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The official press release
LOS ANGELES, CA (April 24, 2020) - bleem, inc. today announced its new strategy to release single game versions
of its bleem!™ for Dreamcast line of products, including details surrounding the first title it will support, Gran
Turismo 2. The new strategy will allow the company to concentrate its resources on titles gamers really want to play,
at prices that make owning each title very attractive. bleem! will now focus on bringing best-selling and platinum
titles to the Dreamcast.
"Our decision to change our strategy and the format of bleemcast! was necessary in order to ensure the quality,
compatibility and enhancements that console users demand" said David Herpolsheimer, president and CEO of bleem, inc.
"The new format allows us to deliver popular titles with greater enhancements than previously planned to the Dreamcast
platform, and at an affordable price, which is what gamers really want."
"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 finish each game," said Randy Linden,
chief technical officer and creator of the bleem! technology. "After many 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 an acceptable level of compatibility."
While the core bleem! for Dreamcast emulator already ran many titles well enough to be playable, the company’s 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. These tweaks can take months for each individual game, meaning the
resources required to bring each game to full compatibility is akin to a traditional port to a new platform.
The result is hundreds of hours of work towards getting each individual title fully compatible, whether it is a popular
best-seller such as Final Fantasy IX, or an obscure unpopular title that most people wouldn't want to play on their
Dreamcast.
The obvious conclusion for bleem was to change its focus from trying to get absolutely every game working with all of
the bleem!-enhancements to getting those games that mattered most at a much higher level of enhancement than was
originally planned. This change in direction means that the entire bleem! core can now be adjusted, tweaked and
changed without any impact on any other titles.
Mr. Linden continued, "The results, although far later than we had hoped for, are well worth it, as gamers will see
with our first bleem! for Dreamcast pak for Gran Turismo 2. bleem! provides an experience that's far closer to a
typical "port" than we expected could be achieved with our original designs. To complete the experience, we added all
the ‘bells and whistles’ that gamers expect to see in a native Dreamcast title, such as VGA box support and compatibility
with a huge range of controllers and peripherals including vibration packs, joypads and steering wheels, for using native
PlayStation peripherals on your Dreamcast! Finally, since bleem! for Dreamcast supports all international regions of
software automatically, we added full PAL-extended support and PAL60Hz support that automatically activates when playing
NTSC game software on a PAL Dreamcast."
Over the past several months, the company also received feedback from many users unhappy with the proposed $19.95, 100-game
pak model, with most people really only wanting to play 5-8 titles on their Dreamcast. The most common objection was that
a user could potentially need to spend $80 to buy all four paks just to play the handful of titles they wanted. The new
strategy could save users more than half of what they would have spent before, making the product line more attractive to
a greater number of people.
About bleem! for Dreamcast for Gran Turismo 2
The first bleem! for Dreamcast pak will support Gran Turismo 2, considered one of the greatest racing games of all time.
With enhanced resolution, full-screen anti-aliasing and advanced filtering effects, bleem! for Dreamcast brings Gran
Turismo 2 to the Dreamcast as it has never been played before. Among the enhancements are: Enhanced 640x480 Dreamcast
Resolution meaning four times the pixels and greater detail, along with 24-bit color for a richer gaming experience;
Full-Screen Anti-Aliasing which eliminates those blocky pixels or 'jaggies' by smoothing out lines and edges to make
the game more immersive and realistic; Advanced Filtering Effects that make textures, smoke and lighting effects look
more true to life; and Faster Load Times, so there’s less time wasted waiting for your game to load and more time spent
on serious gaming action.
Gran Turismo 2 is expected to hit store shelves the first week of May with an MSRP of $5.95.
As a follow-up to bleem! for Dreamcast for GT2, bleem is currently evaluating a number of top titles to potentially
deliver to retail shelves over the next few months, however plans and timing have not been finalized at this time.
About bleem! for Dreamcast
The bleem! for Dreamcast line of products give game-hungry Sega Dreamcast owners the ability to play some of the hottest
games originally written for the Sony PlayStation as they’ve never been seen before. bleem! for Dreamcast takes advantage
of the "next generation" hardware in the Dreamcast console to improve the "look" of PlayStation games, rendering game
graphics at 640x480 pixels twice the resolution of most PlayStation games. Further, bleem! uses the Dreamcast’s graphics
processing power to make games look brand-new, with enhancements like full-screen anti-aliasing and bi-linear filtering,
giving PlayStation games improvements even the PlayStation 2 can’t touch.
About bleem, inc.
Founded in 1998, bleem, inc. is an innovative technology company dedicated to lowering barriers for new technologies
by delivering market-standard content to new platforms. In doing so, bleem increases the value and functionality of
both platforms and gives consumers a choice over how and where they use the software they own. Through advanced
software emulation, bleem’s first product, bleem! for the PC, utilized commonplace hardware graphics accelerators to
enhance the quality of many Sony PlayStation games. With bleem! for Dreamcast, bleem brings some of the hottest games
to the Dreamcast platform with mind-bending graphics and offers millions more customers to software developers, without
traditional development expenses. bleem is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and can be found on the Web at
http://www.bleem.com.
bleem! is not affiliated with, authorized, endorsed or licensed in any way by Sony Corporation or Sega Enterprises, Ltd,
their affiliates or subsidiaries. PlayStation game software sold separately. No affiliation, partnership, joint venture
or relationship of any kind or form exists with any other companies, products or services that may be referenced, and
should not be implied or inferred by any references, or the lack thereof. PlayStation is a registered trademark of
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. "Sony" is a registered trademark for the Sony Corporation. Sega and Dreamcast are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Sega Enterprises. bleem! and the bleem! logo are trademarks of bleem, inc. All
other trademarks are property of their respective holders Specifications are for informational purposes only and are
subject to change without notice.
bleem! is copyright © 1998-2001 bleem, inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
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