The PS2 emulation scene has been a wild series of ups and downs over the last few years. PCSX2 is the classic PS2 emulator everyone knows and loves, at 20 years old at this point it’s had enough time in the oven to cook that the PC community is always living large with it. Meanwhile over on the Android side there were mixed bags after mixed bags until we got AetherSX2, which eventually was discontinued and replaced by the repackaged NetherSX2. More recently, we’ve seen new tools and forks such as ARMSX2, but today’s focus is on YAPS2 which if you weren’t aware, is “Yet Another PCSX2” fork, but this time, with a focus on Linux Handhelds specifically.
YAPS2, is currently being worked on by three people; bmdhacks, tokyovigilante, and pstef though it is currently being hosted specifically on bmdhacks Github Page. The main goal of this emulator is exactly what it sounds like, be a good fork of PCSX2 that is performant and compatible on some of the lower end Linux handhelds and hardware. With the main goal of being as fast as possible, the group is definitely putting in the time and effort to make it as modern as possible while retaining the speed. That includes CHD compatibility, modern PCSX2 compatibility, and in general keeping things open source as a fork of PCSX2.
As noted in their FAQ, YAPS2 is already starting to be available across a couple of different Linux OS’s including both Rocknix and Batocera. Though that is specifically within their Nightly releases. What that means is, if you’ve been using either of these systems on their Nightlies, there’s a good chance that you already have YAPS2 on your system. If for whatever reason you don’t want to go directly through your OS, they also host their Nightly releases on Github as well. The most recent of these being from July 9th, 2026 as of the time of writing. In there they offer four different app images, though most people would only focus on the one for handhelds, or the experimental app for native Apple silicon.
Last but not least, I do want to make note of the AI usage as well, as that’s always a hot topic for discussion. The team is using LLM’s as a development tool, and does confirm they are using AI, but it’s also stated that any vibe-coded, poorly constructed code will be rejected in contributions. When it’s a tool, that’s when development can be improved, it’s just a matter of usage. That being said, with bmdhacks’ backlogs of work in the retro handheld community, including their list of impressive Portmaster ports I certainly think this fork is in good hands across the entire team.
If you’re interested in checking out YAPS2, as always I recommend checking the Github page directly, but with the work being put into this emulator, I look forward to seeing where they can take it.
