What is duckstation?

DuckStation is a PlayStation 1 emulator, meaning it lets you run games originally released for Sony's first PlayStation console on a modern PC, Mac, or Linux machine. It is written in C++ and focuses on accuracy and speed, with a goal of making games playable without needing to tweak hidden settings or workarounds. The project is open source and actively maintained. To use it, you need a BIOS file dumped from an actual PlayStation 1 or PlayStation 2 console. This file is not included with the emulator for legal reasons, and you are expected to obtain it from hardware you own. Once you have that file, you can load game disc images in several common formats, including bin/cue, CHD, MDS/MDF, and others. The emulator has two interfaces: a desktop UI built with Qt, and a fullscreen interface suited to use from a couch with a controller. Both are included in the same download. The hardware renderer supports modern graphics APIs including OpenGL, Vulkan, Direct3D 11, Direct3D 12, and Metal, so it works across platforms and GPU types. It also includes a software renderer for cases where hardware rendering is not available or not wanted. Beyond basic emulation, the project includes a range of enhancement options. You can increase the rendering resolution above the original PlayStation's output, apply texture filtering, use a system called PGXP that corrects geometry wobble common in PS1 games, and apply post-processing shaders. There is also save state support, rewind, runahead (a technique for reducing input lag), cheat code loading, memory card management, video capture, and RetroAchievements integration for earning trophies in classic games. Prebuilt releases are available for Windows 10 or later, Linux as AppImage files, and macOS 13.3 or later. An automatic updater is built in and offers both a stable channel and a more frequent preview channel. The system requirements are modest: any reasonably modern CPU and a GPU from roughly the last ten years should work.