Platform: PC (Microsoft Windows)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Friday the 13th: The Game
Sonic's Schoolhouse
Dead Rising 2
Death Stranding
Super Meat Boy
Trials Evolution
Street Racing Syndicate
Path of Exile
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Has-Been Heroes
Dynasty Warriors 6
Murder House
Terminator: Resistance
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Cuphead
The Joy of Creation: Classic
Red Faction: Guerrilla
SoulCalibur VI
Dragon Age: Origins
Code Vein
Alan Wake II
Shady Lewd Kart
Spy Fox in "Dry Cereal"
Black Mesa
Hiveswap: Act 1
Blade Symphony
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Myst
NBA 2K24
Dead by Daylight
Deus Ex
Five Nights at Candy's
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
Dead Rising 3
Furi
SpongeBob SquarePants: Operation Krabby Patty
World of Goo
Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
Avowed
Windows Solitaire
Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Limbo of the Lost
Annalynn
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
Cosmology of Kyoto
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Cookie's Bustle
Chrono Ressurection
Twinkle Star Sprites
subdirectory_arrow_right Gran Turismo 2 (Game), Metal Gear Solid (Game), One (Game), Tekken 3 (Game), PlayStation (Platform), Xbox (Platform), Dreamcast (Platform), Sony Interactive Entertainment (Company)
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Bleem! was a PlayStation emulator released for Microsoft Windows 98 and the Sega Dreamcast. Unlike the vast majority of emulators before and since, it was released as a paid product on store shelves. Bleem!, although very impressive for the time and capable of running on low-end PCs, had many compatability issues, with the only game that ran perfectly on Windows Bleem! being the US version of One, while the only games that could be run at all on Dreamcast were Tekken 3, Metal Gear Solid, and Gran Turismo 2, all with specialised emulators released on their own "Bleemcast" discs.
Sony would sue Bleem! twice over alleged copyright infringement, and despite all odds, Sony lost due to Bleem!'s use of screenshots in promo material and the PS1 BIOS being protected by fair use. However, a mix of legal fees and Sony threatening retailers stocking Bleem! products with subpoenas would force Bleem! off of shelves anyway, and its website would be replaced with an image of Sonic the Hedgehog mourning at a grave with the Bleem! logo carved on it. Bleem! would countersue Sony for anti-competitive activity.
The popularity of Bleem! would lead both Sega and Microsoft to attempt to work with Bleem! officially to make PS1 games run on Dreamcast and Xbox, though these plans fell through due to Sega being afraid of Sony's litigation, while the developers of Bleem! simply felt Microsoft wasn't paying high enough for the license for Bleem! (something they had come to regret in the years since).
Sony would sue Bleem! twice over alleged copyright infringement, and despite all odds, Sony lost due to Bleem!'s use of screenshots in promo material and the PS1 BIOS being protected by fair use. However, a mix of legal fees and Sony threatening retailers stocking Bleem! products with subpoenas would force Bleem! off of shelves anyway, and its website would be replaced with an image of Sonic the Hedgehog mourning at a grave with the Bleem! logo carved on it. Bleem! would countersue Sony for anti-competitive activity.
The popularity of Bleem! would lead both Sega and Microsoft to attempt to work with Bleem! officially to make PS1 games run on Dreamcast and Xbox, though these plans fell through due to Sega being afraid of Sony's litigation, while the developers of Bleem! simply felt Microsoft wasn't paying high enough for the license for Bleem! (something they had come to regret in the years since).
Video on Bleem! history:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGHul1PrXCE
Source of Bleem! collection photo:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamecollecting/comments/dvf1ow/bleem_the_playstation_emulator_for_pcs_and/
Bleem! article:
https://www.eurogamer.net/the-history-of-bleem
Archived Bleem! page for One:
https://web.archive.org/web/20001109112400if_/http://bleem.com:80/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGHul1PrXCE
Source of Bleem! collection photo:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamecollecting/comments/dvf1ow/bleem_the_playstation_emulator_for_pcs_and/
Bleem! article:
https://www.eurogamer.net/the-history-of-bleem
Archived Bleem! page for One:
https://web.archive.org/web/20001109112400if_/http://bleem.com:80/
subdirectory_arrow_right Windows Solitaire (Game)
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Solitaire was included on Windows hardware to soothe users unfamiliar with computers by using something familiar that could also introduce them to the functions of a mouse.
subdirectory_arrow_right Cheese Terminator (Game)
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Cheese Terminator was a game given away for users who answered a survey included in the box with Microsoft Windows 3.1 in Eastern European countries. When a player decided to send the survey in in 2016 out of curiousity, they received a floppy disc and USB floppy drive containing the original game, packaged in a box advertising a limited-time free remake, Cheese Terminator: Reloaded, that would be released soon after.
subdirectory_arrow_right Reversi (Game)
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subdirectory_arrow_right 3D Pinball: Space Cadet (Game)
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At an unknown point after 3D Pinball: Space Cadet's removal from Windows hardware starting with Vista, there was an attempt within Microsoft Garage (Microsoft's program for experimental, non-profitable employee projects) to revive the game with compatibility for current Windows operating systems. While the port was finished, it could not be publicly released due to the 1994 contract with Cinematronics (now merged into THQ Nordic) stipulating that the game could not be released as an independent entity, only bundled with Windows hardware.
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The NJS-3D1 was a PC flight stick made by Laral Group LLC - unusually, the flight stick bears the name and official quality seal of Nintendo on its packaging, along with a Nintendo 64 logo on the controller itself, despite not being compatible with any of Nintendo's hardware. The controller was made in a short-lived deal to manufacture PC accessories with Nintendo branding, with the only other product to come out of the line being a set of headphones.
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The "Glorious PC Master Race" is a term coined by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of The Escapist in a review of The Witcher, used frequently in the 2010s by fans of PC gaming. Despite being used as a term of endearment by PC gamers, its origins were ironic and intended at the expense of the common gatekeeping against casual gamers in the PC gaming community at the time. Croshaw explained in a 2013 Extra Punctuation article:
"It was intended to be ironic, to illustrate what I perceived at the time to be an elitist attitude among a certain kind of PC gamer. People who invest in expensive gaming PCs and continually spend money to make sure the tech in their brightly-lit tower cases is up to date. Who actually prefer games that are temperamental to get running and that have complicated keyboard interfaces, just because it discourages new or 'casual' players who will in some way taint the entire community with their presence. I meant it as a dig."
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The KFConsole was a satirical computer announced in 2020 by Intel, Cooler Master, and Kentucky Fried Chicken that would have been shaped like a chicken bucket and have an oven for reheating KFC chicken. Despite Mark Walton of Intel claiming it to be a real product, the computer having a page on Cooler Master's website, official stats being available for the hardware, and similarly outlandish KFC marketing stunts eventually being released as products, it has not emerged in the years since and is believed to be vaporware.
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Some of the prototypes Steam Controller redesigns had customizable touch screens that would later be replaced by Back, Start, and Steam Buttons. The A, B, X, and Y Buttons of the prototypes were moved to the bottom of the controller along with new Arrow Buttons. The Arrow Buttons were later replaced with an Analog Stick, and a D-Pad symbol was placed on the Left Touchpad.