This emulator wants to let you play your PlayStation 2 games directly through the web browser

I’m always excited to check out new web technologies, and it truly blows me away how powerful and capable the browser has become. In many instances, it can do everything a traditionally downloaded software can do. While it’s no replacement – at least, not yet, it’s coming along really well.

Today, I wanted to share something one of my favorite Youtubers, Mr. Sujano recently brought up. Anyone familiar with game emulation will have heard of something called “Play!.js”. While it’s not the best way to play your own Playstation 2 games compared to something like AetherSX2 (This app rocks), it’s been around for quite a while and has been making improvements.

Now, “Play!” has become available directly in your browser via a simple web URL. By visiting the web application, you can technically play your Playstation 2 games directly through your browser! With that being said, there are several caveats, and while it’s nowhere near ready for primetime, it truly is something any avid gamer or tech enthusiast should keep their eye on going forward, especially if you own a Chromebook.

Chrome Unboxed neither promotes nor endorses video game piracy. This article is strictly for educational purposes, and should not be taken as such. We understand and believe in the importance of videogame preservation, but will not be discussing acquisition of ROMs, ISOs, or any other copywritten content.

Disclaimer

Play!.js is a port of the “Play!” Playstation 2 emulator running in the web browser and is just an experiment that’s not meant to play all games that are currently supported by the desktop or mobile emulator of the same name. It currently loads up ISO, CSO, CHD, ISZ, BIN, and ELF files and requires no BIOS file.

You can check the compatibility list of games that operate and to what capacity, but most things you attempt will have graphical glitches, performance and gameplay issues, as well as poor framerates and bugs galore. Unfortunately, it also only works with a keyboard at this time, so you can’t pair up a gamepad either.

Mr. Sujano actually got a game to load using the Play!.js emulator, but I tried a few games and had less luck. Either way, this is certainly something worth bookmarking, as development seems to be going really well so far. What an exciting time to be a gamer, right?

While you’re testing it out, be sure to subscribe to Mr. Sujano on Youtube. He’ll keep you up to date on Play!.js and any other game emulators you use on Android, PC, or the web, and is always posting interesting content updates for the most popular apps among other things.

If you happen to have a handful of your own PlayStation 2 games that you want to attempt loading up on Chrome OS via the web emulator, let us know in the comments if you got them to play! I can’t wait to see Chromebooks become more and more capable with nothing but a browser as the years go on. Having a web-based PS2 means that you’ll no longer be required to utilize your local storage space for Android apps, but you may want to for the foreseeable future for the best performance.

Photo by Nikita Kostrykin on Unsplash