PS1 Games

RiptOPL can list and launch your PlayStation 1 games right alongside your PS2 library, on the same device. It does this through two cores — POPSTARTER for *.VCD images and Ember for game folders containing *.cue, *.bin, or *.exe discs. Ordinary devices merge both into one PS1 list. Neither uses OPL's built-in core or Neutrino, so this is a self-contained path with its own storage layout and settings.

The two are interleaved and sorted as one library, so a game you keep for both cores simply appears twice. Which core runs a title is a property of that row, decided when you launch it — there is nothing to configure and no third toggle.

PS2 and PS1 libraries on each device

Every supported game page holds a PS2 list and a PS1 list:

• its PS2 games (ISO / ZSO / UL format), and
• its PS1 games — POPSTARTER *.VCD images and Ember *.cue titles together, in one list.

PS2/PS1 Game Display controls whether these are separate L3-switched views, a combined list with filters, or one locked library. They remain views of the same device page — with the same covers, favorites, and per-game settings — rather than separate device tabs.

PS2/PS1 Game Display

The picker is on Settings → Interface. It is one global setting for every device page:

APPS and Favorites do not inherit this setting. Favorites always has its independent PS2 → PS1 → ELF → All in One ring, opening on PS2. Applications Display either keeps all ELFs in one inert Mixed list or splits Apps / titles containing [PS1] (case-insensitive) across L3; either side still launches an ordinary ELF. Switching back to an L3-enabled device mode restores each device page's retained position.

How PS1 games launch

A PS1 row carries its own core. A *.VCD row boots through POPSTARTER.ELF; an Ember row boots through ember.elf. Neither ever uses OPL's built-in core or Neutrino, so on any PS1 game the per-game Loader Core selector is an inert label and changing it has no effect. The same applies to GSM, Cheats, PADEMU and the other PS2-specific per-game options — neither PS1 core reads them.

POPSTARTER only needs the VCD's name to do its job. RiptOPL hands it the selected title and POPSTARTER locates the matching *.VCD file itself. Ember is handed the name of the game folder and finds its own disc image inside it.

For an iLink VCD, RiptOPL uses the same local block-device handoff as USB and MX4SIO: mass:/POPS/XX.<game>.ELF. The normal XX. filename rules therefore apply unchanged.

POPSTARTER.ELF path

RiptOPL looks for POPSTARTER.ELF in a fixed order:

1. Settings → PS Emulation Settings → POPSTARTER.ELF Path, when it is set. It is a full path on any device, for example mmce0:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF or usb:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF; the device aliases are the ones listed for the Neutrino Path. The editor takes the whole path.
2. The VCD's own device: its POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF. For an APA HDD VCD this is hdd0:__common/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF.
3. mc0:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF, then mc1:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF.

A path that is set but unavailable falls through to the next two steps. The path may be on a different device from the VCD; RiptOPL keeps both mounted until POPSTARTER has loaded. If you relocate POPSTARTER.ELF, keep the BDMA driver variants in the same folder: RiptOPL looks for them there first. The old POPSTARTER.ELF Device picker is gone; its device choice becomes the matching path when you upgrade.

When none of them has it, the launch says Missing POPSTARTER.ELF and names the path it looked at: your POPSTARTER.ELF Path when it is set, otherwise the device's POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF (on the internal HDD, hdd0:__common/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF).

Ember — the second PS1 core

Ember is created by Gageformer. It is an independent PlayStation 1 emulator written from scratch for the PS2, bundled unmodified under the Ember Public Beta Testing Licence. That licence ships in the release package as EMBER/LICENSE-BETA.txt and governs the build it accompanies; please read it. In short: free to use and to bundle non-commercially, no selling, and no modifying or repackaging the build.

Setting Ember up

The release package contains a ready-made EMBER/ folder. Copy it to the root of a device, right beside POPS/. Then add your own PS1 BIOS as EMBER/bios.bin — it must be exactly 512 KB. A BIOS is copyrighted and is never distributed with RiptOPL or with Ember, so the folder ships with a placeholder file whose name reminds you. Give each game its own folder:

<device>:/EMBER/
    ember.elf
    bios.bin                       <- yours, 512 KB, not included
    settings.txt                   <- optional, see below
    games/
        Spyro 2 (Ripto's Rage)/
            whatever.cue
            whatever.bin

The folder name is what you see in the list, and it is also the key for cover art and per-game settings — so ART/Spyro 2 (Ripto's Rage)_COV.png on that device just works, exactly as it does for a *.VCD. Files inside can be named anything; .cue is preferred over .exe over .bin. Ember writes its per-game memory cards (MC1.vmc, MC2.vmc) into that same game folder, so it has to be on writable media.

Ember settings

Ember reads an optional settings.txt. RiptOPL can write it for you from five rows on Settings → PS Emulation Settings, and four more per game:

RiptOPL only touches a setting you have changed in RiptOPL. A row left on Default leaves that key alone in every file, so a settings.txt written by hand keeps working exactly as written. Changed per-game rows are saved on OK; global rows are applied when you launch an Ember title on that device, creating the file if needed and updating it in place. Changing a row back to Default removes the key again (and the file, if that key was all it held), so Ember's own default — or, for a game, the global row — applies. Every other line in the file is kept.

Timing, Dithering, Shading and Controller can be overridden per game; Display Mode stays global. 24-bit shading can cause issues in some titles. Earlier builds labelled Ember's 480 as "480p"; it has always been 480i, and the 480i / 480p rows now say so.

Device support

Ember titles are supported on USB, MX4SIO, iLink, exFAT-ATA, MMCE, SMB, APA/PFS HDD, UDPFS and UDPBD. Ordinary device pages merge Ember folders with their POPSTARTER rows. UDPFS Files also lists uppercase POPS/*.VCD; UDPBD and UDPFS IMG remain Ember-only. A device with no EMBER/ library simply contributes no Ember rows, and every ordinary device's POPSTARTER library lists exactly as before.

Where to put your VCD files

Sony's POPS files

POPSTARTER also needs Sony's PS1 emulator in the same POPS folder: POPS_IOX.PAK, plus either POPS.PAK or POPS.ELF with IOPRP252.IMG. They come from your own console's software, so RiptOPL cannot make them. Without them the game is a black screen, then the browser.

Before a PS1 launch from USB, MX4SIO, iLink, an exFAT HDD or MMCE, RiptOPL checks for them:

• Another started drive has a full set: RiptOPL offers to copy them over. It looks at the other BDM drives, both MMCE cards and the internal HDD's __common/POPS (read only). Only the missing files are copied, nothing already there is overwritten, and a copy that fails part way is removed.
• No full set, or you decline: RiptOPL names what is missing and asks whether to launch anyway.

From RIPPS2 builds 85, 89 and 115 by akilluminati47. NOT TESTED on hardware.

POPS UDPFS with BDM-UDPFS Assault

RiptOPL uses Okeanos's UDPFS Assault TEST pre-release (2026-10-28; it replaces 1.0.0) as its only POPSTARTER UDPFS BDMA driver. It serves every mass: request from the UDPFS server, including POPS dependencies and VMC writes. USB is not required. The older Alpha driver, which tried USB first and only fetched VCDs from the network, is no longer bundled or selected. The driver starts again after POPSTARTER resets the IOP, independently of RiptOPL's own UDPFS connection, and is separate from Neutrino's PS2 UDPFS loader.

BDMA Mode → UDPFS uses POPS/usbd.irx.udpfs (the unmodified 51,029-byte udp_fs_assault.irx) and POPS/usbhdfsd.irx.udpfs (the 34,508-byte usbd_bd_assault.irx). They install as mc?:/POPSTARTER/usbd.irx and usbhdfsd.irx. With VCD BDMA Apply on Launch enabled, a UDPFS game equips this pair automatically; a matching installed pair is not copied again, and a 1.0.0 or Alpha pair counts as stale and is replaced. With automatic equip disabled, equip UDPFS manually before launching.

Keep all support files in POPS/ under the server's shared root (udpfs:/POPS/ while RiptOPL is running). Automatic equip reads this folder only and never substitutes another device's pair. Put your own POPSTARTER.ELF, POPS_IOX.PAK, VCDs and other POPS dependencies there at their normal paths. Use uppercase .VCD and exact path casing on Linux servers. RiptOPL does not migrate existing saves.

BIN/CUE without conversion. A game can also be POPS/<game>.cue (or .CUE) plus the .bin file(s) it names, in the same folder. RiptOPL lists it like a VCD, and the driver presents it to POPSTARTER as POPS/<game>.VCD, built on the fly. A real .VCD with the same name always wins, and the list shows that game once. One .bin per disc or one per track (Redump) both work. Upstream limits: track 1 must be MODE2/2352, no PREGAP/POSTGAP, every track needs INDEX 01, .bin sizes must be multiples of 2352, cue sheets up to 16 KiB and 99 tracks, images under 4 GiB. The driver opens each .bin once at start (about 10 ms per file) and uses about 46 KB more IOP RAM than 1.0.0. A cue game's disc ID is not read from the image in the list or for the RetroGEM barcode; name the file SLUS_123.45.Title.cue if you want the ID shown. NOT TESTED on a real console.

Edit the supplied DAT examples for your LAN. Before each launch, each file is checked on its own: an existing copy on either memory card is kept, and a missing one is copied from the server's POPS/ if supplied. This happens even when the drivers are already equipped. New files go to the card that holds POPSTARTER, or the first available card. Files over the upstream 120-byte limit are refused rather than truncated.

The driver reads each file from mc0:/SYS-CONF/, then mc1:/SYS-CONF/. Without configuration it uses PS2 192.168.1.10/24 and server discovery. The server must be on the PS2's subnet: the driver does not route through the gateway. USB mass:/POPS/ config files from the Alpha driver are no longer read.

RiptOPL setup: open POPSTARTER Network Settings (on Settings → PS Emulation Settings or Settings → Network) and choose POPS UDPFS Network Settings. It edits the effective memory-card files, shows where they are, and asks before replacing them; server 0.0.0.0 selects discovery. A file on MC0 wins over its MC1 counterpart. Saving checks the original and the replacement and keeps a backup without relying on memory-card rename; if a restore fails, recover the leftover .bak files before saving again. The SMB POPSTARTER settings are kept separately.

The server must allow writes (udpfsd without -ro, or udpfs_server.py without --read-only), because VMC saves now live on the server. Keep backups: upstream documents that a long network interruption while saving can leave an incomplete file.

The UDPFS Files PS1/Mixed view and Favorites share this launch path. If the required driver pair is missing or stale, RiptOPL stops before shutting anything down and says so. Ember keeps its own udpfs: backend; UDPBD and UDPFS IMG are outside this POPSTARTER feature. POPS UDPFS has no RetroAchievements support, so RiptOPL offers to delete a RetroAchievements module left in the server's POPS/ by an earlier tracked launch. NOT TESTED on a real console: gameplay and saves have only passed host checks and target builds.

Credit goes to Okeanos for BDM-UDPFS Assault, israpps for the original BDM Assault, krHACKen for POPSTARTER, ps2max32 / rickgaiser for UDPFS/UDPRDMA, pcm720 for udpfsd, Gageformer, and the PS2SDK contributors. Unmodified upstream instructions, license notices and verified hashes accompany the drivers in POPS/UDPFS-NOTICES/.

exFAT support — the BDMA equip

POPSTARTER's stock driver handles ordinary USB FAT32. USB exFAT and the MX4SIO, MMCE, ATA and iLink transports need matching external block-device modules (the BDMAssault / "BDMA" drivers). RiptOPL equips them onto your memory card from Settings → PS Emulation Settings — you supply the module files, RiptOPL copies the right pair to mc?:/POPSTARTER/. VCD BDMA Apply on Launch ships On, so by default the matching pair is equipped automatically immediately before each VCD launch and the manual BDMA Source / BDMA Mode pickers stay hidden; turn it Off to equip by hand instead.

BDMA Mode

Shown only when VCD BDMA Apply on Launch is Off. Selects which driver variant POPSTARTER should use:

BDMA Source

Shown only when VCD BDMA Apply on Launch is Off — with it On the source is the game's own device family instead. Selects which device RiptOPL reads the module files from (the device whose POPS/ folder holds the variant you want to equip): USB, MX4SIO, MMCE, iLink, or Internal HDD. RiptOPL identifies the device by its block-device driver (usb / mx4sio / ata / ilink / mmce) and reads from that specific device, so pick the one your module files actually sit on. For an internally attached exFAT HDD choose Internal HDD — RiptOPL reads it from its mounted massN: root (the exFAT volume mounted through the BDM mass-device namespace, never a typed ata0: filesystem), so its POPS/usbd.irx.ata + POPS/usbhdfsd.irx.ata are found.

SMB is network-only, so the BDMA equip does not apply to it.

The equip step

PS1 over SMB

PS1 games on an SMB share need POPSTARTER's own network config (IPCONFIG.DAT + SMBCONFIG.DAT) on the memory card, plus its SMB modules. Edit those files from POPSTARTER Network Settings, on Settings → PS Emulation Settings or Settings → Network. The screen shows what the files on the memory card already contain, can import both from the connected share's POPS folder, and writes back only what you change. On a first setup, with neither file on the card, saving the SMB values writes IPCONFIG.DAT too, as DHCP unless a complete static IP is entered. See POPSTARTER Network Settings.

The SMB modules themselves ship in the release's POPS/ folder — copy them to mc?:/POPSTARTER/. If they are missing, an SMB VCD launch warns you rather than hanging silently.

Internal HDD — APA partitions and exFAT

The internal HDD supports PS1 games through two paths that coexist:

• APA/PFS partitions — the traditional POPS APA volumes (__.POPS, __.POPS0 … __.POPS9). RiptOPL scans all of them and lists their *.VCD files in the HDD device's PS1 view. No BDMA equip is needed here because POPSTARTER reads PFS natively.
• exFAT HDD (BDM) — enable Internal HDD (exFAT) in Game Sources. The exFAT volume mounts as a normal BDM block device (one of the massN: slots) and its POPS/ folder appears in the same PS1 view as USB. Equip the HDD (exFAT) BDMA mode so POPSTARTER can read back off the exFAT volume at launch time.

For the full HDD setup guide, including the APA/exFAT layout and how to enable BDM HDD, see Internal HDD (APA & exFAT).

Notes & limitations

Ember list empty on internal exFAT or another BDM drive? Older builds let a loose file such as EMBER/games/readme.txt or .DS_Store abort the Ember scan on FAT32 and exFAT. Current builds skip loose files (#999, checked in CI against real FAT32 and exFAT images). If you are on an older build, move loose files out of EMBER/games/; this does not require reformatting the disk or changing the PS2 BDM Prefix.

• Ember does not provide IGR. POPSTARTER supplies its own reset behavior; neither uses RiptOPL's PS2 IGR hook.
• The PS1 view reuses the normal device pipeline, so covers, favorites, and the theme all work exactly as they do for disc games.
• POPSTARTER, every loose BDMA pair (including .ilink), and the POPS patch file ship as separate files in the release POPS/ folder — RiptOPL does not embed any of them.
• The per-game Loader Core, GSM, Cheats, PADEMU, and OSD options do not apply to PS1 games; POPSTARTER ignores them and the UI reflects this. Triangle on a PS1 title offers Global PS Emulation Settings instead, which opens the global PS emulation settings page, plus Rename. An Ember title also offers Ember Game Settings (its Ember Timing, Dithering, Shading and Controller; see Ember).
• SMB PS1 requires POPSTARTER's own network modules on the memory card in addition to the network config files.

POPSTARTER internals — sister site

The following topics are fully documented on the POPStarter docs site and are not re-documented here:

PS1 save icons

Artwork Settings → 3D Save Icons also displays PS1 save artwork, using the card's 2D icon. POPSTARTER cards are SLOT0.VMC/SLOT1.VMC in the VCD's accompanying save folder; Ember cards are MC1.vmc/MC2.vmc inside the listed game folder. Launch the game and create a save first. These emulator cards are separate from the PS2 VMC/<name>.bin assignments.