Bug#137355: RFP: PCSX -- Playstation emulator
(I thought I'd add some information to this RFP, in case anyone's
interested in packaging PCSX.)
The main problem I see with including PCSX in Debian is that it requires
a copy of the Sony PlayStation BIOS. (It might be theoretically
possible to use the free BIOS from ePSXe, but I doubt anyone would do
that.)
Now, this hasn't prevented e.g. VICE from being packaged, but in that
case the ROMs are easily available from upstream, and whoever owns
Commodore's old IP doesn't seem to care. On the other case, PSX BIOSes
usually come from warez sites, while mainstream sites shy away from
them. I'm not sure if telling users to Google for ROMs would be an
acceptable choice.
Furthermore, you can't run PCSX w/o plugins, and while some of them
(mostly those from P.E.Op.S.) are open-source, many others (including
Pete's MesaGL/XGL2 video plugins) come w/o source, if not w/o any
license whatsoever.
And there's also the fact that upstream has now ceased development;
others seem to have picked up the pieces, but PCSX is still
"upstream-less" AFAIK.
So, for the moment, I'd say that the chances of inclusion for PCSX are
rather slim.
(If anyone's interested, I maintain my own homebrew packages for PCSX,
plugins and such at <http://www.fbriere.net/debian/>. Feel free to
install them if you're a user, or to adopt them if you're a DM.)
--
Frederic Briere <*> fbriere@fbriere.net
=> <fbriere@abacom.com> IS NO MORE: <http://www.abacomsucks.com> <=
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