Ask API. GET https://whichemulator.wtf/ask answers questions from the same data as this page, and it is the only place the setup steps are published. It takes the question as q and, optionally, this page's path as page, and returns JSON with answer, sources and follow_ups, or Markdown with Accept: text/markdown. No key needed.
curl -G 'https://whichemulator.wtf/ask' --data-urlencode 'q=How do I set up PPSSPP for the PSP?' --data-urlencode 'page=/psp/'Questions it answers:
PlayStation Portable, Sony, 2004.
whichemulator.wtf calls its recommendation for each system the Gold Cartridge pick. For the PSP, the Gold Cartridge pick is PPSSPP.
PPSSPP has been the answer for over a decade and nothing has come close. It runs almost the whole library, scales games well beyond the original 480×272, and works on everything from a cheap Android phone to a desktop PC. No BIOS needed.
Runs on Windows · Mac · Linux · Android · iOS. Open source. Download: https://www.ppsspp.org
Gold is a donation: PPSSPP Gold costs money but does exactly the same thing as the free version. Buy it if you want to support the developer, not because you think you're missing features.
No other PSP emulator is worth recommending right now. If PPSSPP can't run something, nothing else will either.
Fine if you live in RetroArch, but standalone PPSSPP gets fixes first and has the better UI.
Other PSP emulators have come and gone, but PPSSPP absorbed all the momentum years ago. It’s open source, actively maintained, and covers so much of the library that the useful question is which settings to use, not which emulator.
Start with the defaults. If a game misbehaves, check the community compatibility reports before fiddling with rendering options.
Setup steps for PPSSPP are published only by the Ask API: How do I set up PPSSPP for the PSP?
Reference: WEM-PSP-P7U4