your using. I did that and had the same exact problem

RavenServious Feb 3, 2011 5:11 AM

New to this stuff

Hey people. I'm trying like hell to get this PSP Emulator to work, but with no luck. Is there a basic Walkthrough of what format the Games need to be, what Settings I should try, etc. I need this to test demo games for work. (Games and Console Sales)

Zack Nov 24, 2010 8:09 AM

cannot start

hei i very upset!!!!!when i click jpcps jar file it say's cannot find the mainclass jpcsp.mainGUI.program will exit...when i click the batch file,it pop out command promd a second and i cannot see what it says...HOW SHOULD I DO?????!!!!

plz help me....

christosp22@windowslive.com Oct 20, 2010 11:47 AM

I load tha iso file but it gives me a copyright error... what can i do?

Anonymous Oct 15, 2010 7:21 AM

didn't work

i did all ur instruction but when i load the UMD and there's supposed to be an icon of a game right? sadly it didn't appear so i tried to load the file it said that "General error: File format not supported!" i don't understand it can u please help me?

Aldi Oct 13, 2010 2:21 AM

can't play, WHY ?

after placing my psp cso yugioh 5ds tf 4 in
folder umdimages, then i'm click load UMD and Run, it can't be played.......

pls reply to my email.....

sam Sep 13, 2010 11:42 AM

hi there,
for me its v.4
everything works all right but whenn assasins creed bloodlines(my favourite) starts it closes,pls help.
thanks in future.

james Sep 5, 2010 11:48 PM

c'mon

So I extracted Birth By Sleep and created it into an iso using MagicISO copy and pasted it into the umd file. Unmapped import @ 0x08800124 - 0880031c 09ffbad0 0000001a comes up. What should i try next.
WTB HELP

HARDY Aug 23, 2010 6:09 AM

Where to copy iso/cso files, & download the latest version jpcspv.05

copy all ur iso/cso/.img files to the folder UMDimages then ur games will work .. LOAD UMD ( from the menu )

IF JAVA FILE DOESNT START

DOWNLOAD JPCSP FROM THIS LINK IT HAS .BAT FILE WHICH CAN START UR EMULATOR
http://jpcsp.googlecode.com/files/jpcsp0.5win(rev1379).zip

accolade Aug 23, 2010 4:45 AM

this thing is crap! it doesn't work. i tried everything that is on the read me file. i put the games in the right folder but still not working. and no body's giving the answer to all our questions. it's just a waste of time. i feel pity to those who created it. does this makes you happy?

Anonymous Aug 21, 2010 6:22 AM

none of my games r workin i tried bothcso and iso they sa some error and in which they dont say any error whenever i press run the emulator closes DX

Yatharth Aug 21, 2010 6:12 AM

none of my games r workin it always says an error file format............ DX

alexcho99 Aug 9, 2010 9:13 PM

doesn't work

i cant open the bat file and withe the jar file i try to play monster hunter freedom unite and it say:

6093 [root] ERROR hle - Unmapped import @ 0x08906934

plz help!

Anonymous Jul 28, 2010 3:14 AM

????

cant start it without
jpcsp.jar
it was not in the file

Anonymous Jul 22, 2010 7:02 PM

there is no installation folder in the 5.0 update verson. How do you install it?

Prob Jul 10, 2010 12:45 AM

Why!!

what is the type of file should i play so the game starts??
reply immediately pls

Olga Jul 8, 2010 12:56 PM

I can't (((

I want to play ff7: Crisis Core. I did everything as Nytmare said.
It began to work! But then there was this video:
http://img338.imageshack.us/i/000tv.jpg/
What does it mean? Tell me, pleeeeease)))

calvin Jul 5, 2010 7:00 AM

Can't play DFF

i can't play dissidia FF cuz it says it can be only decrypted with real PSP but is there a way to modify the JPCSP so it can decrypted every game?

Nytmare Jun 29, 2010 3:18 PM

TY note

Thanks man! Im playing ff7 crisis core right now. P.s You guys have to put your iso or cso in the umd images folder. Then load umd and click on game.

Ash Jun 24, 2010 9:56 PM

Not working

Sorry but this emulator isnt working, this review is pointless cause every 3D based game wotn work on this, only things that are 2D and really simple in terms of graphics. So all this work was for nothing and waiste of time and im pretty angry! My Psp is broken and I bouht Peacewalker, now I cant play it...

Adrian Jun 21, 2010 2:33 PM

Where

Where do you download the games from without torrents and for free??

Marco Puentes Jun 18, 2010 11:28 AM

My games keep telling me that there is an error

My games keep telling me that there is an error and that the file is "file format not supported"

prabhakar May 22, 2010 2:25 AM

jpcsp emulator

i installed jpcsp emulator on my pc .....and i extract tetris.cso file in mso folder and i emulate UMD from the options and i run the game .its says an error message encrtpted eboot.bin not supported game run in original psp...what can i do please tell me the settings

Darnell Apr 6, 2010 7:22 PM

Ask

My Cso files wont work...

Paul Apr 4, 2010 8:55 AM

help me someone please.. i have the game working fine it begins to load, all the loading pages are fine untill the last 1 coms up and the the screen just goes white... does anyone know what ive dne wrong?

harits Apr 1, 2010 1:08 PM

Can't play FFVII

after i load UMD and choose FFVII game and then run it, this code always came out :
46406 [Emu] ERROR memory - write8 - Invalid memory address : 0x0 PC=08994E1C

so help me how to play the game

ken Mar 28, 2010 7:48 AM

if the game is iso

if the game is iso extract it first.. by rar program then play and rock!! that is so easy..

Ghaith Mar 11, 2010 9:32 AM

Can this play PES2009.CSO....it says file format not supported :(

Evangelion Mar 3, 2010 5:44 AM

error / help!

Every time I run games it says that there is no memory stick?? and i dont understand what I should do :(

LionHeart Jan 26, 2010 6:51 PM

emulator

i was confuse on how to use the emulator.
when i try to load a game like dissidia, an iso file it has says an error.

Andrew Jan 26, 2010 2:32 PM

Error - please help!

When I open the Jpcsp0.2.bat, this is the error message that appears:

Java -Xmx512m -jar "Jpcsp.jar"
'java' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

ragazul Dec 31, 2009 8:30 PM

this is what happen when i load the game so please tell way to fixed beacause it doest work
151781 [root] ERROR hle - Unmapped import @ 0x0885C628
152390 [root] WARN hle - Unsupported syscall 3002 sceKernelSetCompilerVersion 00030306 09fffe00 00000000
152594 [user_main] INFO hle - sceKernelCreateFpl(name=ygadh_hold,partition=2,attr=0x0,blocksize=0x5f000,blocks=1,opt=0x9ffba78)
152594 [user_main] WARN hle - UNIMPLEMENTED:sceKernelCreateFpl option at 0x9ffba78 (size=8)
152594 [user_main] WARN hle - UNIMPLEMENTED:scePowerRegisterCallback slot=-1 SceUID=1071
152609 [user_main] WARN hle - pushCallback(type=0) no registered callbacks to push
152609 [user_main] INFO hle - sceKernelCreateFpl(name=,partition=2,attr=0x0,blocksize=0x32000,blocks=1,opt=0x0)

Asad Dec 30, 2009 5:28 PM

When i load the game it gives me the error:
Unable to read file format
the games are in .iso format but still its not workin
what should i do

i r Nintendo Dec 4, 2009 3:50 PM

Controlls

i tryed to put the controller set up with my xbox 360 controll but it doesnt work and i cant stand using a keybord. is there a plugin or something to make it work?

Jkiss Nov 20, 2009 3:13 PM

Question

hey, ive been looking everywhere for an emulator and i was wondering b4 i try this one if thi can play commercial games. the game i want to play is bboy the game and im not sure whether or not this works

Neo Sep 18, 2009 3:08 AM

I run but it never work i use ff 7 core

mohamed Sep 1, 2009 5:54 PM

thanks man

Playstation Portable Emulator Review and How To: the JPCSP Emulator

Introduction

Games on the JPCSP Emulator

Configuration of the JPCSP Emulator

SummaryRating

Comments

Summary
Rating