Emulating NES games on your PS Vita - the Sony certified way

Jake Durasamy
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If you’re like us at NeoGamr and like combining the libraries of your past consoles into more modern systems like the PlayStation Vita, then a NES emulator for the system may be just what the doctor ordered.

According to GlitchXP, the only way to natively run any application on the PlayStation Vita is via compilation through the PlayStation Suite Development Kit and luckily, someone out there has made a NES emulator using the SDK. In order for this to actually work for the average user, it is required that they download the PlayStation Suite Development kit via the PS Vita browser and clicking “Try now” then clicking download under section 2. This should then direct the user to the SDK as a download on PSN.

After installing the Suite, the NES emulator will need to be downloaded (click the green download button). After this, you will also need Vita Connect which will allow you to copy .psspac files from your PC to the Vita.

Once you have these two files, you will need to extract both to a folder somewhere on your PC. The Vita Connect download also contains the source code of the program and a pre-compiled program in the “VitaConnector/obj/x86/debug” directory, so you may need to copy the .dll files from “VitaConnector/lib” into that directory.

After you have the program running, find the file leaf.psspac (the NES emulator) from the download suggested in this article and connect your PS Vita using the USB cable to your PC. Then follow the following steps:

  • Open the PlayStation SDK app on the Vita before clicking refresh.
  • Click on “refresh devices.”
  • Click on “connect to the device.”
  • Click on “upload.”
  • Restart the PlayStation Suite Development Kit on your Vita.
  • You should now have a “Leaf” game.
  • Launch this to play NES games.

The Leaf (NES emulator) controls are as followed:

  • Square and X are your A and B buttons.
  • Triangle will allow the player to change the ROM that is loaded.
  • D-pad is used for movement.

A video demonstration of the emulator can be seen below:

Note: The emulator only works at 15 frames per-second for some reason (which is ridiculously slow, but it's a start) - the emulator most-likely needs a revision from the developer.

ROM usage will also not be promoted or recommended by any means from NeoGamr