Basically stated, emulators are for video game freaks that can’t get enough of video games; who are willing and able to tweak and modify or suffer the glitchy flaws in a game played in a decidedly unnatural environment. Certainly Mac owners deserve the larger game library afforded by the CVGS, laptop computers can now compete with the tawdry/dinky GameBoy, and even PlayStation owners have a back-up plan when mom’s hogging the TV with some figure skating marathon.

Besides, neither Bleem nor Connectix ever claimed to have created anything other than a PlayStation companion piece. Emulators aren’t intended to replace the PSX console, merely augment the format’s fan base, which both do rather well, to differing effect. And bleem! the underdog team continues to wow the masses as they “give PC gamers the kind of graphics they demand from games that they either weren't ABLE to play before, because the titles weren't ‘ported’ to the PC,” explains Herpolsheimer, “or didn't WANT to play, because of the lower-quality graphics of most consoles.” Sony could certainly abide a few hooligans whooping it up on the sidelines, making things a little more fun, more diverse, were it not for the fact that once accepted, uninvited visitors rarely go away.

Also, the Bleem CEO also openly admits to its product’s innate ability to play “duplicate” games but reminds users that these duplicates should be PSX “back ups,” not pirate software bought as a disc or as software pulled of the web and then burned to disc. “The law says you're allowed to make a backup of your software,” he explains. “Sony even says you can make the backup, you just can't USE it.” Further adding to this irony is the fact that Sony’s own patent and copyright arguments work against their anti-piracy intention. “Actually,” explains Herpolsheimer, “we CAN'T prevent ‘backups’ from playing. Though we tried at first, Sony actually has a patent on the process that detects original PSX CDs, so if we DID prevent backups from playing, we'd likely be in violation of their patents.”

Strangely, while able to run them, Connect spins the duplicate play-ability, keeping to the shadows of the bold bleem! while paying lip service to Sony. “Duplicating Sony PlayStation games is illegal, damages the industry that provides the games, and is something Connectix adamantly opposes,” states VP Cipriano as he reads the Connectix FAQ proclamation. “We have built copy protection systems into CVGS to try to prevent use of ‘bootleg’ copies and we ask our customers to support the game industry by avoiding this illegal practice…” Yeah. Right.

Sony, again, has more at stake when this back-up/pirate-player aspect is taken into account. While they may not lament the drop in the bucket sized revenue loss, the fact that emulators can, like modified PlayStation consoles, play bootlegs also hints at a backdoor entrance to the video game market, one that completely circumvents their licensing stranglehold.

Bleem and Connectix, unlike Sony, stand to make their profits from their software version of the Vista Cruiser, with almost none of the manufacturing costs associated with console hardware, further befuddling Sony’s ability (and by association Nintendo’s and to a lesser extent Sega’s) to maintain its power base through game software sales alone. Once purchased, the games are literally out of their control. And this puts the power of choice firmly in the hands of consumers and out of Sony’s guiding hands- it messes with long term strategies of sustaining a market and planning for obsolescence.... Still, “If there's a way to play YOUR games wherever, whenever you want, why shouldn't you be allowed to?” The law agrees.

The huge game being played here, however, is the fact that emulators have moved well into the infield, little hootin’ and hollerin’ short sleeved beer leaguers making an absolute rout in the big league video game simply by being an above board, perfectly legal, available at retail alternative to Sony’s PlayStation empire.

Which brings us back to the issue of quality…

As yet, emulators are not really helping new product into the market, merely breathing new life into those “3 for 1” rentals at the store or the “blow-out” bin near the door, or a game that you put to bed long ago yet decide to dust off to see how it looks with enhanced graphics. Emulators prolong the life of duds as much as bring the good games to a larger playing field. Good for retailers and developers of schlock or passed-over product, certainly, but bad for the market, like watered down beer.

That said, Bleem’s CEO thinks otherwise. “It's not like the simple existence of MORE games means that ALL games somehow become less valuable,” rationalizes Herpolsheimer. “The cream will always rise to the top.” If one ignores the low-end of the PSX game library or at least assumes it is dense enough to support the cream, then “bleem! introduces top-quality games for the PC in genres that have been underrepresented, like fighters and other action titles.”

At 30 bucks a pop, both bleem! and CVGS will, as intended, open the world of PSX gaming to people who might not otherwise bother with the PSX (certainly those waiting for the PSX2 aren’t going to be buying this generation PlayStation, but they might consider a few games for the PC while they wait). After extensive research one might find a game that is both enjoyable and then well emulated and configurable on the PC. For the patient, diligent and forgiving game fan, I recommend an emulator. PSX gaming is slick stuff much more often as not (less often with an emulator). Just know that you’re playing in the beer league where slick doesn’t always translate but ugly is still ugly (unless you’ve had enough beer, but then you’re ugly).

In essence, it is PC owners who stand to benefit today… PC owners lamenting their tired old PSX consoles, of course, or who prefer hunching over the keyboard and squinting at their small but high-resolution monitor to lazy-boy recliners and a big screen television presentation. Regardless, emulator makers are not doing Sony or any bona fide PSX game developer any favors if those publishers happen to make good PSX games that happen to look like crap on the PC.

While Sony’s quality controls leave something to be desired, the duds that have been released for the PlayStation have at least been relegated to remain simply that, PSX duds- until now. More than that, PSX duds that didn’t slip through Sony’s leaky quality control program also have access to a new market and in spite of Sony’s best efforts.

Any developer who has been rejected by Sony now stands to make a PSX-geared sale on an alternative platform, Sony decision makers be damned.

This can have mixed results as it’s now possible to make a lame game that can sell as legitimate emulator software that, once burned to a CD, also plays on the PSX, not to mention on the PC and on the Mac without the need to re-code it as a port to each format. Not that such crap will dominate the market, but they will sully it just the same, which is a better reason for Sony to fume.

On the flip side, and again keeping in mind that Sony is notably fallible when deciding on the caliber video games that are permitted to see the light of day, there is nothing stopping independent developers with the ol’ Activision spirit from playing PlayStation Publisher. Microprose’s Worms, for example, a vibrant little 2D gem of a game, was turned down by Sony for a North American license. In fact, it was almost 3 years before Sony finally conceded a game didn’t need to be 3D to be published… Now? Thanks for the tools, here’s our great game whether you think it worthy or not. That’s fair. That’s cool. There is nothing stopping a developer/publish in a situation similar to Microprose from not only releasing their game to the masses, but also marketing it as a Win95/98 or Mac game that requires bleem! or CVGS to run, much like the many current games that require Direct X or QuickTime to run.

Pardon a tangent here: Connectix’s “fair use” statement got me to thinking on something else: What’s stopping me from reverse engineering the Virtual Game Station - or bleem! for that matter - and calling it the BleeminShaun!Station? Would Sony mind if I copied a copy? Would Connectix’s see any irony? Perhaps it won’t happen. “We have protected our technology through patents, copyright, and trade secrets and believe that will suffice,” explains Cipriano. Right. Trade secrets, untouchable.

Asked if Bleem had any strategy in place to deal with someone reverse engineering bleem! and selling it as an emulator emulator, Herpolsheimer retorted: “Besides our rapid first-strike capability with tactical nuclear weapons, no.”

Ahhh. So while I was busy tempting nuclear fate and hacking away at the hack job, would I open up code of, say, Tomb Raider or Gran Turismo? Would I be able to make a Turismo Raider and sell it for dirt as a BleeminShaun!Station exclusive that cost me no R&D and very little marketing? Is this “legitimate and valuable development practice” really a great victory or case of too many pitch hitters milling around the tailgate of the Vista Cruiser waiting their shot at the keg?

Bleem maintains that their product cannot be used as “a tool for amateur programmers” any more than a modified PlayStation already is, but notes that such any eventuality falls on the heads of Sony and their less-the-stringent release of developer tools, which Herpolsheimer speculates could be in the hands of every ex-employee and janitor of a company that once had said tools. So there is potential for homemade video games to run on bleem! and they do not need the consent of bleem! or CVGS, let alone Sony, to do so and, more importantly, now have an open, lawful market for distribution.

So any developer once snubbed by Sony now has those tools and a reason to use them to their own ends. Hell, anybody who has a dog that was snubbed by Sony might have those tools…

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