PS1 VCD Launching · POPStarter

Open a POPStarter-compatible .VCD and Launchstation prepares the external POPStarter handoff.

Preferred POPStarter

Settings → Launching → Disc & image loaders → POPStarter selects the preferred executable. If it cannot be opened, device-specific fallback locations are tried.

Common fallback locations

mass:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF
mmce0:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF
mmce1:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF
mx4sio:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF
ata0:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF
hdd0:__common:pfs:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF
hdd0:__system:pfs:/launcher/POPSTARTER.ELF

Device-aware argument construction

Launchstation does not simply launch POPStarter with the browser filename. FAT-style POPS folders, __.POPS, partition-style VCDs and HDD/PFS browser paths are normalized into the argument form POPStarter expects.

Validation

The VCD path is checked before launch, and the integration contains the existing VCD ISO/PVD and SYSTEM.CNF/GameID parsing helpers used by the POPStarter workflow.

External software

POPStarter is maintained separately and is not distributed as part of Launchstation. Its own compatibility requirements still apply.