Hackers find “official,” usable PSP emulator hidden in PS4’s PaRappa

Sometimes it seems that Sony itself is a PS4 hacker's best friend. In January, we wrote about how hackers were taking advantage of the system's built-in PlayStation Classics emulator to get arbitrary PS2 games running on unlocked hardware. Now, it seems a PSP emulator buried in a "remastered" PS4 release could provide a new way to get upscaled versions of the portable system's games running on your TV.

The PS4 game in question is PaRappa the Rapper Remastered, a bare-bones, upscaled re-release of the '90s PlayStation rhythm game. Earlier this week, GBATemp user KiiWii posted his discovery that the PS4 game uses an in-built PSP emulator to run a copy of the 2007 PSP version of PaRappa rather than running new code specifically ported to the PS4.

The only apparent difference in the PS4 remaster is an included 4K texture package featuring redrawn art that makes the game look good on a modern television. We're reminded of similar fan-made texture packages that can already improve the look of everything from N64 and PS3 games to Wii U games via PC-based emulators.

In the days since that discovery, KiiWii has posted purported pictures of Loco Roco running via the PS4, and other hackers have shown Patapon, Namco Museum, and a PSP dev kit test app supposedly running via the PS4. Others in the GBATemp thread, though, warn that a long list of PSP games apparently don't yet work via PaRappa's "PSPHD" emulator, and it may require more massaging to get arbitrary games to fit (KiiWii suggests the emulator may have a built-in file-size limit of 880 MB gumming things up).

Hacker Dark Element has also posted the apparent configuration files used by PaRappa's PSP emulator and promised that a user-friendly PSP package injector that works on unlocked PS4s is coming. Meanwhile, many in the PS4 hacking community are seeking out a copy of the Asia-exclusive Loco Roco 2 Remastered for the PS4 to see if there's anything to be learned from the PSP emulator that presumably lurks on that disc.

With PS4-based emulators for the NES and Game Boy already well underway, as well as work on Steam-on-PS4 capabilities via Linux, Sony's latest hacked console is already shaping up to be a clearinghouse for retro-hardware mimicry. It's nice, then, that Sony's own emulators can help aid in that effort sometimes.