Modders Discover PSP Emulator in PaRappa the Rapper

Sony, like any company, wants to protect their intellectual property. And yet, they seem to fuel the fires of modders every blue moon. Hackers have taken advantage of the PS4's built-in PlayStation Classics emulator to develop a better PlayStation emulator, and now they've discovered a native PSP emulator inside the same console.

Modders have discovered a way to develop an upscaled PSP emulator built within the PS4's code. Or more specifically, built within the PaRappa the Rapper Remastered PS4 game. The new-found technology could unlock the secret to creating a high-resolution PSP emulator.

PaRappa was originally released on the PlayStation in 1997. It was then ported to the PSP in 2007. And as of last year, it's on the PS4 as PaRappa the Rapper Remastered. With PlayStation Classics having already been established, many assumed that it was a port of the PlayStation game. Modder community member KiiWii recently discovered that the remaster instead uses a Sony-developed PSP emulator to run the 2007 PSP PaRappa game.

To its credit, the PS4 remaster does include high-resolution textures and redrawn art, in order to look its best on a large TV. Though such actions are nothing new to the emulation community. We've seen HD texture mods for emulators as far back as the Nintendo 64 game system.

So far, modders have figured out how to emulate the NES, Game Boy, and even Steam (yes, the PC game distributor) on a PlayStation 4. Whether Sony likes it or not, the console has done tremendous things for the modding community, and it's only gotten stronger.