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Unofficial FAQ
Unofficial Bleemcast! FAQ 1.0 written by Bobbi of PSXEmu.com
This FAQ may only be provided "as is". You're not allowed to remove this disclaimer
and put your own name there. You are, of course, allowed to put a COMPLETE copy of this
file on your webpage and offer it for reading / download. Please respect our hard work
and don't rip us off! The latest version of this FAQ can always be found on
http://www.psxemu.com/bleemcast.shtml,
along with several other informations, tools and screenshots for Bleemcast!
| Q : |
Who developed bleemcast! ?
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| A : |
Bleemcast! is being developed and published by the same company which originally
developed bleem! for PC, bleem, inc. ! Their main programmer (only ?) is Randy
Linden.
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| Q : |
Is bleemcast! free or do I need to purchase it ?
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| A : |
Bleemcast! is a commercial product and you'll have to buy it therefor. At the
moment, there's only one bleemcast! disc available, which can be purchased at
your local dealer for about 6$.
European users have to pay a bit more, the pre-order price is at 7 pounds
(about 10$), though shops may carry it there as well after the release.
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| Q : |
Wasn't the original announcement that there'd be 4 paks with 100 games each ?
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| A : |
Yeah, that was the original plan, but bleem, inc. decided for another way, I'll
just quote the press release here :
When we originally announced bleem! for Dreamcast, we expected that the
remaining changes to the core code would bring most titles up to near full
compatibility, with only minor tweaking to attain full compatibility.
After months of working on the software and extensive individual game testing,
we realized that there was not a single fix across the board sufficient to bring
the final product to a level that console gamers demand -- While PC gamers are
used to dealing with compatibility issues and configuration settings, console
gamers expect absolute perfection without any hassles right from the moment
they hit the start button.
While the core bleem! for Dreamcast emulator already ran many titles well enough
to be playable, the overriding goal of "glitch-free" emulation meant that any
remaining issues would still need to be addressed before release. The nature of
bleem!'s operation, and the differences from typical lower-level system-simulator
style emulators, meant that individual code "tweaks" would need to be written and
adjusted for each individual title to handle any peculiarities or unusual techniques
used by the particular game.
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| Q : |
I've already preordered and paid for my 100 games bleempak! - what should I do now ?
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| A : |
I'm sorry, but that's nothing we can actually change - you'll have to contact your
dealer and talk with him how to handle this.
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| Q : |
So what's so much better about bleemcast! compared to playing games on my PSOne ?
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| A : |
Bleemcast! is programmed to increase the games. The game is looking a lot better, like
you can easily see in PSXEmu's bleemcast screenshots section. The resolution gets
increased to 640x480 (640x560 on PAL DCs), the games are running smoother, loading
times are faster and so on - some people even compared GT2 on bleemcast! to GT3 on
the PS2 already.
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| Q : |
Which games will be released in the future and when exactly ?
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| A : |
Bleem, inc. hasn't announced any future plans yet for bleemcast!, I suppose this
is mostly because they'd like to see how much success the first disc actually
gets first.
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| Q : |
Is bleem, inc. shipping anything else beside the game disc ?
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| A : |
Originally, bleem, inc. planned to ship a PSX like controller and an adapter, for using
your original PSX controller, called bleempad (the controller) and bleempod (the adapter)
as well, but it seems they've changed their mind as of late, and are currently checking
if the market is still interested in those after Sega stopped the dreamcast production.
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| Q : |
So how does the whole stuff actually work ? Don't I need the original disc any more ?
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| A : |
You'll still need the original game to play it on your dreamcast - the bleemcast! disc
just contains the emulator and NOT the complete game.
So after you purchased the disc, you put the bleemcast! disc into your dreamcast and
start it. Bleemcast! loads itself into the local memory then and ask you to insert the
original disc - the game will start.
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| Q : |
Will bleemcast! be able to play backed up discs ?
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| A : |
Well, it has been proved several times now: It's nearly impossible to provide 100%
protection of backup's! And since Sony isn't even able to prevent the PSX console
from being used to play backups themselves, why should emulators be any different?
Furthermore, Sony has a patent on the copy protection and using it would therefor
violate that one :)
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| Q : |
Which resolution is bleemcast! playing the games in ?
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| A : |
Bleemcast! plays the games in a 640x480 resolution on NTSC machines while setting
it to the extended PAL resolution of 640x560 when required.
| | |
| Q : |
Do PAL users get a different version than NTSC users ?
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| A : |
No, the bleemcast! disc is able to play PAL as well as NTSC U/C and NTSC J games.
| | |
| Q : |
Which controller can I use to play PSX games on the dreamcast ?
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| A : |
This is actually something which isn't problematic yet, but in case bleem, inc.
releases more games like Tekken 3, you should think about a better solution.
Bleem, inc. originally announced to ship the bleempads and pods with bleemcast!
as well, but they're currently thinking about this again as Sega stopped to
produce Dreamcasts some time ago. In case you don't know what the pad and pods
are supposed to mean, check the General Questions.
So far, you can still easily use your original DC controller to play Gran Turismo
2, steering wheels and JumpPaks are supported as well, so you don't have to worry
about that problem yet.
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| Q : |
Where do I store my savegames ?
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| A : |
Bleemcast! uses a fresh formated VMU memory card to save your current gamestate. The
downside of this is, that you won't be able to use that memory card with another
dreamcast game :/ But maybe future bleemcast! releases will be able to share one
card with the first one.
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| Q : |
Can I run the NTSC version of a game on my PAL dreamcast or the other way around ?
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| A : |
Yes, it doesn't matter which version you use on which dreamcast, they're all
actually supported !
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| Q : |
Can I use my VGA box to connect a PC monitor ?
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| A : |
Yes, bleemcast! also supports VGA boxes, but I'm not really sure what this should
be good for - you're emulating a playstation game on a dreamcast in order to play
it on a PC screen ? It'd be a lot easier to simply play the game on a PC emulator.
| | |
| Q : |
Can I also download bleemcast! instead of buying it ? Can you send it to me ?
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| A : |
Get a life.
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| Q : |
When comes the next pak ? With which game ? For which price ? Why not game XY ?
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| A : |
Hey, keep in mind that we haven't programmed that emu and we aren't working for
bleem, inc. - it's therefor impossible to tell you more than they're actually
announcing - and IF we know something, you'll find it in this FAQ or on PSXEmu.com
| | |
Author : Bobbi - Bobbi@psxemu.com
Thanks to :
My girlfriend - For giving me enough motivation to run this time consuming hobby and for ... yeah, the rest :)
Randy Linden - For making an emulator which started all this and, in the end, might even be responsible for PSXEmu
to exist today :)
Jesse and DY - For always keeping me up to date with cool inside informations and for being cool friends.
The PSXEmu Crew - For making this all so much fun!
Thorgal - Being one of the biggest helpers in PSXEmu's creation!
And of course thanks to anyone I forgot ! :)
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