Great news for PSone fans who are wanting to play their favourite old games on the PSP, an unofficial PSone emulator is getting closer to reality.

DCEmu have got the scoop on this one, including some screenshots of a few games in action. The emulator hasn’t been released yet, but Wraggster at DCEmu has got hold of a beta version, so all the rumours of it being fake should be discarded.

It looks like there are a few bugs to iron out of the current version before it will be released to the public, and a few key improvements to be made, such as the addition of sound, and the implementation of dynarec, which should see a huge improvement in speed.

Am I looking forward to this release? In a way, yes, as I’ve got quite a few PSone games sitting around that I fancy having a quick go of, including Gran Turismo 1 and 2 (hope they work on it). I’ve never been convinced of Sony’s plan to release an official PSone emulator via a firmware update and the expectation that people would pay to download games they already own. This unofficial emulator will take the wind out of their sails, so to speak, and, at least for the homebrew community, mean that the dreaded firmware update can be avoided a little longer.

The only question now is whether the emulator can be distributed widely enough before the cease and desist orders come flooding in. Any website hosting this emualtor is likely to come under close scrutiny from the legal people at Sony.

There is no word yet as to how this emulator will be distributed (ie for free or not), and what data it requires from a PSone to get it working – any software required from a PSone machine itself will instantly make distibuting a complete emulator package very difficult.