A new open source PS2 emulator has been released on Android – ARMSX2

After stopping development of AetherSX2, the PlayStation 2 emulator market for Android remains in limbo.

Now fans of the classic game have an alternative – ARMSX2, a brand new open source emulator that recently received a version 1.0 release.

Unlike NetherSX2, which was based on an old build of PCSX2, the new project uses the current version of the original PC emulator code, promising better compatibility and fixing old bugs.

The developers have posted the source code on GitHub and a version for Google Play will appear in the coming days.

ARMSX2 is still in the early stages of development: for some users, the application crashes when launching BIOS or games, especially on devices with Samsung Xclipse and Mali graphics. The team has acknowledged the issue and is preparing a patch.

In terms of performance, the emulator is still inferior to solutions like AetherSX2, as it uses x86-to-Arm64 translation, but the developers guarantee that the optimization will improve over time.

Also in the plans are an update to the latest PCSX2 kernel and a Material Expressive visual redesign.