Publisher:
Bleem!
Developer: Bleem!
Size: (would have been)1 GD-Rom
per Pak
VMU: None(save feature not enabled)
No. of players: Varies, depending on game
Got it for: Free. This is a leaked beta, a buddy of mine
found and burned it for me.
Note:
The game list on the back of the cover mockup is just a just a copy
of the first part of the Bleem 1.5(PC) compatibility list.
| Around May of 2000 Bleem, makers of the emulator/enhancer that ran Playstation games on PC's(and at a better framerate and resolution than the PSX could provide them) announced that they would be releasing a version of their application for the Dreamcast. It was originally going to come out in "paks" that would play 100 PSX games a piece. Along with these paks, a "BleemPod" would also be made available that would allow you to use your original Playstation controllers for the games, or you could purchase one of the specially made BleemPads. 400 PSX games were originally scheduled to be supported via the paks, but after constant legal actions from Sony and the extremely intense beta testing for that number of games, the plan was dropped in favor of doing "Single Game Paks". In the end, only three paks were ever released: Gran Turismo 2, Metal Gear Solid and Tekken 3. |
What's it all about?
At its base, it's an emulator...and a beta at that. It'll allow you to play some PSX games on your DC, complete with enhanced filtering that allows for better looking textures, anti-aliasing and, sometimes, a higher framerate. It also raises the resolution of PSX games up from 320X240 to a tasty 640X480. This makes *every* PSX game look amazing, and even does a much better job with the graphics than the PS2's "PS1 mode" can do.
You start out by popping the Bleemcast beta in your DC, wait a small bit for it to load, then you're presented with a flashing title screen. At this point you pop in a PSX game, cross your fingers and pray it loads. This is where the real fun of the beta begins: Testing. For the most part, a lot of the games simply won't boot...and those that do tend to have serious graphical errors. There are quite a few though, that do run, and well...and it's really something to see. It's amazing what Bleem does for PSX games.
Gameplay is heavily based on getting around the apparent lack of buttons on the DC controller, basically just trying to get away with mapping the most important buttons and winging it from there. For games that don't allow for controller reconfiguration, you're pretty much stuck. The controller map goes like this: X is Square, A is X, Y is Triangle, B is O, L1 is L trigger, R1 is R trigger, Start is Start(duh) and there is no button for Select.
It really is too bad that this is as far as Sony would allow Bleem to make it, and even though there's a more complete beta out there, the chances of ever seeing it are close to zero. Why Sony was so opposed to Bleem, whether it be on the PC or DC, was always a mystery to me. I mean, sure, it's embarrassing that a piece of software is running your games better than the two systems they are meant to be played on....but at the same time, as Sony makes almost all their money on software...how is killing an application that encouraged those without a PSX/PS2 to buy Sony games a bad thing? The world may never know...
|
With
the Bleemcast beta, I went through my *entire* PSX library(at
that time), just to see what ran and how well. Some things did
alright, some were beyond bad, some didn't load at all...for a
complete record of the odyssey, click below. Let's roll... |
|
Quick
note to modem users: In order to make a fair comparison, I couldn't
drop the quality of the pics very much, thus they are still very
large in size. Normally I do try to make a "low bandwidth"
version for ya'll, but this time I just couldn't do it. Sorry. |
||
My rating: I can't really give this a rating as it is a beta....but major kudos go out to the Bleem guys for even attempting this seriously ambitious idea. From the beta, we see that Bleem had the makings of one of the greatest emulators of all time and with just a bit more work, and time, this could have made some serious waves in the DC pool...
In the meantime, be sure and pick up the actual BleemPaks for Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 3 and Gran Turismo 2 at some point(I pre-ordered, direct from Bleem, the MGS and T3 paks and have been loving them ever since).
Cat's review: So, let me get this straight: No save feature, you can't use certain buttons from the PSX pad, most games won't play at all, the ones that do have horrible glitches and you want me to give you my thoughts on this? Um......no kitty-comment....now back to my nap...
Betacast!:
* The title screen identifies this beta as being Build 06557.
Bleem's creators confirm that it's only 30% complete, and was leaked by
an internal tester. The build date was May 2000.
* Turning the music to "Mono", or turning it off altogether
will sometimes speed things up on games that are running slow.
* Popping the DC's lid can increase game speed as well, though if you
are playing a game that reads off the CD constantly this can lead to a
lot of freeze-ups. It’s not the way to go, trust me.
* Once a game actually boots, loading can be fucked up. Sometimes everything
is just black, you have to wait 10 to 30 seconds for the title screen
to show up. Sometimes you don't get any video, and just have to wing it
by hitting the start button and praying the game actually begins.
* Some games require that you try booting them multiple times, to get
past whatever game-stopping glitch Bleem gets hit by. It's weird, during
my testing, I've had groups of four of five games simply refuse to boot...then
I'll pop in one I know boots, then try the others again...and they'll
boot. I have no idea how to explain why that happens, nor why it sometimes
takes two or three tries to get certain games to boot at all.
* For some reason, almost every racing game seems to do really well via
Bleemcast.
* According to the Bleem creators, the latest beta cannot be released
due to legal consequences. For more on the creators' thoughts, and other
info on the Bleemcast beta try the DC
Emulation forum thread that was posted, or click here for an abridged
version.
*
Full motion video *will not* play via Bleemcast. What you get is a seriously
fucked up looking picture, kind of like what a corrupted mpeg looks like.
* Bleemcast sucks ass at 2D games. The sprites seem to animate at two
to three times their normal speed and this causes all sorts of goofy graphical
errors. Most times, it looks like trying to play an old NES game that
just has filthy contacts(I think we all remember those fun days of "blowing"
on the contacts, trying to get the game to work right). Past that, 2D
bitmaps have weird lines going through them/coming off them.
* There's rumored to be a "hacked" version of the original Bleemcast
Packs(GT2, Tekken 3, MGS) that actually allows for other PSX games to
play perfectly on them. This is a flat-out lie.
* Rumor has it that there were five Bleemcast beta discs, all color-coded
that went with specific colored DC's for testing. No matter what you may
read around the net, all of the colors are the same versions of the beta.
* It is said that there's a more complete beta of Bleemcast, that's 70%,
or more, completed.
* Speech bits on most PSX games via Bleemcast get cut off about halfway
through their play. I believe this to be because of the accelerated speed
most PSX games run at when played through Bleemcast.
* In order to avoid a full system reboot, simply pop the lid when you're
done with a game then perform a soft reset(A+B+X+Y+Start) to get back
to the Bleemcast boot screen.
* Though there's no way to map all of the PSX's controller buttons onto
the DC's controllers, you can try mapping just the few you'll need onto
specific buttons(assuming the game will allow for controller reconfiguration).
Though the Bleemcast beta has the code to support the extra buttons, most
controller converters that allow you to use PSX pads simply won't work,
but there is one hope: The Skillz DreamConnection 4-in-1, with a PSX pad
connected, is actually said to work with the Bleemcast beta and enable
the use of all buttons except for R3, L3 and the analog pads. Special
thanks go out to RGVS's own SewerFiss for this information. It's also
been said that pads by "Joytech" that have 9 buttons will also
work...(Z and C act as L2 and R2)
