For a long time, people thought that emulating the PS3 on a PC would be impossible since the architecture of the console is very different from that of the PC. However, the team behind the RPCS3 emulator has shown that nothing is impossible, and in this article we are going to show you what you should do if you want to play PS3 games on your PC in a simple and, as importantly as that, free way.
PRCS3 is a PlayStation 3 emulator for Open Source PC, which means that it is free to use and that anyone can contribute to the project or modify it – giving the corresponding credits – as well as participate in a financing campaign if they want. But in principle, it is completely free for users.
Download and run the RPCS3 emulator
Obviously the first step is to download the software , which you can access from the project website. The software is available for both Windows and Linux, interchangeably, and it is also updated quite frequently.
You don’t really need to install RPCS3: what you download is a .7z file compressed with 7Zip that you simply have to unzip on your hard drive and you can run it directly from the rpcs3.exe file.
Download the PS3 firmware to use in the emulator
RPCS3 emulates the hardware of the PlayStation 3 but not its software, so you will need to download the original firmware of the console for this to work as part of the equation. To do this, visit the official PlayStation website, click Help at the top, and then System Software Update.
This website offers the firmware for different versions of the console, so in this case we are obviously going to select the PS3.
Then simply click on “Download now” and the download of the latest firmware version available will begin. A file called PS3UPDAT.PUP will be downloaded which is approximately 200MB in size.
Configure RPCS3
Now that we have both the emulator and the firmware for the console, we are going to configure it. Launch RPCS3 and access the File -> Install Firmware menu. A window will open in which you will obviously have to select the PS3UPDAT.PUP file that you just downloaded.
A window will appear like the one you can see in the image above, and when it finishes (it takes a couple of seconds nothing more) a confirmation message will appear saying that the installation has been successful. Then the emulator will get to work installing the necessary libraries for its operation in an automatic process.
It is ready, and we can start using the emulator. Simple, right?
Play PS3 games on PC with the RPCS3 emulator
This emulator supports games both in digital format and in disk format, but in this case you must have the game previously on your hard drive in ISO format or in uncompressed folder format. In other words, you will not be able to play directly with the PS3 discs but you will have to have previously downloaded the game or have converted it.
To run a game in PKG format (the usual one) you will need to install it previously by selecting the File -> Install .pkg menu; shortly after, it will appear in the emulator’s games list. The process is similar to what we have already done to install the console firmware.
Once you have the game ready, there is another previous step that you must execute before playing, and that is to tell the emulator which controller you are going to use. RPCS3 supports playing with the keyboard, but ideally playing with a PS3 controller connected to the PC, of course, although it also supports the PS4 controller. In any case, go to the “Pads” menu at the top and select the one that corresponds. Of course we are on a PC and you can configure all the buttons as you want.
Finally, double click on the game to start enjoying it on your PC.
