[Stiltskin]

I thought some of you might be interested in this.
First, here is the e-mail that I sent to bleem's support, quite a while ago. With regard to my displeasure of its perfomance:

problem: Games often run too fast. e.g. Resident Evil 2 gameplay is about x2
speed.. Chrono Cross & Final Fantasy 8 gameplay and intro too fast. Making
the music sound crap.
Since a "complaints" section isn't within your list of contacts, I'd like to
take this opportunity to express how displeased I am with my recent purchase
of Bleem. I also downloaded the [free!] epsxe, which I have found runs much
better. (Vagrant story gets past the first menu, and tony hawk/spiderman
polygons aren't just a heap of floating pixels.)
However, I still have a speed problem with some of those games too. So I'd
still appreciate some help, after all, what the hell am I paying for?
(certainly not continuous compatability updates!)
Thank you.

This is their reply:

Daniel,
>>So I'd still appreciate some help, after all, what the hell am I paying
for? (certainly not continuous compatability updates!)

... and certainly not timely tech support. What, it's been over a month
since you sent this to me. Grrr, I'm sorry about how far behind I am. I
know it's seriously irritating to wait that long for tech support.

>>problem: Games often run too fast.

If games are running too fast on your system, try running other programs in
the background. Internet Explorer is an example of something that might run
in the background and take up system power. Please note that running
ANYTHING in the background while running bleem! may create conflicts, and
you will have to proceed cautiously. Some programs will create conflicts,
others will not. A "conflict" would result in your machine hanging or
rebooting or giving bleem! odd behavior.

bleem! version 1.4 had a speed-limiter. All older versions of bleem! (the
.exe's) are available for download at
http://www.psxemu.com/bleem-download.shtml . v1.4 is compatible with fewer
games than version 1.5B, but if it can play the game you want, you will be
able to control the speed.

Also, try turning on all the "goodies" in bleem!'s graphics options,
especially the ones that suggest that they may slow down your system.

I hope that these tips (except of course the one about v1.4) apply not only
to bleem! but also at least partially to the other emulators you are using.

If you still have problems after this, you can email me back, but please be
sure to include all of our previous text, especially your system
specifications, in your reply.

Regards,

Bryan Stokes
bleem, inc.
Technical Support

 

[bobotns]

ha ha!

 

[LanGaidin]

That's the standard response for that problem. Basically, they don't know what causes the speed issues, either. To be somewhat fair, all their systems do run the vast majority of games at perfect speed (The ones that don't are mentioned on their compatibility list). However, there are definitely a LOT of people for whom it runs either too fast or too slow (And it doesn't seem to depend on the speed of their machine... We had people with PII 300s and TNT2s complaining of it running too fast, and people with PIII 733s and GeForce DDRs complaining of it running too slow, even after they'd tried all the "normal" suggestions for getting speed increases). And, I'm sure that one or two of those people would be willing to either give bleem their ENTIRE specs for their system, so the people at bleem could recreate it (In fact, we gathered a few people's MSINFO dumps, which should have enough info to recreate the exact same system), or send in their system in exchange for a new one.

And, I'm really not surprised that Brian is behind on the E-mails. He and I used to split them between us, with help from DY when we'd start getting behind (The questions ones are pretty quick to answer, but a lot of the tech support ones require some research for the latest drivers, different hardware, etc)... AFAIK, DY isn't doing any E-mails anymore, so it's all left to Brian. I feel sorry for the guy. Getting thousands of E-mails to answer by himself, and the majority of them are ones that he doesn't even have answers for. :/

Oh, BTW, in case you're curious, the part about running stuff in the background didn't used to be part of the standard response. Then one of the guys there saw that ID recommended it in their troubleshooting section for one of their games (I think Quake II, but can't remember for sure), so we figured if it's good enough for ID, it was good enough for bleem!

 

[Guest]

well, bleem ran too fast on my p2 350 (havent tried it out yet since i upgraded) with ridge racer but I remember that one time
it surprisingly ran at good speed...probably these speed issues can be solved with certain (unkown) settings? It only happened one time, otherwise it always ran too fast with the game. As Brian says, 1.4, which has a lower compatibility (meaning more graphical glitches), doesnt have this issue (afaik).....what I was hoping for was one more bleem release with the speed issues fixed.

 

[Asz]

Bleem! sucks cow utters anyways, ePSXe is a lot better.

 

[LanGaidin]

Asz, you can apparently read, because you were able to post that. So, I'm curious why you didn't read the sticky post in this forum, by an administrator, that is titled "Read."? Or did you read it, and just decided to piss in the face of the administrator's of this board by blatently disregarding what they have requested (Quite politely, too)?

 

[Ryos]

Lan: I'm guessing the former...

 

[bripab007]

hmmm...

i remember when people thought bleem! was the bomb and soooo much better than the free emulators at the time. remember who started this ball rolling, folks. (and for those of you who read my last post and think i work for bleem!, i just saw this and thought it applied as well )

 

[Asz]

Originally posted by LanGaidin
Asz, you can apparently read, because you were able to post that. So, I'm curious why you didn't read the sticky post in this forum, by an administrator, that is titled "Read."? Or did you read it, and just decided to piss in the face of the administrator's of this board by blatently disregarding what they have requested (Quite politely, too)?

I read it, but i'm just trying to be creative . Instead of saying "Oh that sucks", or, "oh that suck a**" I try somthing different like what I said. I mean c'mon, if we can have this, :fingers: and this, :wtf: in the forum then I don't see why I can't say somthing sucks "cow utters" - I guess I just shouldn't post anything else about Bleem! anymore (considering I can only get one emulator to work good on my computer, I won't even bother to name it ) But I mean, this guy came in talking about how he sent a letter to Bleem! about how bad he thought it was and you didn't get rid of the post in the first place.

 

[Ryos]

Which wasn't a flame. As I've posted before, it's one thing to have constructive criticism, it's another thing to say an emulator sucks cow utters (can CDs even suck cow utters?).

 

[Guest]

you don't know what's possible these days =P

 

[LanGaidin]

Lan: I'm guessing the former...

Actually, so was I. However, I've found that people tend to learn a lesson a lot quicker if you call them an idiot for not learning it the first time... They'll learn it just to keep from being humiliated again. Unfortunately, we were both wrong in this case... The guy really IS an idiot.

I mean c'mon, if we can have this, :fingers: and this, :wtf: in the forum then I don't see why I can't say somthing sucks "cow utters"

Because the administrators/moderators say so. This is their board, and they set the rules. Not to mention that of the ones that I know (Which is all but 2 of them), they have been around to various boards long enough to know what is acceptable, and what leads to total chaos.

You're lucky that Ryos is such a nice guy, asz... On most boards, admitting that you DELIBERATELY went against the wishes of an administrator would be enough for an immediate ban.

I guess I just shouldn't post anything else about Bleem! anymore

That's probably the smartest thing you've said, yet...

 

[LanGaidin]

i remember when people thought bleem! was the bomb and soooo much better than the free emulators at the time. remember who started this ball rolling, folks. (and for those of you who read my last post and think i work for bleem!, i just saw this and thought it applied as well )

I don't get it... What does PSEmu have to do with bleem!? They were the ones that "started this ball rolling." They also probably had the biggest impact, even on current emus, considering that both ePSXe and AdriPSX are using the PSEmu Pro plugin system.

Also, bleem! was better than "all" (Was there any besides PSEmu at the time?) the free emus. However, unfortunately, time has moved on, and bleem, inc. has decided to not keep bleem! up with the times. If we were perpetually in the year 1999, then bleem! would still be uber-awesome (Well, for the people that could get it to run, that is). Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that, so now bleem! is less than stellar by today's standards.

 

[Pete Bernert]

LanGaidin,

the problem I see with bleem!-pc is that bleem, inc. is making promises
(flawless hw/accel. pc-based psx emulation with many games), but they
are not able to keep them.

There are countless (marketing) statements on the original bleem!
package (about great speed, compatibility, incredible gfx and free updates),
and most of them are simply not true.

I pity everyone who is still buying bleem!-pc (it's still available in many stores
here in germany), for he will only get some (most times) unplayable
psx emulation, bad glitches and no support at all anymore (the support
reply above is a wonderful example... the speed problems I've seen with
bleem! are coming from a badly coded texture caching and an even worse
fps limitation... nothing else... of course they can't say that, so they have
to accuse the system specs/background applications/whatever).

Well, as a coder Randy still has my respect (doing such an one-man-does-it-all
emu must be the hell on earth), but I don't like the fact that they
are _selling_ such an unfinished product.

ah, well... btw, Lan, how's Nynaeve?

 

[Enigma1982]

Yes they sell full bug product.
And they stop countinue this product.
This is unresponsible you should not support them anymore....................

 

[Asz]

Lan your just mad because I put down a product that you must like for some reason or other. I know that Bleem! got the ball rolling but thats only because of one reason. Because they sold it. And we all know the products that are sold also get reviews and reveiws, positive ones, get sales up for a product. Besides, Bleem! is simple, almost no config needed; thats another reason people liked Bleem! Because someone who didn't know much about computers could go and pick up a copy of Bleem! and start playing very quickly. Nothing to download. Unlike more customisable emus such as ePSXe, in which it may be a little more difficult to start because you have to download a BIOS and plugins, then you have to configure everything. However, the end result comes out a lot better. It's sounds like your just mad because I got away with insulting somthing even though I wasn't supposed to. As for me being an idiot your wrong, I do what I feel like and could care less of the consequence. What is the worst you could do to me anyways? Call me and idiot again? Tell me i'm stupid? Ban me from a message board? If that is the biggest thing you could possibly do to me then I must say you are extremely weak.

 

[LanGaidin]

Pete, I 100% agree with you. While technically bleem! lives up to the word of what it says on the box, it certainly does not live up to the spirit of that, and no one got what they were expecting it when buying it. I worked in tech-support for them. I certainly know how different what people got was from what they expected. And, of course, that's for the ones that could even run it at all. There were WAY too many who couldn't, even after spending hours on the phone and/or dozens of E-mails back and forth trying to fix it. However, that doesn't change the fact that mathew2 is a moderator on this board, and asked people to stop flaming bleem, and then asz, after admittedly reading that request, still decided to flame them anyway. If people want to flame bleem, there are plenty of boards that allow it (Last I checked, vg-network.com was a great place to do so). However, once the moderators ask people to stop on this board, their wishes should be respected.

Lan your just mad because I put down a product that you must like for some reason or other

LOL If you only knew...

I know that Bleem! got the ball rolling but thats only because of one reason. Because they sold it. And we all know the products that are sold also get reviews and reveiws, positive ones, get sales up for a product.

No, bleem! didn't get the ball rolling. As I explained in my previous post, PSEmu did. It had been around for awhile before the leaked bleem! beta was even leaked. Also, bleem! got MUCH more bad reviews than it did good ones. In fact, until version 1.4 was released, I don't remember any high-profile websites giving it anything better than a "not too bad" review.

Because someone who didn't know much about computers could go and pick up a copy of Bleem! and start playing very quickly.

That is DEFINITELY not true. Very few people who didn't know computers fairly well could get bleem! up and running out of the box. Especially the earlier versions that didn't include an installer. Even with the installer, many people had problems getting bleem! to run at all. Plus, the options were terms that most people don't understand, and the user guide didn't really explain them very well. The controller config was one of the worst configurator's I've ever seen.

Nothing to download.

That's not really true, either... First, only 4 versions were ever pressed to CD. If someone wanted a version other than what came on their CD, they had to download it. Also, the first thing that bleem recommends for ALL problems is "Get the latest drivers for all hardware" which of course requires downloads (And, of course, in some instances, this did fix the problem).

It's sounds like your just mad because I got away with insulting somthing even though I wasn't supposed to.

No, I'm not pissed that you got away with it. I'm pissed that you did it, and show no remorse for doing so, even after admitting yourself that you weren't supposed to.

As for me being an idiot your wrong, I do what I feel like and could care less of the consequence.

Well, that's pretty much my definition of an idiot. However, if you prefer criminal, that works as well. There are millions of people throughout the world in our prisons that "do what they feel like and could care less of the consequence." Unfortunately, too many of them are still on the streets as well.

What is the worst you could do to me anyways? Call me and idiot again? Tell me i'm stupid? Ban me from a message board? If that is the biggest thing you could possibly do to me then I must say you are extremely weak.

Well, the worse I could do to you would actually be to hunt you do with a Desert Eagle .45, and then never have to worry about you again. Of course, I'm not that kind of person, so I'm not likely to do so. Yes, I would love for you to be banned, because frankly, you annoy the hell out of me. Maybe that's "weak" but it would make me happy, so I could care less how weak it is. However, the admins of this board have decided not to do that, and that's there decision. Life goes on. I'm sure I'll deal with it.

 

[Guest]

I'm amazed at the amount of blatant stupidity that can come out from one user's keyboard...

*yawn*

Be good, you little wankers.

 

[Guest]

Originally posted by LanGaidin
If people want to flame bleem, there are plenty of boards that allow it (Last I checked, vg-network.com was a great place to do so).

LOL...hehe..

 

[K3nShin]

bleemmm really Sucks makes my CD-Rom like dragon fire Overheattt mennnnnnnnnnn