Sony · Handheld · 2004 Experimental

PSP emulator for PC

Nostyra plays PSP games through PPSSPP at 960×544 (2× the PSP screen), shown 16:9. Installing the core also downloads its system files: fonts, dialog images and the compatibility table.

Written by vivusk, Nostyra maintainer Last reviewed 29 October 2026 Based on the Nostyra README and release notes

Game files

UMD dumps as .iso, .cso (CISO v1) or .chd (made with chdman createdvd), and EBOOT.PBP for PSN games and homebrew, up to 8 GiB.
A UMD is recognised by its content (the PSP GAME volume), so a PlayStation .iso stays PlayStation.
UMD Video / Audio, ZSO and CSO v2 are listed under "files not added" with the reason.

Saves

Each game's save folder acts as its memory stick: saves/psp/<game> [<ID>]/PSP/SAVEDATA/. There is no save.srm.
To import a save into a sequel, copy the folder between the games' PSP/SAVEDATA folders.
Save states are about 40–72 MiB each.

Controls

South / east / west / north = ✕ / ○ / □ / △, shoulders = L / R, left stick = analog nub.
Keyboard: Z = ✕, X = ○, A = □, S = △, Q / W = L / R, I/J/K/L = stick, Enter = Start, Right Shift = Select.

Known limits

Run-ahead and rewind are off.
Not yet: a memory stick shared by all games, texture packs, cheats, ad-hoc / network play, resolution options, Vulkan / D3D11.

Sony PSP at a glance
Emulator core	PPSSPP (GPL-2.0-or-later)
Status	Experimental
File types	`.iso`, `.cso`, `.chd`, `.pbp`
BIOS	Not needed (system files download with the core)
RetroAchievements	Yes (softcore)
Graphics	DirectX 12 or Vulkan, plus OpenGL 3.3
Platform	Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit

Core project: PPSSPP. The core is downloaded from the libretro buildbot on first play and is never bundled with Nostyra.

Before you start

Nostyra does not include, download or link to PSP games or BIOS files. Use games you own, dumped from your own cartridges or discs. See the disclaimer.

Features for PSP games

Save states A save state stores the whole emulated machine at one moment, so you can continue from any point, not only where the game lets you save. PS4, PS5 and Xbox controllers Nostyra reads gamepads through SDL3. Gamepads work out of the box, and the Controls editor shows Xbox or PlayStation button labels to match your pad. The DualSense (PS5) has been tested by the maintainer. RetroAchievements RetroAchievements is a community service that adds achievements to classic games. Nostyra supports it on 14 systems using rcheevos, the same library RetroArch uses. Resume When you quit a game, Nostyra saves a resume point. The next time you press Play, it asks whether to continue from there or start fresh. Library and ROM scanning Add one or more ROM folders, organised however you like. Nostyra classifies each file by its content and builds one library for all systems.

Play PSP games with Nostyra

Free and open source. Portable zip, no installer, no account.

Download for Windows

macOS (planned) Linux (planned) iOS (planned) Android (planned)

Version 0.1.0 · 25.9 MB zip · Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit

Hosted on GitHub Releases. First time? Read the install guide.