Is MGS1 just the original game running on an emulator? And if yes is it better or worse than the PS3 version?

[Griffith]

Have only heard bad things about MGS1 in the master collection, so I want this question answered so I can feel confident recommending it to people (I played the legacy collection)

I haven't heard anything bad about MGS 2 and 3 so I'm assuming those are fine. Please correct me if false.

[EvathCebor]

I'm not sure it runs on an emulator, even if I suspect it does. I completed it on Steam Deck, I played a little bit on my laptop, and it was an awesome experience on every device. It's clean, felt like playing on the PS1 version. The collection is very complete and you have multiple versions of the game availables (VR missions included). The UI is classy and feels like a beautiful virtual package. The game itself responds well, runs well and all. It's comfortable to play. I don't have any single reason to complain. You have some customization available, including artworks surrounding the screen that replaces what would be black bars and it's kinda cool....they even tried to compensate the fact that it's a digital release and access the games' cover to see Meryl's codec (you can press L1+R1 to open the menu and check the game box). It's a very decent port in my opinion...I was not expecting anything more to be honest...

...but it's obviously not as good as it would be on Duckstation. You don't have the ability to put the game on HD, you don't have the billion visual options, the wide screen hacks, the quick saves and so on. To be honest, I have never encountered any game prior to the 128 bits era that did run better on legit digital stores than it would on emulation. At best, the experience could be close to what an emulator would offer, but still lacking. Emulation is ALWAYS the better experience. At this point I wish the devs would just publish their game runing through Duckstation, Dolphin and others. I would gladly pay for this.

Havn't tried the PS3 version so I can't compare.

It's for the sake of owning the game on Steam. It's for the sake of having another reason to replay it. Or for having the whole collection here. And the experience is very good on this version, so it's fair game.

I havn't tried MGS2 and 3 yet on this collection, but I'm one hundred percent sure every single one of this games runs better on PCSX2.

[Deathraven13]

It's a PS1 game.

[jasyn]

Yep it's the psx version runing on a emulator. The bad part is you have no access to upscale anything so the picture looks terrible on HD screens compared to SD tv screens in the past.