Android Apps
How to Set Up and Configure the PlayStation Emulator psx4droid
August 4, 2010 | by Lars Aronsson
Android Games, Android Tutorials, Tips
I think we’ve all played a PlayStation at one point or the other. And since July 25th, we can play it on our high-end Android phones as well, thanks to the efforts of coder extraordinaire ZodTTD. Now that his psx4droid emulator actually can be downloaded from the Market, a tutorial for getting it to work may come in handy – especially since some people seem to have a hard time configuring it.
psx4droid supports various ROM formats, such as BIN, ISO, IMG, PBP, Z, ZNX, and EBOO. But most ROMs are in the currently unsupported ECM format. This step-by-step tutorial explains how you set up psx4droid, and how you convert ECM ROMs to the supported BIN format. Please remember that it’s illegal to download ROMs for games that you don’t own, and you should only grab the BIOS if you have the original PlayStation.
How to Convert ECM ROMs & Get psx4droid Running
1) Download the Required Files
- Purchase and download psx4droid in the Market.
- Visit http://www.underground-gamer.com/wiki/index.php/ECM on your computer and download ECM for Windows. Mac users can go directly to http://www.neillcorlett.com/ecm/ instead, and grab the GUI port for Mac OS X.
- In Windows, extract unecm.exe from the downloaded ecm100.zip archive to the same folder that you keep your ROMs in. Both WinZip and WinRAR are excellent choices for unpacking compressed archives.
2) Extract and Rename the ECM ROM
- Now you need to extract a file called data.bin.ecm that is located inside each of your compressed PlayStation ROMs that needs to be converted.
- This part is a bit tricky, since the .ecm file usually is stored in a compressed archive inside the original ZIP-file. For example, the archive Silent Hill (USA) (v1.1).zip contains a folder, and inside that folder is another compressed archive titled Silent Hill (USA) (v1.1).7z. Hence, you first have to extract the .7z file, before you can extract data.bin.ecm that is stored within Silent Hill (USA) (v1.1).7z.
Extract the compressed archive located inside the ZIP-file
When you finally have extracted the file data.bin.ecm, rename it to the title of the game it contains. In my Silent Hill example above, I would rename it Silent.Hill.ecm.
3) Convert Your ECM ROMs
- Now it’s time for some classic drag & drop: in the Windows File Explorer, grab your extracted .ecm ROM with the mouse pointer and simply drop it on unecm.exe. This will launch a command prompt. Wait while the converter does its thing. It may take a while.
Classic Windows drag & drop: grab the ECM file and drop it on unecm.exe
The ECM ROM converter working its magic
- You should now have a set of files similar to those in my screen shot below. The converted ROM will probably not have a file extension, so add .bin at the end of the file name. In my case, I call it Silent.Hill.bin.
All the extracted, converted and renamed files
4) Download the BIOS and Copy the Files to Your SD Card
- Google scph1001.bin and download the file. This is the PSX bios and the emulator needs it in order to run.
- Connect your phone to your computer in the disk drive mode; create a new folder on your SD card, and copy scph1001.bin and all of your converted ROMs in the BIN format to it.
- Disconnect your phone and launch psx4droid.
- Press Menu > Settings > PSX BIOS file and locate scph1001.bin on your SD card.
- You’ll be prompted by psx4droid to find a ROM, and now you’re ready to rock. Sweet PlayStation gaming nostalgia will ensue!
Source: xda-developers
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i did everything you said and when i went to load the rom it would look like its loading by shifting to a black screen before it plays but just goes back to the psx menu instead.
To solve previous problems. @brandon you haven’t selected the BIOS file in the settings correctly. And @hot you’ve never used an emulator before have you?! I have a desire and doesn’t have that good sound but that happens with most emulated games. Solution: wait for froyo update and it will be way better
Hiya Brandon. I think that's the way psx4droid reacts when you're trying to load an unsupported ROM. If you converted a data.bin.ecm ROM with unecm.exe, and added the .bin file extension to the result, psx4droid should be able to load it. Hope you get it running!
Hey, Im using a mac and am struggling to get past step 2, Ive downloaded the ecm you suggest for mac users but i cannot drag the ecm file onto the ecm.exe file, one just sits on top of another and nothing happens. I'm using unRar to unarchive but it doesnt have the facility to manipulate files as you suggest. Can you help at all? Thank-you. Karl
Karl, a .exe is completely useless on a Mac – you need to download the Mac version of the ECM software (re-read the post – you will see a download link has been provided) Best James
Great and concise how to…unfortunately running through the unecm process and getting to end i get a “corrupt ecm” message and something about eof. So not working on the files i have downloaded so far. Will keep trying.
those roms that i downloaded don have a ecm file.. but still the sound is bad when im playing with psx4droid with my htc desire… please help…
i've done all the steps. compressed the file type and changed it to .img . it starts to load the rom but it just shows the sony symbol that shows before playing any ps1 game then goes back to the rom loading screen.
plz help me…
hey michael, im facing this problem too. Please advise me if you have solve it
that;s stupid…just convert whatever formats with MagicISo or ISOBUSTER… wtf are you complicating. I mean, ECM? Every rom out there is in BIN or ISO or IMG or even MDF…
not true dick. i got psx roms that are ecm extensions and am trying to use that ecm program to unecm them but it's not working.. wish there were more options to unecm than this lame port
why when i try to convert the .ecm it turns into a battle file
very hard to read this explanatin, you should nail it down to single points only, also notice that the download of the windows version is on the same page of the authors website as the mac version… I was heavily anoied by this review, so please change this article for good
English mother fucker, do you speak it?
You're the man now dawg
My Xperia X8 (firmware 2.1) and PSX4droid cannot run *.bin file. Here are some games alreaty in *.pbp format http://www.roms4droid.com/index.php which are playable on my phone, but games downloaded from emuparadise, are not playable, even after renaming "game_name.bin" to "game_name.pbp"… wondering, if i need some kind of converter or something like that…
nice blog, i am using xperia x10, i am able to play psx on my phone(dragon ball final bout). More power! ASTIG!
i have downloaded psx4droid like 10times to try to get games to work on my droid xperia. i had the psx on my phone just 2days ago and it was running twisted metal 2 just find but i couldnt get games like yugioh forbidden memories or resident evil 3 to wrk. i ended up taking psx off and now i cant even find the bitch in the market anymore. so im stuck with just the psx4droid but i have already downloaded the scph1001.bin file and placed it in the sdcard/rom/psx folder…along with the twisted metal 2 EBOOT.PBP file and 3 other .bin files but all the psx4droid does when i double click to launch it is stay on a black screen with the virtual keypad on screen. it doesnt go any farther then that. can some1 plez help me cuz im at a lose.
Hey, very nice site. I came across this on Google, and I am stoked that I did. I will definately be coming back here more often. Wish I could add to the conversation and bring a bit more to the table, but am just taking in as much info as I can at the moment. iso 9000
great tutorial. works for iphone and ipod touch as well
i finally solve my black screen and able to play now.. thank you so much after searching for so long to my problem as i don't play a emulator before now i know Y my game can run with the emulator all setup cuz i have been trying to run my game in XXX.bin.ecm thank you so much again for sharing
howd you do it bro?
can someone link a vedoe or create a video and post it please, iam on my htc desire s i have done it all been on utube searched so many videos?
after i unzip my game (.7z) file i get two files inside the compression … one file is the game (Tony Hawk.bin.ecm) the other file is something else (Tony Hawk.cue)…..i know what to do with the .bin.ecm file but should i also put the .cue file on my phone in the same folder with the game and bios or does it even matter….this has happened with all the games i have downloaded so far
I have a Thunderbolt, is the PSX Emu and Roms compatible? I have everything installed correctly but when I try to open FF7 it just goes black for a sec then nothing, it goes back to the select Rom screen. Help please, I'm a FF7 playing fool and need my fix. The FF7 Rom is a .bin file and I know I have the bios installed right, and now I'm lost on why it don't work.
please l jux had xperia x10 mini pro andriod version 2.1 l realy need. games but any game l download it require external data to run which dis data will. cost me more.pls help me out. and also downloaded psx4droid emulator can one help me in step how to use it to play games.
There is no .ecm file on my compressed PSX ROM. There is only .bin Now what? Pls help.
I did everything you said. I succesfully converted the ECM file to .bin file but still it turns to black screen then it crashes. Same problem as brandon over there. I also have the scph1001.bin BIOS so I dont know what im doing wrong. HELP please. Im desperate.
Thanks so much! Going to try this out.
Ack super complicated. All I wanna do is get a psx emulator and dl some roms and play like I can with gba snes and most other emulators. But I guess its gotta be complicated to be worth it. If there is a way to do all this via the phone that would be great cuz the reason I’m tryin to play it on my phone is cuz I don’t have a computer.
This emulator is just poorly programmed. It can’t run 95% of the games out there.
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