Hackers discover PSP emulator for PS4

Hackers poring over PlayStation 4 source code have made an interesting discovery that has allowed them to play certain old PSP games on the PlayStation 4, at 4k resolution.

It turns out that the PS4 remaster of PaRappa the Rapper was the 2007 edition of the game, rereleased for the PSP. The game runs on a PSP emulator that has been tweaked by Sony to run with a 4K texture update.

This was discovered by user KiiWii, posted in the GBATemp forums. Since then, several enthusiasts have been able to boot a handful of PSP games on the PS4 by altering the source files. Only a few games are working on the emulator, and discussion around it seems to indicate there may be a size limit.

This comes soon after another PS4 hack that made PS2 games playable using an exploit in the PS1 classics library.

While these hacks may be bad for business, they do show an enthusiasm for the games in question. If Sony does indeed have an internal PSP emulator that can upscale things to 4k at simply as changing the source code loaded into it, it’s possible that the company could release several other PSP classics on the PS4 and provide legitimate versions, monetising this discovery. 

This isn’t really what the hackers are looking for, they’re often just trying to push the boundaries of the technology, but it seems there’s definitely an audience for these games.