They will sell you games.
So, those who lived through the 90’s and early 2000’s might remember the Bleem! emulator. It was made to run PlayStation games on non-PlayStation systems. Naturally, Sony was not amused by this, and launched a lawsuit; a lawsuit which they lost, ultimately ensuring the legality of emulators in North America.
Unfortunately, this was the textbook case of a Pyrrhic victory; while they had successfully avoided Sony’s wrath, the legal fees essentially caused the company to fail. And so ended a short but interesting chapter in video game history.
But as you may know, no one’s ever really gone.
Fast forward to 2018, and Piko Interactive head Eli Galindo purchases the name. And he intends to use it.
Why Bleem! you may ask? Well for me it only makes sense. Bleem IS the representation of legal emulation. Bleem set precedent in the US Court system by showing how reverse engineering a console was 100% legal. Bleem! as a company died so we all could enjoy old games legally for virtually ever.
Eli Galindo
The original intent was to create a retro-focused version of Steam under the branding, but that never seemed to materialize. Instead, the name was used as something of a publisher co-branding for retro games, oddly enough, published on Steam. It saw the rerelease of games like Glover, 40 Winks, and Super 3-D Noah’s Ark, among many others.
But now, things are changing. Galindo has plans for a site called Bleem.net (sadly, though, there’s nothing there yet). And plans for it are ambitious, to say the least.
What is Bleem.net? Well, it is hard to explain. I haven’t been able to put a name on it really. I’m not sure what really is or will be. I can give you some explanation of what I want it to be, or what I think it is. So here it goes:
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.
You know how when you were a kid you would go to the mall, go to KB Toys to buy some toys and video games, may be go buy a cool shirt in Spencer’s/hot topic based on some cartoon or video game character you like, then head out to Aladdin’s Castle to play some arcades. Then you would go may be to Waldenbooks and check out some comic books, and some artbooks based on your favorite superheroes. Later go grab some food at the food court and after all that, head out to the movie theater and watch some cool movie?
Remember that feeling? It is hard to find that now days. The only thing that makes me feel like that is going to Disney Amusement parks, but that’s SUPER expensive.Then, do you remember the 90s early 2000s Internet? Where there was innovation and interesting websites popping up left and right? I loved 90s and early 2000s internet. Today the internet is monopolized by a few major companies which make money off audience created content. I miss the old internet.
Eli Galindo
That is what my vision for Bleem.net is. 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
Sounds great; there aren’t too many places like that online anymore, honestly.
The post does go on to outline what the site will offer, in general:
- A store featuring Merch for all of the game, comic, and toy properties Piko Interactive owns
- A digital game store that will allow you to buy ROMs to put on your flash carts and emulation devices
- A store for new and reproduction game cartridges for retro consoles
- A place to buy Physical versions of new games for modern retro remasters
- A streaming service for all of the cartoons Piko owns
- A digital comic book store
- On-demand browser-based emulation for retro games
So why is all of this important if the site isn’t even really set up yet? Well, because it’s not just going to stop there. Bleem.net is also the co-=publisher on QUByte Interactive’s remaster of the Neo Geo classic Rage of the Dragons. Titled Rage of the Dragons NEO it will be available on all modern platforms.
The closed beta starts October 11th and runs through the 13th. It’ll be available via Steam. It’s worth noting that Bleem.net is noted as a separate publisher on the game’s Steam page. That is to say, unlike the Bleem associated with all of those previous retro releases, this one actually has its own publisher page. Granted, the only other game they’re currently associated is Top Racer Collection, which was released in March, but still.
To put it bluntly, Bleem is in a similar situation as modern-day Atari (though, I’d argue in a significantly better starting position). Modern Atari is very far removed from the company’s glory days in the late70’s/early 80’s; it passed through several hands before landing where it is now. Bleem is similarly dissociated, here. While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s hard not to see the obvious appeal to nostalgia. Nonetheless, it would be nice to see a Bleem truly succeed, so here’s hoping.
Source: GamesRadar
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