Sony PlayStation 2

• Accepted ROM formats: .iso, .mdf, .nrg, .bin, .img, .dump, .gz, .cso, .chd

Place your Sony PlayStation 2 ROMs in /userdata/roms/ps2.

The PlayStation 2 was in the middle of an awkward phase of TV standards. Not only were displays transforming from the 4:3 aspect ratio to the 16:9 aspect ratio, but they were also going from interlaced to progressive. And this was also before video signals became standardized, like with HDMI. Thus, various PS2 games have varying degrees for supported video modes.

Fortunately, since we are using a high-level emulator, we don't need to worry about whether a game supports progressive scan or not. By virtue of emulation, all games are rendered as progressive scan anyway. If a game offers the option to use it though, there's no harm in activating it.

In addition to this, the PS2's BIOS itself supports setting the aspect ratio to 4:3 or 16:9, and games can read this setting to determine what aspect ratio to display. However, the majority of games actually ignore this setting and offer the option in the game itself, if at all. But for the games that do support asking the BIOS for the aspect ratio, the only way to switch their aspect ratios to 16:9 is via the following:

1. With a controller plugged in, launch and close any PS2 game. This will configure the controller so that we can navigate the BIOS without issues later.
2. While in the PS2 game list, press [Select] and go to ADVANCED SYSTEM SETTINGS. Set GAME ASPECT RATIO to “16:9”.
   

   This can also be set on a per-game basis by holding down while hovering over the game and going to ADVANCED GAME OPTIONS.

3. Back out to the system list, then press [F1] on the keyboard to access the file manager.
4. Navigate to Applications on the left sidebar, then open pcsx2-config.
5. In the menu at the top of the screen, click CDVD and select “No disc”.
   
6. Then click System and select “Boot BIOS”.
   
7. Using the controller, go to System Configuration.
   
8. Press D-pad down to go to Screen Size.
   
9. Press and then set the screen size to the aspect ratio of your display (most of the time, this will be 16:9).
   
10. Back out with to ensure it saves, and exit the emulator with [Ctrl] + [Q], [Alt] + [Tab] and [Alt] + [F4].

Certain games only offer the ability to set the screen's aspect ratio in their in-game options. A comprehensive list can be found at the everybodywiki's list of PS2 games with alternative video modes page. This includes notes about special conditions about their activation. Do not worry about progressive scan, 480p, 1080i or 240p mode.

For the remaining games that do not support 16:9 aspect ratio (or their offering is inferior as they use the “crop” method, zooming in the image), setting WIDESCREEN PATCHES in the ADVANCED SYSTEM SETTINGS can force the game to render in widescreen. This is known to cause graphical glitches, notably stretched 2D elements like FMVs and geometry popping in.

For games which support both 50 Hz and 60 Hz, they will either ask to set the appropriate mode on boot or have it available in its options menu. Most modern displays will be running at 60 Hz, so choose that whenever offered. NTSC games will run in 60 Hz by default.

PCSX2 is a free and open-source PlayStation 2 emulator for Windows, Linux, and macOS that supports a wide range of PlayStation 2 video games with a high level of compatibility and functionality. Although PCSX2 can closely mirror the original gameplay experience on the PlayStation 2, PCSX2 supports a number of improvements over gameplay on a traditional PlayStation 2, such as the ability to use custom resolutions up to 8192×8192, anti-aliasing, and texture filtering.

Batocera is shipping the latest PCSX2 Linux standalone binary. Check out the up-to-date official compatibility list for more information.

Standardized features available to all cores of this emulator: ps2.videomode, ps2.ratio

To configure other settings for PCSX2, open its standalone configuration application pcsx2-config from the Applications menu (press [F1] on the system list).

RetroArch (formerly SSNES), is a ubiquitous frontend that can run multiple “cores”, which are essentially the emulators themselves. The most common cores use the libretro API, so that's why cores run in RetroArch in Batocera are referred to as “libretro: (core name)”. RetroArch aims to unify the feature set of all libretro cores and offer a universal, familiar interface independent of platform.

RetroArch offers a Quick Menu accessed by pressing [HOTKEY] + which can be used to alter various things like RetroArch and core options, and controller mapping. Most RetroArch related settings can be altered from Batocera's EmulationStation.

Standardized features available to all libretro cores: ps2.videomode, ps2.ratio, ps2.smooth, ps2.shaders, ps2.pixel_perfect, ps2.decoration, ps2.game_translation

Standardized features available to all cores of this emulator: ps2.videomode

Texture packs replace the textures in a game with other (usually higher resolution) textures. ( which emulators available support this? Just PCSX2?)

Texture packs go into the PCSX2 config folder appropriate to the game: system/configs/PCSX2/textures/<GameCode>. For example if replacing the texture in the game God of War, they would go into the system/configs/PCSX2/textures/SCUS-97399 folder. ( how do we find out the GameCode?)

( aren't there options that need to be enabled?)

Here are the default Sony PlayStation 2's controls shown on a Batocera Retropad:

PS2 emulation with PCSX2 requires a relatively decent CPU with a good GPU for hardware acceleration. It will only work on x86/x86_64 machines. Even if your Batocera system does emulate Wii U or even PS3 games fine it may struggle with PCSX2 emulation in terms of graphic improvements or resolution upscaling. You can find some PC performance measurements and recommendations on this page.

If you still have trouble try to keep the original resolution and default emulation settings. Some games need high-end, possibly overclocked CPUs or powerful GPUs, whereas some games run even on weak processors.

With that said, what if you're experiencing unusually low performance on hardware that should otherwise be running it at full speed? Sometimes the configuration file gets corrupted and resets to using “all defaults” according to PCSX2, which is to say not good. You can reset your configuration by doing the following:

1. Open up the file manager by pressing [F1] on the system list.
   
2. Click Applications in the top of the sidebar on the left.
   
3. Double-click pcsx2-config to open up the PCSX2 configuration tool.
   
4. Navigate to Config → General Settings

   On older versions, this is Emulator settings…

   
   

5. Slide the preset at the bottom of the window to the right until it says “3 - Balanced”. On older, single/dual-core machines you may want to slide this back to the default of “2 - Safe”.
   
6. Press Apply. Quit PCSX2 with [Ctrl]+[Q] or by using the File menu.
7. Test out your game.

Due to how the synchronizing function of the audio plugin works, even when running games on a computer that is capable of going way above 100% speed in a stable fashion, random bits of time-stretched audio can be heard occasionally or even frequently.

A good workaround is to set the audio syncing method to Async Mix via pcsx2-config. This can cause A/V sync issues with certain games and is not recommended with rhythm games. Do not set it to None as it basically does the same thing as Async Mix but has more issues.

Be aware that some games relies on BIOS to get start-up parameters and thus may not work correctly with disabling the BIOS start animation. Therefore you should enable the boot animation in the first step for problematic games with SHOW BIOS BOOTLOGO ps2.fullboot=1.

Also ensure that automatic gamefixes are enabled in Batocera. If you still have problems take a look at the official PCSX2 Wiki and use the search function on that wiki to find information for the affected game.

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.