PPSSPP is easy to get set up with on Windows, but can take some time to configure. It runs very well on laptops, just try to have at least four gigabytes of RAM onboard. If you need help, just let me know.
To download the emulator, go to PPSSPP’s home page, find the downloads link, then find the “PPSSPP for Windows” heading. Once there, I recommend using the installer, shown like “windows-36-white.png Download 1.9.3 Installer”, as it places the PPSSPP configuration files, save files, game data, and other such user-facing material, in your documents folder. This should be sent to OneDrive, if you’ve enabled that, allowing easy play across all of your Windows devices. This also makes it easy to transfer saves to iOS, if you want to play while not on the PC.
For this guide, I’ll pretend you went with the installer. If you get the boring zip file, you should extract it, and everything will be in folders in the zip file. You could also install PPSSPP through the Chocolatey package manager, and it should put things like the installer.
Once PPSSPP is installed, you can configure it. Find the PPSSPP folder in your Documents folder. In there, open the PSP folder, and find the system folder. In the system folder, you’ll find “ppsspp.ini”. If the configuration files aren’t there, you may have to run PPSSPP first. Find it in the Start menu, run it, then close it, to be sure that the configuration file is created.
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 of the 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 that 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.
EnableWlan = True
If you want to play online, enable the wireless networking system.
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 computer’s Mac Address to make it different enough.
Now that you’ve gotten PPSSPP configured, you can load a game to play. To load a game, press Control + O. This will open the “Open” dialog box, where you can choose your game. I recommend creating a “games” folder somewhere, like your OneDrive folder, where they can all be synchronized across all of your devices. Once you’ve found a game, press Enter, and it’ll then start. You can then use the OCR capabilities of NVDA or JAWS, or just use sound and memorization, to play the game.