O AetherSX2 is an emulator of PlayStation 2 para Android which was recently announced. Free and without the “gimmicks” of DamonPS2, AetherSX2 can already run PS2 games like Gran Turismo 4 and God of War 2 with frame rates around 60 FPS.
To date, DamonPS2 is the most popular PlayStation 2 emulator for Android. However, controversies with the project (such as suspected theft of code), hacks and false compatibility list, made many people discredit the project.
AetherSX2 is born from scratch with the proposal to be a free and open source emulator. With that he intends to do the "root" emulation even with bios requirement and etc. Therefore, at least a device with a Snapdragon 845 or higher and a lot of patience is required.
The list of compatible games is small, but the emulator already shows itself quite promising.
In the channel RetroTambayan, it is possible to follow several tests in games like Tekken 5, Bloody Roar 3, Persona 5, Rachet & Clank and others.
Another well-known channel, Taki Udon made an extensive video about AetherSX2. Check it out below.
The emulation is simply awesome! The AetherSX2 can run many games with a refresh rate of around 60 frames per second and using Upscaling.
Requirements to play PlayStation 2 on Android with AetherSX2
According to the developer himself, Tahlreth , the PlayStation 2 is a rather complicated piece of hardware, with many powerful components even for the present day.
It recommends users to have at least a Snapdragon 845 or higher. According to him, you must have at least 4 large colors (Cortex A75). Because of this, some processors such as the Snapdragon 700G series may not be compatible.
Devices with Mali or PowerVR GPUs will run the application, but the performance will be much lower than Adreno GPUs, and the Vulkan renderer will not be available
You will still need to have the BIOS dump of a PlayStation 2 to be able to run a game. For those who don't know the BIOS, it's the chip used to boot a system and operate basic input and output of any computer/Console. As the BIOS is protected by law, the emulator developer cannot put it together with the emulator. The user will have to dump the BIOS of his own video game or look for one on the Internet.
As this is an initial project, it is not yet 100% functional. It is worth remembering that this is the FIRST ALPHA of AetherSX2. So it lacks basic things like more save state options and support for more Bluetooth controllers (only a few are compatible).
The emulator has not yet been released for download, but you can follow the project through its official Github page.
Project link: https://github.com/Tahlreth/tahlreth.github.io/blob/main/index.md
