E32000: In-Depth Look at bleem! On Dreamcast

We spoke to bleem's CEO to ask how you'll run PlayStation games on Dreamcast.

David Herpolsheimer, the CEO of bleem, took some time today to give us all the gory details of the upcoming Dreamcast version of bleem! As reported yesterday, the PlayStation emulator will initially be released as four different bleempaks, discs which will each sport 100% compatibility with 100 different PlayStation games, and retail for about $20. We can now report that bleem is shooting for a June 15 release for the first bleempak, and hopes to have all four out by the end of the summer.

bleem! is selecting games for the different paks as follows: available PlayStation games are divided by genre and rated based on quality and sales figures, and the top 400 are being divided among the four paks, with as even a distribution of different genres (and qualities) between the different paks as possible. Since the entire point of this system is to allow complete compatibility with the supported games, they are also being grouped based on what version of bleem! works best with them, so that for a given pak, different games require as few changes to the emulation code as possible.

While this system has the obvious disadvantage of requiring multiple purchases to actually be able to play all 400 games, it has a number of advantages as well. The biggest is, of course, that it means absolutely no hassle for users: when you buy a pak, you'll know precisely which games run, and you'll know that they work with no problems at all. It also creates a natural way to incorporate compatibility for new games as they're release, and allows bleem to tweak the parameters to optimize every game as part of the bleempak itself, so the interface is about as simple as it gets: after booting the bleem disc, you put in a PlayStation game, and it loads and runs. Games not among the 100 officially supported title will simply not run.

But bleem has another card up their sleeve: in response to the obvious complaint that the Dreamcast controllers aren't up to the task of playing PlayStation games, bleem is rolling out two additional products: bleempad and bleempod, set to ship in the fourth quarter. bleempad is essentially an imitation of the Dual Shock controller designed specifically to work with Dreamcast bleem!. bleempod is a Playstation controller adapter also designed to work with Dreamcast bleem!, and features compatibility with several controllers, the PlayStation memory card (it will be possible to transfer bleem! save files back and forth between VMUs and PlayStation memory cards), and even the Dance Dance Revolution dance pads.

Speaking of Dance Dance Revolution, since the bleempaks will lock out games not explicitly supported, what will become of all the great import games not available in the US? In a great piece of news for import fans, bleem has announced that they will follow the release of the four standard bleempaks with a pair of import bleempacks, each supporting 100 games, one for Japanese NTSC games, and one for European PAL games. These should also make it out by the end of the year, but as they are a niche item, will only be available for order Online.

It wouldn't do to write an entire article on bleem! without mentioning the legal issues involved, so for those keeping score, here's a quick summary of the current situation: Sony's lawsuit against bleem! is still going (and going, and going...), but in an amusing twist, Mr. Herpolsheimer mentioned that currently, bleem! actually has an injunction against Sony to keep them away during E3, after the fiasco last year when after being denied a preliminary injunction, Sony tried to get E3 officials to close the bleem! booth. On another note, bleem! on the Dreamcast is in fact not a Sega-licensed product, and bleem! has received no official support from Sega, so Sega should be protected from Sony lawsuits.

Lastly, we asked about copy protection, and Mr. Herpolsheimer said that they have entirely given up on trying to replicate Sony's copy protection in bleem!, and one of the deciding factors was when Sony made it apparent during the trial that any attempt by bleem! to implement the PlayStation copy protection and prevent CDRs from being playable, would actually be a direct violation of a Sony patent on their protection scheme.

-- Brian Osserman, Contributor

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