Bleem!
The interface of the discontinued Bleem! emulator
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| Developer(s) | Bleem Company |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1999 |
| Last release |
1.6b / August 16, 2001
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| Operating system | Microsoft Windows, Dreamcast |
| Type | Emulator |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.bleem.com at the Wayback Machine (archived May 15, 2001)) |
Bleem! (styled as bleem!) was a commercial PlayStation emulator released by the Bleem Company in 1999 for IBM-compatible PCs and Dreamcast. It is notable for being one of the few commercial software emulators to be aggressively marketed during the emulated console's lifetime, and was the center of multiple controversial lawsuits.
Bleem! was a PlayStation emulator designed to allow people to play original PlayStation games on their PC or Dreamcast gaming consoles (the Dreamcast version was called Bleem! for Dreamcast). It was released in March 1999. The company that developed and commercialized Bleem! initially consisted of just two people, David Herpolsheimer (president) and Randy Linden, but in the commercial phase included Will Kempe, Scott Karol, Sean Kauppinen, Bryan Stokes, and Paul Chen, later of Rovio Entertainment.
To allow for full-speed emulation of what was at the time a current generation console on even lower-end computers, the authors coded Bleem! in assembly. This allowed them to create precise optimizations. Unlike Connectix's commercial Virtual Game Station, it made use of a PC's 3D graphics hardware for rendering allowing for enhanced resolutions and filtered textures not possible on real hardware. Despite claims of "enhanced" graphics, bugs plagued bleem! as well, with all but one game (One) being plagued by major bugs according to bleem's own compatibility charts.
Bleem! was also released in 3 other versions for the Sega Dreamcast called Bleemcast! to play the popular PlayStation games Gran Turismo 2, Metal Gear Solid and Tekken 3. Bleemcast! was originally planned as a series of "Bleempacks" that would each support about 100 games, but this soon became an impossibility due to the amount of testing required to support such a large library of games, as well as the lack of a possible software update on the Sega Dreamcast platform. Early ads in magazines advertising Bleemcast! claimed that it would bring 400 new games to Dreamcast.
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