Bleem, the company that helped make emulation legal, is being resurrected and teases "the largest retro gaming project"

Bladexdsl · Wednesday at 8:07 PM

tech3475 said:
If this is 'GOG but with retro ROMs' I wouldn't have an issue with that.

it won't be they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they tried. old N would come down on them like a tonne of bricks day one unless it's retro roms but without their shit

tech3475 · Wednesday at 8:23 PM

Bladexdsl said:
it won't be they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they tried. old N would come down on them like a tonne of bricks day one unless it's retro roms but without their shit

Are you referring to the ROMs or libraries within the ROMs?

Because if it's the former then I don't know where you got the idea from that I'm expecting them to sell unlicensed ROMs, but in the case of the latter then it would depend on the game, although there may be some precedent e.g. Bubsy on Steam uses a SNES emulator.

Shape · Wednesday at 8:27 PM

Bladexdsl said:
it won't be they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they tried. old N would come down on them like a tonne of bricks day one unless it's retro roms but without their shit

In theory, the few devs that do still have source code and rights to their retro IP could enter distribution and re-compile their ROMs to exclude the DRM (such as Nintendo boot screens). One of my sources reminds me that it is a trend in several international industries to torch the source when it's distributed, however, so there's no telling how many are out there.

But let's be honest here. "Largest retro game project ever?"

They're going to bake the world's largest N64 or PlayStation 1, like in that film, Bruce Almighty, with the cookie.

Missing Number · Wednesday at 9:24 PM

i wonder which IPs..... would be hella sweet if they built an engine that supported a tonne of abandoned IPs. porting the games to modern platforms and opening them to crossplay/save, online/local co-op and modding, with support for mods.io, steamworkshop, nexus etc. and cross content like how Indies sometime link up like seeing stardew in balatro and terraria / dungeon defenders.

ChronosNotashi · Thursday at 4:53 AM

Reploid said:
Nin will sue them in a flash

Or Sony might be like "What?! You're seeking to oppose us again? Fine. This time, we'll make sure you STAY dead!"

choolisfound · Thursday at 2:05 PM

ShadowOne333 said:
View attachment 472089

Over two decades ago, a small company by the name of Bleem! appeared and offered a unique product in the gaming market, the ability to play PlayStation games outside of the original hardware, in what would be popularly known as "emulation" worldwide, be it in Windows PCs at the time (Windows 95 or 98), or also to emulate PlayStation games in a Sega Dreamcast, through their Bleemcast! emulator.

This commercial emulator was a key target for Sony, who took the Bleem company to court over alleged copyright violations to their PlayStation hardware, and while the courts initially failed in favour of Sony, Bleem appealed several times, and after a heated legal battle going back and forth, the courts sided in favour of Bleem!, with the decision being that the work of Bleem! constituted fair use. However, Bleem! as a company was drained out of money due to the legal fees, which ended in Bleem! shutting down at the end of 2001, marking an end to the company, but a sacrifice that paved the way for safe emulation up to this day (much to Nintendo's dismay).

Fast forward to 2021, and the Bleem! brand was acquired by Piko Interactive. Piko Interactive's acquisition of the brand came with a renewed interest in retro gaming as a whole, and their intent was to revive the brand as a digital marketplace for retro gaming as a whole, initially known as "Bleem Powered" and having a website under construction at the time. Despite the news, 2021 went by without any updates on the situation or the revival project, with the "Bleem Powered" site going down in 2022.

Two years later, on February 6th, 2024, Piko Interactive released a blog post with news about the situation, with the project being renamed from "Bleem Powered" to "Bleem.net", which they mentioned would be "a celebration of all things 80s, 90s and early 2000s", like a "destination store" or a "digital mall". And today, November 19th, 2024, the company has announced an update on the project, with Bleem.net officially getting a Kickstarter webpage for crowdfounding and making the preparations for the official launch.

The Kickstarter page is quite minimal at the moment, with only a very brief summary being available the time of writing. Not much information is shared about what the actual project will be in detail, only that they have been "collecting the rights of video game IP", claiming it will be "the largest retro gaming project".

Users interested in the development of Bleem.net can register on Kickstarter, join the pre-launch date and be notified about official launch of the project goes live.

Bleem.net Kickstarter page

bro imagine playing metal gear solid on the Sega dreamcast

Jayro · Saturday at 8:58 PM

I'm not subscribing to a bleem service to bring retro gaming into my home. I'll stick with FPGA simulation, thanks. I pay for the hardware once, and I have the games free forever.

naughty_cat · Saturday at 9:05 PM

This is the best gaming news I've ever heard in my entire life. And btw so far I've only been scrolling between the picture and the title in disbelief for a couple of minutes, and haven't even read the article yet. It's like when truman finally met his dead father again after he had thought that he had drowned like 340 years ago....

Hippocampus_Hamster · Saturday at 9:33 PM

FluffyLunamoth said:
But what is it? Asking for money for a Kickstarter with no actual description on what it'll be, or how, is strange. Unless I'm missing something, this whole thing is fishy and vague as hell.

Usually an indicator that the people behind the KS don't know what they want either. Bleem! had its time in the sun, but that day is far behind us and we should focus on open-source projects that won't disappear or go defunct if the people/company behind them go under.

Fumigator · Sunday at 11:49 PM

lol forgot all about bleem..

CMDreamer · 2024-11-25T00:45:01+0000

That "on demand" factor on their kickstarter campain makes me wonder if they're planning some sort of subscription model, which in my case would be a deal breaker as a whole.

ChronosNotashi · 2024-11-26T02:52:21+0000

CMDreamer said:
That "on demand" factor on their kickstarter campain makes me wonder if they're planning some sort of subscription model, which in my case would be a deal breaker as a whole.

Not to mention a potential lawsuit just waiting to happen, if the games provided aren't those that the ones behind this can legally publish through a subscription model. And that's assuming this isn't all a big scam to begin with.

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