You can now play PS1 games on Xbox Series X via an emulator

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The emulator can upscale games to 4K

Xbox Series X
(Image credit: Microsoft)

A PS1 emulator with the ability to upscale games to 4K has recently been made available to manually install on Xbox Series X and S. 

The emulator, which is called DuckStation, is able to not only emulate PS1 games but also internally upscale them up to native 4K at 60FPS, although the emulator's default is to cap games at their original framerate. However, as this is a clearly unofficial program, if you were to give it a go, you'll need to put your Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S into developer mode to basically use the console as an Xbox development kit. 

DuckStation was developed at the end of last year and was created with a focus on “playability, speed, and long-term maintainability.” The developer of the project; Stenzek, has also added on the emulator’s Github page that “the goal is to be as accurate as possible while maintaining performance suitable for low-end devices.” 

It should be noted however that emulation is a legally grey area that has seen certain sites offering emulated games having lawsuits filed against them. Nintendo recently demonstrated this when it issued an injunction against a ROM website owner and demanded that all illegal games should be "permanently destroyed." This is after Nintendo managed to successfully win its case in court against the owner of the ROM site who also has to compensate Nintendo $2.1 million due to violating trademarks and copyrights. 

For a trip down memory lane, take a look at our best PS1 games list. 

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.