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This week brought some exciting news for emulation enthusiasts: the team behind the PlayStation 3 emulator, RPCS3, proudly announced that they’ve fully cracked stable, native Arm64 architecture support across Windows, macOS, and Linux. What’s even more impressive is that this extends to the Raspberry Pi 5, defying previous notions of what this little device could handle. Historically, the Raspberry Pi has dabbled with emulating GameCube and Wii games (with varying success), but playing PS3 games on this small but mighty machine seemed out of reach—until now. With some careful tweaks, today’s Arm hardware is now capable of running PS3 emulations, opening up exciting possibilities.
If you’re curious about how the Raspberry Pi 5 achieves this emulation feat, it involves scaling down the resolution to match what you’d see on a PlayStation Portable (PSP). Essentially, it drops from the PS3’s native 720p to the PSP’s 273p, effectively translating to some interesting visual transformations. This trick makes it possible to enjoy 3D games on this device, including classics like “God of War” (and its sequel, God of War II HD), “Catherine,” “Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm,” and more. On the other hand, 2D games handle even better. Knowing that these kinds of experiences are playable on a Raspberry Pi 5 is truly a testament to the leaps in emulation technology.
Meanwhile, on the macOS front, the native Arm architecture support has led to remarkable performance enhancements on Apple Silicon when playing PS3 titles. We’re seeing framerates that are 50% to 100% higher simply by bypassing the x86 translation layer, which was a substantial hurdle in the past. Essentially, this has turned the dream of smooth PS3 emulation on Arm-powered devices into reality.
Comparing the Raspberry Pi 5 with Apple Silicon, the difference in emulation capacity becomes even more pronounced. While the Pi provides a handheld-like experience, the Apple Silicon is flexing its muscles by running graphically demanding PS3 classics like “God of War III” and “Skate 3.” These games are notoriously challenging to emulate, far more so than PS2 ports, yet they run admirably on Arm architecture as long as the hardware is powerful enough.
The developments come as an exciting moment for gamers and tech lovers alike who are eager to push the boundaries of what’s possible with emulation. And as these technological achievements continue, who knows how far we’ll be able to stretch the capabilities of both beloved old hardware and shiny new gadgets in the future?
