bleem!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| bleem! | |
|---|---|
 The interface of the discontinued bleem! emulator |
|
| Developed by | bleem! |
| Latest release | 1.6b / August 16, 2001 |
| OS | MS Windows, Dreamcast |
| Genre | Emulator |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.bleem.com (dead see mirror) |
bleem! was a commercial PlayStation emulator released by the bleem Company in 1999 for IBM-compatible PCs and SEGA Dreamcast.
It was speculated[citation needed] that "bleem!" was a backronym, which stood for "Best little emulator ever made!".
Contents |
[edit] History
bleem! is a PlayStation emulator software designed to allow people to play original PlayStation games on their PC computers or Dreamcast gaming consoles (the Dreamcast version is called bleemcast!). It was released on March 1999. The company that developed and commercialized bleem! consisted of just two people, David Herpolsheimer (President) and Randy Linden [1].
[edit] Context
bleem! was incredibly advanced for its time. To allow for full-speed emulation of what was at the time a current generation console on even lower-end computers, the authors coded bleem! in assembly. This allowed them to create more precise optimizations.[2] Unlike other PlayStation emulators of the time (including Connectix's commercial Virtual Game Station), it made better use of a PC's 3D graphics hardware and had a variety of filters used to make games look better than they did on an actual PlayStation console. Emulators at that time primarily used software rendering, with plug-ins for 3D cards still being buggy. Bugs plagued bleem! as well, with all but one game (fittingly enough One) being plagued by major bugs according to bleem's own compatibility charts.
bleem! was also released in 3 other versions for the Sega Dreamcast called Bleemcast! to play the popular PlayStation games Gran Turismo 2, Metal Gear Solid and Tekken 3. bleemcast! was originally planned as an emulator to support PlayStation's entire library, but this soon became an impossibility due to the amount of testing required to support such a large library of games, as well as the lack of a possible software update on the Sega Dreamcast platform. Early ads in magazines advertising bleemcast! claimed that it would bring 400 new games to Dreamcast.
bleem! used low-level memory emulation and other risky technology. It did not function on operating systems using the Windows NT kernel, including Windows 2000. In fact, bleem!'s statement at the time was that bleem! would never support running on Windows NT-based systems, as Windows 98 was the dominant operating system at the time; many users feel that this decision also signaled the end of bleem!.
Users wishing to run bleem! on unsupported platforms would require the use of virtualization software, such as Virtual PC or a VMware product, to run a compatible operating system, such as Windows 98, inside of their existing system. A simpler (but still nowhere near simple) alternative would be to dual-boot with a compatible operating system, or to install one on an older computer.
[edit] Legacy
Since bleem!'s demise, other PlayStation emulators such as ePSXe have surpassed bleem! in terms of hardware support and features; however, some of these emulators still require a dumped version of the PlayStation BIOS to function, while bleem! does not. PCSX is one of the newer freeware PlayStation emulators that do not require a BIOS to operate.
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Copy Protection
To combat software piracy of the small downloadable emulator, the user had to buy the bleem!-CD. A CD containing about 35 MB with a DirectX distributable and the actual version of bleem! available at the time of the CD's printing. The rest of the CD was only for copy protection and was impossible to copy with conventional means; however the copy protection was cracked nevertheless within two weeks of the release.
Further updates to the emulator were free, until the company ceased operation several years later.
[edit] Sony Lawsuit
Two days after bleem! started taking preorders for their emulator, Sony filed suit against them alleging that they were violating their rights and that providing access for PlayStation games to run on non-Sony hardware constituted unfair competition.
Ultimately bleem! won in court and a protective order was issued to "protect David from Goliath" [1]. Sony lost on all counts, including bleem!'s use of screenshots of PlayStation games on its packaging. The court noted that bleem!'s use of copyrighted screenshots was considered fair use and should be allowed to continue.
Despite the legal victories, the legal fees allegedly forced the company out of business. eBay auctions of some of the company's possessions were held soon after - including a huge library of worldwide game releases apparently used for compatibility testing.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Tom Rhodes. Best Little Emulator Ever Made!. "Best Little Emulator Ever Made!". Escapist Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
- ^ Dragon¥en. Interview with bleem author. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
