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POPSLoader — the modern launcher

POPSLoader is a menu-driven front-end for POPStarter: a Lua UI on the Enceladus runtime that lists your PS1 games with cover art and launches them — while adding device backends stock POPStarter never had. It is the project this documentation site lives in, maintained by Ripto / NathanNeurotic.

Source on GitHub ↗New to all this? Start here
How it relates to POPStarter
POPSLoader wraps the same POPS emulator and POPSTARTER.ELF documented across the rest of this site — think of it as the friendly launcher layer on top. Everything in the POPStarter reference applies underneath.

What it adds over stock POPStarter

Supported devices & status
Established VCD backends: APA/PFS HDD, USB, MX4SIO, MMCE and existing DKWDRV routes. Implemented with remaining verification: internal exFAT/ATA and SMBv1. Experimental since 1.2.3: USB + UDPFS; console support unverified. Ember development: PR #600 adds a separate emulator and device-aware game lists; actual launching, controllers and VMC writes still need PS2 verification. i.Link: unsupported; deferred until RiptOPL proves it on hardware. See device status and canonical STATE.
Exit menu & BOOT.ELF chaining (POPSLoader fork)
Press Triangle to open the launcher's Exit menu — OSDSYS (back to the PS2 browser), Cancel, or BOOT.ELF. BOOT.ELF chainloads mc0:/BOOT/BOOT.ELF (then mc1:/BOOT/BOOT.ELF as a fallback) — e.g. back to wLaunchELF, OPL, or your own boot menu — launched with reboot_iop=0 for a clean handoff. (Some third-party docs describe this as a “Triangle = relaunch BOOT.ELF” shortcut; in this fork Triangle opens the Exit menu and BOOT.ELF is one of its three choices.)
Current POPSLoader wiki, Ember & release formats
Official 1.4.1 includes the experimental Ember Beta-2 PS1 core path, RiptOPL-matched APPS/PS1_POPSLOADER/, full POPS/ plus EMBER/ ZIP, and flat eight-file PS1_POPSLOADER.psu are available in the official 1.4.1 release and the rolling prerelease. The native GitHub Wiki is synchronized from the same maintained guide. Project wiki · Install guide · Ember guide · ZIP/PSU specification. Hardware validation remains outstanding. i.Link is deferred.
POPS UDPFS / BDM-UDPFS Assault — experimental
POPSLoader has included an opt-in PS1 VCD network option since 1.2.3, using Okeanos's BDM-UDPFS Assault Alpha. Select SMBv1 or USB + UDPFS from the Ethernet device tile. End-to-end VCD game launch, multi-USB handling and controller recovery remain hardware-unverified. See setup and limitations. This is not the PS2 UDPBD/Neutrino transport.

Project documentation

The living docs for the POPSLoader codebase. Rendered straight from the repository.

README — OverviewREADME.md · 37 KBSTATE — status, invariants & known issuesSTATE.md · 92 KBAGENTS — orientation & high-risk surfacesAGENTS.md · 17 KBArchitectureARCHITECTURE.md · 47 KBComponentsCOMPONENTS.md · 35 KBDesign decisionsDECISIONS.md · 105 KBRoadmapROADMAP.md · 23 KBRolling notesROLLING_NOTES.md · 32 KBExperimental notesEXPERIMENTAL_NOTES.md · 89 KBQA regression matrixQA_REGRESSION_MATRIX.md · 88 KBTestingTESTING.md · 38 KBContributingCONTRIBUTING.md · 13 KBLaunch argumentsdocs/LAUNCH_ARGUMENTS.md · 9 KBEmber PS1 — integration and settingsdocs/EMBER_INTEGRATION.md · 6 KBProject Wiki — start heredocs/wiki/Project-Wiki.md · 2 KBInstallation — ZIP, PSU and game foldersdocs/wiki/Installation-Guide.md · 2 KBRelease formats and verificationdocs/wiki/Release-Formats.md · 3 KBEmber PS1 coredocs/wiki/Ember-Core.md · 3 KBDevice support & hardware verificationdocs/wiki/Device-Support.md · 1 KBExperimental POPS UDPFS / BDM-UDPFS Assaultdocs/UDPFS_BDMA.md · 6 KBPreservation contractsdocs/PRESERVATION_CONTRACTS.md · 38 KB