PS5SX2 now starts PS2 games from a jailbroken PS5's disc drive, after copying each disc once

Version 2.01 of Sword's PCSX2 port for jailbroken PS5s copies a PS2 DVD to storage on first insert, then boots it. Games that shipped on CD will not read.

AI-drafted from 4 sources. This story was written with AI from the outside reporting listed under Sources, and checked by automated tools before it went up. The originals have the full detail.

A jailbroken PS5 can now start a PlayStation 2 game from the disc in its drive. PS5SX2, a port of the PCSX2 emulator that runs on the console itself, added what its developer calls disc auto-play in version 2.01, published on 10 October. The release notes put it simply: insert a PS2 disc and PS5SX2 "dumps it if not already dumped and launches the game"; take the disc out and the game shelf comes back. It works whether the emulator is open or closed at the time.

That first copy is the catch. As tbreak notes, the developer, Sword, said each game has to be dumped once before it will run from the disc, so this is not backwards compatibility in the way the PS5 handles PS4 games. After that, the disc acts as a launcher for the stored copy. Version 2.02, also out on 10 October, shows the copy on the emulator's game shelf as a spinning disc with a "Copying NN%" counter, and a copy interrupted by bad sectors is marked incomplete and will not auto-start. The 2.01 notes say the feature was "only tested on one phat console" and ask for feedback.

DVDs only

According to Tom's Hardware, PS5SX2 reads discs from the built-in drive or an external USB optical drive and reportedly works with discs from all regions. Games that shipped on CD are out, because the PS5's drive cannot read them. Asked on X about PS3 discs for an RPCS3 port in development, Sword replied: "Yes, it's coming with it :)." That is a reply to a question, not a release.

A fast-moving project

The repository went up on 25 September, and the project has published 12 releases since 28 September. Version 1.9 on 5 October added RetroAchievements and one-button downloads of HD texture packs for about 340 games. Version 2.00 on 8 October brought experimental frame generation, multi-disc games, cheat discs and an 8x resolution option for the PS5 Pro. Version 2.03, published on 11 October, cuts the time the shelf takes to appear from about 510 ms to about 160 ms and renames the helper payload to ps5sx2-bot.elf.

The README says the emulator's recompilers run directly on the PS5's CPU, and its Vulkan renderer draws through a modified version of Mihawk-99's native Vulkan driver for the PS5's GPU. Development happens on a PS5 Pro on firmware 11.40, and testers have run it on other models on firmware 6.02 to 12.70. A jailbroken console is required, so the reach of the recent public exploit, which tbreak says covers firmware 13.60 and earlier, sets the limit. Users must supply a BIOS dumped from their own PS2: "No BIOS, games or keys come with PS5SX2," the README says. The project states it is not affiliated with the PCSX2 team or Sony Interactive Entertainment, and running modified software on a PS5 carries the usual risk of a ban from online services.

Sources

Image: PS5SX2 / Sword

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