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RetroBIOS

Pokket

Pokket emulates Sony PocketStation. It reads 1 file, 1 of them required: without a required file it does not start games.

About this profile
Detail Value
Type libretro
Classification Official port
Source https://github.com/mentalfoundry/Pokket
Version 1.23, stated in CMakeLists.txt
Revision mentalfoundry/Pokket@37c022ce46eb
Profiled 2026-10-17
Profile YAML, JSON
Cores pokketstation, pokket
Systems Sony PocketStation
Install this emulator's files

The installer finds your setup and its BIOS folder, then downloads only the files this emulator reads there and checks each one.

Open the Start menu. Type PowerShell and open it. Paste the line. Press Enter.

PowerShell
&([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://abdess.github.io/retrobios/i.ps1))) --emulator pokketstation
Technical notes

PocketStation emulator with a portable C core (core/) shared by the libretro core, an SDL2 and Win32 desktop application built on Windows only (frontends/desktop/CMakeLists.txt:1-16), a PS Vita port and an Emscripten build. The libretro target is pokket_libretro (frontends/libretro/CMakeLists.txt:10-16). Both the libretro core and the desktop application report POKKET_VERSION, v1.23 from the project() line of the root CMakeLists.txt (CMakeLists.txt:4-5, frontends/libretro/libretro.c:189-196).

read_bios opens <system>/pocketstation.bin, reads 16384 bytes and fails when fewer are read, while a longer file is accepted and truncated (frontends/libretro/libretro.c:545-559). psemu_load_bios copies the image and rejects any size other than PSEMU_BIOS_SIZE (core/src/psemu.c:92-99). retro_load_game returns false when read_bios fails, and psemu_run executes nothing while no BIOS is loaded: there is no HLE and no embedded copy (frontends/libretro/libretro.c:586-595, core/src/psemu.c:808-812). The IR Link subsystem runs two units in one core and loads the same file into both (frontends/libretro/libretro.c:652-693). Content (.mcr, .mcs, .pss, .mcd, .bin, .gme) is identified by its bytes, not by the extension: a 128 KB image is a full card, a file opening with 123-456-STD followed by a whole number of 8 KB blocks up to a full card 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:113-140, 211-234, 326-347). 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, and a match enables the date, time and volume override writes into kernel RAM (core/src/psemu.c:1150-1175). 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. SWI 0Fh FlashWriteSerial works on 061 and locks the CPU on 110 (docs/hardware-notes.md:1056-1066).

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 and writes it to settings.cfg (frontends/desktop/main.c:653-700, 1216-1254, 3016-3020, 3071-3091). The Vita frontend loads no BIOS yet (frontends/vita/main.c:31-33), and the Emscripten build leaves the BIOS to the hosting page (frontends/web/README.md:35).

Files

Section titled “Files”

1 file: 1 required, 0 optional.

In this collection: 1 in repo and 0 missing.

Required

Section titled “Required”

pocketstation.bin required in repo

PocketStation BIOS ROM, kernel and GUI, 16 KB

  • Standalone path: bios.bin
  • Read from the frontend system directory. The desktop application reads the whole file and psemu_load_bios rejects any size other than 16384, while the libretro core reads the first 16384 bytes. FNV-1a 0xB2E46838 identifies the retail 110 revision for the settings overrides only.
Validation and source

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”
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Maintained by Abdess on GitHub. Report a problem.

Packs from release v2026.10.10, .

MIT for the tooling and metadata. BIOS and firmware files are third-party system software, preserved for personal backup, archival and interoperability.