Bleemcast!
From Sega Retro
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| Bleemcast! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Made for: Sega Dreamcast | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manufacturer: Bleem! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bleemcast!, also known as Bleem! for Dreamcast, is an unlicensed commercial emulator developed and published by Bleem! for use with the Sega Dreamcast. By taking advantage of loopholes within the Dreamcast's Mil-CD format, Bleemcast! software allows the system to run select PlayStation games, often with enhanced graphics. Each Bleemcast! disc is intended for a single PlayStation game only, and is utilized by first booting the Dreamcast with the Bleemcast! disc, and then later swapping in the PlayStation game at a specific time.[3]
Contents
Features
While running under Bleemcast!, PlayStation games adopt anti-aliasing and bilinear filtering, as well as an increased resolution of 640x480 (double the PlayStation's 320x240). All released Bleemcast! games require a dedicated VMU to play and save progress, while also supporting the Jump Pack for vibration.
List of Bleemcast! discs
- Gran Turismo 2 (2000)
- Metal Gear Solid (2001)
- Tekken 3 (2001)
- Final Fantasy IX (unreleased)
- WWF Smackdown! (unreleased)
History
The original Bleem! emulator was released in March of 1999 for the PC, supporting a large chunk of the PlayStation's library. Bleem! on PC lacks many of the features found today on unofficial emulators, but was coded in assembly language by Randy Linden and featured hardware acceleration, leading to higher resolution, smoother graphics. There are many compatibility issues with the Bleem! emulator, however - many games run at varying speeds and some do not boot at all. Bleem! ran an aggressive marketing campaign for their product - not only was it competing directly against Sony during their heyday (most emulators have emerged several console generations after the console they are emulating), but were quick to make light of their legal situations on the box art.
Initially, Bleem!'s plans for the Bleemcast! were very optimistic, and aimed to allow hundreds of PlayStation games to be run on Dreamcast hardware, much like the earlier aims of the PC version[1]. However, thanks to technical difficulties this was reduced to just three "Bleempaks" - boot discs for Gran Turismo 2, Tekken 3, and Metal Gear Solid. Reportedly, discs were in the works for WWF Smackdown![4] and Final Fantasy IX[4], though neither materialised.
The company had planned to release specially-branded controllers to address the Dreamcast controller featuring less buttons than the PlayStation's controller, but this plan was cancelled too.
Decline
Sony took Bleem! to court over the Bleemcast! accessory, and although they didn't manage to block the product, court costs left Bleem! without much cash and the company was shut down in November 2001[5], with some of the company's possessions auctioned off on eBay soon after including an enormous, multi-region library of PlayStation games used for testing. Curiously, several members of Bleem! including Randy Linden would be hired by Sony Computer Entertainment of America in the months that followed[6].
The official website was shut down and replaced with a temporary image of Sonic sorrowfully holding a flower next to Bleem!'s gravestone (pictured on the right). He was later removed from the image to avoid a lawsuit by Sega[6].
Legacy
A prototype version of the software has since been leaked, showing that the technology was capable of running many more PS1 games, though similarly to the PC variant, many games still refuse to boot.
Pirates have since used the leaked Bleemcast! software to create single game packs which contain the Bleemcast! emulator and a PlayStation game ISO. These can be burned to a CD-R and run on unmodified Dreamcast systems (models capable of running Mil CDs). Games packaged this way often don't have many game-breaking flaws.
Magazine articles
- Main article: Bleemcast!/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
also published in:
- Official Dreamcast Magazine (US) #7: "September/October 2000" (2000-08-01)[7]
Physical scans
| Dreamcast, Gran Turismo 2 |
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  Cover
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 Disc |
| Dreamcast, Metal Gear Solid |
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  Cover
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 Disc |
| Dreamcast, Tekken 3 |
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  Cover
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 Disc |
External links
- Bleemcast! beta compatibility list
- Posts tagged with Bleem on the Dreamcast Junkyard
- Public statement by the developers on the leaked beta (archive)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Electronic Gaming Monthly, "July 2001" (US; 2001-06-05), page 28
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Dreamcast Magazine, "No. 22" (UK; 2001-05-17), page 15
- ↑ File:DreamcastNatal2000 PT Catalogue.pdf, page 4
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Dreamcast Magazine, "No. 27" (UK; 2001-10-04), page 10
- ↑ https://www.eurogamer.net/article-31440 (Wayback Machine: 2022-05-23 13:02)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 https://www.seganerds.com/2015/05/19/whatever-happened-bleemcast/ (Wayback Machine: 2015-05-23 02:08)
- ↑ Official Dreamcast Magazine, "September/October 2000" (US; 2000-08-01), page 119