PCSX2

Development of PCSX2 was started in 2001 by programmers who go by the names Linuzappz and Shadow, who were programmers for the PlayStation emulator PCSX-Reloaded. PCSX2 initially made use of plugins as a means of modularizing development efforts among the separate components of the emulated PlayStation 2 hardware. Other programmers later joined the team, and they were eventually able to get some PS2 games to the loading screen. The team then started working on the task of emulating the PlayStation 2's BIOS; they got it to run, although it was slow and graphically distorted. Version 0.9.1 was released in July 2006.

From 2007 to 2011, developers worked on Netplay and speed improvements. PCSX2 0.9.8 was released in May 2011 and featured an overhauled GUI written with wxWidgets, that improved compatibility for Linux and newer Windows operating systems. In July 2024, PCSX2 2.0 was released. It featured a new Qt GUI, support for the Vulkan API, and the removal of plugins among other changes.

PCSX2 has been very well-received. com described it as "an impressive piece of work". Alex Garnett of PC World criticized the difficulty of setting up PCSX2 but called it a "masterpiece." Although David Hayward of Micro Mart also criticized the complexity, he also called it "technically amazing."

com described PCSX2 as "arguably the most popular emulator around" and named it as one of the site's top five emulators. Brandon Widder of Digital Trends included PCSX2 in his Best Emulators article. John Corpuz of Tom's Guide mentioned PCSX2 in his Best PlayStation Emulators for PCs article, saying, "When it comes to stable, playable PlayStation 2 emulation, PCSX2 is pretty much the best game in town at the moment."