(Note: All games were tested with versions 1.2 and 1.3 beta)

When bleem! won its court case against Sony, it was a blow those who didn't see the ingenuity of emulation. A group of programmers had emulated the hardware without actually emulating the hardware (something to do with the magical and tedious programming language called Assembly), and now we the people could benefit from the eternal struggle to make games open to everyone. Or something. Basically, the important fact here is that after all the dust had settled, PC gamers now had legal PlayStation power of their very own, in the yellow-boxed shape of bleem! Unfortunately, it looks as if you may have to wait a bit longer for PlayStation freedom, as the current retail version of bleem! feels more like a work-in-progress than a final solution.

I sat down with bleem! over the course of a week, and tested out Doug Perry's patented library of PlayStation titles on my trusty PC. Doug was more than happy to help -- it's a good thing that Perry's head can actually rotate all the way around while he's working, because he didn't even stop his tireless efforts for a moment (he did briefly mention something about freemasons and a global conspiracy). With a glance and a nod, I was on my way with a huge stack of PlayStation titles, including favorites Ridge Racer Type 4, Resident Evil 2, Tomb Raider 3, and Driver. I was ready to rock, and excited at being able to see some of my favorite PlayStation games get filtered and pampered with 3D acceleration.

First off, you don't actually install bleem!, but copy the small (under a meg) file to your desktop. That's it. Install the latest DirectX drivers, and you're ready to start playing. In some ways, bleem! is actually easier to get up and running than a regular PlayStation, and it's godsend to those of us used to installing and uninstalling endless quantities of gaming data on and off our systems. Pop in a PlayStation game, and you can begin playing as fast as you can say "god, that's fast!" Or... maybe not.

The problems with bleem! begin when you boot it up -- my home PC refused to listen to any of the .exe files (the finals, & the beta), but my work PC worked perfectly (despite the fact that both are Microns, with the latest DirectX drivers). If you can get it running, then the gambling process begins -- take a cd, pop it in, and see what happens. I tried a good 25 to 30 games with bleem!, from 3D heavy romps like Crash Bandicoot, to 2D scrollers like MegaMan X4. I even popped in an import title or two, as well as a gold development disk, just to see how it would react.

The format is easy to tweak, from the keyboard configuration to 3D acceleration settings. Your memory card is replaced by a simple file, which means endless save space for all your favorite title. The newest version even includes an automatic Gravis Xterminator configuration setting, which makes simulating the PlayStation experience even more seamless. I tended to keep the game in a window until I got the settings where I was comfortable, then jumped into full-screen to play it. Once I started playing, I quickly realized that every game needed it's own special babying (Tarzan ran much too slow under the speed control setting, whereas Frogger was insanely fast without it), and more importantly, every game seemed to have it's own unique-but-fatal flaw.

The Good

Frogger was glamorous and great, but unfortunately already has it's own PC version (see below), and MediEvil scored with one of the most drastic 3D acceleration improvements. MediEvil, unfortunately, had the gleeful glitch that it didn't find memory cards, which meant that you could never save your game. Sort of pointless then, even if it's a blast to play. Most surprising was the gold preview of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, which translated fairly well in PC form, and was mouth-wateringly delicious. Except for the part where Soul Reaver's already hitting the PC, this would have been reason alone to get bleem!. Resident Evil 2 looked a bit faded on a PC monitor (through no fault of bleem!'s), but played smoothly. Unfortunately, the 3D acceleration seemed to battle with the game, and the background tended to freak out when it wasn't played in software mode. R4 seemed to accelerate the opening shots of cars in the game, but ignored 3D acceleration altogether during the game. The game played fairly smooth, but the music had troubles sustaining any sort of regularity, and after I while I turned off the volume completely. Still, the game was still very R4 easily playable. Crash Bandicoot not only looked good, but played fairly nice.

The Bad

Cool Boarders 3 wasn't ugly or pretty -- it wasn't anything. bleem! ignored the games existence, so perhaps it was some sort of digital ex-communication from the cult of Sony rather than a glitch of the program. Either way, I was tired of staring at the black screen, and moved on. Rival Schools looked fantastic under acceleration, but ran choppily -- so much so that you could preset combos before even hitting the ground. It was a good ego-padding tool, but not much more. Rally Cross played somewhat choppy, but without acceleration it flew along nicely. Tarzan looked very clean, but was very, very sporadic in it's gameplay -- one minute running like the wind, the next slopping along like molasses. Tail Concerto is a japanese import, and booted up instantly on the system. It ran choppy, but looked very nice (though only certain parts seemed to be accelerated). Both the Japanese versions of Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo refused to start up in software or rendering modes.

The Ugly

Tekken 2. Let me say that again -- T-E-K-K-E-N 2. I don't know what sort of meat grinder that bleem! puts Tekken through before it graces your screen, but it's obviously set on puree. MegaMan X4 was unplayable, and the stuttering sound was horrible and choppy -- the blotchy visuals didn't help any, either. Pandemonium 2 was a mystery, one which involved a lot of pain. 3D acceleration acted like freak of the week on the screen (check out the screenshot), and the software mode would work randomly. Driver was the biggest disappointment, and forced you to stare at the "trying to find your memory cards" screen until you broke down in tears and gave up all hope (it ignored the "turn off memory cards" option as well).

And now the gallery of misfits, tragic miscreants, and global superstars:

Frogger: Frogger looks very similar on both version, and plays very much like the PlayStation version as well. The edges are crisp, the sound effects came through clear and solid, and if you're feeling frisky you can take off the speed control setting and get those fingers popping.

PSX PC

Tarzan: The texture difference may not look much different in these screenshots, but it's fairly drastic (and very similar to the PC version).

PSX PC

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver: The textures are drastically improved, especially the tentacle-like walls and swirly floors.

PSX PC

MediEvil: The spider is just a brief example of the clarity that you get with PC acceleration -- it looks as if MediEvil was almost meant for PC all along. Too bad you can't save your game.

PSX PC

Tekken 2: This is a major game, suffering from terminal crankiness. You can see that both versions (I actually used a 3D accelerated and non-3D version for this example) are... interesting.

Software 3D Accelerated

When reviewing bleem! I used the latest version (1.3 beta), as well as the 1.2 final, and had considerable problems with both. Though the games that worked were a fantastic blast of fun, most of the time it felt more like a crapshoot. It was incredibly rare when I could get a game to work without major glitches or problems, and over 50% of the games I tried were unplayable. Does this mean that bleem! is worthless? Right now, it kinda sorta does. For bleem! to be worth the money, you've got to assume that go out, purchase the program and a PlayStation game, and go to town with no worries. At this point I'd be hard pressed to tell anyone to grab bleem! and a new PSX game without having to worry about throwing away your money on a game that could very likely not work on your system.

If you already own a PlayStation, then bleem! may be a fun gadget to spice up some of your titles with, but as a PC-only user, it's just not worth it at this point. I would, however, like to emphasize that the versions are getting better, and we're planning a second review in a few months to see how later copies of the program fare. For now though, it looks like your PSX-to-PC dreams will stay just that... at least for a while longer.

-- Vincent Lopez