A random rant from a pseudo-tech... - by lost_soul
lost_soul on 9/9/2009 at 19:25
I would like to get Bleem running on one of my old PCs to play some of my PSX games without hooking the thing up. I know... it is old and unsupported. Bleem does not even work on 2k/xp/vista/etc... Bleem only runs on windows 9x.
So, yesterday I installed Windows 95 on a semi-old PC. I then went through the *hell* of finding the old drivers for this thing. Ten years ago, it was so easy to find drivers, but now all the sites that carry old ones are full of misleading links. Many sites try to feed you software like "driver detective", and I assume this is some sort of spyware. The driver sites these days also have more advertisements than they do content. People may criticize Linux because it can be hard to use, but with old hardware it is a snap!
I know about newer emulators like EPSXE, but I don't want to use them because you have to get a BIOS, and I would rather not break copyright law. Too bad the guys who made Bleem were gobbled up by MS and the product abandoned.
Briareos H on 9/9/2009 at 20:45
Inline Image:
http://anodal.org/w3.jpgCopyright law. Yeeeeah.
But I fully agree with the rant regarding older drivers. A simple Linux is a sensible and sometimes sole solution for old computers.
/fond memories of the incredibly awful ATI Rage Pro that came soldered on my Packard Bell Pentium II, which needed specific drivers and which was my reason to register on TTLG...
EDIT : SEVEN FUCKING YEARS AGO. Dammit time flies
bikerdude on 9/9/2009 at 21:21
Quote Posted by Briareos H
ePSXe + Pete's OpenGL GPU plugin + Natural OGL2 shader
is that the best PS1 emulator out there then..? is it possible to get a PS2 emulator for the pc as well..?
Briareos H on 9/9/2009 at 21:39
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
is that the best PS1 emulator out there then..?
I haven't tried many of them but I've never had any problem with it. Among the big PSX emulators it's the one that was the most recently updated, at least.
Quote:
is it possible to get a PS2 emulator for the pc as well..?
There's (
http://pcsx2.net/) PCSX2 but I haven't tried it yet.
lost_soul on 9/9/2009 at 22:30
I remember seeing Bleem on a 500 MHz machine ten years ago with a Voodoo 3 and it was screaming fast. It was running Need For Speed 3.
theBlackman on 11/9/2009 at 07:41
All of which proves that "NEW" is not always better. I still have, and use, a W98 machine for exactly that reason.
I have all the drivers copied to a CD for reinstallation if needed.
My systems are all homebuilt, however, so I need not worry about proprietory drivers such as used by HP/Compaq, Dell etc.
As long as a computer does what it was designed to do it ain't "obsolete". I know I'll get an arguement about that, but I still have my first computer a TRS-80, and it still does exactly what I need for the older games.
I also have a couple of Epson QX10s that also handle a couple of accounting programs for me. I don't need either to be able to communicate with "New" systems. Just do the work I need when I need it. :ebil:
Briareos H on 11/9/2009 at 08:59
Quote Posted by lost_soul
I remember seeing Bleem on a 500 MHz machine ten years ago with a Voodoo 3 and it was screaming fast. It was running Need For Speed 3.
Yeah Bleem! was lightning fast, but I think (not sure) it didn't go much beyond the native internal PSX resolution for rendering which wasn't able to improve a lot on the graphics. Texture filtering was minimal as well.
It might still be more efficient than modern emulators, but it's fantastic to be able to play old PSX games on a decent PC in high resolution with advanced filtering and shaders, hence ePSXe.
On a different note to Bikerdude, I've tried PCSX2. The emulation seems rather thorough, I've been able to go ingame perfectly for the few games I tried. But damn is it slow on my E8500! The only really usable last-gen emulator seems to be Dolphin right now.
voodoo47 on 11/9/2009 at 20:59
I would recommend epsxe (with pete's plugins) for emulating ps1,if you keep the resolution and fancy stuff down you should be able to get decent speed even on some p3 retro machine..and its way more compatible with games than bleem ever was.
as for ps2,there is only one working emulator right now,PCSX2,it still has a long way to go,but many games already run decently (and a handful are flawless,final fantasy12 ntsc for example),but you need a quite powerful cpu to get decent speed (dualcore at 3Ghz is recommended if you want to get full speed on supported games).
both emulators need a BIOS,you will have to dump it from your consoles if you want to stay legal.
lost_soul on 14/9/2009 at 17:36
I found a solution. I used the package manager in Ubuntu to search for "psx" and found out about pcsx. It runs and you don't need a BIOS. It can do high-resolution too. I should have checked this before I spent the 3 bucks on Bleem... Oh well.
