Posted by
timothy
on from the but-old-emulators-never-die dept.
An Anonymous Coward writes: "I just went over to Blue's and saw that Bleem is dead. What happened? Have the lawyers finally gotten to them?" Maybe they just got tired.
Working at Electronics Boutique, I can tell you that at least on Friday, we were still selling Bleem! products.
However, looking at how few Dreamcast systems we're selling (we have two new ones left, and the rest are preowned), and how few new PS games are coming out, it really doesn't make sense. The only way to make money for them now would be to find a way for something like XBox to play PS2, PS, Gamecube, and Dreamcast games. But that would invoke serious ire.
Bleem! was a great idea, and made great products, but perhaps the strategy just reached the end of its lifecycle. I wish the guys the best in whatever new ventures they pursue.
-- The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
ePSXe
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I heard ePSXe is a good alternative, but I haven't tried it myself. Try searching for 'ePSXe' on google.com. The official webpage 'http://www.epsxe.com/' doesn't seem to be up right now.
Virtual Game Station
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Why bother, when there are two or three other BETTER emulators out there. If I'm not mistaken, at least one of them is open source.
-- "You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
"Thank you, Master Control"
-Sark and the MCP
Re:open-source
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
What's better? I've tried a few, but they all sucked hardcore. I would love to find a good OSS Playstation emu...
Re:open-source
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
There's multiple PSX emulators that are more compatible that ARE open source. bleem may have been the most popular, but it was far from the best.
Check out ArdiPSX @ http://www.adripsx.com/
So far it looks like it's the best open source PSX emualtor available and it even accepts PSEmu plugins.
More information can be gathered at either zophar.net or ngemu.com
I can understand why...
by
aetherspoon
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Bleem! was a great concept- PSX emulator on the PC for sale to the public. I saw those ugly yellow boxes in the local comptuer stores myself- it was enticing.
However, other emulators came up. VGStation took Bleem!'s place on the top of the line quickly as it was more compatable. Then Sony sued...
Bleem! stopped updating, and virtually abandoned the PC emulation market for something new- a commercial PSX emulator for the Dreamcast. It was a bright future, if it weren't for two things- one, only one game would work on it, and two, the DC was dying.
The PS2 would never need a PSX emulator.
The GC and X-Box were far away at that point. Bleem! had no choice but to slowly fade away. I guess they finally gave up.
There are better PSX emulators now (ePSXe is considered by me to be the best)... but it is still sad to see someone in the Emulation community go away.
Farewell Bleem!.
-- ---
Ãther SPOON!
Maybe if it ever WORKED...
by
John_Booty
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I was initially very excited about the PC version of Bleem!; I even pre-ordered it. Well, after getting my disc 6 weeks late because they screwed up the order (their fault) I finally got it and was disappointed. Even up to and including their final release, Bleem! on the PC was buggy as hell.
Out of all the games I tried, very very few of them actually worked toally okay. I wasn't expecting perfection, but most times the graphics glitches were so significant that I didn't really consider the game playable. When I say "graphics glitches", I'm talking about texture corruption, 99% of the time. I had bought Bleem specifically to get higher visual quality out of these games (bilinear filtering, higher res, etc) so I wasn't as tolerant of graphics glitches as I otherwise might have been.
Also, Bleem! for Dreamcast was just executed very poorly. For those who don't know, they originally planned to sell three or four "Bleempacks" that would each run 30-40 PSX games. I guess the idea was to get a limited number the games working *perfectly* on each disc, as well as to charge the customer numerous times. Alas, even that was unacheivable, and they had to create versions of Bleem! that ran only ONE GAME- they released Bleem! Metal Gear and Bleem! Gran Turismo.
Sorry, but it was WAY too expensive. I'm not paying $20 or whatever for a graphical upgrade for a single 3-year old game... especially considering that they don't look THAT much better than the originals and even the enhanced versions were far surpassed by other Dreamcast games.
Interestingly, Connectix's VGS emulator worked almost flawlessly with all the PSX games I tried, although it didn't run on NT/2K, and didn't support 3D hardware so the games weren't graphically enhanced at all. This is the emulator that Sony bought and then yanked from the market.
Re:Maybe if it ever WORKED...
by
RyuuzakiTetsuya
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· Score: 1
Quick note, I bought my GT2 bleem!pack for like 5 bucks.
-- Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Re:Maybe if it ever WORKED...
by
TargetBoy
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· Score: 1
I didn't mind the few graphical glitches that I encountered.
I'm not a big console fan and my interest in Bleem! was to be able to play with one game I liked without buying a playstation. Bleem! worked perfectly well for that and I've never regretted making the purchase. SONY should thank Bleem!, since they got money for at least one PSX game they would have never gotten otherwise.
Re:Maybe if it ever WORKED...
by
X-Dopple
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· Score: 3, Informative
Bleem! (the PC product) failed because it was exploiting a niche market - there was a lack of quality PSX emulators waay back in 1999. IIRC, the PSEmu team quit working on the project over some spat and there weren't any quality emulators.
Bleem! 'leaked' a demo to the public. Wow! It could play all the popular releases! I'd buy the real version!. Bleem! claimed this demo was unauthorized and ordered everybody to yank it. All the big sites (Zophar's) complied while all the smaller sites hung on to it.
But when Bleem! was released, it *really* sucked. Many of its much-touted features (ability to play in a higher resolution, better graphics, better sound) were offset by the fact that many games had huge graphical errors, big slowdowns, and some wouldn't even play at all. Randy (the coder of bleem) blamed these problems on drivers and no, it wasn't the fault of Bleem. Never mind that if one had the latest up-to-the-minute reference drivers, Bleem still sucked ass. Bleem! promised frequent updates right on the box, but the last 'frequent' update was in:
November 1999.
Sounds pretty frequent. I mean, heaven forbid you should update the emulator to work with the latest games. When I pay for an emulator, I expect quality work, not the half-finished crudshow that Bleem! was. Bleem! was largely dead by the time ePSXe came out - ePSXe did all that bleem! could, and it didn't require that you have a CDKey and you could *get this* save states, unlike Bleem. And ePSXe was updated fairly frequently and had a better compatibility list than Bleem had.
So, good riddance. When you release an emulator to the public, it had damn well better be good, and it had better be updated frequently.
On an odd note, updating from 1.4 to 1.5a actually slowed down FMV playing. Bleem never bothered to rectify this.
Re:Maybe if it ever WORKED...
by
TargetBoy
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· Score: 1
ePSXe also requires that you have a copy of the ACTUAL PSX BIOS, making actual usage of ePSXe a rather grey area, legally.
Bleem! was reverse engineered without access to any of the actual PSX hardware, hence their ability to win against SONY in court.
However, you forgot to mention Bleem!'s other big problem... Playing games too fast.
As I said before... I hope Bleem! sells the IP they developed to Microsoft. Would be justice for what SONY did to them.
Re:Maybe if it ever WORKED...
by
AtariKee
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· Score: 1
So what? It STILL never worked right.
-- "You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
"Thank you, Master Control"
-Sark and the MCP
Re:Maybe if it ever WORKED...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Agree 100%
I preordered. Got it late and it never worked as promised. Games either didn't work (never could get FF8 to run) or looked horrible (Tekken 3). I updated drivers and even found an old 2x CD-ROM to try to get it to work. When they closed down the bulletin boards (frequently packed with complaints) I gave up.
When I found out about the Dreamcast software I knew PC Bleem! was dead. It sat at version 1.5b and never budged.
PC owners don't have a mascot to weep over their grave, but I imagine if we did, it would dancing on it instead.
Actually 3 DC products...
by
bildstorm
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· Score: 2
Bleem! made three emulation packages for the Dreamcast. EB still has 'em (unlees an emergency recall was issued), and people still buy them. The emulator for Metal Gear Solid has to be the best one out there, and I know a LOT of people have come in to get both since MGS 2 was released.
-- The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
Re:Actually 3 DC products...
by
crivens
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· Score: 1
They work on DCs bought before Oct 2000, which mine wasn't. So I was very pissed off when I found this out, as I would love to have bought the MGS and GT2 games to play on my DC. Oh well:(
Doesn't anyone out there realize that I'm willing to pay for a quality piece of software that emulates my Playstation games on my computer? Sony? Someone?? The resolution enhancement alone makes it worthwhile to me. Guess I have to keep hoping ePSXe works some wonders...
--
-------
"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief."
Doesn't anyone out there realize that I'm willing to pay for a quality piece of software that emulates my Playstation games on my computer?
(Bold emphasis mine)
You do realize we're talking about Bleem! here, right?
-- "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Re:Sad
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I'll sell you my Playstation for $50 if you want. The games suck so bad compared to the PC that I haven't pulled it out of the cabinet in 2 years. That's also why I won't spend $300 on a PSX2 or a XBox.. why bother when I can just play games on my $1500 general purpose PC that blows the consoles away?
did you see their site before they went under? it had tons of js crap all over it. maybe if they went with a simple yet functional website and spent more time on their product instead of their cute website...
very sad, so very sad...
by
Vidmaster_Steve
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· Score: 5, Funny
I typically don't cry at funerals, nor do I tend to make the hideously melodramatic display of throwing myself at the casket or sulking down to my knees in front of a loved one's tombstone whilst the rain pours down in sheets, soaking my trenchcoat and fedorah...
But this, this my fellow emulaton fans, is a sombre occasion that even the most stoic and hard-bitten game journalist/aficionado would find a tear marching its slick trail down the side of his jaded, tightly-clenched jawline.
"But Steve," you say "Bleem was a hunk of ass, I mean, it capped out at resolutions of only 800x600. Teh Playstation was w33k d00d. My Pentium 4 2 gig 0wnz! J00 are a pussy for crying like a little, broken-hearted girl over a stupid emulator."
To which I reply emphaically "Shut your bleemhole, ass. Remember when Raine was buried in its cardboard casket? Not a dry eye in the goddamned house, you little prick."
But you, you're always quick to berate and tear me down and hate, and hate you do... "Raine is still around, f00l. J00're a dumbfuck."
Yeah, that's right. Raine was ressurrected via some strange, arcane voodoo ritual, slain again, raised from the eternal depths once again, then burned by superstitious and cowardly townsfolk, then thrown into a river.
And that, baby, is why I weep. Not because Bleem died, not because Sony (god bless the 4 pin iLink...) is a horrid, evil corporate demon, but because I've drank about twenty whisky sours tonight, and are somehow still ambulatory AND lucid.
Yes, we journalists lead a tough life, but its one that we've chosen, baby...
-- Why is it when I hit ^R that ZSH calls me a cocksucker?
Re:very sad, so very sad...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Insightful
You're too cool and normal to be posting here.
Everyone else is bitching because the webpage that Bleem! put up doesn't work in IE. The rest of the "Information Wants to be Free (since I don't want to pay)" leeches are bitching about how Bleem was imperfect and/or how the Open Sores emulators are better.
As we can see, if it were up to them, all of us programmers would be made into their slaves, from the large corporations to even small companies like Bleem! I assure you, if it were an open source project that was on the same caliber Bleem! was that was abandoned today, Slashdot would be done up in black and the Linux dorks would be sobbing and blowing the snot out of their zit covered noses all day.
Every day that I read this site, I can't help but think that Microsoft might actually have a point.
Re:very sad, so very sad...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Steve, j00 4R3 133t.
Nice post.
Let me know how things work after some Wild Turkey and somafm.com.
Re:I wouldnt Be suprised
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Gee, who would have guessed that violating the law and stealing wouldn't be a good business model?
Connectix got paid off though.
by
JPRelph
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The problem with VGS was that Sony and Connectix signed a deal to work on future emulation software. All that seems to have resulted from that is that Connectix have stopped VGS. Whether it was a case of "We want to work with you" or "OK so we lost in court but if we give you this big bag of cash will you stop selling VGS?" only Connectix and Sony really know.
Quite an achievement
by
jpatters
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· Score: 4, Funny
In a final achievement they managed to make a webpage that simply loads one picture, that only works in internet explorer. iCab and Netscape just show a blank page. This is quite a metaphor for their past performance.
-- "Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
Re:Quite an achievement
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
*sigh* check the source code, you should see where it's loading an image (in a function called fadein) copy that image name (RIPgrass.jpg) onto the end of the address, and load it... that's all we're seeing, except IE fades it in on a black page.
Re:Quite an achievement
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Insensitive elitist prick.
Get over yourself, Bleem!'s market is Windows, hence assuming IE is no big deal for them.
Netscape sucks nuts anyway.
Re:Quite an achievement
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
...but Mozilla doesn't suck. At least not my nuts. I think that making pages that only work in browser X is a Real Bad Thing; if you want to use features which only browser X offers, then you should at least make sure your page also renders (in a more simple way) in any standard compliant browser, otherwise you're helping the manufacturer of browser X to get some sort of browser monopoly which is exactly what nobody wants.
Re:Quite an achievement
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Dude, WHO THE FUCK CARES? It's a page stating their company is dead. Do you really think they give a flying fuck that you can't read it on your silly open source browser? Get a god damned life.
Hm, on the one hand you are right. Their market was stupid Windows-only gamers. And this market doesn't know shit about tech and they usually use IE. You are right.
On the other hand, Netscape > 6, and especially Mozilla, do not suck. They are even more compliant to standards than this piece of shit called IE.
BTW: Why was that comment not marked as flamebait?
-- Alexander Skwar
--
Homepage: http://www.digitalprojects.com | http://www.iso-top.de
iso-top.de - Die
Re:Quite an achievement
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
mozilla.9.5 loads it just fine
netscape sucks, IE sucks.. we all know how much open source rules, and thats why mozilla gets to not suck.. eofl
For those who go to the site and get a black screen - it appears that the site only works on Internet Explorer. No big deal though, it has 100 lines of Javascript just to fade in a picture of a tombstone with Sonic the Hedgehog crying and placing flowers next to it. Semi-cute I guess.
Re:Blank Page
by
GreenHell
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· Score: 2, Informative
For those who don't have IE and want to see the picture, try this link for it without all the javascript.
-- "I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
Re:Blank Page
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
FlasHole Fan unregistered
re: Too Cool Nov 17 2001 08:06PM EST
If you view the source there is some fancy pants Javascript going on that looks like it invokes some exciting Flash! action (FlasHole would be proud.)
Unfortunately, my version of IE 5.x... doesn't show anything 'cept the jpg image, which take forever to load.
quote:
Originally posted by Number_six:
Once again, design disconnected from engineering. I like the jpeg image, but why does it take 5K of code to load it?
Post Comment
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.
sold to sony
by
johnjones
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· Score: 3, Insightful
didnt they just sell their sole to sony ?
sony pressed legal people on them and then smozed them and gave lots of money to help them on the agreement that they would not sell to silly consumers but help out developers
what would you do sell a product or take sony's money ?
regards
john jones
Re:sold to sony
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
No, silly! Sole the fish!
Not quite what I meant...
by
aetherspoon
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· Score: 1
I meant that each package could only emulate one game, not only one game ever worked... sorry, must not have been clear.
-- ---
Ãther SPOON!
Re:Not quite what I meant...
by
joshsisk
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· Score: 1
I was under the impression that they had "packs" with several games on each... For example, maybe a "Sports Pack" that emulated a variety of sports games, etc.
Could be wrong, though.
Wow!
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Bleem is dead?!? Quick! Someone tell webc0pi news!
How are customers supposed to get their upgrades?
by
orbital3
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· Score: 1
I bought bleem for PC back when it was pretty new. I eagerly awaited new releases and followed bleem's progress for a while. But once they hadn't released any new updates for about a year, I kinda lost interest. But I did hear they finally released a new update a month or two ago, but I never downloaded it because I didn't have the time (nor did I really want to) register in order to download it. But now the only thing left on the site is that stupid picture, and I'm left wanting to download that final update I feel entitled to, being that I gave then $30 and never really got what I thought I was paying for. Do they have any plans to leave the updates available for download even for a little while?
Bleem may be dead, but its spirit lives on in PCSX.
-- Fighting the War on the War on Drugs.
http://smokedot.org/
Sony killed them (unfairly)
by
LordKronos
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I agree with those that say it was Bleemcast that killed Bleem, kinda. Its was actually Sony that killed them, Bleemcast just provoked them. But it is really sad they way they went. Sony may have won, but they did it extremely unfairly. Sony tried to stop them in court, but when the courts ruled in favor of Bleem, and Sony was defeated, they then went on to win the battle unfairly. Last year (when PS2 was extremely popular but in such short demand) Sony went so far as to inform retailers that if they carried Bleemcast, they might just coincidentally find themselves on the wrong end of the PS2 shortage (if you know what they mean). So, first they drained them to the edge of bankruptcy, then they cut off their revenue.
Re:Sony killed them (unfairly)
by
TargetBoy
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· Score: 1
They should sell the IP to Microsoft or Nintendo. Microsoft would be the easiest though, since it was developed for Wintel and used DirectX. Would be poetic revenge for SONY to have driven the technology into the hands of MS.
Bleem is legal even under the DMCA, as it would fall under interoperability (IANAL)
It was 100% ASM...
by
Haeleth
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· Score: 2, Insightful
...Randy always said he'd love to get another coder on the job, but it'd be more trouble than it was worth. Not quite a perfect candidate for OSS development.
(Sure, there *are* OSS projects that use ASM, but...)
Re:It was 100% ASM...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I'm sure he impressed a lot of chicks, though, writing an entire application in assembly in a day and age when doing so does not only not guarantee the best performance, but ensures that nobody but yourself will ever be able to maintain the code.
Dumbass.:-(
Re:It was 100% ASM...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Well, in that case it already is open-source!
ndisasm -u bleem.exe > bleem.asm
(Yeah, I know that's not even close to the original source code. It's a joke. Laugh.)
Re:open-source their web page so it works in Moz
by
Sleepy
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· Score: 2, Flamebait
People who design `IE-only` webpages should be put out of business!
F*****Company has blurb on this
by
nysus
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· Score: 1
...formerly PSXEmu.com, and still the best source I know of for PSX emulation news. (No, I don't work there.) They don't have the bleem! 1.6 update online yet - they were linking to bleem.com - but I expect they'll put it up soon.
Re:open-source their web page so it works in Moz
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Geez, calm down.
Re:JavaSCRIPT?
by
Anarchos
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· Score: 2, Informative
It fades in the grave picture if you're using IE.
--
"A good conspiracy is an unprovable one." -Conspiracy Theory
The idea behind bleem was pretty cool. Instead of emulating the hardware, like Connectix Virtual Game Station (which incidentally required a hack of the ROM and gave Sony fodder for going after Connectix legally), Bleem took a look at the hard ware instructions as they were generated in the game and decided what instructions could best accomplish the same end on the PC. This allowed for much more streamlined code without the normal performance hit you typically see with emulated hardware.
Bleem provided no anti-piracy protection (again, unlike Connectix VGS). They argued that the actual Playstation hardware was nominally difficult to hack. That if people wanted to pirate games, they were going to do it regardless of the protection they could offer. This is true, of course: try typing 'modchip' in your favorite search engine and you'll come up with nearly as many hits as 'porn'.
I find it a little strange how Bleem did an about face in this regard when they shipped their Playstation emulator for Dreamcast. They have released Bleemcast packs that work with Gran Turismo 2 ($6), Metal Gear Solid ($10), and Tekken 3 ($9). None of these will work with a copied playstation disc. Moreover, their protection is good enough that the krackers that release a pirated version of almost every Dreamcast game have been unable to krack these Bleem discs. I think it likely they would have sold more of these if they had allowed for copied games to play. They certainly would have had a larger market, not to mention the time they would have saved in not creating an iron-clad protection for the discs.
I agree with others who have said that this is a logical time for bleem to make an exit. Playstation's hardware was old when they first began, allowing them to emulate a very popular product with then-current hardware. I'd like to see them come out with something that allows x-box games to play on a PC, but i'm not holding my breath.
Re:Bleemcasted
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
The reason why they never cracked the dreamcast discs: nobody cared about them. The bleem for PC was cracked one week after release. Granted, this is longer than it takes for most other programs, but it's impossible to make a program uncrackable and still have it run on a computer. And if you bothered to try it with a copied disc, you'd notice that it works just fine. The protection was non-existent although they claimed that it was there (on their website). And by the way, VGS did exactly the same thing as bleem, except that they had a clean-room implementation of the BIOS instead of integrating the bootloader into the software itself. Not much difference, I guess. The biggest problem with Bleem was that it sucked and they did not bother to improve it and eventually lost focus with their stupid bleemcast.
Moreover, their protection is good enough that the krackers that release a pirated version of almost every Dreamcast game have been unable to krack these Bleem discs.
I've seen a release of Bleem! GT2. No word on whether it works; I bought the real thing. Too bad it sucks. Now I have a PS2 and GT3 and I never even think about playing GT2 on my DC.
-- "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"Bleem took a look at the hard ware instructions as they were generated in the game and decided what instructions could best accomplish the same end on the PC. This allowed for much more streamlined code without the normal performance hit you typically see with emulated hardware."
That's probably why they had so much difficulty emulating things correctly. If I understand correctly (and I'm no PSX programmer) as more advanced games started coming out for PSX, they were using something close to pure assembly. Looking at the leap between first- and last-generation PSX games, it seems feasible.
But anyway, such a high-level emulation approach might have had its disadvantages trying to emulate close-to-the-metal code, a place where a hardware emulator might shine?
Actually, the reason that an emulator is HARD to get 100% compatability is that there are BUGS in the hardware. Yes, when the hardware doesn't work acording to 'spec' then things get hard to emulate correctly. The earlier games are easier to emulate because they don't use all the features of the hw, since they are amost always programmed in a virtual enviroment anyway. (At least the PS one/two and Xbox were) The later games give all the programmers from the SONY library writers to the actually game programmers more time to write code that exposes all the bugs in the HW. They work around these bugs and when the bugs are not emulated, the games don't work correctly. You know, little things, like not clearing the Overflow flag after certain types of operations and stupid stuff like that.
Anyway, my feelings on emulators are that they are fun, but in the end, it's not worth the time to make them. Where are the DOS emulators so that I can play any game in win2k? MS has one, but it only works most of the time.
Only the truely hardcore are willing to put up with the problems inherent in emulators. And even then, they only do it because it's free to copy games. If you didn't grow up with games like SMB, Final Fantasy, River City Ransom, then you are NOT willing to pay 30-50 bucks for them.
Re:How are customers supposed to get their upgrade
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
MegaGames.com has the 1.6a and b updates....although the legality of that site is questionable....i.e. they have bleem 1.5b retail for download
10 Free alternatives that never worked on a dream cast atleast. I just hope they release the iso to the MGS Bleem!
-- Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Why would sony even care?
by
Coq
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· Score: 0, Troll
Could someone please explain why Sony was so pissed about emulators? Certainly the first gut reaction is that sony would be pissed, but the bottom line is that sony loses money selling systems. Every console is sold at a loss. In terms of people pirating games, the emulators don't make it much easier, just about anyone can do a true disc copy with errors in place, and forgo the need for a mod chip.
The way I see it, all it means is sony would make more money by seling a higher number of games and a fewer number of systems, and as a small side note, someone else would make a little money.
It seems to me that the only one getting screwed here is sega, since they end up selling people systems and no games.
-- Information wants Coq
Re:Why would sony even care?
by
dangermouse
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· Score: 2
A major feature of the PS2 is that it can play PSOne games. If the Dreamcast could play PSOne games, PS2 sales would suffer. If PS2 sales suffer, PS2 game and accessory sales suffer.
Re:Why would sony even care?
by
Afrosheen
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· Score: 1
Major feature? Yeah right. It's more like a surprising bonus. Just like the fact that it can play DVD's, it's a nice touch but it won't make or break the system. It's all about games. IMHO, backwards compatibility was a good side effect from using the PS1's IO chip and was never intended to boost sales. Although, it was very wise of Sony to make everything PS1 automagically compatible.
Re:Why would sony even care?
by
dangermouse
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· Score: 1
Not true. Think about it in terms of competition... if I have a library of PS1 games, and I have a choice between a next-generation system that can play those games and one that can't, which am I more likely to choose?
Consider it from the point of view of a parent who's buying a system for their kid, even.
Also consider that the PS1 was by far the most popular system for years... tapping that existing user base is definitely not "minor" from a sales perspective, especially since it pulled in a lot of people at launch who would otherwise have waited for decent PS2 games to show up, or might have gone with another system by the time that happened.
Why did they screw the Bleemcast?
by
astyanax
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· Score: 1
Does anyone know why they only made INDIVIDUAL GAME DISKS for Bleemcast?! I believe the MGS Bleemcast disk was only $10 at EB, but I'm not going to pay per game! Even if it were a 10 disk set for $100 (the same price as a PSOne), I still woulda bought it just to be able to play higher-res versions of many many PS games on my DC. Instead I bought a PS2 and the DC sits gathering dust (not that it wasn't already dying). Maybe next year when the other "next gen" consoles get a reasonable number of games, for now it's a PS2 world.
Re:Why did they screw the Bleemcast?
by
ShadeEagle
·
· Score: 0
It's a compatibility issue. Some games use different parts of the PS hardware, and what works with Game X won't work with Game Y.
The original idea of multi-game Bleempaks was good - but it turned bad when they made it a 1 game per disc.
Too bad there's no 'hidden message' in the HTML code of the Bleem site predicting its return...
R.I.P. Bleem LLC - you were alright, you didn't suck at first, and you fought the good fight. Owell.
Re:Why did they screw the Bleemcast?
by
amuro98
·
· Score: 1
Bleemcast was going to be a series of discs, each able to emulate around a dozen or so games (I believe this was even reported on/. when Bleemcast was first announced long, long, long ago.) I think there were to be 2 or 3 discs. Obviously the problem with this is that you could potentially end up buying all the discs to get to the one or two games you wanted to play, and after you threw in the cost of the (never released?) Bleempod, you might as well of bought a PS1.
I suspect the switch from multi-game discs to single game discs was the result of two things: 1: Bleem missing their deadline (no big surprise there.) 2: Bleem in desparate need of cash.
Bleemcast was like a year late, and during that time, there were no new versions of Bleem PC, even though the 1.5 versions all had major problems with the one game that was promised to work - Final Fantasy 8, not to mention the countless other games that just plain didn't work. I took this as Bleem's way of saying "Thanks for your support, now bugger off." to their PC customers.
In the meantime Sega announced the demise of the Dreamcast. This certainly didn't help Bleemcast any... So my guess is Bleem just took the few games they'd gotten working, and released single discs for each of them.
So, bye-bye Bleem, bye-bye Bleemcast. You once told me to bugger off. Don't expect me to shed a tear for you.
Shot themselves in the foot?
by
mattbee
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Slashdot didn't cover the last few months of Bleem's existence when their web site detailed the news that Sony were trying to shaft them by threatening stores stocking their products with withholding of PS2 stocks (this was last Christmas). This was after they had successfully defended an attempted injunction by Sony to stop them selling Bleem! for PCs; so after failing to stop Bleem by legal means, they semi-successfully hurt them by traditional strongarm tactics.
However I don't think they made the most of their martyr situation with regard to the Dreamcast Bleem port they had. Firstly, I think the whole idea of selling it as 'Bleempaks' rather than a warts-and-all 'complete' emulator was flawed; if you don't know, they decided that they wanted to sell the emulator on several separate CDs costing a few dollars, each of which would pay 20-odd Playstation games that were guaranteed to work perfectly. Their line was that customers would know exactly what they were getting and wouldn't be disappointed when a game they hadn't tested didn't work. What it looked like was a short-sighted attempt to boost sales by potentially splitting somebody's PSX library across all these Bleempaks, and making them pay more for it. I sent them an email to this effect at the end of last year, and had no response.
But I've since been convinced otherwise; from what I've heard, despite the fact that it was impressive at what it did, PC Bleem was never particularly reliable or compatible, even with the latest update which they stated would be the last. And this might explain why Sega weren't more supportive at the time when the Dreamcast was in its death-throes; sure a Playstation compatibility CD would give the console a shot in the arm, and if Bleem could successfully take on Sony's lawyers, surely Sega could, and then some? It seems likely that the same quality control problems which the PC Bleem! owners have witnessed would explain why they've only been able to release two single-game compatibility products for the Dreamcast so far, let alone a complete emulator or even a single 20-game Bleempak that they had planned.
Obviously this is total speculation, as nobody ever saw any other games working under Bleem!cast. Even if it were true, I wouldn't blame the single Bleem programmer for not being able to get the whole product done & tested, start-to-finish, while simultaneously fending off Sony's lawyers, working (apparently) from home and still trying to have a life. I'd even heard it was written in 100% assembler which makes the job even more fearsome.
Ah well, I guess that means the PS2 stays on my Christmas wishlist:-)
Re:Java? (repost with correct URL)
by
DenialS
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It looks like they do a fade to or from black with a picture of a tombstone marking the birth and death of Bleem, but on Mozilla, at least, you just get black. I can't really blame them; writing and testing cross-browser JavaScript probably wasn't a high priority for the remnants of any of their remaining funds.
Argh... the SlashCode still doesn't recognize URL-encoded text fields submitted by Mozilla, which is why I'm reposting this.
Re:open-source their web page so it works in Moz
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
There's this thing called the free market. If not supporting IE is truly bad, then they will go out of business! If the browser you prefer represents an insignificant number of users (as it does) you're SOL.
Or maybe we could set up regional soviets to randomly test web sites in each country and where compliance is not observed send the web police out to make them change their evil ways. What do you think would be a reasonable penalty, perhaps forced labor developing Mozilla?
Maybe
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
Maybe the developers just got real jobs?
Bleem! homepage without the javascript
by
vrt3
·
· Score: 2
For some shameless karmawhoring, I made a mirror of the Bleem! homepage without all the javascript, so it is visible with any browser.
Don't expect too much from it!
-- This sig under construction. Please check back later.
Re:Bleem! homepage without the javascript
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
That's the true, a couple more posts like that and he'll be in the same physical condition as the goatse.cx guy.
Damn them for going out of business.
by
EpochVII
·
· Score: 1
They had just released these new products I had every intention of purchasing. Christmas is just around the corner! When we find out abou the DC Emu scene we all went out and bought dreamcasts, thats about 11 of us. Then we found out about bleemcast, and beer flowed like water, now theyre out of business. Damn them i say! Ill write an email, maybe we can convince them to open source, just as long as sony doesnt buy out the company....grr.
How do they protect their feet?
by
Kymermosst
·
· Score: 2, Funny
didnt they just sell their sole to sony ?
If they sold their sole to Sony, how do they protect their feet?
Even then, how much would Sony pay for the bottom of some smelly, worn out shoes?
I've got this funny feeling you meant something else...
-- "Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
Re:How do they protect their feet?
by
Zalgon+26+McGee
·
· Score: 1
Yes, of course.
He was talking about their fish.
--
---
Book(n): Utensil used to pass time while waiting for the TV repairman
Re:How do they protect their feet?
by
Megahurts
·
· Score: 1
> didnt they just sell their sole to sony ?
>If they sold their sole to Sony, how do they protect their feet?
no, no, no.
sell a man a fish, you profit for a day. Sell him your fishing pole, you starve.
Insightful my ass
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
The Slashdot business model:
Find worthwhile product that costs money
Pirate worthwhile product, and avoid paying for it
Wait for company to go out of business
Whine "Open Source!" or "Abandonware!" as justification for pirating it.
Re:Insightful my ass
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
So true.
The philosophy of Open Shit is to give back to the community when you take. That is, if you bitch about Open Shit software being a piece of shit some long-bearded hippie will spit all over you yelling "WELL FIX IT YOURSELF I HAVE AN AFGANISTAN PROTEST TO GO TO!!!!! YOU ARE AN INGREATFUL BASTARD FOR ALL I DO FOR YOU AND SHOULD BE ASHAMED FOR CRITISIZING MY AMAZING OPEN SHIT PHP SCRIPT!"
However, this rule is flipped if you are making money with a product, since Capitalism is evil and everyone should work for free and live off of Ramen Noodles and Phish concerts. If you are making money, the doctrum of Open Shit dictates that it is morally acceptable to take from you without giving back. Ie, pirate your software, steal your music, steal your movie, read your web page, and so on. The ultimate victory for Open Shit is when this causes said Capitalist to have to close up shop and go home. If it's worthwhile, the Open Shit mongers steal the idea and make their own version of it to drive the stake through the Capitalists heart, otherwise, if it's not worth it, they just continue circling waiting for the next victim, clasping their "Information Wants to be Free" signs and sporting their dirty DeCSS shirts.
Re:Insightful my ass
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
And that my friend, is the really insightful view. You've hit the nail on the head. It all comes down to the fact that the "Open Source" movement is the last bastion of communism left in the world. Everyone else has pretty much packed up and left stating it is unviable to run a country based on such stupid ideas of giving everything away and having no incentive to produce. The last remaining "communist" countries are nothing but petty dictatorships.
That'll be the day
by
CaptainSuperBoy
·
· Score: 3, Informative
XBox emulating PS2? It's not happening.. Try getting your P3 733 desktop to emulate a 128-bit cpu plus two co-processors. Systems emulating other systems is a great idea though. With its standard PC-type hardware, The XBox is sure to get a MAME port as well as emulators for some of the older consoles, such as SNES. PSX emulation isn't out of the question, remember Bleem ran on less.
I'm not as convinced as you that emulating a PS2 on an XBox is impossible. I admit, it's pretty bloody hard, but it might be workable. The key is to realize that the XBox's GPU is can basically do everything the PS2's can, faster. If you could do instruction translation, maybe statically or JIT, instead of doing one instruction at a time, it might be workable.
--
I've had this sig for three days.
Re:That'll be the day
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
Yeah, don't dare moderate up logical commentary.
Nevermind that the xbox has a graphics and audio processor and isnt that different from the ps2 in general terms. Admittedly it would take more of a translator than emulator, but its not impossible.
Again, the big guys screw the little guys
by
icemind
·
· Score: 1
I think Sony lawyers certainly played a big part in killing the company, though Bleem were over ambitious too, but you gotta give these guys credit for sticking in there. I think at the end of things the company was a fraction of its former size, just a few guys working out of their homes off their own cash.
They made a lot of PR screw ups which left a fair few gamers bitter at them (just read some of the comments on the Blues News site). First they left Bleem! PC in a buggy state to move to Bleem for Dreamcast (Bleemcast). Then, having said they'd do Bleemcast packs supporting 100 games each, they ended up doing packs supporting just one game each. But then who can blame them, getting *perfect* emulation along with drastically improving the visuals of the games takes a while even for a single game, especially as every Bleemcast plays every copy (US, EUR, JAP) of that game on any region's Dreamcast, and I'd rather perfect emulation of some games than poor emulation of many. As is they've emulated the only three PS1 games I liked (MGS, Tekken 3 and GT2) and did a great job of it too, so I've no reason to complain about them.
Being over ambitious and getting screwed by Sony lawyers... I'm amazed they survived this far, poor guys. Ah well, thanks to them amongst the last few great Dreamcast games are, strangely, PlayStation ones. That's not a bad legacy to leave behind.
- icemind
Huh?
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
What the hell is Bleem? It sounds like a toilet cleaner or car wax or something.
Re:Huh?
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
Yes, and if you order within the next 20 minutes, we will throw in bleemgoo, the revolutionary cleaner which will strip enamel from your teeth, intoxicate a dog, poison groundwater, and enable you to play 48 playstation games in 16 color.
But that's not all. If you pay with Brazilian Reals, we'll include our handy BleemBidet for your desk. The soothing sounds of flowing water are known the world over to alleviate even the most painful hemorrhoids.
Want to know what killed Bleem!? It as Bleem!. Those guys were trying to be a viable software company by selling a Playstation emulator. Earth to morons, console gamers that can afford enough games to make Bleem! worth buying already had a Playstation by the time Bleem! hit the market.
Bleem! was bitten by their own product being, well, lame.
I bought the three Bleemcast releases because I don't have a PlayStation, not because I can't afford one, but because I don't want one, especially as after five years I think it's way overpriced (it must cost them a pitance to produce now yet it still costs the same as the technically superior Dreamcast), not to mention that I have little respect for the business practices of Sony. I may be in the minority in my appreciation for Bleem's efforts, but then they were a pretty small company so, were it not for Sony and their legal action, they could well have survived as a small company targeting a niche market of gamers like myself.
How about buying it so you can play your PSX library on a laptop on a plane?
For existing orders
by
Vegeta99
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· Score: 3, Informative
[12:59:03] *** Now talking in #bleem
[12:59:03] *** Topic is 'bleem! and bleemcast dead. Existing orders will go out'
[12:59:03] *** Set by Cerlyn on Sun Nov 18 00:50:55
The channel is on EFNet, btw.
Agreed.
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
Bleem died of irrelevance.
Hilarious Email from Bleem Sales today..
by
Afrosheen
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· Score: 2, Funny
Check this out..on the 5th I emailed Bleem because their ordering system was fuxored. I couldn't download the betas so I emailed their sales guy (literally ONE guy). He just now got around to emailing me back with the betas. Here is the full body of his email:
Better late than never.... and I mean NEVER...
This company....er.... message... will self destruct in 5 seconds...
david
bleem! repeatedly stated that warez was killing them, each new release they would have some new copy protection that would soon be broken. A good deal of people who did use bleem! probably aquired it illegally.
I never personally tried the bleemcast! (for dreamcast), but considering there are so many games that are so cheap for the Dreamcast now it simply wouldn't even be worth it to pay for just one PS game on the DC. On top of that, the system required putting in the bleem! cd, starting the DC, then taking it out and putting in the PS disc, all quite a big hassle.
Who'd be so pathetic as to go through the problem pirating something that *doesn't work*?
I paid for the thing with the hopes that the team would continue to make improvements to it. This was the case until they announced Bleemcast...
Fortunatly I'd bought a real PSX by that time.
So when a company dies, can we legally distribute
by
Mustang+Matt
·
· Score: 2
I'd like to try out the software and see if it was worthwhile or not.
Any place I can get a copy?
-- The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Maybe I'll write a PS2 emulator
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Just to scare the hell out of Sony.
I'll write it in a couple months and it will suck so bad.
But that's ok because Sony will pay me big bucks just so they can scuttle it.
Muhahaha!
Death To Competition
Death To American Dream
Abusing Corporate Power Is Great!
-- Remember that you are unique, just like everybody else.
Re:So when a company dies, can we legally distribu
by
bludstone
·
· Score: 2
bleem pc really isnt worthwhile, honestly.
but you can go to www.ebworld.com and buy bleemcast for grand turismo 2, metal gear solid, and tekken 3. All for under 10$s each.
I just put in my order for mgs and tekken3.
keep in mind you need a dedicated VMU (dreamcast save card) for bleemcast.
--
no.sig
Re:So when a company dies, can we legally distribu
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
Ya, I mean it's not like they are going to have the $$$ to afford a lawyer to sue ya. With any luck, they will be bending over so far for Sony that they won't even notice.
i love this
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
i like the way most slashdoters r for the little guy [www.amd.com] but really talking out their arse !! hell u buy ps2's [www.bag'o'crap.com].
Oh, and I was going to buy their product too.
by
Com2Kid
·
· Score: 1
I was going to buy bleem.
any day now
yah
right
errr. . . .
Oh wait, PS1s are selling for less then copies of Bleem! DOH!
"How are you gentlemen. All your bleem! are belong to us !! You are on the way to destruction. You have no chance to survive make your time."
It finally came true. Poor bleem!.
Why bleem was not 100% compatible
by
Cerlyn
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· Score: 2
Bleem themselves made a good explanation of why they were not 100% compatible. You can find it here. Instead of emulating the Playstation(tm) hardware exactly, they opted to use native x86 code to mimic known Playstation functions they could decipher.
In order to support all Playstation(tm) functions and be 100% compatible, you must know everything the Playstation can do. Keep in mind there are at least four Playstation models, each with their own quirks. Bleem either (1) would have to reproduce Sony(tm)'s hardware and software exactly (very difficult and legally risky) or (2) mimic everything they figured out with completely new code. They did the latter, which in theory has better results over the long run but caused problems in the short term.
A few vendors likely used their own libraries instead of Sony's, making their life difficult. Just using basic statistics, one can see it is easier for bleem to support one game under these conditions than 400 or even 40.
It sad to see bleem go. Besides the fact they were actually challenging the rights of a large firm to deny others the rights to make a compatible product, their court case would have been a modern confirmation of our rights to reverse-engineer. Without such a case, the DMCA and SSSCA may reduce engineering education to textbook theory and looking at encrypted singals with equipment that cannot decode them.
Re:Why bleem was not 100% compatible
by
Sycraft-fu
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The problem is there are other, free, emulators out there that do what Bleem does only better. ePSXe is the best one that comes to mind. Hard to charge for something that people can get for free.
Also, Bleem had a big problem in that the programmer wrote the WHOLE THING in 100% assembly. Ok, maybe that was cool in the Amiga days (that's what he used to program) but now it's just a bad idea. Windows API calls aren't any faster in ASM than in C++ and are a whole lot harder to work with. Had Bleem been rewritten as a C++ program with a few time critical things (like processor emulation) written is assembly it would have lost, at most, 5% or so speed and been a lot easier to maintain.
I know some people that got Bleem and were pissed because updates came out infrequently and really didn't fix all that many problem. The problem was that being written in all assembly made it a huge bitch to change and maintain. Had the bulk been C++ (or whatever HLL) I think it would have been much easier to maintain and update.
Last I saw, ePSXe seemed to be more compatible and ahve less glitches than Bleem. I find it unsupprising that Bleem died given that.
Re:open-source their web page so it works in Moz
by
MrPerfekt
·
· Score: 1
Amen.
-- I just wasted your mod points! HA!
Re:So when a company dies, can we legally distribu
by
NeoOokami
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· Score: 1
That's the kind of attitude that gives kids on computers a bad name. And yes I'm calling you a kid, if you tell me you're any older than 18 you're not making yourself look any better. Waiting until companies die to try, and get full versions of their software is just as bad as pirating in the first place; and a testament to why the computer gaming industry is crippled.
You guys all seem pretty harsh on bleem!. I live in England, and we can't get bleem! over here; on my last visit to the States, I was very happy to see it unexpectedly sitting on a shop shelf, and I'm even happier now that I bought it.
I took it home and played Gran Turismo straight away (and pretty darn nicely) on my clunky old AMD 500. Whoo-ee!:) Plus, when I tripped over to the website, it didn't seem that out-of-date.
I, for one, give bleem! a most hearty salute. They battled in many lawsuits against a huge company and came out tops each time; they did grand at a VERY tough job on emulating the process involved inside a PSX, and not specifically the output. The options were plentiful and the majority of things worked very well. Not at all a bad way to spend some US$ in my opinion.
If you think you can do better, then why aren't you?
-- Security through promiscuity is no better than security through obscurity.
Re:Hey, give it a break
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
If you think you can do better, then why aren't you?
My turing emulator works well, but I don't want to get sued, so stuff it.
Re:open-source their web page so it works in Moz
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
True. It would have been just as simple to do the damn thing in Flash. Then at least every browser and OS could view it.
Why would I used a closed source emulator when the open sourced ones run better anyway?
It was meant as a joke to rub it in that they sucked.
-- The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Re:Java? (repost with correct URL)
by
aka-ed
·
· Score: 1
OK. But why is Sonic blubbering? Shouldn't he be at the Dreamcast gravesite? Shouldn't that be Crash Bandicoot?
-- I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
Bleemdirect.com is gone too...
by
Daniel+Wood
·
· Score: 1
It has a bit more, shall we say, description.
Bleemdirect.com
Bleem! side note.
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
Bleem it would have been great if the 3d/sound worked. Waste of time and money.
All the games I'd tried had glitches sound/graphic that makes it pointless to play on pc rather than on PS. Paying for it makes no sense a broken product. I have played the playstation and nothing beats it for playstation games please give me a break. For the pc just stick with pc games that works.
In the meantime Bleems aust site is still up, here Download the demo and squirrel it away.. Perhaps find a crack for it. (Would never advocate that normally, but hey! there dead, so who gives a f)
It may be the last chance!
-- Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Re:So when a company dies, can we legally distribu
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
Nice troll, bitch. And yes, I am calling you a bitch. If you tell me you're not a bitch, you're not making your self look like any less of a bitch, bitch.
this is sad news given that the only way that i play PSX games is on my PC.
bleem while novel was never very compatible.. its only great thing was that it allowed for graphics enhancements.. now epsxe does that better.... guess there was no need for bleem.
-- The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Re:open-source their web page so it works in Moz
by
askwar
·
· Score: 1
Full ACK!
It's just so embarrassing for a company to lack the knowledge to make a web page which can be accessed with any browser.
BTW: Why was the article marked as flamebait??
-- Alexander Skwar
--
Homepage: http://www.digitalprojects.com | http://www.iso-top.de
iso-top.de - Die
Will work with copied PSX titles
by
klui
·
· Score: 1
Bleemcast does work with copied PSX titles, I know Gran Tourismo 2 works. The reason this capability is there was apparently Sony has a patent on its copy protection system used in the Playstation. If Bleem had implemented that functionality, they would have lost in court due to patent infringement.
Re:So when a company dies, can we legally distribu
by
itarget
·
· Score: 1
I don't know about you, but I think Tribes 2 and Max Payne certainly play well for games from a crippled industry.
--
"Where shall the word be found, where will the word resound? Not here, there is not enough silence." -T.S. Eliot
Bleem turned their back on their customers. A few months after Bleem! was first released they closed their message boards and we didn't hear anything from them for a year. They broke their silence with the Bleem! for Dreamcast announcement, and refused to respond to their customer's fears that Bleem! PC would be discontinued. To make things look alright they threw up a new website, sans information and message boards, and basically shut themselves off from the rest of the community. Their attitude was basically "If you're not ordering a product, we don't want to hear from you."
At first I was loyal to Bleem!. I sent every game registration card to Sony with the word Bleem! written across it in highlighter. I even went so far as to E-mail the corporate bastards. Nevertheless, Bleem! would not stand by their product and responded to complaints and criticism with a cold shoulder. In that respect they were even worse than Sony.
On top of that they chose to emulate on the Dreamcast and charge $9.99 per game. That was a huge stab in the back for their PC audience. They locked themselves into a niche market and the rest of us just left. The Dreamcast is dead or dying, and so is Bleem!.
They got what they deserve.
All your Bleem! are belong to us!
by
Joe+'Nova'
·
· Score: 1
Resistance is futile...you will be assimilated.
What you say?
Someone set up us the bleem.
We get signal.
How are you gentlemen?
You have no chance to survive, make your DL.
You are on your way to lawsuit.
It is you.
Take off every copy protect for great justice...
-- This mind intentionally left blank. The KKK a bunch of sheetheads? You decide!
Bleem still available in Expert in Darmstadt.
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
Hi,
I was in Expret in Darmstadt, (near Frankfurt) Germany this afternoon, and they still had a few copies on the shelf.
later
jb
praxis22athotmail.com
Re:open-source their web page so it works in Moz
by
13Echo
·
· Score: 1
Yeah. That always pissed me off about their webpage. They wanted it to be too pretty, but didn't realize that they could do it without using Frontpage. Opera didn't like the page at all. That might be because the page wasn't standards compliant.
Re:open-source their web page so it works in Moz
by
Sleepy
·
· Score: 2
>BTW: Why was the article marked as flamebait??
...Probably because I pissed off one of the stormtroopers I mean moderators. It's the SECOND posting I've had moderated down since I changed my.sig here...
Oh well. The bigger Slashdot gets, the more it goes down the tubes. I've been here since almost the very beginning too...
Thank goodness someone modded me back up to 2. I was feeling so unloved.:-)
Seriously, since I change my sig to be one "critical" of the moderator Taliban, I've been modded down in my last couple of posts. Until very recently I had unchecked "willing to moderate" simply because the system is simply broken.
We need MORE than good moderators. Half the current moderators are using multiple acounts. They *are* the trolls.
In a mailing list, you can confront your moderator. Bad moderators don't last long, except on slashdot. Moderation is too often given to heavy posters, with no weighting towards "I-don't-post-often but when-I-do-I-have-something-to-say" personalities.
I can verify this weakness in the Slashdot system, because when I post and get modded up, within a week I am moderating once or twice. I've always had 37 - 50 karma, but loggin in and reading does not trigger moderator selection. Therefore, Slashdot *encourages* "noisy me too" posts.
All I want to see is a system that works. I really don't want karma or moderation responsibility (tho I'm willing to help if I have time).
If I didn't care about the things Slashdot covered, I wouldn't be user #4551 and I wouldn't be trying to attract attention to moderation abuses via a puny.sig.
I just saw that on techtv to. what about bleamcast? i kinda figured it wouldn't be out after the dreamcast cancelation. to bad. I luv dreamcast!!!! did they ever officially declare it dead? i read several interviews and articles on it.
-- We seldom regret saying too little but often regret saying too much.
it was just bleemcast that was dead? or lack of new ps1 games coming out?
Runnin' On Empty
I think Bleem Cast was what killed em, no money in being Sued by Sony..
Working at Electronics Boutique, I can tell you that at least on Friday, we were still selling Bleem! products.
However, looking at how few Dreamcast systems we're selling (we have two new ones left, and the rest are preowned), and how few new PS games are coming out, it really doesn't make sense. The only way to make money for them now would be to find a way for something like XBox to play PS2, PS, Gamecube, and Dreamcast games. But that would invoke serious ire.
Bleem! was a great idea, and made great products, but perhaps the strategy just reached the end of its lifecycle. I wish the guys the best in whatever new ventures they pursue.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
I heard ePSXe is a good alternative, but I haven't tried it myself. Try searching for 'ePSXe' on google.com. The official webpage 'http://www.epsxe.com/' doesn't seem to be up right now.
VGS was the really good emulator anyways.
Then open-source it so somebody else can continue to develope the emulator for the x86.
--- No, english is not my mother tongue.
Bleem! was a great concept- PSX emulator on the PC for sale to the public. I saw those ugly yellow boxes in the local comptuer stores myself- it was enticing.
However, other emulators came up. VGStation took Bleem!'s place on the top of the line quickly as it was more compatable. Then Sony sued...
Bleem! stopped updating, and virtually abandoned the PC emulation market for something new- a commercial PSX emulator for the Dreamcast. It was a bright future, if it weren't for two things- one, only one game would work on it, and two, the DC was dying.
The PS2 would never need a PSX emulator.
The GC and X-Box were far away at that point. Bleem! had no choice but to slowly fade away. I guess they finally gave up.
There are better PSX emulators now (ePSXe is considered by me to be the best)... but it is still sad to see someone in the Emulation community go away.
Farewell Bleem!.
--- Ãther SPOON!
I was initially very excited about the PC version of Bleem!; I even pre-ordered it. Well, after getting my disc 6 weeks late because they screwed up the order (their fault) I finally got it and was disappointed. Even up to and including their final release, Bleem! on the PC was buggy as hell.
Out of all the games I tried, very very few of them actually worked toally okay. I wasn't expecting perfection, but most times the graphics glitches were so significant that I didn't really consider the game playable. When I say "graphics glitches", I'm talking about texture corruption, 99% of the time. I had bought Bleem specifically to get higher visual quality out of these games (bilinear filtering, higher res, etc) so I wasn't as tolerant of graphics glitches as I otherwise might have been.
Also, Bleem! for Dreamcast was just executed very poorly. For those who don't know, they originally planned to sell three or four "Bleempacks" that would each run 30-40 PSX games. I guess the idea was to get a limited number the games working *perfectly* on each disc, as well as to charge the customer numerous times. Alas, even that was unacheivable, and they had to create versions of Bleem! that ran only ONE GAME- they released Bleem! Metal Gear and Bleem! Gran Turismo.
Sorry, but it was WAY too expensive. I'm not paying $20 or whatever for a graphical upgrade for a single 3-year old game... especially considering that they don't look THAT much better than the originals and even the enhanced versions were far surpassed by other Dreamcast games.
Interestingly, Connectix's VGS emulator worked almost flawlessly with all the PSX games I tried, although it didn't run on NT/2K, and didn't support 3D hardware so the games weren't graphically enhanced at all. This is the emulator that Sony bought and then yanked from the market.
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
Bleem! made three emulation packages for the Dreamcast. EB still has 'em (unlees an emergency recall was issued), and people still buy them. The emulator for Metal Gear Solid has to be the best one out there, and I know a LOT of people have come in to get both since MGS 2 was released.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
Doesn't anyone out there realize that I'm willing to pay for a quality piece of software that emulates my Playstation games on my computer? Sony? Someone?? The resolution enhancement alone makes it worthwhile to me. Guess I have to keep hoping ePSXe works some wonders...
-------
"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief."
My question is why all that javascript for just a black page? *shrugs*
But this, this my fellow emulaton fans, is a sombre occasion that even the most stoic and hard-bitten game journalist/aficionado would find a tear marching its slick trail down the side of his jaded, tightly-clenched jawline.
"But Steve," you say "Bleem was a hunk of ass, I mean, it capped out at resolutions of only 800x600. Teh Playstation was w33k d00d. My Pentium 4 2 gig 0wnz! J00 are a pussy for crying like a little, broken-hearted girl over a stupid emulator."
To which I reply emphaically "Shut your bleemhole, ass. Remember when Raine was buried in its cardboard casket? Not a dry eye in the goddamned house, you little prick."
But you, you're always quick to berate and tear me down and hate, and hate you do... "Raine is still around, f00l. J00're a dumbfuck."
Yeah, that's right. Raine was ressurrected via some strange, arcane voodoo ritual, slain again, raised from the eternal depths once again, then burned by superstitious and cowardly townsfolk, then thrown into a river.
And that, baby, is why I weep. Not because Bleem died, not because Sony (god bless the 4 pin iLink...) is a horrid, evil corporate demon, but because I've drank about twenty whisky sours tonight, and are somehow still ambulatory AND lucid.
Yes, we journalists lead a tough life, but its one that we've chosen, baby...
Why is it when I hit ^R that ZSH calls me a cocksucker?
Gee, who would have guessed that violating the law and stealing wouldn't be a good business model?
The problem with VGS was that Sony and Connectix signed a deal to work on future emulation software. All that seems to have resulted from that is that Connectix have stopped VGS. Whether it was a case of "We want to work with you" or "OK so we lost in court but if we give you this big bag of cash will you stop selling VGS?" only Connectix and Sony really know.
In a final achievement they managed to make a webpage that simply loads one picture, that only works in internet explorer. iCab and Netscape just show a blank page. This is quite a metaphor for their past performance.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
For those who go to the site and get a black screen - it appears that the site only works on Internet Explorer. No big deal though, it has 100 lines of Javascript just to fade in a picture of a tombstone with Sonic the Hedgehog crying and placing flowers next to it. Semi-cute I guess.
didnt they just sell their sole to sony ?
sony pressed legal people on them and then smozed them and gave lots of money to help them on the agreement that they would not sell to silly consumers but help out developers
what would you do sell a product or take sony's money ?
regards
john jones
I meant that each package could only emulate one game, not only one game ever worked... sorry, must not have been clear.
--- Ãther SPOON!
Bleem is dead?!? Quick! Someone tell webc0pi news!
I bought bleem for PC back when it was pretty new. I eagerly awaited new releases and followed bleem's progress for a while. But once they hadn't released any new updates for about a year, I kinda lost interest. But I did hear they finally released a new update a month or two ago, but I never downloaded it because I didn't have the time (nor did I really want to) register in order to download it. But now the only thing left on the site is that stupid picture, and I'm left wanting to download that final update I feel entitled to, being that I gave then $30 and never really got what I thought I was paying for. Do they have any plans to leave the updates available for download even for a little while?
Bleem may be dead, but its spirit lives on in PCSX.
Fighting the War on the War on Drugs.
http://smokedot.org/
I agree with those that say it was Bleemcast that killed Bleem, kinda. Its was actually Sony that killed them, Bleemcast just provoked them. But it is really sad they way they went. Sony may have won, but they did it extremely unfairly. Sony tried to stop them in court, but when the courts ruled in favor of Bleem, and Sony was defeated, they then went on to win the battle unfairly. Last year (when PS2 was extremely popular but in such short demand) Sony went so far as to inform retailers that if they carried Bleemcast, they might just coincidentally find themselves on the wrong end of the PS2 shortage (if you know what they mean). So, first they drained them to the edge of bankruptcy, then they cut off their revenue.
Spaceshifting is legal.
Bleem is legal even under the DMCA, as it would fall under interoperability (IANAL)
...Randy always said he'd love to get another coder on the job, but it'd be more trouble than it was worth. Not quite a perfect candidate for OSS development.
(Sure, there *are* OSS projects that use ASM, but...)
People who design `IE-only` webpages should be put out of business!
FuckedCompany Bleem posts
---Technology will liberate us if it doesn't enslave us first.
...formerly PSXEmu.com, and still the best source I know of for PSX emulation news. (No, I don't work there.) They don't have the bleem! 1.6 update online yet - they were linking to bleem.com - but I expect they'll put it up soon.
Geez, calm down.
It fades in the grave picture if you're using IE.
"A good conspiracy is an unprovable one." -Conspiracy Theory
The idea behind bleem was pretty cool. Instead of emulating the hardware, like Connectix Virtual Game Station (which incidentally required a hack of the ROM and gave Sony fodder for going after Connectix legally), Bleem took a look at the hard ware instructions as they were generated in the game and decided what instructions could best accomplish the same end on the PC. This allowed for much more streamlined code without the normal performance hit you typically see with emulated hardware.
Bleem provided no anti-piracy protection (again, unlike Connectix VGS). They argued that the actual Playstation hardware was nominally difficult to hack. That if people wanted to pirate games, they were going to do it regardless of the protection they could offer. This is true, of course: try typing 'modchip' in your favorite search engine and you'll come up with nearly as many hits as 'porn'.
I find it a little strange how Bleem did an about face in this regard when they shipped their Playstation emulator for Dreamcast. They have released Bleemcast packs that work with Gran Turismo 2 ($6), Metal Gear Solid ($10), and Tekken 3 ($9). None of these will work with a copied playstation disc. Moreover, their protection is good enough that the krackers that release a pirated version of almost every Dreamcast game have been unable to krack these Bleem discs. I think it likely they would have sold more of these if they had allowed for copied games to play. They certainly would have had a larger market, not to mention the time they would have saved in not creating an iron-clad protection for the discs.
I agree with others who have said that this is a logical time for bleem to make an exit. Playstation's hardware was old when they first began, allowing them to emulate a very popular product with then-current hardware. I'd like to see them come out with something that allows x-box games to play on a PC, but i'm not holding my breath.
MegaGames.com has the 1.6a and b updates....although the legality of that site is questionable....i.e. they have bleem 1.5b retail for download
10 Free alternatives that never worked on a dream cast atleast. I just hope they release the iso to the MGS Bleem!
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Could someone please explain why Sony was so pissed about emulators? Certainly the first gut reaction is that sony would be pissed, but the bottom line is that sony loses money selling systems. Every console is sold at a loss. In terms of people pirating games, the emulators don't make it much easier, just about anyone can do a true disc copy with errors in place, and forgo the need for a mod chip.
The way I see it, all it means is sony would make more money by seling a higher number of games and a fewer number of systems, and as a small side note, someone else would make a little money.
It seems to me that the only one getting screwed here is sega, since they end up selling people systems and no games.
Information wants Coq
Does anyone know why they only made INDIVIDUAL GAME DISKS for Bleemcast?! I believe the MGS Bleemcast disk was only $10 at EB, but I'm not going to pay per game! Even if it were a 10 disk set for $100 (the same price as a PSOne), I still woulda bought it just to be able to play higher-res versions of many many PS games on my DC. Instead I bought a PS2 and the DC sits gathering dust (not that it wasn't already dying). Maybe next year when the other "next gen" consoles get a reasonable number of games, for now it's a PS2 world.
v2sw7CUPhw5ln6pr5Pck4ma7u7LFw0m6g/l7Di5e6t5Ab6TH.
Slashdot didn't cover the last few months of Bleem's existence when their web site detailed the news that Sony were trying to shaft them by threatening stores stocking their products with withholding of PS2 stocks (this was last Christmas). This was after they had successfully defended an attempted injunction by Sony to stop them selling Bleem! for PCs; so after failing to stop Bleem by legal means, they semi-successfully hurt them by traditional strongarm tactics.
:-)
However I don't think they made the most of their martyr situation with regard to the Dreamcast Bleem port they had. Firstly, I think the whole idea of selling it as 'Bleempaks' rather than a warts-and-all 'complete' emulator was flawed; if you don't know, they decided that they wanted to sell the emulator on several separate CDs costing a few dollars, each of which would pay 20-odd Playstation games that were guaranteed to work perfectly. Their line was that customers would know exactly what they were getting and wouldn't be disappointed when a game they hadn't tested didn't work. What it looked like was a short-sighted attempt to boost sales by potentially splitting somebody's PSX library across all these Bleempaks, and making them pay more for it. I sent them an email to this effect at the end of last year, and had no response.
But I've since been convinced otherwise; from what I've heard, despite the fact that it was impressive at what it did, PC Bleem was never particularly reliable or compatible, even with the latest update which they stated would be the last. And this might explain why Sega weren't more supportive at the time when the Dreamcast was in its death-throes; sure a Playstation compatibility CD would give the console a shot in the arm, and if Bleem could successfully take on Sony's lawyers, surely Sega could, and then some? It seems likely that the same quality control problems which the PC Bleem! owners have witnessed would explain why they've only been able to release two single-game compatibility products for the Dreamcast so far, let alone a complete emulator or even a single 20-game Bleempak that they had planned.
Obviously this is total speculation, as nobody ever saw any other games working under Bleem!cast. Even if it were true, I wouldn't blame the single Bleem programmer for not being able to get the whole product done & tested, start-to-finish, while simultaneously fending off Sony's lawyers, working (apparently) from home and still trying to have a life. I'd even heard it was written in 100% assembler which makes the job even more fearsome.
Ah well, I guess that means the PS2 stays on my Christmas wishlist
Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
Argh... the SlashCode still doesn't recognize URL-encoded text fields submitted by Mozilla, which is why I'm reposting this.
There's this thing called the free market. If not supporting IE is truly bad, then they will go out of business! If the browser you prefer represents an insignificant number of users (as it does) you're SOL.
Or maybe we could set up regional soviets to randomly test web sites in each country and where compliance is not observed send the web police out to make them change their evil ways. What do you think would be a reasonable penalty, perhaps forced labor developing Mozilla?
Maybe the developers just got real jobs?
For some shameless karmawhoring, I made a mirror of the Bleem! homepage without all the javascript, so it is visible with any browser.
Don't expect too much from it!
This sig under construction. Please check back later.
They had just released these new products I had every intention of purchasing. Christmas is just around the corner! When we find out abou the DC Emu scene we all went out and bought dreamcasts, thats about 11 of us. Then we found out about bleemcast, and beer flowed like water, now theyre out of business. Damn them i say! Ill write an email, maybe we can convince them to open source, just as long as sony doesnt buy out the company....grr.
Hm..haven't they ever heard of "animated gif"?
didnt they just sell their sole to sony ?
If they sold their sole to Sony, how do they protect their feet?
Even then, how much would Sony pay for the bottom of some smelly, worn out shoes?
I've got this funny feeling you meant something else...
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
XBox emulating PS2? It's not happening.. Try getting your P3 733 desktop to emulate a 128-bit cpu plus two co-processors. Systems emulating other systems is a great idea though. With its standard PC-type hardware, The XBox is sure to get a MAME port as well as emulators for some of the older consoles, such as SNES. PSX emulation isn't out of the question, remember Bleem ran on less.
I think Sony lawyers certainly played a big part in killing the company, though Bleem were over ambitious too, but you gotta give these guys credit for sticking in there. I think at the end of things the company was a fraction of its former size, just a few guys working out of their homes off their own cash.
They made a lot of PR screw ups which left a fair few gamers bitter at them (just read some of the comments on the Blues News site). First they left Bleem! PC in a buggy state to move to Bleem for Dreamcast (Bleemcast). Then, having said they'd do Bleemcast packs supporting 100 games each, they ended up doing packs supporting just one game each. But then who can blame them, getting *perfect* emulation along with drastically improving the visuals of the games takes a while even for a single game, especially as every Bleemcast plays every copy (US, EUR, JAP) of that game on any region's Dreamcast, and I'd rather perfect emulation of some games than poor emulation of many. As is they've emulated the only three PS1 games I liked (MGS, Tekken 3 and GT2) and did a great job of it too, so I've no reason to complain about them.
Being over ambitious and getting screwed by Sony lawyers... I'm amazed they survived this far, poor guys. Ah well, thanks to them amongst the last few great Dreamcast games are, strangely, PlayStation ones. That's not a bad legacy to leave behind.
- icemind
What the hell is Bleem? It sounds like a toilet cleaner or car wax or something.
Want to know what killed Bleem!? It as Bleem!. Those guys were trying to be a viable software company by selling a Playstation emulator. Earth to morons, console gamers that can afford enough games to make Bleem! worth buying already had a Playstation by the time Bleem! hit the market.
Bleem! was bitten by their own product being, well, lame.
[12:59:03] *** Now talking in #bleem
[12:59:03] *** Topic is 'bleem! and bleemcast dead. Existing orders will go out'
[12:59:03] *** Set by Cerlyn on Sun Nov 18 00:50:55
The channel is on EFNet, btw.
Bleem died of irrelevance.
Check this out..on the 5th I emailed Bleem because their ordering system was fuxored. I couldn't download the betas so I emailed their sales guy (literally ONE guy). He just now got around to emailing me back with the betas. Here is the full body of his email:
Better late than never.... and I mean NEVER...
This company....er.... message... will self destruct in 5 seconds...
david
Funny as hell.
bleem! repeatedly stated that warez was killing them, each new release they would have some new copy protection that would soon be broken. A good deal of people who did use bleem! probably aquired it illegally.
I never personally tried the bleemcast! (for dreamcast), but considering there are so many games that are so cheap for the Dreamcast now it simply wouldn't even be worth it to pay for just one PS game on the DC. On top of that, the system required putting in the bleem! cd, starting the DC, then taking it out and putting in the PS disc, all quite a big hassle.
I'd like to try out the software and see if it was worthwhile or not.
Any place I can get a copy?
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
I'll write it in a couple months and it will suck so bad.
But that's ok because Sony will pay me big bucks just so they can scuttle it.
Muhahaha!
-J
A full-screen animated photo-colored fading-in gif? That sure sounds non-efficient.
It looks like Bleem is still available to purchase (and a demo from 7/28/99 is available) here. It points to a digital river page.
Wouldn't we just all flip out if in a months time the page had a picture of sonic giving birth to Bleem II.
LD
We have this lawyers.
You die now.
Death To Competition
Death To American Dream
Abusing Corporate Power Is Great!
Remember that you are unique, just like everybody else.
bleem pc really isnt worthwhile, honestly.
but you can go to www.ebworld.com and buy bleemcast for grand turismo 2, metal gear solid, and tekken 3. All for under 10$s each.
I just put in my order for mgs and tekken3.
keep in mind you need a dedicated VMU (dreamcast save card) for bleemcast.
no
Ya, I mean it's not like they are going to have the $$$ to afford a lawyer to sue ya. With any luck, they will be bending over so far for Sony that they won't even notice.
i like the way most slashdoters r for the little guy [www.amd.com] but really talking out their arse !! hell u buy ps2's [www.bag'o'crap.com].
I was going to buy bleem.
any day now
yah
right
errr. . . .
Oh wait, PS1s are selling for less then copies of Bleem! DOH!
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
From Sony Corporation memo to bleem in 1999:
"How are you gentlemen. All your bleem! are belong to us !! You are on the way to destruction. You have no chance to survive make your time."
It finally came true. Poor bleem!.
Bleem themselves made a good explanation of why they were not 100% compatible. You can find it here. Instead of emulating the Playstation(tm) hardware exactly, they opted to use native x86 code to mimic known Playstation functions they could decipher.
In order to support all Playstation(tm) functions and be 100% compatible, you must know everything the Playstation can do. Keep in mind there are at least four Playstation models, each with their own quirks. Bleem either (1) would have to reproduce Sony(tm)'s hardware and software exactly (very difficult and legally risky) or (2) mimic everything they figured out with completely new code. They did the latter, which in theory has better results over the long run but caused problems in the short term.
A few vendors likely used their own libraries instead of Sony's, making their life difficult. Just using basic statistics, one can see it is easier for bleem to support one game under these conditions than 400 or even 40.
It sad to see bleem go. Besides the fact they were actually challenging the rights of a large firm to deny others the rights to make a compatible product, their court case would have been a modern confirmation of our rights to reverse-engineer. Without such a case, the DMCA and SSSCA may reduce engineering education to textbook theory and looking at encrypted singals with equipment that cannot decode them.
Amen.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
That's the kind of attitude that gives kids on computers a bad name. And yes I'm calling you a kid, if you tell me you're any older than 18 you're not making yourself look any better. Waiting until companies die to try, and get full versions of their software is just as bad as pirating in the first place; and a testament to why the computer gaming industry is crippled.
I took it home and played Gran Turismo straight away (and pretty darn nicely) on my clunky old AMD 500. Whoo-ee! :) Plus, when I tripped over to the website, it didn't seem that out-of-date.
I, for one, give bleem! a most hearty salute. They battled in many lawsuits against a huge company and came out tops each time; they did grand at a VERY tough job on emulating the process involved inside a PSX, and not specifically the output. The options were plentiful and the majority of things worked very well. Not at all a bad way to spend some US$ in my opinion.
If you think you can do better, then why aren't you?
Security through promiscuity is no better than security through obscurity.
True. It would have been just as simple to do the damn thing in Flash. Then at least every browser and OS could view it.
Why would I used a closed source emulator when the open sourced ones run better anyway?
It was meant as a joke to rub it in that they sucked.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
OK. But why is Sonic blubbering? Shouldn't he be at the Dreamcast gravesite? Shouldn't that be Crash Bandicoot?
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
It has a bit more, shall we say, description. Bleemdirect.com
Bleem it would have been great if the 3d/sound worked. Waste of time and money.
All the games I'd tried had glitches sound/graphic that makes it pointless to play on pc rather than on PS. Paying for it makes no sense a broken product. I have played the playstation and nothing beats it for playstation games please give me a break. For the pc just stick with pc games that works.
In the meantime Bleems aust site is still up, here Download the demo and squirrel it away.. Perhaps find a crack for it. (Would never advocate that normally, but hey! there dead, so who gives a f)
It may be the last chance!
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Nice troll, bitch. And yes, I am calling you a bitch. If you tell me you're not a bitch, you're not making your self look like any less of a bitch, bitch.
this is sad news given that the only way that i play PSX games is on my PC.
bleem while novel was never very compatible.. its only great thing was that it allowed for graphics enhancements.. now epsxe does that better.... guess there was no need for bleem.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Full ACK!
It's just so embarrassing for a company to lack the knowledge to make a web page which can be accessed with any browser.
BTW: Why was the article marked as flamebait??
Alexander Skwar -- Homepage: http://www.digitalprojects.com | http://www.iso-top.de iso-top.de - Die
Bleemcast does work with copied PSX titles, I know Gran Tourismo 2 works. The reason this capability is there was apparently Sony has a patent on its copy protection system used in the Playstation. If Bleem had implemented that functionality, they would have lost in court due to patent infringement.
I don't know about you, but I think Tribes 2 and Max Payne certainly play well for games from a crippled industry.
"Where shall the word be found, where will the word resound? Not here, there is not enough silence." -T.S. Eliot
Bleem turned their back on their customers. A few months after Bleem! was first released they closed their message boards and we didn't hear anything from them for a year. They broke their silence with the Bleem! for Dreamcast announcement, and refused to respond to their customer's fears that Bleem! PC would be discontinued. To make things look alright they threw up a new website, sans information and message boards, and basically shut themselves off from the rest of the community. Their attitude was basically "If you're not ordering a product, we don't want to hear from you."
At first I was loyal to Bleem!. I sent every game registration card to Sony with the word Bleem! written across it in highlighter. I even went so far as to E-mail the corporate bastards. Nevertheless, Bleem! would not stand by their product and responded to complaints and criticism with a cold shoulder. In that respect they were even worse than Sony.
On top of that they chose to emulate on the Dreamcast and charge $9.99 per game. That was a huge stab in the back for their PC audience. They locked themselves into a niche market and the rest of us just left. The Dreamcast is dead or dying, and so is Bleem!.
They got what they deserve.
Resistance is futile...you will be assimilated.
What you say?
Someone set up us the bleem.
We get signal.
How are you gentlemen?
You have no chance to survive, make your DL.
You are on your way to lawsuit.
It is you.
Take off every copy protect for great justice...
This mind intentionally left blank.
The KKK a bunch of sheetheads? You decide!
Hi,
I was in Expret in Darmstadt, (near Frankfurt) Germany this afternoon, and they still had a few copies on the shelf.
later
jb
praxis22athotmail.com
Yeah. That always pissed me off about their webpage. They wanted it to be too pretty, but didn't realize that they could do it without using Frontpage. Opera didn't like the page at all. That might be because the page wasn't standards compliant.
>BTW: Why was the article marked as flamebait??
.sig here...
...Probably because I pissed off one of the stormtroopers I mean moderators. It's the SECOND posting I've had moderated down since I changed my
Oh well. The bigger Slashdot gets, the more it goes down the tubes. I've been here since almost the very beginning too...
Inefficient? Of *course* it's inefficient!
That's what Bleem is(was) all about.
I dunno...being able to play PSX games on my laptop sounded pretty good to me...
Too bad most of the games I was interested don't work (never did) with Bleem PC.
bleem is definitely still available for purchase. perhaps they ran out of money?
the crying sonic makes me think something more heart-breaking happened
Buy bleem! Online
Thank goodness someone modded me back up to 2. I was feeling so unloved. :-)
.sig.
:-)
Seriously, since I change my sig to be one "critical" of the moderator Taliban, I've been modded down in my last couple of posts. Until very recently I had unchecked "willing to moderate" simply because the system is simply broken.
We need MORE than good moderators. Half the current moderators are using multiple acounts. They *are* the trolls.
In a mailing list, you can confront your moderator. Bad moderators don't last long, except on slashdot. Moderation is too often given to heavy posters, with no weighting towards "I-don't-post-often but when-I-do-I-have-something-to-say" personalities.
I can verify this weakness in the Slashdot system, because when I post and get modded up, within a week I am moderating once or twice. I've always had 37 - 50 karma, but loggin in and reading does not trigger moderator selection. Therefore, Slashdot *encourages* "noisy me too" posts.
All I want to see is a system that works. I really don't want karma or moderation responsibility (tho I'm willing to help if I have time).
If I didn't care about the things Slashdot covered, I wouldn't be user #4551 and I wouldn't be trying to attract attention to moderation abuses via a puny
Now look what happened.. I'm late for the pub!
I just saw that on techtv to. what about bleamcast? i kinda figured it wouldn't be out after the dreamcast cancelation. to bad. I luv dreamcast!!!! did they ever officially declare it dead? i read several interviews and articles on it.
We seldom regret saying too little but often regret saying too much.