In a recent conversation with one of my contacts, I was asked if I'd be interested in evaluating a program called bleem! Having heard both good and bad about this program, I was definitely interested in checking it out. I had my contact send bleem! out to me for review. This program allows you to use Sony PlayStation games on your computer. bleem! comes from a small company known as Bleem,LLC.
Is bleem! one of those so called emulators that say they'll let you play PlayStation games on your PC but fall very short? Not on you life! bleem! takes the software files from a PlayStation disc and marries them with code that allows the files to be interpreted by a PC processor.
There has been a lot of flack about bleem! Sony has even sued to keep bleem! out of the stores and off of people's computers. According to a recent information packet, a trial over bleem! is being held in April of 2000. Sony is claiming copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. But according to what the bleem! folks say, they have not reversed engineered the PlayStation console nor any of the games for it.
The reason that bleem! works so well (and it does!) is that the software coding from a PlayStation game can be enhanced to accept PC graphics cards like VooDoo3 and ATI Fury. That means instead of playing Tekken 3 or WCW Nitro on your living room television, you can be jammin' in full 3D graphics and sounds with these games on your PC.
Okay, so this bleem! program works. How many different PlayStation games can I play on my PC? There are only a few hundred PlayStation games that bleem! can make work on a PC. A few hundred? That's right. Along with my eval copy of bleem!, I was sent a twenty page list of the PlayStation games that bleem! will work with. Anywhere from games like 3Xtreme to G. Darius and X-Men vs. Street Fighter can now be played on your PC.
Is bleem! meant as a replacement for the Sony PlayStation console? No, according to the makers of bleem! They have stated that their product is only a supplement to the gaming community. They consider bleem! to be an accessory for anyone who might want more out of their game and can't get it from the PlayStation console.
I tested bleem! out on two PC's. The first try was on a Pentium 200 without MMX. Games like Coolboarders 3 and Spyro the Dragon ran real slow and the graphics were choppy. This I attributed to not having enough oomph in my PC (this has been a problem for PC based games on this computer as well). Then I tried bleem! on a Pentium III 550 PC. Using this PC, Coolboarders screamed and Spyro flew and spit fire like never before.
The system requirements for bleem! are as follows:
Pentium 166 MMX PC (a P III 300 is recommended)
16 MB of RAM (I would say 32 to 64 MB would be more realistic)
Windows 95 or 98
32 MB free hard drive space
CD-ROM drive
Internet browser
Sound Card
3D video card (If you want to take advantage of the D3D Enhanced! Graphics)
For those of you who want the most out of any game, bleem! is a step in the right direction. It will keep the family from dividing over who uses the television and you get to play some cool games on your PC that you might not have otherwise been able to.
bleem! can be found at software retailers like Babbages and Best Buy. The list for bleem! is $ 29.99.
For more information about bleem! or for more updates on the PlayStation games it lets you play, check out the bleem! web site. It can be found at www.bleem.com.