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About DuckStation
DuckStation emulates the original PlayStation with a focus on playability, speed and long-term maintainability. It has a Qt front end and a big-screen ImGui interface, CPU recompilers for x86-64, ARM and RISC-V, hardware renderers on D3D11, D3D12, OpenGL, Vulkan and Metal, upscaling, texture filtering, true colour, and PGXP for geometry precision and texture correction. "Hack" options are deliberately discouraged.
One thing to know before you build it into anything: despite the public repository, DuckStation is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0, which is not an open-source licence. You can use it, but not commercially, and not in a modified form. A PS1 or PS2 BIOS image, dumped from hardware you own, is also required.
Strengths
- CPU recompilers for x86-64, ARMv7, AArch64 and RISC-V, so it runs well on handhelds too
- Hardware renderers on D3D11, D3D12, OpenGL, Vulkan and Metal
- Upscaling, texture filtering, true colour and PGXP geometry correction
- Both a desktop Qt front end and a controller-driven fullscreen interface
- Accuracy first: hack options are discouraged and defaults are meant to just work
Limitations
- Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, which forbids commercial use and derivative works, so it is not open source
- A PS1 or PS2 BIOS image is required and is not supplied
- Releases are published as rolling latest and preview builds
- It supplies no games; obtaining discs or dumps legally is on you
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree to download and use for non-commercial purposes under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
- License
- Proprietary (CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0)
- Developer
- Connor McLaughlin (stenzek)
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Playing PS1 games accurately on anything from a desktop to a handheld
- Categories
- Emulators
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Selected from the TechWalrus downloads catalog (Emulation); facts checked against the developer's own pages, 5 sources on file.
Alternatives to DuckStation
Compare allSoftware that can replace DuckStation for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Mednafen
Command-line multi-system emulator covering Saturn, PlayStation and more.
Mednafen covers PlayStation among many systems under the open-source GPL-2.0 licence, but it is command-line driven and lacks DuckStation's upscaling and fullscreen controller interface.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
RetroArch
One front end for dozens of emulators, with unified settings, shaders and a controller setup you only do once.
PCSX2
The PlayStation 2 emulator, twenty years in development, now running most of the library at full speed.
PPSSPP
A PSP emulator that needs no BIOS file and runs handheld games in HD on phones and PCs.
RPCS3
The PlayStation 3 emulator, and the only free and open source one that actually plays the games.
