ePSXe Tutorial

Installing ePSXe

Download ePSXe v1.6.0 from http://www.epsxe.com/download.php.
Unzip the file using your favourite unzippping program (mine is IZArc) and move the folder to wherever you choose. I suggest making a folder called ePSXe in the C:/Program Files/ folder and putting the ePSXe files into your ePSXe folder.

You will see the following folders in your ePSXe directory:

Bios - This is where BIOS images are stored.
Cheats - Cheat files can be placed in this folder.
Docs - ePSXe documentation is in this folder.
Memcards - This if where your memory cards are stored.
Patches - Some games may need PPF patches, put them in this folder.
Plugins - Put 3rd party plug-ins in here.
Snap - This is where ePSXe puts screenshots. Press F8 to take a picture of the screen.
Sstates - This is where save states are stored. A save state is an exact copy of the memory ePSXe uses which allows you to save your exact position in the game anywhere.

You should also consider downloading ePSXeCutor, a frontend for ePSXe, making configuring easier and giving you more options. With this tool you can have a different configuration for different games if you choose. I will be using ePSXeCutor in this tutorial, however most things in this tutorial can also be done in ePSXe. ePSXeCutor can be downloaded from here: http://www.pbernert.com/html/frontend.htm. Extract the files to you ePSXe folder.

You'll need a BIOS

To run ePSXe, you will need a PlayStation BIOS file. To two most common ones used for PlayStation emulation are:

SCPH1001.bin (NTSC, for US)
SCPH7502.bin (PAL, for Europe and Australia)

It is only legal to have them if you own the PlayStation consoles which they are used in, or something like that. I won't host or link you to any BIOS files, but I'm sure you can find them yourself. This is just a guess, but maybe searching for something like "SCPHBIOSES.zip" or "Playstation BIOS (2.67 MB)" might help, but that's only a guess. Any ZIP files should be unzipped, and move the ".bin" files to the "bios" folder in your ePSXe folder.

Plugins

ePSXe uses a plugin system to control some areas of it's PlayStation emulation. Before you can start using ePSXe, you're going to have to download some plugins to run the graphics, sound and CD drive. The plugins that I recommend are:

Pete's GPU Plugins v1.76 - This a collection of three video plugins. The "gpuPeteOpenGL.dll" plugin is recommended.

Eternal SPU v1.41 - This is a popular sound plugin.

CDR Mooby v2.8 - If you would like to play PlayStation images (e.g. ISO images) then you should use this plugin.

P.E.Op.S. CDR v1.4 - This a CD plugin.

Here are some other plugins you may want to try, however I won't be using these for this tutorial:

P.E.Op.S. GPU v1.17 - Recommended for 2D games.

Pete's OpenGL2 PSX GPU v2.08 - Reccomended for high end cards, will not work on NV2x cards in Windows XP using the 4x.xx drivers.

CdrSaPu v1.0 - Another CD plugin.

CyberPad net plugin v1.0 - Yep, you can play 2 player games over the internet!

For lots of other plugins, visit http://www.ngemu.com/psx/epsxe.php?action=plugins.

Extract those ZIP files into the plugins folder in your ePSXe directory, and feel free to take this opportunity to delete all of those "readme" files which no-one ever reads.

ePSXeCutor

Open ePSXeCutor, click on Configurations and select New ePSXe configuration....

Type in a name for your configuration and click on Configure ePSXe.

Pete's OpenGL Driver

Double-click on Pete's OpenGL Driver v1.76.

If you're not using ePSXeCutor, open ePSXe and click on Config, then select Video, then select Pete's OpenGL Driver v1.76 and click on Configure.

From the drivers configuration panel, you can select the Fast or Nice default setting, or make your own. If you do select Fast, I suggest you tick Use FPS Limit, select Auto-etect FPS/Frame skipping and leave Use frame skipping unticked.

First, select whether you want ePSXe to run in fullscreen or window mode, and what resolution you want. Most of the options you select in the Textures area will depend on how good your video card is. Try selecting either R8 G8 B8 A8 option for texture quality and either 4, 5, or 6 in texture filtering. For good video cards, select 2xSal in hi-res textures, or select None if your card can't handle it.

In the Framerate section, tick Use FPS Limit and select Auto-detect FPS/Frame skipping. Leave Use frame skipping unticked.

Next, under compatibility, go either Standard or Enhanced for the Off-Screen drawing, 2 for Framebuffer texture and 0 or 1 for Framebuffer access. Tick Alpha MultiPass, and you may as well tick the other two boxes as well.

You can experiment with the options in the Misc section. MDEC has something to do with how the PlayStation plays videos (also known as FMVs).

Once you've finished, click OK.

Eternal SPU Plugin

Double-click on Eternal SPU Plugin 1.41 in ePSXeCutor or select if from ePSXe from Conig/Sound in ePSXe.

The buffer size can be left at 64, however you may want to bring it up to 128. Tick Wait for XA buffer is free and Cache VAG decode. Only tick the special game fixes if the game you want to play requires it.

P.E.Op.S CDR Driver

If you want to run PlayStation games from your computers CD drive, then this plugin is reccomended.

Select W2K/XP - IOCTL scsi commands from the interface menu. Select the drive you want to use. Put a PlayStation disc in that drive and click Try auto-detection. Set the caching mode to Thread read - fast with IOCTL, always async reads and tick Use additional 4MByte data cache. Tick Don't wait until drive is ready. In the subchannel reading section, select Use subchannel SBI/M3S info file and select the file.

To create a SBI/M3S file, insert the PlayStation game you want to play in the CD drive and click on Create SBI/M3S file. Select Read subchannels from CD and click on the ... next to the Out file. Find a suitable location and name it, then click Create subchannel info file.

CDRMooby

If you want to run PlayStation games from your computer, then use this plugin instead of P.E.Op.S CDR Driver.

Select "Repeat all CDDA tracks" and "Enable subchannel data". Change the "CDDA Volume" to a higher level than zero to hear in-game music.

Pads

Select Internal ePSXe PAD1 and Internal ePSXe PAD2. We will configure these later.

Memcards

You are now finished with configuring plugins. Select the Memcards tab next to the Plugins tab. Click Create twice to create two new memory cards.

They will automatically be assigned to memory card slots 1 and 2, as indicated by the icons. Right click on Card 0000 and select Format Card. A message will come up displaying Formatting will destroy content of memory card. Continue?. Press OK. Do this to Card 0001 as well.

Memory cards can be exported and imported from this section of ePSXeCutor, so you can share or backup your virtual memory cards.

Options

Select the Options tab. Tick Enable sound, Enable CDDA and Enable MDEC XA. Only tick Enable SPU IRQ hack if you have a game that requires it, and if this is the case then Enable MDEC XA should be unticked. Click on Start ePSXe for pad configuring.

In ePSXe, open Config, Game Pad then Pad 1.

Configure the controls by clicking in a box pointing to a button of the PlayStation controller and pressing a key on your keyboard or a button on your controller. Click OK and exit ePSXe.

Running ePSXe

Click Close to exit out of the ePSXeCutor configuration window, and click on OK on the configuration properties window.

Double-click on your newly created config to start ePSXe running.

Success!

Have fun emulating your favorite PlayStation games!