emulator: pokketstation
type: libretro
core_classification: official_port
source: "https://github.com/mentalfoundry/pokketstation"
upstream: "https://github.com/mentalfoundry/pokketstation"
profiled_date: "2026-09-17"
source_commit: "484933271b7d362e8e76f1121839c33e5d5ec83e"
core_version: "v1.12"
display_name: "Sony - PocketStation (pokketstation)"
cores: [pokketstation]
systems: [sony-pocketstation]

notes: |
  PocketStation emulator with a portable C core (core/) shared by the libretro
  core, an SDL2 desktop application and a PS Vita port. The libretro core
  reports library_version "0.1"; the project version is the release tag,
  v1.12 in the desktop frontend (frontends/desktop/main.c:40).

  load_bios opens <system>/pocketstation.bin, reads 16384 bytes and fails when
  fewer are read; a longer file is accepted and truncated. psemu_load_bios
  copies the image and rejects any size other than PSEMU_BIOS_SIZE.
  retro_load_game returns false when load_bios fails, and psemu_run executes
  nothing while no BIOS is loaded: there is no HLE and no embedded copy.
  Content (.mcr, .mcd, .mcs, .pss, .bin, .gme) is identified by its bytes,
  not by the extension: a 128 KB image is a full card, a 134976-byte file
  opening with 123-456-STD is a DexDrive dump whose 3904-byte header is
  skipped, anything else is tried as a single save then as a Title Sector
  body (core/src/psemu.c:187-209, 301-317). Save RAM is the full 128 KB
  flash image.

  psemu_settings_offsets_known hashes the loaded image with FNV-1a and compares
  it with 0xB2E46838, the retail 110 revision the project traced; a match
  enables the date, time and volume override writes into kernel RAM. Any
  16 KB image boots. Two mask ROM revisions are documented: 061, from
  prototype hardware, and 110, the retail one; the ASCII tags at offsets
  0x1DFC (C061 or C110) and 0x3FFC (J061 or J110) identify them
  (docs/hardware-notes.md:782-792). SWI 0Fh FlashWriteSerial works on 061
  and locks the CPU on 110.

  The desktop application takes the BIOS path from the command line, then
  from the bios= key of settings.cfg beside the executable, then falls back
  to bios.bin beside the executable; File > Load BIOS opens any path
  (frontends/desktop/main.c:630-668, 1000-1035, 2380-2451). The Vita frontend
  loads no BIOS yet (frontends/vita/main.c:31-33).

files:
  - name: "pocketstation.bin"
    description: "PocketStation BIOS ROM, kernel and GUI, 16 KB"
    size: 16384
    required: true
    validation: [size]
    standalone_path: "bios.bin"
    source_ref: "frontends/libretro/libretro.c:178-196, frontends/libretro/libretro.c:206-208, core/src/psemu.c:90-97, core/src/psemu.c:474-477, core/src/psemu.c:854-879, core/include/psemu/psemu.h:19"
    note: >
      Read from the frontend system directory. The desktop application reads
      the whole file and psemu_load_bios rejects any size other than 16384;
      the libretro core reads the first 16384 bytes. FNV-1a 0xB2E46838
      identifies the retail 110 revision for the settings overrides only.