Hi all I know Play! has a good reputation and all, but still, it's an app not from PlayStore.... what are the chances it contains malicious code? I'm an Android noob, but can malicious apps steal passwords, hack internet banking apps etc etc?
The ppsspp is very good as well. You like fighting and cod they have that on there. Very good frame rate for every game Ive played. There's the damon ps2 pro. It's not bad, just have get games with basically, not much going on. That's still so new though.
The whole discussion is entertaining. So many people have no idea what they're talking about and to make things even worse there are people that belive them blindly.
1. PS2's architecture is the issue in emulating it, not it's raw power (PSP had slightly faster cores yet PPSSPP can handle it nearly perfectly with no hassle). PS2 has a kind of architecture and computing philosphy that is very far away from standard/consumer PCs. So in order to emulate it you have to do many complex things that multiply again and again, one on top of the other the minimum requirements of the device you're about to emulate it.
2. PS2 and PCSX2's code needs RAW performance and a relatively good video card not much RAM (256-512MB of RAM are more than enough). The way that PS2 works and the way that PCSX2 code tries to emulate it (and obviously is the most acurate and correct way to do it) you need a processor which can pack as much RAW power on a SINGLE core as possible. PS2's architecture DOES NOT allow multiple CPUs and there is absolutely no way around it. You can lay off some work on other cores but that's nothing that has to do with core emulation of PS2 and nothing that would give alot (or any) extra speed on emulation. So you need more Hz in ONE core and the minimum requirements of PCSX2 state some frequencies on a single core that are so far from what we see today on mobile devices that even talking about it is a joke.
3. So with what I said above you understand that the way the mobile computing industry goes (so this includes Android too), every day that passes and with every new CPU that comes out like Exynos Octa Core etc, we get a step more far from an ideal CPU that could handle PS2 emulation instead of getting more near. PS2 does NOT really like multiple cores and does NOT really care about multithreading, actually the opposite, it can be proven a bottlenecking factor to it in alot/most of cases. This is because the industry right now tries to give saperate work on smaller cores and multiply those small cores to archieve simmilar frequencies (if you put them all together) with a previous gen CPU. So they trade off RAW power of a single core for more cores. That may work well on Android for example but it KILLS PS2 emulation, it's simply the worst thing that could happen to it.
4. Mobile GPUs are sooooo weak. And when I say soooo weak, I mean SOOOOOOOO weak. (lol) Even the least ideal GPUs for PCSX2 like Intel HD 3000 or Intel HD 4000 (I'm talking about integreated graphics here since they are the same thing mobile chipsets have) are LIGHT YEARS ahead and really much more powerful than anything that not only is out on the mobile computing market right now, but sure for atleast ~3 years from now. So to say it better, your phone's GPU and you future's phone GPU is/will be crappier that the crappiest GPU that PCSX2 needs to emulate PS2.
So now everyone's free to go on and try to say that what I say it's not true. Go on and discuss the same things I said above on PCSX2's official forum with the (over a decade) working and active devs of the emulator, you'll get exactly the same points I listed above.
Thanks to all the people who answered; This is very helpful to our team.
I want to thank everyone who replied to my questions so far. Your answers especially the ones from toka1232010 will be extremely helpful in our development. I encourage you guys to continue answering the questions, and possibly additional ones I might add. By the way someone mentioned that we should use all 4 cores of the quads. To reply to that, we were already planning to. The person who is in charge of optimization found out that pcsx2 uses no more than two cores. Ours will use 3 on the quads, unless the 4th one is needed (drops below a certain fps.). The dual cores, like the qualcomm in the one xl and the exynos 5250 are going to be difficult, but we will definitely try. toka1232010, I will try to find a way to get this to people in countries that don't have the play store. I think I might publish on the amazon appstore also, but that will take a bit longer.
I'm glad that you think my assumption on what phones people use to emulate is correct.
Again, Thanks to all.