POPSLoader is a graphical PlayStation 2 homebrew launcher designed to easily browse and launch your PS1 games (using POPStarter) from various storage devices. It features a clean, responsive layout, cover art support, sound effects, an on-screen keyboard, and direct memory card exit shortcuts.
The current public release is 1.0.0 (released 2026-07-10). Rolling test artifacts continue to be published from the BETA-13-PLAY branch (see Development & Building).
POPSLoader's stable backbone, hardware-confirmed across an extended validation pass:
- Fixed HDD POPSTARTER Handoff (D-10): Resolved the long-standing "D-10" black-screen hang when launching games using an HDD-backed POPStarter configuration. Hardware-confirmed.
- Fixed Cross-Device POPSTARTER (D-14 / D-15): HDD-backed POPSTARTER with non-HDD games and non-HDD POPSTARTER with HDD games both launch cleanly. Hardware-confirmed.
- DKWDRV from Memory Card and custom HDD path: Both launch routes work — the MC route via a reboot-IOP path with synthesized argv, the HDD custom path via a partition-aware route. Hardware-confirmed.
- BOOT.ELF Exit from POPSLoader: Returns to wLaunchELF / BOOT.ELF via the embedded-loader route, including the previously broken HDD-launched case (
U-10). Hardware-confirmed. - Single-device Settings parity: Every install — USB / MX4SIO / MMCE and the internal HDD — saves settings to
.pldrsnext to the launcher. HDD installs write it on the HDD's own boot partition (read-write mount take-over), nomc0:fallback (see Settings Storage on HDD Installs). - In-app HDD game hiding, PAL full-screen, BDMA + MC-folder controls: The newer Settings work — see the Settings section below.
- Polished User Interface: Layout alignment corrections, cleaner typography, dynamic menu box adjustments, text wrapping, and notification toast hardening.
Note
The canonical, always-current Known Issues list and hardware-verification status live in STATE.md > Known Issues (with the full ledger in QA_REGRESSION_MATRIX.md). The current open item is the config-specific "Failed to load HDD" from a non-HDD boot; the 2026-06 HDD/PAL/BDMA features are implemented and boot on PCSX2 (HDD confirmed read-write on hardware by provato) and are still validating on hardware.
POPSLoader's main menu exposes the following backends:
- MMCE (Multi-Memory Card Emulator, e.g. MemoryCard PRO / SD2PSX)
- MX4SIO (SD card via memory card slot adapter)
- HDD (PFS) (internal HDD via the PS2 network/ATA adapter)
- USB (
mass:) - HDD (exFAT) (
mass:via BDMA ModeATA— an internal SATA/IDE drive formatted exFAT; new — validating on hardware) - Disc (DKWDRV) (boot DKWDRV to play PS1 discs)
Note
The main menu also lists i.Link, but that flow is not implemented yet — selecting it shows a "not implemented" notice. SMB (v1) network game browsing is now implemented (CI + Rolling green) and is validating on hardware. (HDD (exFAT) is likewise implemented via BDMA Mode ATA and is validating on hardware.) See Known Issues & Planned Improvements.
Note
Game compatibility and drive loading performance may vary depending on your specific console model, adapter type, and the quality of your POPStarter/POPS binaries.
To set up POPSLoader:
- Download the Release: Download and extract the latest
POPSLOADER.zippackage. - Copy Launcher Files: Copy the
PS1_POPSLOADER/folder to the device or memory card from which you want to launch POPSLoader. - Place POPS Files: Put the
PATCH_5.BINfile (included in thePOPS/directory of the ZIP) into your activePOPSfolder (see directory structures below). - Add POPStarter & POPS Files: Add your POPStarter executable (
POPSTARTER.ELF) and the required POPS support files (IOPRP252.IMG,POPS.ELF,POPS.PAK,POPS_IOX.PAK) to yourPOPSfolder. These copyrighted Sony POPS files are not included in the release package. - Add Games: Copy your PS1 game images in
.VCDformat into the samePOPSfolder. Keep filenames reasonably short — roughly 73 characters is the safe maximum for a standardPOPS/folder; longer names can fail to launch (see Troubleshooting). - Launch: Run
POPSLOADER.ELFusing wLaunchELF, Free McBoot, or your preferred ELF launcher.
Ensure your directories and files match these paths exactly depending on your storage device:
Place all files on the root of your storage device (mass:/, mx4sio:/, mmce0:/, etc.) in a folder named POPS:
| File Path | Description |
|---|---|
<device>:/POPS/GameName.VCD |
Your PS1 game image |
<device>:/POPS/ART/GameName.png |
Optional cover art (200x200 8-bit PNG recommended). The POPS/ART/ subfolder is the default location, checked first; a <device>:/POPS/GameName.png beside the VCD always works as a fallback. You can pick where covers (and the matching GameName.txt Game details sidecar) are looked for first in Settings → Game List → Cover/details folder: POPS/ART (default), POPS (beside the game), or a top-level ART folder at the device root. |
<device>:/POPS/IOPRP252.IMG |
Required POPS support file |
<device>:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF |
POPStarter launcher binary. A POPSTARTER.ELF dropped here is used automatically for that device's games (so you can keep, say, a USB-delay build on the USB drive without forcing it everywhere) — unless you set an explicit POPSTARTER Path, which always wins. See Settings. |
<device>:/POPS/POPS.ELF |
POPS emulator engine binary |
<device>:/POPS/POPS.PAK |
Emulator resources payload |
<device>:/POPS/POPS_IOX.PAK |
Emulator input/output resources payload |
Place VCD game files inside your dedicated POPS partitions, and system binaries inside __common/POPS/:
| File Path | Description |
|---|---|
hdd:/__.POPS/GameName.VCD |
Your PS1 game image (can also use partitions __.POPS0 through __.POPS9) |
hdd:/PP.GameName/IMAGE0.VCD |
(new, validating on hardware) A partition-installed game (HDDOSD / PSBBN style: one partition per game, PP. visible or __. hidden, image always named IMAGE0.VCD). These are listed on the HDD page under the partition's name and launched with POPStarter's PP.GameName.ELF convention. |
hdd:/__common/POPS/ART/GameName.png |
Cover art folder (partition-installed games use the partition name minus its PP. / __. prefix) |
hdd:/__common/POPS/IOPRP252.IMG |
Required POPS support file |
hdd:/__common/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF |
POPStarter launcher binary |
hdd:/__common/POPS/POPS.ELF |
POPS emulator engine binary |
hdd:/__common/POPS/POPS.PAK |
Emulator resources payload |
hdd:/__common/POPS/POPS_IOX.PAK |
Emulator input/output resources payload |
Navigate POPSLoader using a standard PS2 controller.
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| D-pad Up / Down | Scroll through the game list |
| D-pad Left / Right | Page Up / Page Down (jump through large lists) |
| L1 | Jump to the top of the game list — press again to bounce to the bottom |
| Left Analog Stick (up / down) | Navigate the game list item-by-item — the stick folds into the d-pad, so a held push scrolls smoothly with the same auto-repeat (only an analog/DualShock pad's stick is read; a digital pad is ignored). Push the stick left / right to page-jump like the d-pad. |
| R1 | Refresh / rescan the current device's game list, in place (e.g. after hot-plugging a drive or card). USB / MMCE / MX4SIO / HDD (PFS) re-scan live by default; if Game list cache is enabled in Settings they instead rebuild their saved per-device cache. |
| Cross (X) | Confirm option / Launch selected game |
| Circle (O) | Go back to the Main Menu / Cancel |
| Triangle (△) | Open the Credits screen (any button returns you to where you were). Exit shortcuts, including BOOT.ELF where available, live in the Exit menu opened with Circle on the Main Menu. |
| Start | Open the Settings / Profile Editor |
| Select | Toggle "Hide Text Mode" (clears the UI for a clean view of cover art) |
| Square (□) | Toggle cover-art preview on / off (in the game list) |
| Right Analog Stick (up / down) | Scroll a long game description that doesn't fully fit on screen (when Game details are enabled and a <game>.txt is present). |
| L3 (left stick click) | Hide / unhide the selected game (writes/removes a <name>.hide marker — works on every device, including the internal HDD). Set Settings → Game List → Hidden games to Visible (manage) to show hidden games dimmed, then press L3 on a dimmed entry to unhide it. |
| R3 (right stick click) | Reveal / re-hide this device's hidden games — a temporary view for this session only. When Settings → Game List → Hidden games is set to Hidden (games filtered out of the list), press R3 to rebuild the list with them shown dimmed so you can manage them (then L3 unhides); press R3 again to hide them. Nothing is saved: the persisted setting lives in Settings → Game List → Hidden games and comes back in force when you leave the page or reboot. |
| R2 | Launch in "HDD Alt" mode (HDD (PFS) game list only — for an HDD-resident POPSTARTER) |
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| L1 / R1 | Move the text cursor Left / Right |
| Square (□) | Delete character (backspace) |
| R2 | Toggle uppercase / symbols — letters shift to UPPERCASE, and the digit/bracket keys type @ # $ % ^ * " < > | { } ~ \`` (for usernames, hidden shares ending $`, and symbol passwords) |
| Circle (O) | Close the keyboard. With unsaved typing it asks for a second press (within ~1.5 s) before discarding |
Press Start on the menu to open Settings; changes save when you confirm. Settings persist per install with single-device parity — every device, including the internal HDD, saves a .pldrs file next to the launcher. HDD installs write that sidecar on the HDD boot partition itself (POPSLoader remounts its own boot partition read-write to do so — there is no mc0: fallback for HDD installs). For the full rules, see STATE.md > Settings.
| Setting | Options | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Boot Page | Carousel (default) · MX4SIO · USB · MMCE · HDD (PFS) · HDD (exFAT) | Where POPSLoader lands after the boot sequence. Carousel shows the normal device wheel. Pick a device and POPSLoader opens straight into that device's game list at startup (it loads that backend automatically). If the chosen device is hidden (e.g. an HDD Boot Page after switching Internal HDD the other way), boot lands on the carousel with a message saying why. A -page= launch argument still overrides this for that one boot. |
| Setting | Options | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| (one row per device: MMCE, MX4SIO, USB, i.Link, SMB, Disc) | Shown (default) · Hidden | Hide or show each entry on the main device carousel. Set unused or not-yet-implemented backends (e.g. i.Link) to Hidden to remove them from the wheel. At least one device must stay Shown. Saved with your settings (HIDDEN_DEVICES); hidden entries are skipped during carousel navigation with no gaps, and launch behavior is unchanged. |
| Internal HDD | PFS (default) · exFAT (APA-Jail) | Picks which of the two internal-HDD pages shows on the carousel — the classic Sony APA/PFS page, or the APA-Jail exFAT page (BDMA ATA backend). They are mutually exclusive: one shows, the other hides (saved as HDD_FS). A -page=ata (or exfat) launch argument still opens the exFAT page regardless of this setting. |
| Setting | Options | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-disc games | Show all discs (default) · First disc only | First disc only hides the secondary discs of multi-disc games so only disc 1 shows. Detection is purely by filename — a disc is hidden if its name contains (Disc 2), (Disc 3), (CD 2), (Disk 2)… (any number ≥ 2). So it only works if you name your files with that convention, e.g. Final Fantasy IX (Disc 1).VCD / Final Fantasy IX (Disc 2).VCD. Launch disc 1 and swap discs in-game via your VMC. (PS1 discs carry no shared "this is the same game" metadata, so the filename is the only signal.) Applies to every device. |
| Hidden games | Visible (manage) (default) · Hidden | Per-game hide layer. Press L3 on any game to hide or unhide it — hiding writes (or removes) a tiny <name>.hide marker next to the game's .VCD, exactly like the <name>.png cover. Hidden filters tagged games out of the list; Visible (manage) shows them dimmed so you can manage them with L3. In-app hiding works on every device — USB / MX4SIO / MMCE / Memory Card and the internal HDD (POPSLoader writes the .hide on the HDD via its read-write boot-partition mount). |
| Game details | Off (default) · Left · Center · Right | Shows a per-game blurb from a <game>.txt sidecar in a small panel under the cover, in the chosen text alignment (Off hides it). The .txt is sought right alongside the cover (in whichever location Cover/details folder is set to, POPS/ART/ by default, with the game's own POPS/ folder always also checked), and the disc-marker-stripped name is tried first so one file serves every disc of a multi-disc game. Authored line breaks are preserved; scroll a long blurb with the right analog stick. |
| Cover/details folder | POPS/ART (default) · POPS (beside game) · ART (at root) | Picks where each game's cover .png and its .txt details sidecar are looked for first on removable devices (USB / MX4SIO / MMCE): a POPS/ART/ subfolder, the game's own POPS/ folder beside the .VCD, or a top-level <device>:/ART/ folder. The game's own POPS/ folder is always also checked as a fallback, so art beside the .VCD never stops showing. The internal HDD keeps its fixed __common/POPS/ART/ layout. |
| Game list cache | Off (default) · On | When On, USB / MMCE / MX4SIO and the internal HDD (PFS) save their scanned game list per device so the "Building game list…" rescan only runs once (rebuild it with R1). Off = always live-scan (the default, unchanged behavior). |
- Profile / POPSTARTER mode / POPSTARTER path — which
POPSTARTER.ELFto use. At launch POPSLoader resolves it per device in order: (1) an explicit POPSTARTER Path you set (an absolute path; an absolute Profile selection counts as this) when it resolves; (2) the game device's own<device>:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELFif present — on the internal PFS HDD this step ishdd0:__common/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELFinstead; (3) thePOPSTARTER.ELFnext to wherePOPSLOADER.ELFlaunched from; (4) themc0:/mc1:/POPSTARTER+ configured-default fallback. So a per-device build is picked up automatically without being forced, an explicit custom path always wins, and Profiles act as presets. - DKWDRV Path — path to
DKWDRV.ELFused by the Disc option. - Video Standard — Auto (default — matches your console's region) / NTSC / PAL. On PAL the UI now renders natively at 640×512 so it fills the whole screen with no letterbox (NTSC is 640×448). A display-mode change shows a confirm prompt that auto-reverts if you don't confirm, so a bad mode can't strand you; you can also hold Start during boot to skip past a bad video mode.
- Overscan (CRT inset) — Off (default) up to a numeric inset, adjusted in steps of 5 (OPL-style render inset, same math as OPL's overscan). Pulls the whole UI slightly toward the center of the screen so nothing is lost in a CRT's overscan border. The change previews live as you adjust it; backing out of Settings without saving restores the previous value. (Mainly useful on a real CRT; on a flat panel you'll usually leave it Off.)
- Boot sound — On (default) / Off. Plays the startup chime over the boot splash. Turn it Off for a silent boot. (Hardware-confirmed to save and survive a reboot.)
- BDMA Mode — mass-storage backend mode: FAT32 (
FAT32-USB (None)) / USBEXFAT (exFAT-USB) / MX4SIO / MMCE / ATA (exFAT-HDD (ata)— an internal SATA/IDE drive formatted exFAT; new, validating on hardware). The installed mode is recorded in abdma_mode.txtmarker file in the POPSTARTER pack folder (older.pldr_bdma_modemarkers are still read for compatibility). - Adaptive BDMA — (new, validating on hardware) stages the right BDMA drivers for the game you launch, automatically, so MMCE and USB (and MX4SIO / exFAT-HDD) games can coexist without flipping BDMA Mode between launches. It checks first and skips the write when the correct drivers are already on the card. The USB page can't tell FAT32 from exFAT drives, so there your saved BDMA Mode decides:
exFAT-USBkeeps the exFAT drivers for USB launches, anything else means your USB drive is FAT32 (drivers removed, POPStarter's built-in stack used). Default Off. - POPSTARTER Memory Card Folder — toggles the
mc:/POPSTARTERfolder. Turning it off deletesmc:/POPSTARTER(with a confirm prompt). It is interlocked with BDMA Mode: you can't turn this folder off while BDMA Mode is on (or while Adaptive BDMA is on), and you can't enable either while this folder is off. - Hide UI Text — clears on-screen text for a clean cover-art view (also toggled with Select).
- Keyboard Layout — on-screen keyboard layout for the path editor.
Browse and launch PS1 games from an SMBv1 network share via the SMB carousel entry. Networking is lazy: nothing network-related runs at boot; the stack comes up only when you open the SMB page. (New feature — validating on hardware.)
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| SMB modules | Not installed | Installs the in-game SMB streaming pack (6 IRX + SMBCONFIG.DAT/IPCONFIG.DAT) into mc:/POPSTARTER on Save. Required to LAUNCH games — browsing works without it, and the loader warns (and blocks a launch) when it's missing. Interlocked with the POPSTARTER Memory Card Folder toggle. |
| IP assignment | DHCP | DHCP or Static. Static uses the PS2 IP / Netmask / Gateway / DNS rows (validated as dotted quads). |
| Link mode | Auto | Ethernet negotiation (Auto / 100 full / 100 half / 10 full / 10 half). |
| Server IP | 192.168.0.1 | The SMB server's IP address. (NetBIOS names are not supported — use the IP.) |
| Port | 1111 | The server's SMB TCP port. Stock SMB servers listen on 445 — the 1111 default suits alternate-port SMBv1 setups (e.g. the PS2-Servers configs); set it to whatever your server actually listens on. Written into SMBCONFIG.DAT as SERVER:PORT (445 is implied and omitted). |
| Share | (not set) | The share name. Leave it blank and the SMB page lists the server's shares in an in-app picker; your choice is saved. |
| User / Password | (guest) | Credentials, when the share needs them (either one set = credentials are used, in-app and in-game). Values are trimmed except the password; the R2 symbol shift types @ # $ % etc. |
| Games path (folder holding POPS) | (share root) | Optional folder under the share that CONTAINS your POPS/ folder. Browsing only: POPStarter launches from <share>/POPS, so prefer sharing the folder itself and leaving this blank. |
Share layout: \\server\share\POPS\Game.VCD (plus the usual POPS support files). Launches hand POPStarter an SB.<name>.ELF selector and it streams the .VCD from the share using the installed pack's SMBCONFIG.DAT.
SMB fails to connect? The error names the failing step. "No network link" = cable/adapter; "DHCP failed" = try Static; "Can't reach the server" = check Server IP and Port (stock servers = 445); "Server refused SMBv1" = enable SMBv1 support on the host (modern Windows/Samba disable it by default); "SMB login failed" = credentials; "Share not found" = share name (or use the blank-Share picker).
Selecting BOOT.ELF in the exit menu (or pressing the Triangle shortcut) will look for:
mc0:/BOOT/BOOT.ELFmc1:/BOOT/BOOT.ELF
If found, BOOT.ELF launches through the embedded-loader handoff with a clean BRAM setup and an explicit argv[0]. If you do not have wLaunchELF installed at these paths, this option will fail to boot.
Hardware-confirmed working when POPSLoader was launched from USB, MC, MMCE, MX4SIO, OSDmenu, Browser, PSBBN, or HDD.
The U-10 case (BOOT.ELF exit from an HDD-launched POPSLoader) previously black-screened; it was fixed in PR #479 (reboot_iop=0), hardware-confirmed by Nuno 2026-05-31. History in docs/archive/U10_INVESTIGATION.md.
- Internal HDD setups received major reliability improvements in BETA-10-5 (the "B2" PFS-unmount fix at commit
4ae6679), correcting the partition mount handoffs that previously prevented games from loading. - Ensure that your game partition is named matching the
__.POPSconvention, and that the__common/POPS/directory contains all necessary POPStarter/POPS emulator binaries. - Existing USB/MX4SIO/MMCE setups are unaffected by the HDD fixes and should continue to work normally.
HDD-installed POPSLoader saves its .pldrs settings file on the HDD itself, in the launcher's boot partition — same single-device behavior as USB / MX4SIO / MMCE, which keep the sidecar at <install dir>/.pldrs. To do this POPSLoader takes over its own boot partition's mount and remounts it read-write (the OPL "own your mount" pattern), so there is no mc0: fallback for HDD installs. The same read-write mount is what lets in-app .hide markers (toggled with L3) be written on the HDD. See STATE.md > Settings for the canonical rules.
- Using uppercase
.VCDis recommended if your games are not being detected, especially on case-sensitive setups. - Verify that VCD files are placed directly in the
POPS(or__.POPS) folder, not inside subfolders.
- Verify that
IOPRP252.IMG,POPS.ELF, and the.PAKfiles are present in the POPS folder. - Check that your game image
.VCDis healthy and uncorrupted.
- The most common cause is the
.VCDfilename being too long. POPStarter — not POPSLoader — performs the actual launch and enforces a hard length limit. In testing, a 73-character filename launches while a 74-character one does not. - POPStarter's own documentation lists an 89-character limit, but that ceiling appears to count the full path string POPStarter builds (POPSLoader hands it something like
mass:/POPS/XX.<name>.ELF), not just the bare filename. So the usable filename length is shorter than 89, and a deeper folder path leaves room for fewer characters — which is why ~73 is the safe target for a standardPOPS/folder. - Fix: shorten the filename (and, if needed, use a shorter folder path). This is a POPStarter constraint and cannot be raised from POPSLoader.
- Check that the cover image is in
.pngformat. - The PNG filename must match the
.VCDgame filename (e.g.Crash Bandicoot.VCDrequiresCrash Bandicoot.png). For a multi-disc game, the disc-marker-stripped name (Crash Bandicoot.png) is tried first so one cover serves every disc; an exact per-disc name still works. - Place the cover in the folder chosen by Settings → Game List → Cover/details folder (default
POPS/ART/, also POPS beside the game or a top-level ART at the device root). A PNG sitting beside the.VCDalways works as a fallback regardless of that setting. On the internal HDD covers live in__common/POPS/ART/. - Confirm cover-art preview is enabled — press Square (□) in the game list to toggle it.
- For best compatibility and performance, use 200x200 pixel images.
- Confirm that a valid wLaunchELF executable is installed on your physical memory card at
mc0:/BOOT/BOOT.ELFormc1:/BOOT/BOOT.ELF.
Confirmed broken: see the single canonical STATE.md > Known Issues list (currently: the "Failed to load HDD" from a non-HDD boot case, and the SMB connect failure whose root cause is fixed in code and awaiting its first hardware run — the full 2026-07-07 audit and fixes are in docs/REPO_AUDIT_2026-07-07.md).
Planned for subsequent updates:
- Layer C Lazy IRX Loading: Defer device-specific IRX modules so they only load when the boot device family needs them, reducing boot time. The
mmcemanportion has landed (PR #471): it is now loaded eagerly only when POPSLoader is booted from an MMCE device, and deferred everywhere else. Further deferral ofds34bt/usbdwas declined (2026-06-22): both hard-importusbdand the only available defer trigger is the boot device family — not the same as pad transport — so deferring them would strand USB / Bluetooth controller input (unrecoverable without a reboot) for a small boot-time gain. They are kept loaded eagerly; the Layer C effort is closed at themmcemanwin. - Settings UI Redesign (Berion): Visual overhaul replacing the current OPL-style focused-list with per-category Settings pages. Awaiting Berion's mockup PNGs.
- GUI Themes: Customizable colors / skins / fonts and a setting to skip the boot splash.
- In-Game Features: Support for per-game fixes, cheat codes, Virtual Memory Card (VMC) setups, and multi-disc swap prompts.
HDD (exFAT)menu flow: now implemented as amass:backend via BDMA ModeATA(built, CI/Rolling green) — validating on hardware.SMB (v1)network game browsing: now implemented (settings, an "SMB modules" install toggle, lazy connect, share browse, launch, and disconnect-on-exit; built, CI/Rolling green) — validating on hardware.i.Linkmenu flow: currently surfaces as "Not Implemented Yet" until feature work lands.
See STATE.md "Known Open Work" and ROADMAP.md for the prioritized backlog.
- israpps (El_isra): Original POPSLoader project creator.
- Daniel Santos: Creator of the Enceladus runtime foundation.
- krHACKen: Author of POPStarter.
- Berion: User interface design and theme assets.
- nuno6573: Cover-art engine integrations and scripting.
- Hugopocked: POPStarter fixes.
- saildot4k: BDMA-ATA (exFAT internal-HDD / ATA backend), fixes, feedback, and oversight.
- Ripto / NathanNeurotic: Maintenance, UI polishing, and release engineering.
- P4NCHOL1NO, VizoR, provato, nuno6573, TnA-Plastic, and the community: Hardware testing.
GitHub Actions is the canonical build path. The pinned CI image is ps2dev/ps2dev:v2.0.0. Every change must pass the CI workflow in .github/workflows/compilation.yml before merging; rolling release artifacts for testing are produced by .github/workflows/rolling-release.yml on push to BETA-13-PLAY and on pull request events. CI now runs a live luac syntax gate over the embedded Lua (bin/POPSLDR/*.lua + etc/boot.lua) and hard-fails on a syntax error — note this catches syntax only; runtime and load-order errors still only surface on real PS2 / PCSX2.
POPSLoader is an EE C/C++ application (src/) with the entire front-end UI and launch logic written as embedded Lua (bin/POPSLDR/*.lua, etc/boot.lua) and an embedded IOP-side child ELF loader (src/elf_loader/). The Lua scripts, PNG art, IRX modules, and the child loader are all baked directly into the EE ELF at build time via bin2c, so the on-card scripts are not read at runtime — building from source is required to change them.
Developer documentation, repository architecture details, and the current state are maintained in:
- STATE.md: Current code and hardware status, the canonical Known Issues list, Behavioral Invariants, and Preservation Contracts.
- QA_REGRESSION_MATRIX.md: Complete ledger of CI gates and hardware test outcomes.
- ROADMAP.md: Prioritized backlog.
- DECISIONS.md: Decision log with rationale and evidence.
- ARCHITECTURE.md: Structural data-flow documentation.
To build the launcher binary locally (optional; CI is canonical), run:
make clean elfloader allThis cleans, force-regenerates the embedded child ELF loader (elfloader), then compiles every EE/IOP object, embeds all assets, links, strips, and runs ps2-packer to produce the packed bin/POPSLOADER.ELF. It requires a configured PS2DEV SDK environment (ps2dev/ps2dev:v2.0.0 toolchain) with ps2-packer and the bin2c tool on PATH.
To grab the latest test build, download from the rolling release URL: https://github.com/NathanNeurotic/POPSLoader/releases/download/rolling-release/POPSLOADER-rolling-release.zip
🗄️ Permanent archive (MEGA): the GitHub
rolling-releasepre-release only ever holds the latest build; every push overwrites it. So every branch rolling build is also archived permanently to MEGA as one self-contained zip, each in its own immutablerun_<number>folder (nothing is ever overwritten there). Click the MEGA Rolling Archive badge at the top of this README, or browse the archive here, to grab any past build.