#visual memory unit

Another reason Dreamcast memory cards > everyone else’s memory cards.

One of my projects as of recently is getting myself a sega dremcast console. Along a few games for it of course. One of the things I ordered was a controller and a VMU unit along with it.

A VMU (short for Visual Memory Unit) is a dreamcast memory cart with a small screen, a d-pad and some buttons. Not only it serves as data storage for the dreamcast but it was intended for you to download games on it and play them on the go! A standard one looks like this:

Anyways the one I got is a transparent blue model. After installing new batteries in it I saw there was save data still! Apparently the batteries are there only to save the internal time of the VMU (it has a clock feature independent of the save data dates) and playing the small games on it. Save data stays even when out of batteries.

Here's the save data:

It goes as following:

1&2: Virtua Striker 2 save and replay data files from: November 27 1998

3: Virtua Tennis 2K2 (?) save data from: November 27 1998

4: Sonic Shuffle data (Text being in highlight signify this data can't be copied) from : January 12 1999

5: Dead or Alive 2 save data from: February 17 1999

It would be easy to come to the conclusion that those are very old save files but NO! All of those dates are from before those games are released.

This is due to the fact that the dreamcast itself has an internal battery to keep track of the time. While this battery recharge, it only does so when the console itself it powered on; not just when it is plugged in. When you power on a dreamcast with a dead battery, the default time is november 27 1998 (the day the console was released in japan)!

So the actual little scenario that happened is this:

-Somebody got a dreamcast with Virtua Striker 2 and Virtua Tennis 2K2. The console battery was empty upon getting the dreamcast.

-Sonic Shuffle was played 2 months later!

-Dead of Alive 2 was played a little bit wee more than a month later

-This vmu got sold eventually after.