You may have never heard of ‘Implicit Conversions,’ and I wouldn’t blame you – I hadn’t either until recently. But all of those classic PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo games available on respective digital storefronts? Yeah, that’s mainly thanks to them, as Implicit Conversions’ Pancake and Syrup emulation engines have successfully migrated over 21,000 retro games to modern consoles.
While they’ve mainly focused on retro retro (we’re talking PS2 and before), it seems Implicit Conversions has bigger goals for the near future. God, I can’t believe PS2 is considered ‘retro’ now. Taking a look at their public roadmap, a new card shows promise for potentially bringing PS3 classics to modern audiences.
Videos by VICE
“Researching and prototyping the possibility of a PlayStation 3 emulator package for Syrup,” the card reads. Attached to the card is a tag reading “Dreaming About”
‘Implicit Conversions’ wants to keep retro gaming alive and well
Implicit Conversions has a knack for PlayStation emulation, with over half of their 21,000 games being old Sony classics. Now, officially in the PlayStation Partners program, there’s good reason to believe we’ll see some PS3 goodies available on PS+ sometime in the future. Implicit Conversions’ Syrup engine adds modern features to many of their emulated games. Perks like online netplay, widescreen support, achievements, save states, and timeline rewinding are standard features for their retro conversions.
“Our emulators use a combination of high-level emulation (HLE) and low-level emulation (LLE) techniques. This means that some device components, graphical effects, or even game functions are replaced with modern versions. The goal of this is to retain emulation quality while allowing for modern enhancements and functionality.
These techniques allow us to bring networked-multiplayer, modern bloom and lighting readback effects, high-quality videos, and even updated forms of input control to titles across different consoles.”
PS3 emulation isn’t the only thing Implicit Conversions seems to be working on. According to their Games roadmap, several PlayStation 1 classics are scheduled to release on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. Fear Effect, Fighting Force, and Fighting Force 2 are the first in the pipeline, seemingly with a partnership with Limited Run Games. Special physical edition re-releases, maybe? We’ll have to wait until Q2 2025 to find out.
It’s unclear when this dream could become reality or even which games Implicit Conversions has its sights on first. At this point, the studio seems to be testing the waters, gauging how probable it is to make this happen. Hey, if it means updated versions of GTA IV, Killzone, or Uncharted 2, they can take all the time they need.