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(EPSXE is a Playstation 1 emulator for the PC, 1.7 was released recently. Before this, it hadn’t had a new version in I think, over 5 years. You can find out more about it here: http://forums.ngemu.com/epsxe-discussion/)

In continuing my run of themes, or perhaps better stated as “enjoying old things again”, I’ve also been playing Metal Gear Solid, with the intention of finally playing 2 and 3 as well.

I bought the recently released MGS Collection (Play-Asia is freaking fantastic for buying legit games in VN, btw), mainly for MGS1 since I I’ve owned MGS2 for the XBox for nearly 5 years after a crazy sale at EBGames listed it at $19.99. Never played it once.

I have a modded PS2 which is why I bought the collection- I could get a copy of MGS 3 easily, but I didn’t think I could run a copied MGS1 on my PS2.

Turns out, I can’t run legit copies of PS1 games on my PS2 either. I actually own the PC version of MGS and have it with me in VN, but I wanted dual shock vibration. Turns out, the solution was to go with EPSXE and XBCD* drivers to go with an iso image of my MGS1 CDs. You can also play straight from the cd, but its significantly slower, with loads of loading delays.

(I even have Mike’s hint book guide to MGS2, also given to me probably 5 years ago, and again, never played it once.)

The overall gameplay experience was quite good.

20-30 fps, with some occasional dips into the 10’s, but not during gameplay. (I think PSX games were originally 30 FPS anyway, at least MGS was, so for the most part things run well, although I kind of felt that control was slightly sluggish)

Keep in mind I was pushing higher-end settings on my T61P laptop, not running it how it looked on the Playstation when it first came out. See the screenshot at the bottom of the post.

Analog control was good, and vibration accurate. The game’s sound, always one of the most memorable things about MGS, still holds up after all these years, though I think David Hayter’s acting is a little overrated. He’s good, but he’s not fantastic. I kind of feel the way about the rest of the cast too, but I think a lot of that is the script. When I was 18/19/20 it sounded great, now that I’m 27, it comes off a little cheesy.

*XBCD Drivers are 3rd party drivers for the XBox 360 controller. Much better than the Microsoft ones, they’ll let you get rumble in emulators like EPSXE. The link to where you can normally find them is gone, so I’ve uploaded them for download.

XBCD Installer 0.2.6.exe

(edit: June 23: wanted to add some things. 1.7 version of EPSXE has an issue when you get to disc 2- you won’t be able to load it. You’ll have to get an older version of EPSXE (1.5, 1.6), use your save, get past the bug point, and resave for the import back into 1.7. This is easy, just look in the right directory in your program directory. Also had trouble with the ISO image at the end of the game- the Playstation (not the pure emu software) reported it could not read the disc. When I used to original game disc however, things were ok)

Here are my settings with EPSXE:

Here’s another good guide on EPSXE from Racketboy: http://www.racketboy.com/retro/sony/ps1/2007/08/enhance-ps1-graphics-with-the-best-epsxe-plugin-settings.html

Screenshots from the game (as always, may have spoilers, click on a shot to see the entire gallery):

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