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Dreamcast VMUs

Started by Brian R., Jul 23 2003 9:12 AM

36 replies to this topic

#26 Harry_Dodgson OFFLINE  

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Posted Fri Jul 25, 2003 7:05 AM

Ze_ro said:

Jasoco said:

How does it keep the games saved without a battery, then?

I believe they use flash roms... in fact, I think all memory cards (Camera's, consoles, GP32's, etc) use flash roms. Most older games didn't use these because they were too expensive back in the days of the NES and even the SNES. One exception that I know of is the Jaguar. However, in the manuals for Jaguar games, it warns you that you can only change the settings 100,000 times or something. I doubt anything will happen after 100,000 saves though, it's probably just Atari trying to cover their asses in case someone complained.

--Zero

Actually, the Jaguar uses EEPROM chips, not Flash, and they do wear out after a while. The National Semiconductor brand is rated to be good for between 1 million and 10 million changes to a bit. Somewhere after a million, you take your chances. Atari (and Apple in their Laserwriters) probably bought cheaper ones. For the normal person, they will get bored of the game long before they reach 100,000 rewrites so it doesn't matter.

#27 Happy_Dude OFFLINE  

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Posted Fri Jul 25, 2003 7:13 AM

*double post*

I'll catch liquid_sky yet ;)

#28 Happy_Dude OFFLINE  

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Posted Fri Jul 25, 2003 7:14 AM

chrisbid said:

come to think of it, the pink one may be an import, i bought it used, so there is no box, and there is no external difference on VMUs that im aware of

(i suppose i could look at the serial or part number)
Now all you need is the rest of the "Hello Kitty" set ;) (Pink translucent everything)

I'd love to get a hello kitty DC but their to damn expensive :(

#29 Ze_ro OFFLINE  

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Posted Fri Jul 25, 2003 9:47 PM

Harry_Dodgson said:

I've just started playing with putting custom VMU icons on the Sega VMUs.  That could help you to keep track of what's on each VMU.  Just pop it into the controller and see what's on the LCD.

By the way, is there any way to change these icons without reformatting the VMU? There are a few games out there that force their own icon onto the damn thing, which is really annoying. I think one bank of my Nexus card is set with a Crave logo as it's icon (I'm not sure, but I think Super Magnetic Neo was the offender). Since the Nexus card has no screen, at least I don't have to see it outside of the memory manager... my brother wasn't so lucky and got some lame japanese SD anime girl on his Sega-brand VMU (He hates anime).

Are there any homebrew apps that can force the change?

--Zero

#30 KaineMaxwell OFFLINE  

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Posted Sat Jul 26, 2003 9:22 AM

I know I need a 2nd VMU, mostly since RoLW is taking up alot of room on my present one (got it with Chu Chu Rocket) and for any other future games I get which are VMU hogs.

#31 Harry_Dodgson OFFLINE  

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Posted Mon Jul 28, 2003 5:07 AM

Ze_ro said:

Harry_Dodgson said:

I've just started playing with putting custom VMU icons on the Sega VMUs.  That could help you to keep track of what's on each VMU.  Just pop it into the controller and see what's on the LCD.

By the way, is there any way to change these icons without reformatting the VMU? There are a few games out there that force their own icon onto the damn thing, which is really annoying. I think one bank of my Nexus card is set with a Crave logo as it's icon (I'm not sure, but I think Super Magnetic Neo was the offender). Since the Nexus card has no screen, at least I don't have to see it outside of the memory manager... my brother wasn't so lucky and got some lame japanese SD anime girl on his Sega-brand VMU (He hates anime).

Are there any homebrew apps that can force the change?

--Zero

I haven't seen any homebrew apps to do it, but if you have a Nexus card with a cable, you can do it from their software. When you play the offending game, it will get reset again (of course).

#32 ElephantStyle OFFLINE  

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Posted Mon Jul 28, 2003 10:53 PM

So what games are big memory eaters?

#33 Harry_Dodgson OFFLINE  

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Posted Tue Jul 29, 2003 5:11 AM

ElephantStyle said:

So what games are big memory eaters?

Looking at .DCI files from websites, these take between 10K and 80KBytes...

Coaster Works
Sega GT
Sonic
King of Fighters
Gigawing
Street Fighter Alpha
Sega Rally
Sega Bass Fishing
Quake 3
NBA 2K
MSR
Legacy of Kain
Fur Fighters
Daytona USA
Crazy Taxi
Shenmue
TNN Hardcore Heat
GTA 2

#34 Jasoco OFFLINE  

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Posted Tue Jul 29, 2003 5:12 AM

And how much KB can a normal card hold? What exactly is a Block worth?

#35 Harry_Dodgson OFFLINE  

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Posted Tue Jul 29, 2003 10:37 AM

Jasoco said:

And how much KB can a normal card hold? What exactly is a Block worth?
from http://mc.pp.se/dc/vms/flashmem.html

The VMS flash memory contains 128 kilobytes of storage. These are
divided into 256 blocks of 512 bytes each. Of these blocks, 200 are
available for user files. The rest of the blocks contain filesystem
information, or are simply not used at all.

#36 Jasoco OFFLINE  

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Posted Tue Jul 29, 2003 12:16 PM

Wow.. sorta puts the whole PS2 8MB card thing in perspective.

#37 KaineMaxwell OFFLINE  

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Posted Tue Jul 29, 2003 3:04 PM

Harry_Dodgson said:

ElephantStyle said:

So what games are big memory eaters?

Looking at .DCI files from websites, these take between 10K and 80KBytes...

Coaster Works
Sega GT
Sonic
King of Fighters
Gigawing
Street Fighter Alpha
Sega Rally
Sega Bass Fishing
Quake 3
NBA 2K
MSR
Legacy of Kain
Fur Fighters
Daytona USA
Crazy Taxi
Shenmue
TNN Hardcore Heat
GTA 2
Add Record of Lodoss War to that list too.
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