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| Product: Bleem! 1.5 |
Company: Bleem |
| Web: www.bleem.com |
Phone: 323-822-0932 |
| Platform: Win95/98 |
SRP: US$30
Street Price: same |
Cred Rating: | Special Award: |
With a name like Bleem! you may wonder what exactly this product is supposed to do. Does it make your teeth whiter? Will it leave your bathroom tile glistening and germ-free? Probably not, but it will let you play most any Sony Playstation game on your PC, and it does it so well, you might not care that your breath smells like swamp gas and your bathroom is crusty.
Bleem (exclamation point deliberately omitted) is emulation software - it replicates the behavior of a Sony Playstation through your existing PC, using software rather than hardware to interpret game instructions. While all that goes on behind the scenes, what you see is pure simplicity -- insert the Bleem CD to activate the software, then insert the game, and it runs just like a Playstation in a window on your desktop.
Bleem offers several advantages over owning a Playstation. First, you don't have to own or connect any extra hardware. Second, at US$30, it's 1/3 the price of a Playstation game console. Third, you can use the software anywhere -- school, work, home, or even on your laptop in the frequent-flyer lounge, to duel fellow airport denizens in Tekken 3).
But it's the fourth reason that will make it drool-proof: if your PC has a good 3D card, it'll actually beat the Playstation at its own game! While a Sony Playstation has limited resolution, Bleem will blow you away with 800 x 600 or higher resolution, awesome colors and sharper textures.
I tested the software first on a low-end P200 MMX machine with 16MB of RAM (slightly lower than the minimum recommended 233 MMX with 16MB RAM), just to see how well it would perform. Later, I tested it on an AMD 366 with an ATI Rage Fury 3D card. I also played two different games; Gex 3, which was listed as fully compatible, and Final Fantasy VIII, which is not listed on the site as even being tested (I guess I really wanted to push the limits).
After an easy install of the software, I immediately booted up Final Fantasy on the P200 and let 'er rip. And rip it did. The graphics - full screen - were incredible. Gameplay was excellent, but for the fact that I couldn't get the combat menu to work and the Save Game features were completely inaccessible. I would find out later (note to self: RTFM) that Final Fantasy is not yet compatible, but they're working on it. Even so, it looked so good I barely felt the need to try it on the nicer machine.
But when I did, I was enraptured. On the AMD 366, the software immediately recognized the chip and 3D card and optimized itself -- always a good sign. I decided to try Gex 3 first. I inserted the disc, maximized it to full-screen and played my pointy little heart out. Once the CD was in and the game was running, I must admit that I completely forgot I was reviewing software -- I just played the game. After a couple hours, I remembered what I was supposed to be doing and started fiddling with the software to see all the things it could do.
Bleem is very well designed software. It allows all the features of the game being played, and lets you customize your gaming hardware. You can program your own joystick controls to replace the buttons on a gamepad. The software is compatible with just about any stick, or you can use gamepads (no force-feedback or steering wheels yet). If you don't have either of those, you can also use your keyboard or a mouse, assigning any function to a key or button.
You can play your games in a sizable window, which is kind of a neat feature, but unless you're playing at the office (hiding from the boss), you'll want to play full-screen to appreciate the great graphics. If your system is really low-end, you can disable some of the fancier graphics to improve gaming speed. I didn't find that was necessary, although I did have a problem switching back to Windows after going full-screen.
Since some of you may have heard of legal troubles with a similar program for Macs from Connectix, I feel I should give a little legal history. Sony has sued both Connectix and Bleem to stop them from selling their software. Sony was slightly more successful with Connectix, and they got an injunction for awhile, but that seems to have been resolved for the moment. Sony was not so successful at blocking Bleem because, according to Bleem's press release, the Bleem software does not use the ROM BIOS of the Playstation -- it does not replicate the chip used in the PSX, it just reads the discs and replicates the "functionality." In other words, it is a perfectly legal reverse-engineering hack that does not violate Sony's copyright. While both suits are ongoing, Bleem seems confident that it will be resolved in their favor, so you can expect ongoing upgrades and support.
Compatibility and support are Bleem's only problems. Of the 550 games tested, about 250 are fully compatible, while another 150 are "extremely playable," but suffered some minor glitches with graphics or sound. Bleem updates the software regularly to improve compatibility, but while the website maintains a list of compatible games, it is not current. If you check the site before you buy a game though, you should have no problems.
Support is sporadic if not slipshod. The site has a FAQ and a bulletin board for other questions, but neither answered the questions I had. There was no direct email I could find for direct support. Bleem is a small company and they are clearly going through some growing pains. If you have problems with the software, you should expect to wait a little before you get the answers you need.
While there were a (very) few glitches, overall Bleem does exactly what it's supposed to do. I hate to admit that I like software with such a stupid name, but it works so well I have to admit that Bleem deserves the exclamation point!
- Nate Heasley [12/8/99]
Other game-to-PC gear reviewed on Street Tech:
- Jam!! [7/27/98, Rated: 4.0]
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