This guide will show you how to use PPSSPP, the PSP emulator, on iOS. It isn’t as simple as PPSSPP on Windows, but it is still possible, and allows for great fun while away from the computer. This guide will attempt to be as thorough and up-to-date as possible, so as things in iOS emulation change, I’ll keep this guide as useful as possible.
Since iOS emulation is a bit different from Windows, you’ll need to make sure you have everything necessary to enjoy PSP games.
Apple loves to control as much as possible on their platforms. This doesn’t mean, however, that our journey ends here. There are alternatives, but the one I’ll focus on in this article is AltStore. It is a brilliant use of Apple’s own technology to install apps onto your device. Where other stores face revocations of their developer ID’s, AltStore uses an Apple ID’s own free developer access to sign an app for seven days, renewing the signature every few days to make things as close to permanent as anything in the Apple world is.
So, let’s get Altstore installed. In your web browser, go to https://altstore.io. Here, download AltServer for your system, which will handle the installation of AltStore onto your device, and install it. Read the website for the steps to get things started. Install AltStore, using AltServer, to your device. Now, go to settings, General, Profiles, and trust the one with your Apple ID on it. Now, you can open AltStore.
There are basically two tears to Altstore access. The free access gives you Delta, which is an emulator for a few systems, including SNES, N64, And Game Boy. The paid, Patreon-sponsored, beta version, gives the ability to install one’s own apps, add different sources for apps, and gives you a beta version of Delta, bringing Nintendo DS support. Delta doesn’t currently have any accessibility features, but I’ve asked for this. AltStore also has a few problems, in the free and paid versions, and I’ve brought them up as well.
Accessibility issues aside, the service works, and hopefully accessibility issues will be fixed. Until then, I’ll give you as much information as you need to install apps, like PPSSPP.
In earlier versions of the guide, I gave instructions on installing the AltStore beta, adding a source, and installing PPSSPP from that source. This is no longer necessary. Now, after installing AltStore, all you have to do is download an IPA, which is an iOS app, and load it into AltStore for installation. The main reason I‘m changing this is that the version of PPSSPP from all these sources is old and out of date, and as many blind people know, the most up-to-date version of programs can be either very good for accessibility, or very bad.
Luckily, the newest version of PPSSPP allows you to load games into it, just by double tapping on them from the Files app. This drops the barrier to entry for many blind people, who obviously don‘t like hunting in the dark, as it were, for their games.
To download PPSSPP, open Safari on your iOS device and go to this page. Here, click the link to download “PPSSPP”, under the “DOWNLOAD IPAS” text.
Now, open the Files app, navigate to your iCloud Drive‘s Downloads folder, and find the IPA for PPSSPP. Double tap on it, and you‘ll be taken to AltStore. Follow the instructions to install the app. Now, you should have PPSSPP on your home screen.
Now, it’s time to do a little configuration. This will take the longest, and be the most complicated part of the guide, so breathe in some Stormlight, burn some Allomantic metal, or gather all the investiture you have. On your iPhone, go into the Files app, then, in the “On my iPhone” section, find the PPSSPP folder. Open that, in find the PSP folder. Open that, and find the System folder. Open that, and find the ppsspp.ini file. This is PPSSPP’s configuration file.
Drag the file, by flicking up to “drag”, then double tap. Now, go back to the main files screen, and find an online file storage service you like. You could use Google Drive, OneDrive, or iCloud Drive. Choose that, and find a folder to drop the configuration file into. When you are on the folder you want to drop the file into, not inside the folder, swipe up to Drop, and double tap. Now, on your computer, find that file, and open it with a text editor, like Notepad, or Text Edit. Don’t open it with Microsoft Word, please.
In the PPSSPP configuration file, there are many sections. They are like headings in a document. Headings consist of a word, or maybe a phrase, enclosed in brackets, like:
[General]
This means that at the top of the file is a section called “general.”
Configuration files allow you to configure a program by, basically, giving information to prompts. Some information may be a number standing for an item, and some may be text, like your name, while others are binary options, true or false, meaning on or off.
For example, the line below the general section header is:
FirstRun = False
This means that FirstRun is false. To expand upon that, it means hat first run is off, meaning that this isn’t PPSSPP’s first run. This is from my configuration file, though, so yours may say that it is the first run, that first run is true.
Now, let’s actually do some configuration. I’ll show which things need configuring, and expand on it afterwards.
CPUCore = 2
This sets the CPU to 2, which, on iOS, is necessary to play games. When iOS isn’t jailbroken, JIT, a quick interpreter, is not available. So, we have to use a slower, and less optimized, CPU type: the IR Interpreter. However, on my iPhone X R, and probably on even an iPhone 7, PPSSPP runs perfectly for me.
EnableWlan = True
If you want to play online, enable the wireless networking system.
InternalScreenRotation = 0
This sets the screen rotation to “auto.” So, if you turn off lock rotation, or don’t have it on, you can turn your device to landscape without having to have in actually in reverse landscape mode to play. This is useful for if sighted people want to play your game, and you have a Game Vice Live controller, which connects to your phone on either end, making it look like a mobile game console, like a PSP.
NickName = ppsspp
Set this to whatever you want your name to be. If you do this, your name will automatically be filled in on PSP games which use that data.
proAdhocServer =
This line is to configure a place to connect to, for playing games online with other people. If you want to play with just another person, then put that person’s IP address in the place to the right of the equals sign. Your configuration file may have something already to the right of the equals sign. If you want to change it, you can replace that part that is already there. Some servers, like “My Neighbor Sushi Cat,” allow you to see how many people are playing on which games, by visiting the address of the server in your browser. You can find places to connect to at https://ppsspp.org/adhoc.html.
MacAddress =
The Mac (Media Access Control) address is a random alphanumeric sequence that is tied to your NIC (Network Interface Card) and uniquely identifies your device on a network. If you play online, you’ll need to make this different from the default. Perhaps you can use your phone’s Mac Address to make it different enough.
Now, save that into iCloud Drive. If you already had it there, you don’t have to move it there again. On your iPhone, drag and drop that from iCloud Drive to On My iPhone, PPSSPP, PSP, System. Remember to drop it on the System folder, not inside it. If you are asked if you want to replace the file, replace it. Now, PPSSPP should be configured. Well done; that was the hardest part of this guide. It’s all easier from here.
Now that we have PPSSPP all configured, we can load some games! I assume that you have your games on your computer. Put those in your file storage system of choice; One Drive, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, ETC. Now, on your iPhone, move those from the file storage place to “On my iPhone”, PPSSPP. You can load them from other local storage spaces, but iCloud Drive doesn‘t seem to work for loading games.
Now, turn off lock rotation if you’d like, and connect your controller. After that’s done, open PPSSPP. You‘ll probably need to do this so that you can register it with the share sheet. Now, go to the Files app, find the game, and double tap on it. If it doesn‘t automatically open in PPSSPP, share it with that app. Now, the game loads, and you can have fun!
On Made For iPhone controllers, the start button is R2, and select is L2. The Menu, or Start, button opens the PPSSPP menu, which is not accessible.