There has always been a gap between computer gamers and console gamers. Generally because of the impossibility of a console gamer to play computer games or a PC gamer to play console–only games. Luckily for us, some people just don’t understand when to quit and keep on trying to create a bridge between consoles and computers as far as gaming is concerned.

Those people are the ones behind console emulators for the PC allowing PC gamers to play titles that appeared in a console-only format. This is how emulators such as Chankast for the Sega Dreamcast, Dolphin GameCube emulator, ePSXe PlayStation One emulator and many more appeared. Next generation consoles, however, seemed to be impossible to emulate on a modern computer mainly because their architecture is pretty different from that of a computer. Although it is said that console manufacturers have created emulators, there are no real facts confirming these speculations.

There are numerous teams working on Xbox360 and Nintendo Wii emulators, and one has just succeeded in making the first emulator to play PlayStation 2 video games. Starting with version 0.9.6, PCSX2 can play most console games on your computer at acceptable speeds. I will continue by showing you how to configure your PCSX2 emulator. Let’s start with the basics: download the latest version and install it. After completing the installation, double click the short cut created and start configuring your emulator.

The graphics: configuring the graphics is easy. Go to the Graphics section and choose to use the GSdx 890 0.1.14. Plug in and choose these settings: Resolution: Windowed, Renderer: Direct3D10 (Hardware), no Interlacing, texture filtering and an internal resolution of 1024 x 1024. Now, press OK and you have just configured your graphics to play PS2 games at fast frame rates. The emulator should be preconfigured but better safe than sorry, right? In case you don’t have a DX10 compatible video card, Direct3D 9 (Hardware) is always an option.Let’s continue by configuring the sound. My personal favorite is SPU2-x 1.1.0. Choose the “configure option” and make sure you use Linear Interpolation and XAudio 2. These should be the recommended options so you won’t have any trouble (don’t tick any other option… it will make the emulator highly unstable).

For the Cdvdrom emulator, it’s best that you use Gigaherz’s CDVD Plugin 0.7.0 and choose the drive you will be inserting the CD in. Side note: if you are planning to use disc images and not actual discs, I advise you to load them up with a third-party tool, such as Alcohol or Daemon Tools.

The last part of the basic configuration is the First and Second Controller configuration. My personal favorite is LilyPad 0.9.9. Choose this plug in, then press configure and start configuring your buttons (I can’t help you on that one because you know better than anyone how you want to play. A word of advice, though: the L Stick controls movement in most PS2 games so you might want it configured to your arrow keys or WASD keys. The R Stick usually controls the camera.

So, you have configured your game, yet it still runs slowly? Then, let’s get to the more advanced options, shall we? First of all, Cpu Config: if you don’t have at least a dual core CPU, don’t even think about running the PCSX2, since it is pretty CPU intensive. If you have at least a dual core, just tick all the options in order to get maximum speed and choose Limit for the Frame Limiting option. Normal will give you lower speed, Frame Skip will give you bad FMV in most games and VU Skip is Frame Skip just worse.

The “Game Special Fixes” menu allows you to choose custom options for certain games that sometimes happen to have a good effect on other games as well. It’s best if you tick them all.

Now, heading to the PCSX2 Speed Hacks menu. Although it has a lot of options that increase speeds, I have found it works best when you use a Default Cycle Rate and enable INTC Sync Hack, IOP x2 Cycle Rate, as well as WaitCycles Sync Hack. After pressing OK, head over to the Advanced Options tab where you should just choose the default options and not bother yourself with anything else (really touchy, this one).Even if the configuration is officially over, you should know that in order to play PS2 games, you need a bios dump from a PlayStation 2 console (put it in the Bios folder... that's what the Bios folder is for). Although there are many easy (illegal) ways to obtain the files, I strongly recommend the legal way: using a bios dumper and dumping the bios from a PS2 console. These settings allowed me to play PS2 games at more than acceptable speeds.

It has worked on two low to medium-end PCs: an Intel Core 2Duo CPU E7200 2.53GHz, 2046 DDR2RAM with GeForce 8600 GTS 512VRAM AND an AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.1 GHz, 2046 DDR3 RAM with GeForce 8500 GT 512 VRAM/ATI Radeon X1300 with 512VRAM.