Introduction

The Great Yellow Hype

If you're a gamer and have been living in a cave (helpful hint: that pesky light coming through the cracks in the aluminum foil on your windows comes from what we call the "Sun") for the past year, you've no doubt heard about bleem! Continuing the proud tradition of emulation gaming, bleem, a Playstation emulator, decided to go forth to a strange land for emulators - the commercial realm.

This did not go without notice. Sony, already upset about the Connectix Virtual Game Station (a Playstation emulator for the Mac), filed two lawsuits against bleem and tried to get a temporary restraining order as well, to keep it off shelves. Because of the way bleem was made, though, (using no information from the Playstation BIOS), the restraining order was turned down. The Preliminary Injunction hearing in the ongoing saga of Sony vs. bleem is to take place on August 6th.

Why all the big fuss?

So, after all that, what IS bleem, really? Why would someone want to play Playstation games on their PC? Well, assuming they can live without an honest-to-gosh Playstation controller, the idea here is 3D acceleration. That's right, bleem, like everything else these days, is in 3D. What's next, huh? A 3D accelerated Word paperclip? Back in my day . . .

Bitterness aside, though, bleem has a good idea with support for Direct 3D; acceptable resolution for TV output is 320x200, which is ludicrous in the world of computer monitors. Even with a possible 500+ lines of horizontal resolution, few games ever make use of high res video, and viewing it on a TV isn't optimal at any rate.

Bleem promises to change everything by displaying your favorite old games in new, exciting, high-res splendor. Obviously, what we at FiringSquad are here to find out is: [why the hell can't Nat get in before 11AM? .ed] After we find out, we'll let you know the low-down on bleem. How it looks, how it sounds, and most of all, whether it's worth buying, or whether you should stick to your trusty Playstation.

Playstation

Bleem