From Shady to Legal: How Bleem & VGS Battled Sony

[@GamingHistorian]

This was a Patreon-voted topic. Initially it was only going to be about Bleem! But while researching, I learned about the Connectix Virtual Game Station and just had to include that story as well. The impact these emulators had on the industry and the law is huge. Hope you enjoy hearing about their stories. Also, I got a haircut. Have a good weekend!

[@chickenlivers]

Gaming Historian awesome :) Emulators have come a long way, just look at CEMU for example.

[@CI254]

Then you're Patreon supporters are great people, Bleem was always one of those things I wanted to dabble in but never got around to it. Looking forward to this one.

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

Gaming Historian CEMU is on nintendo's list, surely with a grossing $23,000

[@chickenlivers]

Haruhi Suzumiya I was going to mention that... I hope it's not their downfall, depends on the legal loopholes surrounding Patreon I guess.

[@sammfiggy112284]

what a great and informative video! thank you Mr Game Historian you are the best and should have your own line hour over the discovery channel because youre incredibly detailed and very awesome with you information! i am a true fan since i have first seen you video documentary over Mr Sotaru Iwata! thank you again and keep on historing with the games! Gaming Historian

[@LGR]

Always wondered about the full stories behind these two! I remember reading about them in magazines in the late '90s, and I downloaded both of them back then too, but it was always a mystery to me where they went. I researched a little bit into Bleem a few years back when I did an Oddware episode on it, but had no idea what really happened to Connectix. In short, AWESOME video man.

[@virtualwastrel]

Lazy Game Reviews Hey LGR just a random sub scrolling by!

[@I_Do_Cooking_Manga]

I saw your video a while ago, that made me interested in emulation and coding, recently, i learned how to code a nes emulator, all thanks to the bleem video!

[@YadonTheCat]

Love you, Clint!

[@georgehenson2412]

I honestly thought this was your video when I clicked on it.

[@JoPeTuYaTroJoueY]

already shared your video Clint and now i've redone an article and added both of them on facebook.com/tuyatrojouey/ ! thanks for the Oddware ;)

[@SuspenduAuGaffa]

11:35 "What did bleem stand for? That remains a mystery". If you flip the name "bleem" vertically, you get "p166w", or Pentium 166 Windows, which, as you explain at 11:52, were the minimum requirements for the emulator to run. I remember a friend telling me this at the time, though I've never heard it verified since.

[@gpsxbx5097]

from my memory this was on Bleem's own website

[@ron-paulsartre]

so it definitely _could_ be all about the pentiums.

[@gpsxbx5097]

@@ron-paulsartre baby

[@vie3147]

This is why almost all emulators today are free and open-source.

[@sugaryhull9688]

And why a lot of open-source emulators are GPL-licensed

[@jakeknapp6833]

The 90s emulators are cool

[@БрухБрух-щ7и]

Except android emulators

[@БрухБрух-щ7и]

@The SNES Man they don't, they are trying to kill romsharing witch is bad as well

[@qislegit.donttrustthemedia6232]

@@БрухБрух-щ7и .APK Pirate ;)

[@LoganoPiano]

1998: *Apple announces a paid emulator* 2019: *Apple keeps revoking emulators on my phone*

[@ChristopherGray00]

Why are you buying apple products then? They've been restricting stuff like this for the past decade or so.

[@daoust26]

Same here

[@loweni7460]

This is why I use android OS for most things and use my iPhone for pictures and recording videos

[@lracseroom8286]

@Turd Ferguson Jobs doesn't suck. He's a corpse.

[@castorfolium8058]

The way I see it is that the difference is that the emulator that apple announced in 1998 required you to have the original disc, thus it did not encourage piracy. The emulator you have for your phone, unless it requires you to hook the phone up to an optical drive or connects to the playstation, xbox, or nintendo official online stores, does not require you to use a legally purchased version of the original game, thus even if you do own the game, the emulator is encouraging piracy by those who don't own it, beyond that, even if you do own a copy of the original game, the game is seen as a work of art, and the recreation of it for a digital copy not made by the original publisher is an illegal act by the people copying and distributing it, so just letting the emulator be distributed is encouraging further illegal actions on the part of the distributors of the emulator. Note that I'm by no means an expert on copyright law, so if I'm wrong, please correct me.

[@brickman409]

It's trippy as hell seeing Steve Jobs on stage officially supporting an emulator

[@JustPlay310]

brickman409 would be insane to see Sony on stage with a bootleg version of Mac OS running on PS2? Emulation is legalized theft.

[@NeedMoreMushrooms]

zok310 Me ripping iso's of the Wii games I bought and playing them on my PC in Dolphin is theft now?

[@platinumdynamite]

NeedMoreMushrooms let's be real, the majority of people don't do that.

[@JohnDoe-ld7ud]

platinumdynamite you are so naive

[@creaturedanaaaaa]

platinumdynamite tbh true but we'd buy it if they didn't make hostageware.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

When doing research for my own video about VGS, I learned that some Connectix employees ended up working for Sony after the acquisition of the product (which ended up working well for them, as Connectix went out of business shortly afterward -- while it had won the legal battle, litigation costs devastated the company). While Sony immediately killed VGS, it kept the source code, and the employees ended up putting it to use in newer PlayStation consoles for PS1 backward compatibility.

[@NFS-shade]

This Does Not Compute hey, i know you. I've sub to your channel.

[@Hi-ud4vz]

Lancer Shade lit

[@S2DF4real]

Who asked you?

[@bENOFFICIALMASSIVE]

Hey m8 from Australia! Big fan! I listen to your show on KZbin. Awesome work. Got similar interests :)

[@AlphaZeroX96]

Sony is in over their heads.

[@autumnsorchard7435]

Bleem: Although we've been battling copyright lawsuits for years, looks like they finally got us. Also Bleem: let's add Sonic next to a picture of our gravestone!

[@GothicKin]

Steve Jobs proudly introducing an emulator at a conference is mindblowing

[@EnforcerX71]

Steve Jobs was nothing if not a hypocrite.

[@fredroberts8275]

Music piracy boosted the sales of the IPOD, not surprising at all.

[@Coolman13355]

The 90s were wild.

[@LaskyLabs]

Especially since they don't want you to run Mac OS on anything other than a Mac lol

[@MrVarhansen]

Damn that bleem! Logo is so 90s lol. I want a tshirt

[@gameshark528]

Sound right at home as a TELEmercial!

[@FrezzyYT]

You can buy one right now

[@troymeredith521]

I think I have the original t-shirt from e3. lol. I was shocked to see it at the show, but walked away amazed.

[@Larry]

You should check out Sega's Genesis collection for the Dreamcast, they were so cool about it, they even hid a TXT file on the disc teaching people how to put their own ROMs on the disc.

[@TimelostFlare]

Larry Bundy Jr Was that the Sega Smashpack?

[@ongakuwotabeta]

Yes, it is.

[@daffodyl_n]

Larry Bundy Jr this comment sounded like a part of one of your videos in my head

[@doodoostickstain]

echelon...there's a name i haven't heard for a long time. still haven't haha :D

[@aussieguy1012]

when you see a youtuber on a youtuber channel feels like inception.

[@GameSack]

Great episode as always! I never got to play Bleemcast but have always wanted to try it. And not only has the industry embraced emulation, but companies are downloading random ROMs from the internet to include in their products rather than ripping the game themselves. A good example is Super Mario Bros included with the NES Classic Edition. The header information of the ROM reveals that it was, in fact, downloaded from the internet.

[@superrayman3]

+Game Sack I've played bleemcast with MGS and it's a pretty good experience for the most part, that being said it's far from perfect, for one thing the devs didn't get the sound emulation 100% right (the game seems to emulate only one of the stereo audio channels resulting in some SFX which made use of the stereo separation sound off, the gunshot sound that you hear as you make a selection on the main menu is the best example of this issue, it might not happen when using RF but it definitely does when using composite cables), another notable issue is the FMV sequences don't play the first few seconds at the start of the sequence and as a result the FMVs start playing at a point they weren't originally intended to (compare one of the FMVs during the conversation with president Baker between bleemcast and a PS1 and you'll see what I mean) the last notable issue is the speed of the game tends to get a bit spotty during a tuxedo snake playthrough (you also can't save during a tuxedo snake playthrough for some reason), other than those issues and a few minor oddities everything else is pretty good.

[@matthewpeckham811]

Game Sack I love your videos

[@Dac_vak]

Love seeing a random Game Sack comment in the wild.

[@JaesadaSrisuk]

WOW. That clip of Steve Jobs showcasing a PlayStation emulator at a Mac event was crazy. Could you image if some soft wear company released a product that emulated Apple software? The litigation would be swift.

[@CoalCoalJames]

............. do you even realize what you just typed, they already exist!!

[@StCerberusEngel]

The Virtual PC existed for Windows platforms as well. It let you run Mac OS. I still have my copy of VGS and VPC for Mac. They're great applications. Connectix knew what they were doing.

[@MegiddoTheImmaculate]

Justice J. Srisuk that's gross. Why would you want to emulate Apple software?

[@Puerco-Potter]

Malachi Megiddo they sue and constantly block the efforts of any iPhone emulator on Android so yeah, they are hypocrites. Also, there are iPhone exclusive games that I want to play...

[@StCerberusEngel]

I can run Windows natively on my current Mac. Feel better?

[@hathorliderc]

I would honestly LOVE to see you do a video on SNK. Whether it be their 3 lesser-known consoles, 2 handhelds, or their overall rise, fall, and slow progressive rebirth.

[@duncanwelker7450]

This is one of the First videos I had ever watched from the gaming historian. I remember watching it in eighth grade. Every year I come back to it and I feel nostalgia. Thank you Norm for everything you do.

[@TheHandlebarGamer]

I beta tested for bleem! back in the day. if you go to the about information on the PC version, "Ron Nicotine Dean" is me. I loved that emulator. great crew too.

[@TheHandlebarGamer]

we knew each other mostly by nicknames on EfNet.... It's also been many many years :\

[@TheHandlebarGamer]

he wen't by Sonikku - he was part of the team. so yes.

[@LuigiXHero]

He's the comment section futher up lol

[@TheHandlebarGamer]

GamingDude800 mostly thru IRC chats. He did send me a Voodoo 3 video card to test with tho!

[@lilith5489]

Guys he’s lying, he’s just trying to get likes, don’t believe it

[@mutecommercials]

Emulation was a poor kid's best friend back in the day, if it wasn't for zsnes I'd never know the joy that is chrono trigger.

[@Amishmediagroup]

James Savel I'm surprised that anyone else knows the ZSNES.

[@bpcgos]

TYRONE HUGGINS yeah... VBA and zsnes, its help me fill my gaming thirst when my old psx stop getting games anymore due to ps2...

[@ClassicBoxingMatches]

James Savel only emulator I ever used was Virtual Boy Advance. great times... I still have it on my PC actually lol

[@ryanmedows6072]

WAAAAT!!!?? Zsnes was the best. I found out about it when megaman x3 wouldn't work correctly on snes9x. I searched everywhere for alternative emulator. Then I found it. snes9x was also laggy.

[@doom5895]

The Icystorm 9 zsnes is just as good as snes9x

[@DefinitiveDubs]

Court cases are my favorite Historian episodes. I need more.

[@murderdoggg]

Turns out Bleem saved the Playstation Classic. Thank you guys from the past.

[@garyseven2308]

Gaming Historian, I was there and a part of what was going on. I supported the author Randy and his bleem project and even got my copy of bleem for free as a gift from him. We ran a channel for bleem fans on Efnet IRC during that time and it was a pretty fun time. Although a bit of a mess at first. Delays at first and a lot of pissed off customers who pre ordered the emulator who were awaiting the release. In the end after the battle with Sony, Randy ended up abandoning the project and selling off all related material on eBay to help make up for some losses. But to me personally bleem represented a win for us fans of emulation in terms of legality, and helped pave the way for future projects by other authors. I miss those days and was glad to be a part of it. So thanks for covering this topic and helping shed some light for todays users. I guess you could say our generation back in the 90s was what put much of what you see today on the map. I want emulation to survive and be known as a great way to both preserve older systems and provide a great way for fans to play their favorite games on PC, while looking even better than it did on the original system.

[@Gamevet]

I once owned all 3 Bleemcast discs for the Dreamcast. I didn't notice much of a difference while playing Metal Gear Solid on the DC, but the Bleemcast version of Gran Turismo 2 was like a whole new game.

[@Sonikkua]

Ha! I used to be a beta tester and support board admin back in the day for bleem! Was also part of the 2001 e3 booth.

[@peanutismint]

Can you tell us any Bleem! stories? What was it like working for them whilst (I assume) knowing they'd ultimately be forced under Sony's boot?! I'd especially like to know exactly what went down at that E3 booth confrontation....!!

[@PleasestopcallingmeDoctorImath]

Robert Petersen i pirated bleem from day1 ty

[@dcvk6250]

Holy shit, we've got an OG over here

[@THENAMEISQUICKMAN]

Cool to see you here, dude. What are you up to nowadays?

[@nosidezero]

That's awesome.

[@emdotrod]

I remembered beating Gran Turismo 2 on my AMD Duron PC with the VGS. The emulation was so good No wonder Sony took actions against it

[@fivesquaredyt2521]

Ardimo Harsa 69 likes

[@hotpateita4933]

1998 Sony: **sues company for an emulator and loses** 2018 Sony: **uses emulator for the PlayStation classic**

[@llSuperSnivyll]

**uses emulator badly**

[@avarainie27]

i installed autobleem and bleemsync on mine

[@andyeccentric]

There's no irony in that at all, the issue was control over the emulator, not the fact that emulation existed.

[@ym2612girl]

@@avarainie27 Dont tell sony

[@MJ-uk6lu]

2019: ps1 classic dies from the hate of Sony fans and still only some brave people risk to spend 30 dollars on that thing.

[@PanduPoluan]

Respect to Connectix and Bleem. They died fighting the good fight. May their story lives on forever!

[@lap456]

Ya it was like what 321 Studios did with their DVD X Copy program. By buying it you supported their fight with the movie companies to protect your rights.

[@benjackson7872]

Unlike Yuzu.

[@AxionZetaOne]

The moral of the story: It doesn't matter if you win or lose legally, just that you're big enough and rich enough to force your opponent out of business anyway.

[@aguyandhiscomputer]

Axioanarchist Correct. I wish it wasn't the case.

[@redroversk]

The American dream.

[@jacobson084]

If you were Sony you would release the hounds!

[@DFX2KX]

@Jacobson084 Not necessarily. I would surely have negotiated a nice chunk of the price for every CD sold, however.

[@bpcgos]

yeah,it's a shady practice by Sony by throwing such itigation until the defendant went bankrupt

[@PatTheNESpunk]

I have to find my old copy of Bleem! I used it to play Tekken 2 and Driver! Great video, Norm.

[@Random-eb5tn]

Pat the NES Punk?! What a suprise!

[@desther7975]

I had Connectix Virtual Game Station on my original model iMac before I ever even owned a Sony console. It was awesome! It offered full-speed emulation on that old system. Had a ball playing Jet Moto 3 on it.

[@OakCityGamers]

So true!

[@westsidethought]

poonk

[@dipron-dppt134]

Pat the NES Punk i remember ya. That Avgn episode..Nintendo World Championships.

[@punchabunchabuttons]

MAME ZSNES/SNES9X EPSXE/PCSX PPSSPP DESMUME VISUALBOYADVANCE-M PROJECT64 and a few others... I cant thank enough the people behind these emulators. Now that i know about them, i should also be thankful to Bleem and Connectix

[@bpcgos]

nizidibi no love for no$gba? its a decent ds emulator on its time

[@punchabunchabuttons]

I think it was the best when it first showed up. I remember trying it but if i recall correctly, there was something about money. Maybe a paid and a free version... I think you couldnt save or something like that i can't recall exactly. Plus by the time i got into GBA emulation the VisualBA was already out and it was filling the GBA gap for me. But all in all, its all connected and your right we should show love for it also. :)

[@solarstrike33]

mGBA's a new challenger to VBA(-M)'a crown. Don't forget Higan, Stella, Dolphin, PCSX2, Mednafen, SSF and Yabause, Reicast, and even more bold projects like Cemu, Xenia, and RPCS3 in your list.

[@yittmashups]

Yes. The big difference between the names you listed, and the ones in video above, are that all of those were made as freeware, for the love of it, and not trying to compete against the companies whose product it was imitating, for monetary profit, like the guys in the video.

[@32BitLink]

I love the GX Wii versions of some of these emulators my Wii is a great big screen emulator box now! :)

[@SuperNoncents]

I just found this channel today. may I please say that your content is fantastic. It's well thought out and presented in a such a pleasant way. I'm about to binge watch!

[@josephludwig7761]

Watch the history of R.O.B the robot

[@Chad_Thundercock]

The fact that Sony lost the legal battles, but was able to outspent Bleem and effectively "win" the long game, is a clear indication that there are serious problems with our current legal system. I don't have solutions to these problems, but they still need to be addressed and if at all possible, solved.

[@wapple1492]

@D Zuke might does niot make right. It just allows you to enforce your version of right which is nit necassarily the objective right.

[@kenosabi]

Yep. Two tiers: the average citizen and corps/connected/famous/politician. Alec Baldwin kills a woman - never does a day in jail. Various US presidents involved in massive corruption all the way up to war crimes? Nothing happens. Corrupt government agencies acting on their own will and benefit? Refusing to answer subpoenas and congress? Nothing. Massive corps whose entire strategy is simply "to big to lose" rather then legal standing? Cake walk. I can name tons of names and scenarios but this is the general jest. Your or I? Bend over buddy - here comes the long hard one of the gov and the fullest extent of the legal system. We're staring in the worst movie ever: Dude Where's My Country

[@LaskyLabs]

Let's not let that happen to Yuzu

[@hkoizumi3134]

Those were the days. I grew up in the 90s and I keep saying to younger people that 90s were the golden years of PC. It was the time when highspeed internet and file sharing arose, modding became mainstream, emulation were advertised, MMO were becoming a thing, and online multiplayer exploded into the gaming industry. I am so privilege to experience these first hand. Did anyone grow up in this era?

[@justinogorsell5957]

Yes those where the good ol days when doom, quake and duke numkem where the shit. Dos Games win 3.1 win 95 win 98 and a good video card and 56k Modem or as i started with a 3k Modem Slow slow slow....

[@jc.1191]

High speed came out in 2005

[@plnkfloydian7814]

Relax, things are infinitely better today

[@Cyraxior]

Yeah, you're mistaking the 90s for the 2000s. High speed internet and file-sharing were in THAT decade.

[@justmason7672]

I will always look fondly back on those early emulation days in the mid 90s. Finding roms on websites using dial up internet felt like a treasure hunt. It something very few gamers remember.

[@Vampier]

I was pretty deep into emulation at the time (I started in 1996 when Nesticle and SNES96) where the kings of emulation. I can't remember the emulator new from Steve Snake (SEGA Megadrive). I remember when Bleem was released and I remember what you say in this video. This video is great and very factual.... it was right around the time when I finally got high speed internet and went away from dial-up. Now I'm part of the openMSX team (MSX emulator) and due to any copyrights infringement we created our own BIOS (c-bios) which allows most ROM games to be played. I can't believe it's been over 21 years by now.

[@ForOdinAndAsgard]

What the fuck would one want with an MSX emulator?

[@ym2612girl]

Puyo MSX?

[@Austin_Hart]

I remember going into a media store when I was a teen passing through Mississippi in 2000. I remember seeing Bleem! in stock on the shelves and reading the box. Tech was exciting then because it was all new.

[@KellyK]

smart kids had their systems 'chipped' and simply burned PSX ISO's onto burnable discs. aww yee

[@Iagomao]

that's how I used to do it, but that technique is from around the mid 2000s, back when the PS2 was already around. I remember waiting a day to download a PS1/PS2 game to burn it. Good times.

[@bm373]

Lol I remember people getting theirs chipped

[@travelingzeuslover4122]

My teacher burned discs for PlayStation back in 99' and showed us his illegal copies.

[@TheEtherny]

My uncle used to do this for us, I never understood what exactly was happening, all I knew is Daniel could suck it cause I could play Mario Party AND Mario Kart without paying a cent

[@jc.1191]

@Michael Mathers I had a 2.1 gig and an 8.4 gig in 99. 😋

[@seanbperiod]

I had both of these emulators. It was so ground breaking at the time, to have a commercially released emulator that worked fairly well.

[@Soniti1324]

Then EPSXE ate both their lunches.

[@IvyANguyen]

Didn't that come years later once way faster PC hardware was around?

[@Zero-di9mz]

EPSXE sucks kiddo Mednafen its were it is but i guess you like your bad emulation so keep on it

[@edamjone-hash3626]

Proto Razor Could you tell me why you think this?

[@Burn_Angel]

Edam Jone - Hash Probably only because he has a brain. There are people in this world that only speak because they can. Personally, while Mednafen has compatibility with a lot of systems (and was the only PC-FX emulator I could find), ePSXe is easier to use and handle, and as far as I've seen, Mednafen doesn't even allow you to change controls. And I've never had any emulation problems with ePSXe anyway.

[@jackjohnson5123]

Imagine if Sony embraced the idea of pc disk emulating and was able to capitalize on it. PC gaming would be a completely different landscape with the console companies having a huge presence. Looking back at it now you can see that it was a missed opportunity.

[@BlackLense]

Microsoft already did that with all their games available on xbox and pc.

[@TheGreatBackUpVIDEOS]

Now it's just a subscription service to stream games.

[@Houndouur]

Imagine that being the norm, and forcing companies to compete on actual features instead of exclusives

[@User-sb6er]

This shows that sony is not an innovative company..and only care about having the most market share and just focus on selling hardware units..no matter what they are.

[@wanderingwobb6300]

What an awesome dream that could've been. Sony's been porting more games to PC as of late and MS also has a renewed interest in the PC platform after being absent during much of the X360 and earlier Xbone days.

[@justinm9835]

Been using emulators for years now, had no idea they were once a product sold in stores

[@Chrispy9393]

At 17:29 that's a picture from the mall near my house! I miss Babbages. It was way better than the current store that's in there now.

[@in16293]

Emulators might be in a grey area. but they help preserve games. future gamers may not experience today's games 20 years on. I just recently bought an N64 because i've been playing N64 emulators for 20 years and that made me interested in getting the real deal. Thank you all Emulator Devs!!!

[@evilcartoonmoon3370]

in16293 did you buy all the games you illegaly pirated and played over that 20 year period? Ill assume not and that means the vast majority was stolen and didnt earn the game devs any money, ty emulator devs for letting this thief enjoy an industry that I support and keep going with my money. But dont worry hes one of those good guy thiefs who after 20 years of stealing finally coffed up some money.....

[@alexgardner3125]

Purple Purp I hate to break it to you, but if you buy a used system and used games, the devs are not making any money off of it. Emulating games and systems that are long off of the new market does zero financial harm to any game developer. In fact, emulation is the only way to play a lot of games now. A lot of my old game boy colour games have run out of battery, and therefore can no longer even have save files

[@IRNatman]

Purple Purp What's hilarious about your comment is that buying used games and systems, while 100% legal, does not support the original devs in any way. So get off your ridiculous high horse. Also, the vast majority of games on old consoles are not available in a form that supports the devs ANYWHERE. So am I supposed to just be a good little boy and forget those games existed? What makes downloading the ROM any worse than giving some dude on eBay 50$ for it? What a joke.

[@johnsmith-fe2lu]

That is what sucks. There is no way to directly support great developers. Think of art. The artist typically doesn't get paid directly and the work is not fully appreciated intally. The best thing we should do is keep the games alive and share them thru to a larger audience. Think about music and movies and books. I wish hard work and creativity got ppl paid better then some business practices. Talking bout rock star here bcuz they went from a great game into a money making machine that isn't a fun for me anymore. Sorry bout ranting but I wish more ppl would make great things for all of us instead working for ppl and companies just trying to make money

[@HighStar9821]

you can still support these great developers you mentioned if they still have available products to sell

[@oofta.gaming]

It's a good day when there's a new Historian video.

[@Charles-qh3yw]

Yup!

[@sammfiggy112284]

SupaPixelGirl i. agree

[@devilxking2]

Please go away.

[@choldies7326]

Seismic Swan I'm an internet troll, it's what I must do to achieve sexual release.

[@1310up]

You damn right!

[@RedShockInc]

Amazing work as always, i love this channel, i never heard about this two emulators, when i started to use them i download the emulators from the internet like Project 64 or PSX

[@sinfoniasanchez7407]

Que haces aquí, Alex?

[@booqueefious2230]

My first 2 years in highschool, I had to stay for about 2 hours after school to get the bus, so sometimes I'd hang out in the library. I had a SNES emulator with a bunch of games on a USB drive, and a plug and play controller that had all the right buttons, so I'd literally just plug into one of the computers in the homework lab and play SNES games. It was pretty cool. They couldn't really get mad at me because I wasn't hurting the computer, it's all on the fly, and I was stuck there because I lived out of county so I had to ride the late bus... Anyway, that was pretty cool. Also you could save anywhere you wanted, and there were some custom games and other fun things you could do, it had a built in cheating device

[@moxty2795]

Rip Bleem We will not forget you and your great contribution to supporting PlayStation 1 emulation Now he is your successor Duckstion Doing Well

[@Lugmillord]

Man, being able to reverse engineer technology is such an incredible skill. I have a lot of respect for people who can pull that off. ...well, if they do it properly. I'm not talking about cheap chinese rip-offs. That's certainly not reverse ingeneering.

[@catlover10192]

It's definitely reverse engineering, and often that aspect of it is quite impressive. It's the build quality of the copies that's the shoddy part.

[@joeyparkhill8751]

Excellent video Gaming Historian!

[@Untouchaable]

Emulators get a bad wrap but I enjoy them. Retro games get too expensive.

[@chadwilliams6113]

Right, no way will I pay that much for a Lil Samson

[@hitmanwolf]

Haha! Little Samson is the Target of many jokes. Emulation isn't just about re-living our childhood... but it is all about keeping those games alive FOREVER, so that they may not die along with their consoles.

[@JohnDoe-ys1vb]

Nintendo even downloaded a super Mario bro ROM for an NES emulator _because they didn't have access to it,_ even though it's arguably their most popular game.

[@DefinitiveDubs]

This. I shouldn't have to pay $5 for Super Mario Brothers.

[@beatzguy]

Dude same.

[@kingcollie]

Man, I'm beyond perplexed at how I've never seen your channel before?? I've been using youtube since day 1 and this is the stuff i'm always looking for and not once had I seen a video of yours pop up until today. Thats some broken youtube algorithm setup! Glad I finally made it though, your videos are so solid, thanks man!

[@kingcollie]

Also may I add on the subject of how broken youtube can get; this popped up after watching a sports highlight video lol. Alrighty!

[@LorenHelgeson]

I don't remember the Virtual Game Station, but I recall hearing a lot of buzz surrounding Bleem! and it's legal status. I even saw it in bargain bins once or twice when visiting my local mall. This was back in the day when CompUSA and Virgin Music stores were still a thing.

[@rushnerd]

Zelda BotW on PC is as beautiful thing as Mother 3 fully translated.

[@LuigiXHero]

Cemu emulator says hi.

[@aussieguy1012]

also in 4k (2160p) vs 720p.So emulators are still superior.

[@goober8843]

"and not take it with them wherever they go". Speaking for myself, when i'm out in the real world the last thing i'm doing is playing a videogame, with that said, i much rather prefer playing the game on cemu running at 2160p with mods than on my roomates switch. "amateur emulation can only reach 99% and professional emulators only ever reach 99.99% accuracy", lol that's really reaching for something to complain about, even if that's the case, 00.01% is pretty negligible. I think you are just salty that people are able to enjoy a game at the same, if not better quality than the official hardware without having to buy a 300-400 dollar system

[@GrayFoxHound9]

Nihilistic Psychopath *NES joke*. I love my psx, ps2 and psp, but lets be honest, PC emulators are better at psx and ps2 games. Loadings are less than eternity. That's already THE dealbreaker.

[@WootmansayWOOT]

i think the issue here is you're arguing with someone named nihilistic psychopath, the name alone proves they're an idiot.

[@FocusSight]

I love the back of the Bleemcast discs. "And to shut up all the lawyers:"

[@LanIost]

One of the best episodes ever, imho. Glad to see episodes are coming again more regularly.

[@CeeKayz0rz]

I loved the PBS-esque "funding for" title card... Really made me feel nostalgic.

[@CaptainFarthouse]

Now that emulation is so prevalent today I wonder why the major console makers don't make and sell emulators of their old consoles themselves. I think a lot of people would buy an official nes, snes, n64 etc. emulator from Nintendo

[@Poctyk]

> don't make and sell emulators of their old consoles themselves. ??? Isn't Nintendo virtual console exactly that?

[@crisp9929]

Booji Boy Virtual console on Nintendo, and since PS3, haven't there Been PlayStation 1games on The PS Store?

[@paradoxzee6834]

Booji Boy You mean an emulator that can play every single NES, SNES or N64 game? I can already see how 3rd parties would be pissed if they do that

[@Shabadaba1216]

CodeNameZ It's not like third parties can do anything about it, anyways.

[@paradoxzee6834]

Dont be so sure about it, reselling retro games is free money for the 3rd party companies, thats why the Wii Virtual Console is so big with 3rd party game. We all know how money hungry some companies are. Take a company like Capcom there is a reason why they made Megaman Legacy collection for the PS4, X1 and 3DS or ported all NES Megaman games to google play, because that for them is more, less free money

[@harpella]

Excuse my ignorance, it's been a while. I had this gameshark / mod chip thing I stuck in the back of my PS1. Use to burn rented games back in the day, or dload them from IRC. Even had a little spring you had to put in the cd tray to get through the copy right. Insert legit disc first then put in the burnt game. Is this worth a video?

[@brillopad6901]

I had one of those myself, it was called a Game Hunter. I had a friend who went to Thailand or Singapore (can't remember which place it was for sure) and brought a few back. I remember only playing two burned games with it. I think I still have it somewhere.

[@harpella]

Nice! I have no idea what mine was called. Looked through some google pics and I think it might have been the Xploder. Picked it up at local game store.

[@japzone]

A video covering mod chips would be interesting. They were never a big deal where I lived so I've never had any experience with them. Closest I've gotten to one is a Flashcard for my DS, but that's not really a ModChip

[@aussieguy1012]

This would have enabled you to pass through sonys piracy protection.There was something about a frequency in mhz that had to be detected.Only later games supported it I believe.The spring was used for swap disc method (insert retail game clear copyright protection swap disc for backup)IT also did cheats gamesaves etc.

[@brillopad6901]

japzone My kids had some of those cards for their DS as well.

[@BlazeRhodon]

Today both working PSX emulators ePSXe and PCSX-R don't require original PSX BIOS. They both use HLE (High-level emulation) BIOS. It seems Connectix VGS was a predecessor of modern high-level emulators. Most emulators in development like RPCS3 (PS3 emulator), Xenia (XBOX 360 emulator) and Cemu (Wii U emulator) also use HLE and don't require BIOS. Exception is PCSX2 (PS2 emulator) where complex architecture of PS2 makes HLE almost impossible and PS2 BIOS is necessary.

[@SerBallister]

Legally speaking, you would still have to explain were you get the information from to build an HLE bios. Which is inevitably going to lead to admission of reverse engineering and then the DMCA screws you.

[@Syclone0044]

Remember UltraHLE? That was the most impressive emulator I've seen. We were all blown away back in the day.

[@yittmashups]

Wait, since when does ePSXe not need a PlayStation bios? I just downloaded the newest release a few months ago, and I had to additionally find a dumped bios from an actual PlayStation for it, as always. Good old schp1001.

[@ForOdinAndAsgard]

@@yittmashups Not to break your bubble but the SCPH1001.bin is a HLE bios and not the dump of an actual playstation bios.

[@YoshMaster]

As an Apple user since 1995, I was an avid user of Connectix Virtual Game Station since the beginning. In fact I played all my classics like Metal Gear Solid and Suikoden 1-2 on my Mac, never owning a PS1 haha. Back then I just rent the games at Blockbuster and copied them on cds as I had a burner really early (worked all summer for it!!).

[@Isaax]

The subtle, ambient Ape Escape music in the background... just wow. Subscribed.

[@davorz]

Brilliant as always. I'm still surprised your subscriptors number is not so big when you quality videos is amazing. I'm quite sure that if you try to attach subs in other languages (spanish specially) that number will increase a lot cause south american viewers are one of biggest pieces of youtube cake.

[@MrTrickBrick]

I used to emulate a lot when I was younger, but nowadays I appreciate the hardware a lot more. I managed to get a Sega Mega Drive for £40 two years ago and beating one of my favourite games, Sonic 2, on the original console was so satisfying. With that being said, I have been emulating some GBA games recently because screw those eBay prices.

[@hanniffydinn6019]

Marco Polo you can love both I play gba on iPad more, but still collect cartridges when I get one cheap.

[@MrTrickBrick]

I love both, it's just sometimes an issue of money. There is a car boot sale (AKA a flea market) near me coming up this Easter holiday, so hopefully there's some good stuff there for cheap. Last time I went to one I got a GBA SP and Mario Advance 2 for £8 each as well as an original Xbox with 13 games (and 2 PS2 games) for £10.

[@JoshuaRWorkman]

I know the feeling. When my red and black DS wants to work, I can still play some of the few GBA games I still have, but recently, I've been playing the GBA version of Breath of Fire II. My financial situation being what it is, I can't afford to pay what people want on eBay or Amazon for GBA cartridges most days. I can, however, afford the free emulator I play my free GBA and GBC ROMs on.

[@hanniffydinn6019]

Danny Sweeney well you've got emulation in the mean time. Have the fun in retro collecting is finding stuff cheap and on the hunt bargain hunting in places like charity shops and car boot sales etc... I got in a bust up over a sega mega drive with tonnes of games for like 10 quid in a boot sale. I just gave up the other guy was desperate to have it. So it's kinda fun. I think people now know retro games have value.

[@MrTrickBrick]

I generally just establish a meeting place and a time when we are ready to go home somewhere in the car boot sale, and then I can head off in my own direction while my mum looks at all the crockery and books.

[@HEADBOY_PHENOMENON]

Personally I prefer to use an emulator to play my PSX library, simply because I can use shaders to make my copy of Crash Bash in HD (that and I can finally save my progress).

[@kevinedwards7670]

I watched the video and when you said that Bleem! was being made for Dreamcast, I said, "Why don't they call it Bleemcast?" I thought I was so original. Then the next scene it shows the name was actually Bleemcast lol Laughed at my monitor. Great video!

[@TigerDan04]

Your videos are so complete and fun to watch!!! It’s obvious you’ve put a ton of work into these, so while I’m binging these, just wanted to stop and say thanks! I’ll head on over to Patreon now

[@OakCityGamers]

Great video! It’s incredibly informative like always! It’s all stuff we barely knew!

[@superroboted]

I remember the bleemcast disc that could run more than just the three games fore mentioned. I still have it somewhere in my stash of game back-ups I have when I sold my old collection of Japanese imports. I remember playing ridge Racer Type 4 on my DC but you had no way to save your data. I have to admit RR4 still looks better on the DC than it does on the PS2 or PS3. RIP Bleem I remember buying the Gran Turismo 2 kit from Best Buy.

[@Magestig]

Ironically, Sony used a third-party emulator on their PlayStation Classic

[@brewHamm]

Pcsx-reloaded. :3

[@urijahkeshka]

I used bleem! just for its purposes. Buying the software at my local Best Buy back in those days, popping it into my 1997 IBM machine, a few small steps of CTRL-Click and drag to the desktop as a shortcut. And finally using my neighbor's PS1 games to borrow for the weekend. It was miraculous what had done with the ever so updating graphics of the future. I'll go as far to say that I even bought myself a translucent gamepad that looked like a replicant of the PlayStation controller.

[@robercano]

I always wonder who dislikes this kind of videos... I found it amazing! Thanks for bringing back fond memories of times past with a lot of interesting information!

[@scottsummers6870]

They not only expose people to new games but also to be able to play those that where kinda expensive at their release date and that right now are so f*****g expensive xD

[@Harrisow]

Yep! NES, SNES, and other games are very expensive on eBay as of right now! So Emulators FTW!

[@greatmallard9318]

Wesley Harrison don't forget that more obscure games would be lost to history if not for emulators

[@xmisfit666x]

Dude how do you not have your own tv show lmao, you do these so well, I could do see this being a show on vice, or maybe discovery a 'la "how its made"

[@TheDukeOfZill]

I was put off by bleem not playing Final Fantasy Tactics very well xD I was mostly into RPGs, not so much racing or sports which seemed to be the most compatible. too bad :/ even platformers had their bad issues. For those wondering, in FFT, anytime the characters would talk (the dialog box sfx) it would make a grinding sound that simply didn't stop, ever... even after closing the program. Years later epsx (the one that came before epsxe) was the first ray of hope in which I could play my PS games on my PC. I had a beautiful Pentium 3 600MHz with a Riva TNT, the experience was soooo smooth. omg I seriously miss the good'ol late 90s... literally 1999, year of digimon, escaflowne, basically all fun shows on FOX, PS games, N64. someone pinch me, I hate living in present times ToT

[@siphr]

Ohhh man, I remember Bleem! 100 points for striking a nostalgic chord.

[@DJANDREAJP]

Notice the Pulseman footage in 0:39 . That game was my blue spring, and even I'm now 20, this is still my milestone as a video gamer. Plus I love emulators (But of course I buy games and hardware data to dump in my pc), and I actually own the Pulseman game case with the cartridge & manual.

[@lurkerrekrul]

I forgot to mention that I think Sony missed a golden opportunity amidst the push to get rid of the emulators; They could have put out an updated version of the Playstation with higher resolution and filtering. If the emulators could upgrade the graphics in Playstation games, there's no reason the same capabilities couldn't have been added to the actual console. In fact, there's no technical reason that consoles couldn't have a built-in save state mechnism rather than leave it up to each game developer to add a save option to their games. Of course doing so would require users to have more space than Sony's crappy little proprietary memory cards contain.

[@MaxonerousX]

That would cost them money though, and make current owners of PlayStation angry, like what happened with the New 3ds, PS4 pro and XBONE X

[@yittmashups]

No, because all of those nice effects and polygon smoothing and stuff was done by powerful PC video cards, something Sony was limited without in the PlayStation.

[@scorchx3000]

It was cheaper to throw bogus lawsuits around to remove the competition then match what the competition could do.

[@CanadaBud23]

I had that thought as well. I was wondering why Nintendo and Sony had garbage hardware when my scrap PC's could emulate their own game's for better value than the consoles themselves. Money would pop up as the answer, didn't think licensing fees was a thing back then.

[@fratercontenduntocculta8161]

And now “classic” re-release consoles are literally plug in emulators. Kinda ironic that companies like nintendo fought their use and now have profited handsomely from them.

[@mep6302]

Nintendo and Sony are against emulation when it's convinient.

[@music-by-storm]

I don't think these companies were ever against emulation as a concept, but more so the potential lost profits that could result from consumers choosing emulation over buying an actual copy of the game. Their end goal has always been (and always will be) to profit as much as possible, so I don't think it's surprising at all that they are now using emulation to their advantage.

[@antoniojoserunez4165]

@@music-by-storm Sure but what if the consoles are discontinued? Consumers will surely not buy an SNES game when the PS2 came out. Even though there are secondhand copies, the money doesn't go to the company. So I think emulation of old systems like PS1, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy etc. are legal. And of course emulation became profit at the end because of Virtual Console, Switch Online, XBox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network etc.

[@voteDC]

@@music-by-storm It was emulation as the concept they were against back then. After all the emulators both required you use the actual game disc to play. Sony and other companies sell their consoles at a loss, at least initially, and recoup that money back from licensing fees. Essentially if you want to put a game on a console you need to pay the manufacturer to be able to do that. What Sony were worried about was that companies would release 'Playstation' games explicitly for bleem! or CVGS, therefore bypassing the license fee that Sony required for a game to be put on their hardware.

[@BakkerCraft]

1:13 My god, that sure is an ad from the 90's

[@THEREALDATALORD]

Dude, your channel is so rad. You crush it. Excellent work as usual.

[@VMeGaMRedZV]

I used to own these two emulators - Bleem! and The Connectix Virtual Game Station. Those two was legendary. Thanks for making this video about it.

[@ibapreppie]

Bleem! Was amazing. Also, I was 15 years old with a complete NES rom library at 16, not that hard at all. Im 39

[@CommanderCrash]

Console are becoming like cable tv service. And you know how cable tv is doing lol

[@johntracy72]

The best bet then is to go retro and have an NES or SNES, Sega Genesis or Playstation 1 or 2.

[@marx4538]

>implying that consoles like Nintendo Switch are doing like cable tv L O L

[@lilbitofthebubbly5480]

Sorry dude, But Consoles are far from dying. The success of the Nintendo Switch & PS4, as well as the utter failure of micro-consoles, and the unreliability of mobile gaming proves this notion.

[@Ballowax]

@@lilbitofthebubbly5480 I hate mobile gaming and their pay to win buisness practices

[@Ballowax]

@@lilbitofthebubbly5480 What do you mean when you say micro consoles

[@blurengo]

17:47 imagine not being able to die in peace

[@Mekanaizer]

Hello, to add to the video we almost released BleemCast: Final Fantasy IX and BleemCast: WWF Smackdown too. We showed GT2 not GT1, plus RR4 and if I recall Omega Squad or what ever FPS game it was.

[@DungarooTV]

Subscribed. Your docs are very well researched, put together and contains a lot of relative video unlike many others with irrelevant background photos or videos. Love your work.

[@MrVarhansen]

Damn, my buddy had a bleem! CD haha i remember his older brother had it. To us children it was mindblowing

[@NaviciaAbbot]

Nintendo still claims that "Emulation is Piracy and is illegal"

[@CyTeran17]

Joshua Cain it may be in Japan, Nintendo doesn't actually consider the rest of the world as existing.

[@KuroNoTenno]

Nintendo claims that EVERYTHING is illegal if it isn't done by them.

[@marcos.aviles.salinas]

And to support your claim, take in consideration that they're battling this kind of tropes since the times of the Game Genie back in the 80's, so... yeah, you can say that earnestly...

[@PokeTube]

And I emulate gameboys

[@Lighthammer18]

They have a bigger point now when emulations almost exclusively relies on piracy. I'm just so fucking tired of not being able to play console games on the PC. Modern computers are leagues ahead of any console, just makes no sense to restrict those games to an underpowered and overvalued box that literally doesn't do anything else. I can perfectly understand that some people may want a console instead of a PC, but why restrict games like that?

[@MyBrothersMario]

I love that Patreon thank you message, it reminds me of when PBS used to be my main source for TV, and all the hours spent watching Reading Rainbow.

[@deccodestroy6960]

Awesome Video, knocked it out the part like always, glad to see you back.

[@TylerGamer765]

I remember back in 2004 I was going to a small game shop and the guy who ran the place turned me on to emulation. He talked me into buying a jail broke Dreamcast him and his buddy modded it still played Dreamcast games plus the burns. Man I had literally every genesis ,nes,snes,n64 and ps1 game ever made! They actually played pretty good for the most part as far as I can remember

[@earlduran6419]

R.I.P Wii Shop Channel

[@sylvesterharris5282]

I really enjoyed watching your videos they're very informative but you know what I kind of miss the intro that you use to have

[@commentcopbadge6665]

I miss his hair...

[@namelastname5844]

CommentCop Badge#666 same

[@MrHurricaneFloyd]

The name "bleem!" represents an interpretation of the Playstation(1) startup sound. I thought that was common knowledge.

[@Ryan-is-me]

I just discovered your channel recently and I really enjoy it. Thanks for the great work! One thing that I would be really interested to learn about is the history of AGDQ. It's only a few years old, but it's grown fast and kicked the speedrunning community into overdrive. Just a suggestion. But I think it would get a lot of views since AGDQ is so popular.

[@TheHyny]

Man that Ape Escape training level music hit me in the nostalgia organ HARD.

[@RichardServello]

Now we have 4k upres emulators that are driven 100% thru piracy. Good job Sony!

[@archetype6351]

@@ichijofestival2576 Plus, physical media was a lot more common back then. Many had cd drives in their computers. I don't think a lot of people would buy Blu Ray drives for a pc nowadays to ethically emulate ps3 for example when they could just pirate a game online.

[@derossetmyers47]

I can't blame Sony for fighting these emulators. If I was selling consoles, I wouldn't want people to be able to play those games without said consoles. I don't understand what you mean by the licensing fees though. Wouldn't companies still have to pay Sony to make their games PlayStation-compatible? Otherwise, it seems like they'd just be making games for computers that needed extra software.

[@Tornado1994]

They did it to save face and protect a LIE. The actually secrets of the PS1's CPU: Its weak and underpowered. Sony intentionally mislead and lied to people about its specs.

[@fysl305]

omg, you're going through the comments spreading lies about a piece of hardware thats 20 YEARS OLD!!! Amazing life you have.

[@Rockymann27]

Plus, it was their first console and wanted to make sure it was a success.

[@SomeRandomGuy369]

Well Sony actually pays the game creators to make it Playstation compatible. The creators get payed once sometimes and then Sony just makes money back by sales. The Playstation at the time was an amazing piece of hardware for the price in the 90s. Pc's cost about 3 to 4 times the price then. Emulation is wrong. Especially trying to commercialize it.

[@sridharchander6546]

Sass's assassins Assad haven't heard g get it this

[@cabbycabby1770]

When I think of the "legality" of emulators, I think of risk vs reward vs morality. At this point, who am I hurting when I play a PC Engine emulator? No one. edit: missed a word.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Eh, that's iffy. Hudson still licenses out their games from time to time, as well as releasing some on Nintendo's various Virtual Consoles. It was kind of a big deal when TG16 games first appeared on the Wii. So there's still a bit of dilution going on, but I certainly wouldn't say it was major.

[@wolfgangamadeus232]

You hurt the copyright-nazis.

[@user-cu1uj6bl3r]

my rule is if developers are no longer distributing the content, or don't sell to my country, its free game to obtain it through other means. If companies allow me to buy their games, I will gladly buy. Buying second hand albeit a "legal" copy. It has the same effects on the market as piracy does. So what's my incentive really?

[@georgehenson2412]

Never feel bad about using an EMULATOR. That's 100% legal and it's been proven in cases beyond the two demonstrated here. The legal issue is in the ROMS.

[@bioforest6602]

Nicholas Cabrera Exactly!

[@stopthrm]

I like the patreon blurb at the end. It sounds so professional and PBS like.

[@BaghaShams]

I remember being so confused seeing Bleem in retail store shelves. I just didn't understand how this could be a real product being sold in legit stores.

[@yangashi]

I hope Nintendo doesn't repeat history and starts suing Cemu. Today's courts favor big companies way more than they did in 1999

[@yangashi]

Bobsican wrote: "But either way, they are going the other way suing almost any Nintendo-related fangame. I´M LOOKING AT YOU, POKÉMON, MARIO AND ZELDA." but for some reason his comment was flagged as spam, keep it together youtube.

[@creativeusername6453]

I hope they do, fuck pirates. this doesn't apply to just Nintendo all publishers should start going after emulators

[@yangashi]

Are you complete idiot or do you try to troll? Such idiotic comment can only come from someone completely oblivious to what emulation aims to do. Go educate yourself before posting such nonsence. Or perhaps you are Nintendo fanatic and you want to drag everybody to buy an overpriced tablet?

[@creativeusername6453]

asdaffewwerqa asafdaqwrad if you legitimately think everyone that emulates games buys everything they play then you're either stupid or in denial. It was ok when these things required legitimate copies of games but now anyone can go online and download a room for a game that just came out

[@yangashi]

You still don't get it do you? If anyone wants to pirate a game they don't need emulation. Wii U has been hacked for some time now and you can easily run games from USB. Emulation is for preserving older games that otherwise will be lost, and second is trying to provide a better experience than the consoles. Most recent example will be the Zelda:BOTW that now runs at 60FPS without any drops at 4K on cemu 1.7.5 unlike the 720p 30FPS with the occasional old-timey cinematic of 10FPS drops on the Switch. And guess what, VC on Wii U and Switch IS an emulator and even Nintendo themselves have used roms from the internet because they have lost the original data of some their games (google it)

[@sammylane21]

And now we have Nintendo E Shop,the Playstation store and Xbox's Store.A real damn shame that we don't have all the games from these systems on their respective emu stores,but especially the E Shop,I want more of the more popular NES and SNES games!

[@Bobsican]

Then, go to 3ds.guide/