How Bleem Made Gran Turismo 2 a Better Driving Simulator

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

How Bleem Made Gran Turismo 2 a Better Driving Simulator
The story of an ambitious startup that battled Sony and broke the rules to make one of the greatest racing games of all time even better.

This article was published by Adam Ismail (@glassjaw) on June 27th, 2017 in the Features category.

 

[lbpomg95]

I honestly didn't even know there were ways of enhancing GT2 - so much want.

 

[rikiflsh_99]

I bought gt2 in 1999 for ps1 and i still play and love the game. Gt2forlife!

 

[ItsHim]

Please be aware that discussing emulation - including specific emulation software, how to obtain it and access to game images for it - is directly akin to discussing game piracy.

Well @Famine that's quite an arkward situation now.

 

[C-ZETA]

Good article. Properly educational, for me at least. I'd only heard about the 'Bleemcast' in passing, now I know what it's all about and what GT2 had to do with it. I like it.

 

[ToyGTone]

Why I was dropping tears after reading this article?

Ether way, Man I miss my childhood.

 

[moparmanmike]

Emulation has been a god send for retro game fans for years. I will never understand why so many companies and others cry piracy when emulating old software and hardware thats long out of production. Which is ironic that alot of the people who scream piracy are the ones playing thier old games on those expensive and sub par retro consoles which are just purpose built emulation machienes themselves.

Im saying, if the only way to buy these old titles is from the 2nd hand market, usually with outrageously marked up prices, and the original producers aint seeing a red cent of that anyway, wheres the harm in downloading some roms or isos for games that are not available otherwise? Especially with the enhancements that can be made to make these games look and run better, especially while playing on modern tvs.

I have a few old consoles, and a bunch of games. But hooked up to a new 1080p flat screen, they just look like complete ass, and i get much more enjoyment just clicking a mouse, picking up my old ps3 controller, and playing them on my pc. Less stuff hooked up to the tv, and sharp clean and clear picture that dont give you a headache trying to play.

 

[ToyGTone]

Emulation has been a god send for retro game fans for years. I will never understand why so many companies and others cry piracy when emulating old software and hardware thats long out of production. Which is ironic that alot of the people who scream piracy are the ones playing thier old games on those expensive and sub par retro consoles which are just purpose built emulation machienes themselves.

Im saying, if the only way to buy these old titles is from the 2nd hand market, usually with outrageously marked up prices, and the original producers aint seeing a red cent of that anyway, wheres the harm in downloading some roms or isos for games that are not available otherwise? Especially with the enhancements that can be made to make these games look and run better, especially while playing on modern tvs.

I have a few old consoles, and a bunch of games. But hooked up to a new 1080p flat screen, they just look like complete ass, and i get much more enjoyment just clicking a mouse, picking up my old ps3 controller, and playing them on my pc. Less stuff hooked up to the tv, and sharp clean and clear picture that dont give you a headache trying to play.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who has that opinion.

 

[submaniac93]

Not to sound like i'm looking for trouble, but considering the rules abour amulation on GTP, why is this blatant, publicly known emulator on display on the front/main page? Just saying there might be a little case of something amiss there.

Still, emultaion, whether you like it or not, is the best way to keep old games alive. Because no matter how many years pass, as long as you have a computer, you can play any old games you've enjoyed in your childhood an relive the sensations you had back then. I'm glad those exist. Even big names like Sony are aknowldging the people's want for old games again, with how they try and add support to old games/consoles to their online stores. Even so far with Nintendo as making actual replicas (NES and SNES minis)

 

[Lain]

Not to sound like i'm looking for trouble, but considering the rules abour amulation on GTP, why is this blatant, publicly known emulator on display on the front/main page? Just saying there might be a little case of something amiss there.

Still, emultaion, whether you like it or not, is the best way to keep old games alive. Because no matter how many years pass, as long as you have a computer, you can play any old games you've enjoyed in your childhood an relive the sensations you had back then. I'm glad those exist. Even big names like Sony are aknowldging the people's want for old games again, with how they try and add support to old games/consoles to their online stores. Even so far with Nintendo as making actual replicas (NES and SNES minis)

Sometimes the letter of the law and the spirit of the law are two different things, and the spirit here I think is that they don't want people discussing how to partake in illegal activity.

Bleem, and emulators in general, are legal. It only becomes illegal once pirated games are introduced into the equation. But, to be on the safe side, they don't really want people discussing how to use/obtain emulators in detail because the assumption is that you're probably going to be partaking in illegal activity (or at the very least, legally dubious activity such as downloading copies of games that you physically own but the emulator can't read directly). And left unabated, a discussion of how to use/obtain emulators could easily devolve into a discussion on how to obtain ROMs/ISOs.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

Not to sound like i'm looking for trouble, but considering the rules abour amulation on GTP, why is this blatant, publicly known emulator on display on the front/main page? Just saying there might be a little case of something amiss there.

Still, emultaion, whether you like it or not, is the best way to keep old games alive. Because no matter how many years pass, as long as you have a computer, you can play any old games you've enjoyed in your childhood an relive the sensations you had back then. I'm glad those exist. Even big names like Sony are aknowldging the people's want for old games again, with how they try and add support to old games/consoles to their online stores. Even so far with Nintendo as making actual replicas (NES and SNES minis)

Bleem utilized a loophole that has long since been closed off. It's a unique point in video game (and Gran Turismo) history that we wanted to highlight for those less familiar.

 

[moparmanmike]

Right, emulatation is a GOOD thing as it preserves not only major titles and thier legacy, but lesser known and obscure titles as well. It ensures that after the physical market has dried up or got too expensive for old fans and new generations alike, that these titles dont just completely disapear. Its like a living and growing museum of media that people generations to come will be free to enjoy. Its a way to preserve history thats community driven and costs little to nothing to do so, and costs the original devlopers and publishers, many who are since out of buisness anyway, nothing.

Pirating modern games that are still for sale and available to purchase is one thing. But going after someone who downloaded a rom of a game from the 80s or 90s or longer even that isnt available to purchase is rediculous.

 

[Lain]

One has to wonder... what is the best way of playing GT2 today? A Digital Foundry analysis would be great, since they don't shy away from covering their emulation bases.

If the best way of playing it is via a Dreamcast emulator emulating Bleem emulating GT2, that'd be pretty hilarious.

 

[submaniac93]

I'd say it depends on what you expect from the experience. Authentic gameplay, the PS1 itself, or PS2, because it's hardware emulation, therefore exactly how it should be played as. If you want better graphical enhancements, definitely emulators, or PS3, but mostly emulators.

I like to keep it authentic with no texture smoothing, yet better renderer for sharper 3D models. Best of both imo. How it would look like with a bigger screen resolution, in a way.

 

[JakeMR2]

There were only three games made for the Bleemcast Emulator. Those are: Gran Turismo 2, Tekken 3, and Metal Gear Solid 2 or 1.

 

[sgohsixthree]

Great write up!!

My first real foray into Gran Turismo was on my OG Blueberry iMac with a copy of Connectix Virtual Game Station and GT2. I dropped MASSIVE hours into that, and it worked flawlessly. Being able to play GT2 when I couldn't afford, or have room for, a PlayStation probably inspired me to purchase future PS consoles and stay a GT fan for life.

 

[ItsHim]

I have a few old consoles, and a bunch of games. But hooked up to a new 1080p flat screen, they just look like complete ass,

There's a wide range of RGB/HDMI mods for vintage consoles and combined with an upscaler like the FrameMeister the result is stunning.

I'd say Sony still does PS1 emulation best. Seriously, take a PSP GO, a component cable, a DS3 and a PS1 game from the PSN. Happy days.

 

[imported_rik19]

I remember bleem coming out, and i tried getting it for my dreamcast but no, i couldnt find it anywhere at the time..

 

[Wolfe]

I still remember the first time I encountered an emulator in the late 1990s when a friend showed me NES games on their PC, how mindblowing it was. His older brother hooked me up with the emulator and a handful of ROMs, and I began my collection from there (I still have those first ROMs).

In the following years I was able to experience games I had never even seen on store shelves in those pre-Amazon days, or in the pages of Nintendo Power. Or Japanese exclusives. I'm very glad for that, because emulation provided several first childhood experiences playing important SNES games I'll cherish forever.

 

[dbarrade]

Fantastic article, I was aware of Bleem, but not on the Dreamcast, reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectix_Virtual_Game_Station for the Mac

 

[KOUKI507]

GT2 has two of my favorite tracks to ever appear on GT game and that are probably never ever going to make it to GT again for reasons I don't know..

1) Red Rock Valley Speeday
2) Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (before the paving)

Miss these two so much..

 

[glassjaw]

There's a wide range of RGB/HDMI mods for vintage consoles and combined with an upscaler like the FrameMeister the result is stunning.

I've been eyeing an upscaler like the Framemeister or OSSC for some time now. They're just too expensive for my liking but I'm left drooling every time I see one running in action. The fidelity you can get from a quality upscaler is incredible. One of these days I'll take the plunge...

 

[Robin]

Pretty sure playing GT2 on a hardware based backwards compatible PS3 resulted in a better picture than Bleem, and it was up-scaled to 1080p. But I guess for the era the Dreamcast mod was the best it was going to get.

 

[Tornado]

Pretty sure playing GT2 on a hardware based backwards compatible PS3 resulted in a better picture than Bleem, and it was up-scaled to 1080p.

It didn't. The PS3 rendered GT2 at 240P (which was the native resolution of most PSX games) with a simple blur filter (if smoothing was applied) and blew it up to whatever resolution you had your PS3 set at. Bleem and Bleemcast rendered the game internally at 480p, applied bilinear filtering and anti-aliasing and could display the game at 480p. There were graphical glitches from doubling the internal resolution and having the anti-aliasing applied and the general bugs that tend to come from imperfect emulation, but GT2 was not the most graphically "clean" game anyway and it was one of the ones that had assets with far more detail than the PSX could actually display.


The PS2 had actual bilinear filtering as an option and actually improved the look of some PSX games with it on (also sometimes with graphical glitches), but it still ran them at native resolution compared to what Bleemcast did (albeit a native resolution that could actually be output in component video in progressive scan, which the PSX and PS3 did not support and most newer TVs probably don't either). And the PS3 never used hardware emulation for PSX titles even if the PS2 hardware was in the system.

 

[mistamontiel]

I cherish Bleem!cast , such a work of art ! It took many years but the disc check was cracked so there are essentially four Bleem!cast builds to play-test ALL with !! Although they're mostly tailored to their game alone with few exceptions

So then VR Missions plays fascinating AND saves =} Even then it will tell you if your Gran Turismo 2 Sim disc is v1.2 er not , Arcade disc v1.1 er not

I sure wished they rocked GT1 too .. GT2 that gloss always irks me .. though I did beat Sim mode like this with the magical Bleem!cast touch !!! Fine endurance events with some RX-7

 

[Tyger]

I'm lucky enough to own this disc. I don't think they are *crazy* money on eBay and for the reasons Tornado explained, it's hands down the best looking experience you will get of GT2 if you have the hardware. Keep in mind the save takes a VMU all to itself though, but they aren't too expensive either.

 

[Wilsonic]

Reading through, I’m not sure if people completely know how the Bleem disks work. It’s not really piracy because you still have to use the original PS1 disk. The game is not on the Bleem disk. You put the Bleem boot disk into the Dreamcast, it comes up with a splash screen with instructions, you take the Bleem disk out and then put the PS1 game in. As just previously mentioned, your VMU will be formatted to work like a PS1 memory card.

I have one of the original “4 bank” Sega brand memory cards, and the 4th bank is formatted for my Bleem stuff. I have the GT2 and MGS disks, would love to get a Tekken 3 disk. Can not believe these disks were just casually sold out of EB Games stores. Took a huge chance when I bought it way back when and was blown away by the results.

 

[glassjaw]

Those 4 bank memory cards are a godsend for Bleem. That was the one big downside to the concept — it required an entire VMU all to itself, which would have been acceptable if more than two PS1 games ever released for it.