“An iPad just ran a PS5 executable. It’s not streaming, it’s not Remote Play, there’s no PS5 in the room, and there’s no console emulator.” A user booted and tested the PS5 version of Dreaming Sarah on an M2 iPad, and after translation through madeira-anyps5, walking, jumping, talking to NPCs, music playback, and touch controls all worked (the demo machine was a 13-inch M2 iPad Air). This isn’t the first “PS5 games on PC” topic, but getting commercial PS5 games onto an ARM-based tablet is a challenge on another level. This is one of the most astonishing multi-layered reverse engineering achievements the emulator community has seen in years, and the first documented time ninth-generation console software has been brought to run on mobile ARM hardware.
An iPad just ran a PS5 binary. Not streaming. Not Remote Play. No PS5 in the room. No console emulator. The PS5 build of Dreaming Sarah, relinked by AnyPS5 and booted on an M2 iPad: walk, jump, talk to NPCs, music, touch controls. Here’s how it works 🧵 https://t.co/7LooaN4FKD
— Konrad (@buberlo) October 6, 2026
madeira-anyps5 Three-Layer Relay: From PS5 Executable to iPad Screen
First, let’s clarify the architecture, because this is precisely the part most easily misunderstood. buberlo himself added the key technical details: the game code is not native ARM; AnyPS5 first pre-relinks it into a Windows x86-64 program, and then Madeira The FEX inside translates x86-64 to ARM64 at runtime; he also gives credit to AnyPS5 author boykopovar and Madeira author Will Faust.
The first layer is AnyPS5’s “relinker”: it ingests a decrypted PS5 executable and pre-converts it into a standard Windows x86-64 executable. The game’s originally compiled x86 instructions remain untouched; what gets swapped out is the underlying OS foundation—Sony’s proprietary system libraries, kernel, standard C library, audio, controller interface, and AGC display driver—all replaced with open-source high-level compatibility layer implementations.
The second layer addresses “how x86 programs run on ARM chips,”Madeira It is an iOS sideloaded app developed by Will Faust that can run Windows programs in a single process. Internally, it combines Wine 11 compiled to ARM64EC and the dynamic binary translator FEX-Emu, translating the game’s x86-64 instructions at runtime into ARM64 instructions that Apple M2 can execute.
The third layer is graphics: PS5 shaders are AMD RDNA 2 bitcode, and AnyPS5’s shader recompiler converts them into standard Vulkan SPIR-V, which Khronos’s MoltenVK then translates into Apple Metal draw commands. It takes the three-stage relay of relinking, translation, and shaders to produce those few minutes of 2D platformer gameplay on the iPad. As for touch controls, they route the tablet screen’s input to the game’s controller interface, so players can control the character on screen without a gamepad.
What Is AnyPS5: A Compatibility Layer That Doesn’t Emulate the Console
The subject of discussion, AnyPS5, is itself a major event in the recent homebrew software scene. It is a tool open-sourced by developer boykopovar on GitHub starting August 3 (GPL v2 license), positioning itself as “automatically porting executables to Linux and Windows”: it includes a relinker and a reimplementation of PS5 system libraries, performing no emulation at runtime and with no separate emulation process. The tool is highly automated: the relinker parses the guest ELF image, resolves dynamic imports and function numbers, scans system calls, rewrites the executable layout, then prunes unused symbols and attaches custom runtime bridge code. The PS5 uses the AMD Zen 2 x86-64 architecture, sharing the same lineage as PCs, which is what makes this binary translation approach, close to Proton or Wine, viable.
Why is the iPad especially meaningful this time?
Running PS5 games on a PC relies on architectural kinship (the PS5 uses AMD Ryzen X86 architecture); running them on an iPad means running head-on into ARM’s high wall. buberlo’s demo proves this wall can be climbed: as long as there are enough translation layers and they are complete enough, x86-64 console games can also land on mobile chips. For the game preservation community, this is the first public record of bringing ninth-generation console software to non-native hardware. Proving the entire pipeline works with less demanding 2D games first and leaving the hard battle for 3D blockbusters is a pragmatic engineering order.
Limitations and risks: don’t think of it as a panacea.
Pour some cold water: First, AnyPS5 requires you to provide the decrypted PS5 executable yourself; the project itself does not distribute any firmware, keys, or proprietary libraries, nor does it perform any cracking. The barrier to use and legal risks fall on the user. Second, currently the only game verified as playable is Dreaming Sarah, a 2D platformer, which is a fairly limited stress test for the shader recompiler; the real test is 3D AAA titles that fully exploit PS5 GPU features.
GitHub – madeira-anyps5
Conclusion
From boykopovar’s relinker and Will Faust’s Madeira to buberlo’s iPad demo, stacking the three people’s work together turned “running PS5 games on a tablet” into a reproducible technical demonstration. For the first time, game code for x86 consoles has been concretely connected to ARM mobile devices. But honestly, stacking so many layers of translation only proves it’s technically feasible; if you want to play games, buying a console is still the more practical choice.
Source: KOCPC Chinese