PCSX2 Manager¶

Gets your PS2 games ready to play from Steam with PCSX2, the PlayStation 2 emulator, and takes care of everything around it: it installs one tested release of PCSX2 for your own user, sets it up, takes your BIOS, finds your games in its own Games\PS2 folder, puts them in Steam, shows your memory cards and keeps a log of what was played. You never choose a folder: you put the games and the BIOS in the app's folders, and it takes care of them. You play from Steam, and never need PCSX2's own window: a game starts alone and full screen, and when it ends you are back in Steam.

PCSX2 Manager is on the portal's Gaming tab: A on its tile installs it, and once it is installed, A opens it. It is also in the Start menu (Windows Portable Suite, PCSX2 Manager). It opens full screen; ⧉ (View) exits it.

What you need¶

The PS2's BIOS, from your own console. PCSX2 cannot start a game without it, and it is not the app's to give. Dump it from your PlayStation 2 with biosdrain, a homebrew tool, as PCSX2's BIOS page says, and copy the dump (a .bin of 4 MB, often with .nvm and .mec files beside it) into Games\PS2\BIOS on the device: the app gives it to PCSX2 by itself.
Your PS2 games as disc images (ISO, CHD, CSO, ZSO or GZ), dumped from your own discs, put in Games\PS2 on the device or on an SD card (see Where your games go).
Steam, started once on the device, to play the games from Steam (optional: without Steam, X Play starts a game in PCSX2 itself).

The screen¶

Five cards on the left, PCSX2, Your games, Settings, Memory cards and Log; the right side shows what the focused card does. The d-pad or the left stick moves the amber focus. Every action is a button, listed in the row at the bottom with what it does on the pane that shows: A included (A Install, A Steam mark, A View log). Press the button, or tap the entry. B goes back: from a list or a page to where you came from, from a pane to its card on the left (on a card it does nothing). Once you are in a pane, the d-pad stays in it: at the top or bottom of a list the focus stops, and only B takes you back to the cards. ⧉ (View) exits the app. ☰ (Menu) opens the information of the pane that shows, and closes it again; the information icon at a pane's top right does the same by touch.

The amber edge shows where you are. On a card it comes with a glow under it; once the focus moves into the pane at the right, the pane takes the edge and the glow, and its card keeps only the edge. In a list the row with the focus is lighter, with the amber edge. Nothing is ever grayed out: when a button cannot do its job now, pressing it says why on the pane's status line. Every card, row and entry also works by touch, and a long list scrolls with the d-pad or a finger.

PCSX2¶

The PCSX2 card on the left says only whether PCSX2 is installed and which button acts: Not installed. and Install with the A button. until it is installed, then Installed. and Remove with the X button.

The pane shows the PCSX2 that is installed, the one this version of the app installs, the BIOS and the folder. PCSX2's own window is never opened: your games are on the Your games card.

A Install (also A on the PCSX2 card) downloads PCSX2 2.8.2 for Windows from PCSX2's own release on GitHub (26 MB), checks it against the checksum this version of the app was tested with, and unpacks it. The page counts the megabytes while it downloads. Nothing is downloaded before you press A.
X Remove PCSX2 removes PCSX2's program. Press it twice: the first press only changes the entry to Press again for five seconds. Your BIOS, memory cards, save states and settings stay in the folder, so a new install finds them again.
Y Reinstall or Y Update shows when PCSX2 replaced its program with another build, or an older PCSX2 is installed: it puts the tested release in, and what you made stays.

⧉ during the download asks first: a second ⧉ within five seconds exits the app and stops the download.

PCSX2 runs in portable mode (an empty portable.txt beside pcsx2-qt.exe): it keeps its settings, the BIOS, the memory cards and the save states in its own folder, not in Documents.

The BIOS row says which dump PCSX2 uses, or No BIOS yet with the folder to put it in (the status line says so too):

The BIOS dump (.bin or .rom) you put in Games\PS2\BIOS is copied by the app itself, with the files beside it under the same name (.nvm, .mec, .erom), into PCSX2's bios folder, when the app opens and each time the PCSX2 card gets the focus. Only what is new or changed is copied, and the status line says how many files it took. When PCSX2's settings name no dump that is there, PCSX2 uses the one copied.
LB Remove BIOS shows a page of what would go: the dump PCSX2 uses in PCSX2's bios folder, and the one in Games\PS2\BIOS, each with its files and its size. Nothing is deleted before you decide what to keep (see Deciding what to keep). A copy you keep in Games\PS2\BIOS goes into PCSX2 again the next time the PCSX2 card gets the focus. With another dump there, PCSX2 uses that one.

Both work once PCSX2 is installed and not while it runs (it writes its settings back when it closes); the copy waits until PCSX2 is closed, and LB pressed then says why. Without a BIOS no game starts from Steam: PCSX2 would stop at its own error window, so Update Steam asks for one first. The information says where a BIOS comes from.

A newer PCSX2 never reaches the device by itself: a new release of PCSX2 may change how games run, so it comes only with a new version of PCSX2 Manager, tried first, which the portal offers as an update. Then Y Update puts it in.

Where your games go¶

The app has folders of its own, which it makes when it opens; you never choose or browse to a folder:

Games\PS2 in your user folder (C:\Users\<you>\Games\PS2): put your disc images there, or in folders in it, and they show on Your games. On an SD card or a USB drive, make a folder Games\PS2 on it, and the app looks there too.
Games\PS2\BIOS: put your console's BIOS dump there, and the app copies it into PCSX2.

The Log card shows where the folder is.

Games\PS2\
├── BIOS\                     the BIOS dump you put here: SCPH-70012.bin, SCPH-70012.nvm, ...
├── SLUS_215.53.Lumines.iso   a game you put here
└── Puzzle\Tetris.chd         a game in a folder of its own

Your games¶

The games are the PS2 disc images in the app's Games\PS2 folders and up to five folders below them: ISO, CHD, CSO, ZSO and GZ. An ISO is read for its serial (SLUS-21553), and the title comes from PCSX2's own list of games; a compressed image is listed under its file's name. A on the Your games card goes to the list.

You play the games from Steam; the app puts them there, and starts them there with X.

A Steam mark on a game marks it for Steam, or takes the mark away. Y Update Steam then makes Steam match the marks: each marked game is a non-Steam game named [PS2] <title> in Steam's library and its Big Picture mode; a game without the mark, or no longer found, is taken out. Steam closes for it and starts again, its window open and signed in. Steam must have been started once on the device. When there is nothing to change, Y says so on the status line instead. Right after writing, the app reads Steam's file back and counts the games in Steam from that; should a game it wrote not be found, the status line and the log say which.
X Play on a game that is in Steam starts it through Steam, as its tile in Steam's library would; Steam starts first when it is not open. A game that is not in Steam yet says so: mark it with A, then Y Update Steam. On a device without Steam (not installed, or never started), X Play starts the game in PCSX2 itself, full screen, the same way Steam would. Without a BIOS, X Play starts nothing and says to put one in Games\PS2\BIOS first: PCSX2 cannot start a game without it.
LT Refresh reads the game folders again: a game put there, renamed or taken away while the app is open shows at once. A game in Steam that you rename or move keeps its mark when the app can tell it is the same game (by its title ID or serial, or a disc image by its size): Y Update Steam then puts it in Steam under its new name and takes the old shortcut out. Until then, its shortcut in Steam shows a screen that says the game is no longer there, instead of starting the emulator; A closes it.
Steam's library opens from the portal: RT Steam in its bottom row.
RB Remove game on a game shows a page of what would go: its disc image and, when it is in Steam, its shortcut there. Nothing is deleted before you decide what to keep (see Deciding what to keep). Taking the shortcut out closes Steam and starts it again. The folder the game was in stays, and your saves stay on the memory cards. While PCSX2 runs, RB says to quit the game first.

To quit a game, hold View, LB and RB together for two seconds: PCSX2 closes as its window would close, and you are back in Steam, or in the app when it started the game. Closing the game at the top of the screen says the hold was seen. It works the same in every game manager of the suite, started from Steam's library or from the app, and the line at the bottom of Your games says so when a game starts. With Quit with View + Menu on (see Settings), PCSX2's own quit chord, a short press of View and Menu already ends the game; the two-second hold works either way.

When the device runs hot, you are warned without the game stopping. While a game runs, the app reads the chip's temperature every two seconds. When the CPU or the GPU stays above 90 °C for half a minute, a banner shows at the top of the screen for a few seconds (on every screen, with a second one attached), and the controller rumbles three times; it warns again at most every five minutes while the chip stays that hot. The banner takes no press and does not take the focus from the game. A pause, or a lower performance mode (the portal's Performance Mode page), lets the device cool down. When the game ends, the log (A View log on the Log pane) says how hot the chip got and for how long. Windows cannot read how hot the outside of the device is: the chip's temperature is the closest reading, and the chip slows itself down at its own limit.

The pictures in Steam are drawn from the app's icon with the game's title. With a SteamGridDB API key, Update Steam takes each game's pictures from SteamGridDB instead: LB Steam artwork opens the page that keeps the key (X Paste, R3 ⌨, A Save, Y Remove key twice, B back without saving). See Steam artwork from SteamGridDB.

Deciding what to keep¶

The app deletes nothing of yours before you decide what to keep. RB Remove game and LB Remove BIOS open a page that lists what would go, a row each with its size, for example:

Row	What it is
`Delete · Lumines.iso (the disc image) · 1.2 GB`	the game's file in `Games\PS2`
`Delete · The shortcut in Steam`	the game's entry in Steam's library
`Delete · SCPH-70012.bin in Games\PS2\BIOS · 4.0 MB`	your BIOS dump, with its files

Every row starts as Delete. A on a row turns it to Keep, and back. X Delete marked deletes the rows still marked Delete and keeps the others; the status line then says what was deleted and what was kept. B goes back and deletes nothing. With every row on Keep, X says so and deletes nothing.

Settings¶

PCSX2 opens ready to play: right after the install, and each time before it opens, the app sets in PCSX2's settings (inis\PCSX2.ini in its folder):

its first-start setup skipped (it would ask for what the app already did);
its own updates off (they would replace the tested release);
the mouse pointer hidden over a game;
the BIOS: the dump in its bios folder, unless the settings already name one that is there;
player 1 on the device's controller (PCSX2 maps only the keyboard by itself), the buttons by their place: A is Cross, B Circle, X Square, Y Triangle, View Select and Menu Start. A controller mapping already in PCSX2's settings stays;
View and Menu (☰) held together end a game, without a question (the PS2's Select and Start);
PCSX2's Big Picture mode off: it is PCSX2's own menu, and the app starts every game without it.

The quit chord stays as you set it below: turned off, the app does not turn it on again. Everything else in the file stays as PCSX2 wrote it. Without a settings file the app starts from PCSX2's own defaults, as PCSX2 2.8.2 writes them at its first start.

The Settings card's pane has four tabs, Screen, Game, Controller and On screen: LB and RB step through them, or tap one. A tab is a row per setting with its value; A on one steps to the next value and saves it at once (the row at the bottom says A Change, LB Previous tab, RB Next tab). PCSX2 reads it the next time it opens; while PCSX2 is open, the pane asks you to close it first, since PCSX2 writes its own settings back when it closes. The information icon at the pane's top right says what each setting of the tab does.

Screen

Setting	Values
Renderer	Automatic (PCSX2 chooses), Direct3D 12, Direct3D 11, Vulkan, OpenGL, Software (on the CPU: exact but slow)
Resolution	Native (the PS2's), 2x (720p), 3x (1080p, the device's screen), 4x (1440p), 5x (1800p), 6x (2160p, a 4K TV), 8x (2880p); higher asks more of the graphics chip and the battery
Aspect ratio	Auto (the game's own shape, black at the sides), 4:3, 16:9 (fills the screen), Stretch to the screen
Video aspect ratio	As the game, Auto, 4:3, 16:9: the shape of a game's videos when they are not the game's own
Widescreen patches	On or Off: 16:9 in the games PCSX2 has a patch for, with Aspect ratio on 16:9
Anisotropic filtering	Off, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x: sharper textures seen at an angle
VSync	On or Off: no tearing, a little more delay

Game

Setting	Values
Fast boot	On or Off: skips the PS2's start-up screen
No-interlacing patches	On or Off: a steadier picture in the games PCSX2 has a patch for
Cheats	On or Off: the cheats in PCSX2's `cheats` folder, for the games they are made for
Save state when quitting	On or Off: a save state when a game ends, to load from PCSX2's pause menu next time
Volume	100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, Muted: PCSX2's own volume, before Windows'

Controller

Setting	Values
Vibration	On or Off: the controller's rumble
Stick dead zone	Off, Small, Medium, Large: how far a stick moves before the game sees it, for a stick that drifts
Stick range	PCSX2's (1.33), As the stick (1.00), Wider (1.66): how the stick's travel maps onto the PS2's
Player 2	On or Off: a second controller is player 2, with the same buttons
Quit with View + Menu	On or Off: View and Menu (☰) held together end the game

On screen

Setting	Values
Show FPS	On or Off: the frames a second in a corner
Show speed	On or Off: the game's speed in percent
Show resolution	On or Off: the picture's size in pixels
Show CPU and GPU use	On or Off: how busy the processor and the graphics chip are
Show frame times	On or Off: a graph of how long each frame took
Show inputs	On or Off: the controller's buttons as they are pressed
Text size	Normal, Larger, Largest: the size of PCSX2's text on the screen

The values show once PCSX2 is installed. A value in PCSX2's settings that the app does not offer is shown as it is, and A goes on from the first value.

Memory cards¶

The PS2 memory cards in PCSX2's memcards folder, each with the slot PCSX2 puts it in, how many saves it holds and its free space. A Saves on a card lists its saves (their titles, sizes and dates); B (or A on ‹ The cards) goes back.

X New card makes an empty 8 MB card, the size of the PS2's own, named Mcd001.ps2 or the next free number.
Y Copy card copies the card the focus was on last, with its saves, under a new name (Mcd001 copy.ps2).

A card is not copied while PCSX2 runs: it keeps the card in memory and writes it back. Folder memory cards and PS1 cards are listed with the reason they are not read.

Log¶

PCSX2's last run as its own log tells it: when, which game, how long it was played and which controllers PCSX2 opened; the play time PCSX2 counted in all; where your Games\PS2 folder is; and the newest lines of this app's log (Steam's changes, the installs, the settings changed). A View log, or a tap on the pane, shows the whole log in the pane: the d-pad scrolls it, and B goes back.

How it works¶

A game's shortcut in Steam starts the app itself in its play mode, PCSX2-Manager.exe --play -nogui -fullscreen -batch -- "<game>", which shows no window: it starts pcsx2-qt.exe -nogui -fullscreen -batch -- "<game>" in PCSX2's folder (-nogui keeps PCSX2's own window away, -fullscreen gives the game the whole screen, and -batch closes PCSX2 when the game ends), watches the controller for View, LB and RB held, and ends when PCSX2 ends, so you are back in Steam. Asked to close, PCSX2 gets ten seconds before it is ended. On a device without Steam the app starts a game the same way. A shortcut made by an earlier version, which starts pcsx2-qt.exe itself, shows (Update Steam) on its game: Y Update Steam writes it again. Everything PCSX2's window would be used for is in the app: the BIOS, the settings, the controllers and the memory cards. Its setup wizard and its own updates stay off.

Every Monday the suite checks whether PCSX2 has a newer release than the one this app brings, and whether the file it downloads is still the one it was tested with; what moved goes to the suite's developers, and a newer PCSX2 comes in a new version of the app.

Install it on its own¶

The portal installs it. To install it on its own, download wp-pcsx2-v<x.y.z>.zip and SHA256SUMS from its release, then in PowerShell, in that folder:

(Get-FileHash wp-pcsx2-v<x.y.z>.zip).Hash -eq (-split (Get-Content SHA256SUMS))[0]   # True: the download is intact
Expand-Archive wp-pcsx2-v<x.y.z>.zip . -Force
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File wp-pcsx2-v<x.y.z>\install.ps1

Installed on its own, it gets a Start-menu entry and a Desktop shortcut. Afterwards the installer asks whether to remove the download.

Option
`--no-desktop-shortcut`	the Start-menu entry only
`--uninstall`	remove the app; the settings, the log and PCSX2 with your BIOS and memory cards stay
`--uninstall --purge`	also remove the settings, the log and PCSX2's folder, with the BIOS, the memory cards and the save states in it

Files¶

Where	What
`%USERPROFILE%\Games\PS2\`	Your games; `BIOS\` in it, the BIOS dump you put there
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-pcsx2\app\`	The program, `PCSX2-Manager.exe`
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-pcsx2\emulator\`	PCSX2 (`pcsx2-qt.exe`), its settings, BIOS, memory cards and save states, and `installed.json` (the version and the files the app installed)
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-pcsx2\covers\`	The pictures from SteamGridDB, per game
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-pcsx2\windows-portable-pcsx2.log`	The log
`%APPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-pcsx2.ini`	The app's settings
`%APPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\steamgriddb-key`	Your SteamGridDB API key, when you put one there
Steam's `userdata\<user>\config\shortcuts.vdf` and `grid\`	The games in Steam and their pictures