Back in February, I wrote about a mysterious new PS3 emulator that was in the works for Android users. It was in early development when I first caught wind of it, but 4 months later, after appearing and then disappearing from our lives, aPS3e has finally arrived on the Google Play store and is being downloaded faster than I eat a bowl of pasta (that's fast, fyi).
According to Android Authority, aPS3e is actually an amalgamation of the code from RPCS3, Termux, and Vita3K. It's from a dev called aenu, and while the code is now fully available open-source on GitHub, there isn't a license file in the directory. As you probably already know, this isn't ideal when it comes to copyright issues. Still, the fact that aenu isn't making the code closed source anymore or asking for donations is a step in the right direction.
If you're not already aware, default copyright laws apply when you don't have a license in your GitHub project, meaning that you can't distribute or create other spin-off projects from the source code. The fact that aenu seems to be slowly righting some wrongs that have made emulator fans a little wary and angry makes me think that the license might be coming soon and that they are actually trying to make this a legitimate creation, so let's hope they continue to prove me right.
One thing I will say is that you'll need the latest Android phones to get these games running smoothly. There were clips of games running on Android 7, but to get the best results from demanding games without turning your phone into a nuclear reactor, you're going to make sure you're running Android 16 on a powerful smartphone. The emulator still is a little hit and miss, too and is currently being worked on, so if you're willing to put up with a few glitches, then head to Google Play to try out the free version with ads, or pay $5 for an ad-free version!
