Hang On, When Did Bleem! Come Back?
It’s funny how some things make a comeback. Like Bleem!
In case you missed the news, Bleem! was a company that produced a trio of discs for the Sega Dreamcast that would allow you to run select PlayStation games — to some extent — on the system. The games were Gran Turismo 2, Tekken 3 and Metal Gear Solid. Others were planned, but, sadly, Bleem! didn’t survive long enough to stick around.
Sony did try to sue Bleem!, noting that the emulation was illegal and that it should be stopped at all costs. But the lawsuit failed, as the courts believed no intellectual rights were up for grabs. Still, the legal costs no doubt put Bleem! into a world of hurt that it would never recover from.
Or so we thought.
Years later, Piko Interactive, of all people, is bringing Bleem! back. But not in the way you think.
In a new blog post, the game publisher talked about Bleem.net, and its intentions for the new website.
“Bleem.net is a celebration of all things retro, mainly the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. It is a safe space where you will find a bit of everything from the era. It is like a destination store, or like some sort of digital mall? It’s hard to explain.”
It continued, “Capture all those fuzzy feelings of having things you love and you love to do in one place; having that online website you love to check out every so often to see if there is anything new.
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“Again, super hard to explain… Now, how do we plan to do this? Well, we don’t know yet for sure, but I’ve built an “arsenal” of things that could help us do that.”
So not entirely the same Bleem! You won’t be able to play Crash Bandicoot on your Dreamcast (not without a good program, anyhoo), and there’s nothing in the works to make Klonoa: Door To Phantomile work on the platform. (ARGH!)
But that said, this is an interesting choice by Piko. And it appears that Bleem! tech will be used to some extent with the company’s forthcoming games via an online portal. Just check out the trailer below and you can actually see the Bleem! logo at the end.
Crazy, right? Again, it’s not the Bleem! of old, but it’s still some neat incorporation of a long-lost piece of tech that a lot of gamers easily remember. And, honestly, if the Bleem.net portal can remind us of the games of old — something that Piko has been working on for some time, might I add — then it could truly be beneficial.
Hell, now I want to hunt down old Bleem!cast discs and see if they still work. Just because it’s curious.
While we’re bringing back 90s things, is the cast of Beakman’s World still busy? Hmmm.
Side note: I am in the middle of the Hurricane Milton zone, so I may be offline depending on how things go. Hope you can read up on my older blog posts in the meantime, and I’ll return soon enough.
Thanks for reading and following, and have a great week! And if you’re in the Florida area, stay safe!
