Tsubomi

Tsubomi is an experimental PlayStation Vita emulator for iOS (iPhone/iPad).

Tsubomi is a fork of Vita3K and uses it as its emulation base. All of the heavy lifting — the CPU, GPU (GXM→Vulkan/MoltenVK), kernel and module HLE — is Vita3K's work; Tsubomi adds a native iOS front-end, an on-device import pipeline, a touch controller, and the platform glue needed to run on a non-jailbroken iPhone with JIT. Please support the upstream Vita3K project.

⚠️ Legal / piracy disclaimer

Tsubomi does not condone or support piracy or any other illegal activity.

• You must dump your own games and firmware from hardware you own. Do not download games you do not own.
• Tsubomi ships with no games, firmware, or keys, and none are provided.
• Booting Vitamin dumps or other pirated content is not supported.

By using Tsubomi you agree that you are solely responsible for the content you load and that you are complying with the laws in your jurisdiction.

Requirements

• An iPhone/iPad on a recent iOS version, with a way to sideload an unsigned .ipa.
• JIT must be enabled for games to run (Tsubomi shows a banner and refuses to boot games when JIT is unavailable). StikDebug or a comparable JIT enabler works.
• Your own PS Vita firmware and game dumps.

Setup

1. Sideload the unsigned Tsubomi.ipa and enable JIT for it (e.g. via StikDebug).
2. Launch Tsubomi. On first run it creates its data folder at Documents/Tsubomi (visible in the Files app — file sharing is enabled).
3. Add content with the + button in the library:
   • Import game (.vpk / .zip) — a Vita app package.
   • Import firmware (.PUP) — a PS Vita firmware update.
   • If a game is a NoNpDrm dump, Tsubomi prompts for its work.bin license and decrypts the content in place. Alternatively, copy your desktop Vita3K data folder into Documents/Tsubomi/vita in the Files app and tap Refresh.

Data layout (Documents/Tsubomi/)

Tsubomi/
  vita/            the Vita filesystem (ux0, vs0, sa0, …)
    ux0/app/<TITLEID>/        installed games
    ux0/user/00/savedata/     save data
    ux0/license/              NoNpDrm .rif licenses
  cache/           shader / pipeline caches (persist across reinstalls)
  tsubomi.log      the log file — attach this when reporting issues

Documents survives app reinstalls, so games, saves, and firmware are kept when you sideload a new build.

Screenshots

Credits

• Vita3K and its contributors — the emulator Tsubomi is built on.