Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The team behind the ARMSX2 PS2 emulator for Android has revealed that the app will soon get online multiplayer support.
- This would be a major addition as a variety of PS2 games supported online play, including Madden titles, the SOCOM franchise, and more.
- The team also confirmed that it’s working on a PS1 emulator that’s actually a fork of an existing effort.
ARMSX2 is the newest PlayStation 2 emulator on Android, and the hope is that it will eventually surpass AetherSX2/NetherSX2 as the best PS2 emulator on the platform. Now, the team behind the nascent emulator has revealed that a major feature is on the way.
The ARMSX2 team confirmed on Discord that the PS2 emulator will soon get online multiplayer support. This is a big deal as AetherSX2 and NetherSX2 don’t support online play.
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Furthermore, the PlayStation 2 originally supported online multiplayer, so this support could theoretically revive a variety of games. Prominent titles with online support include the SOCOM games, Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, a variety of FIFA and Madden entries, and early Call of Duty games.
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The upcoming ARMSX2 update will also deliver a new user interface, an updated PCSX2 core, and custom driver support. The latter is also encouraging news, as custom GPU drivers can deliver better performance and/or more bug fixes compared to the stock driver. This is particularly important for new or cutting-edge emulators.
Otherwise, the team also confirmed that it’s working on a PS1 emulator dubbed ARMSX. This will be a fork of the existing PSXE project, which last received an update in November 2024. The forked emulator will receive a UI, memory card support, save state functionality, and a Play Store release.
In any event, we still expect NetherSX2 to be the better choice for most mobile gamers right now as ARMSX2 currently uses x86 to Arm translation. This results in a performance penalty compared to running native Arm code. But we’re nevertheless glad to see innovative features like online play coming to the new emulator.
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