Loads of step by step guides on the youtube to get RPCS3 running, as that seems to be one of the preferred PS3 emulators. The PS3 is notorious for being difficult to emulate and it's quite resource intensive so I recc a good system.
Disclaimer: I've not tried to emulate PS3 myself, so I don't know much beyond this much. The difficulty will be getting the game ISOs themselves as they're large and not easy to store for that reason. Have a look on r/piracy and the raddle equivalent for several resources for copied games that should be reasonably safe.
If you need help with any other console emulation up to Gamecube-era, I am happy to help.
Hell yeah, the DS is underrated for emulation. I had to tinker with my 3DS but now I got everything up to SNES working on that. Once you crack that bad boy open you can change so much.
The OG wunderconsole still remains the PSP tho. Before smartphones and tablets were a thing I got everything from book and manga readers to video players running on that beast, to say nothing of its already pretty decent PSX emulation built-in.
How's your SNES performance, on which emulator? I have a hacked-to-shit new3DS with IIRC Retroarch and I never got it to stop choking on Super Metroid
I'm using an OG 3DS XL. I'm running SNES games under Snes9X and they run pretty dece. If you're using the New 3DS, try formatting them as Virtual Console games. I also tried Retro Arch with poor performance before switching over.
It's been a while since I messed with it, I forgot all about installing them as VC. That'd definitely do the trick, thanks for the reminder!
I'm using the original 3DSXL, it can run up to Genesis/Mega Drive just fine as Virtual Console games, but SNES is a bit tougher and will need a more streamlines emulator like Snes9X. If you have the New xDS (2DS or 3DS in XL or regular version) you can run SNES games under Virtual Console mode.
They accidentally tipped their hand in a trailer that it won't be PS5 exclusive forever. Not sure how long it will be tho
Does anyone have any resources or guides on how to get into emulation?
It's literally easy (and I don't mean this in an insulting way): You get the emulator you want (RPCS3 in your case), install/run it. You go to a site that contains the .rom/.iso of what you're looking for (Demon's Souls in your case) and download it. Then you load the .rom/.iso via the emulator program to run the game.
You do need at least a 2013-esque gaming PC to run PS3 titles semi-satisfactorily on RPCS3, before I forget. Demon's was able to run on an i5, IIRC. But it was like 15-20FPS. If you want 30 (which was what the console targeted bar blighttown) you'd need at least an i7, IIRC. Then 60 is the newer processors but honestly, forget the 60 right now.
Especially how to do it safely so I don’t get caught or get a virus
Run a VPN if you're that paranoid, but honestly: Most ISPs won't really give a shit if you're only pirating 1-2 titles at a time. You won't get a virus from the .rom unless someone is injecting stupid shit, which would change the MD5. Windows 10 now has the ability to check the file-hash integrity/MD5 so you could just confirm the MD5 somewhere else and then check, or just run a file-scan. But most ROM sites aren't going to be doing that shit because that's how you lose patronage. Just run an adblocker on the sites.
It's a hack, but it's possible to run it at 60: https://rpcs3.net/blog/2019/08/12/new-demons-souls-60fps-patch/
