Hey I'm Derek, it's me Derek, and this is Stop Skeletons From Fighting! The Dreamcast VMU. It is emblematic of everything terrible about Sega... and wonderful, actually! I mean, usually a memory card is just a memory card, but the Dreamcast VMU, a.k.a. Visual Memory Unit. Its amazing tiny little screen can be seen through the center of a Dreamcast controller, and can be used as a secondary screen for in-game info, and it's also a portable mini-console in and of itself, complete with tiny D-pad and cute lil' buttons?! While this device is super cool, there are some obvious problems, like the tiny D-pad and cute lil' buttons, as well as a few other things. The VMU is a little encapsulation of everything awesome and awful about the Dreamcast and Sega in general. It's a great, forward-thinking device with a so-so execution. But this is Punching Weight, where we celebrate the weird, ambitious and unnecessary, and while SO much of the Dreamcast was ambitious, we're gonna break down what made the VMU so great, as well as so terrible. Subscribe if you want more great and terrible video game things... ... alright, let's go! Alright, let's get into what this quirky device has to offer. And it did a lot of different things when plugged into the Dreamcast: Now, most games, to be fair, just showed off logos, like if you somehow forgot what game you were playing. Yep yep, yep, still Illbleed. But the VMU screen does allow for some decent detail, so the logos at least look really nice! Well, at least some do. Way to do the bare minimum, Evolution. But other games spiced it up with cool animations, like Blue Stinger and Soulcalibur, which showed off your character. And lookit lil' chibi Ivy swingin' her lil' chibi heart out! Other times the VMU screen had an actual purpose for gameplay: This little cutie in Guts' Rage keeps track of your kill count, the Dreamcast ports of Resident Evil 2 and Dino Crisis both show off your health and ammo status on the VMU, which honestly may make them better than the PlayStation versions... ... or worse, depending on how you do Survival Horror. [VMU beeping]
The VMU's speaker is how you find weapon upgrades for a character in Skies of Arcadia, and my boy Seaman's animations let you know if Seaman understood you or not! I love you. SEAMAN: You can go away. - There are so many awesome things you can do with just the VMU screen, but this is Stop Skeletons From Fighting. You know it gets dumber than that. This is a fully functioning screen here! What about games where you can play the whole dang thing just on the VMU? That's right, I'm throwin' all my TV's out the window, 'cuz I'm livin' my best life on this approximately one-inch screen! The best way to play video games! And you can do it too! Silent Scope, a port of Konami's sniper-sharpshooter arcade game, has a scope view that lets you precision shoot your enemies on the VMU screen! In real time! And get this: With the controller in port 1 and the mouse in port 2, you can play with just a mouse and the VMU! Oh I see... oh, he's duckin'... [Grace laughs]
BAM! DEREK (V.O.): Amazing. Now, is this a good way to play Silent Scope on the Dreamcast? Absolutely not! But you CAN do it, which is good enough for me! And next, we have another Punching Weight hall-of-famer, Virtua Tennis! Beyond being compatible with the fishing rod/motion controller, Virtua Tennis also shows off full wireframe animations of your tennis match in real time, meaning you can absolutely play this game by just staring at the VMU! [snickers] TV's are lame anyway! Unfortunately you won't be able to combo this with the Dreamcast fishing rod's motion controls, but if you've got a buddy that's as crazy as you, one player could use the fishing rod and the TV, while the other uses just the controller and the VMU, a.k.a. the ultimate way to play! But out of all these features, the one thing that got me the most excited was the VMU's status as a mini portable console. In this regard it's still basically one-of-a-kind! I mean, with the exception of the PocketStation, which only came out in Japan, and kinda the GBA Link Cable, which we've already pretty extensively covered on this channel. So let's get into the VMU stuff that you could interact with independent from your Dreamcast! As a portable device separate from the Dreamcast, the most common uses of the VMU were minigames, most of which were Tamagotchi ripoffs. Tamagotchi was in the blood of the VMU: The first VMU, which is actually this green guy here, even had a little Tamagotchi Godzilla game on it! Let's take a second to appreciate how weird that is? This is a Japanese-only VMU, but it's for the American Godzilla movie. You know, the best one, right? This thing is an oddity unto itself, but this little green guy was just the warm-up to the main course, which was Sonic Adventure's Chao Adventure. Sonic Adventure is maybe the most famous Dreamcast game, and was the system's best-seller. It was Sega's answer to Mario 64. Well, actually, NiGHTS into Dreams on the Saturn was Sonic Team's big foray into the third dimension, but don't tell me you weren't blown away the first time you saw that whale crashing through the pier! Alright, this is a little embarrassing, I was 15 at the time and I actually didn't think graphics could get any better than this. This is it! We've arrived, it's the peak of gaming! It doesn't get any better than this! It's Sonic Adventure, now available at KB Toys! It's really an iconic moment for the Dreamcast, even if the game as a whole doesn't really hold up that well. But we are here to talk about my favorite additions to the Sonic-o-verse, the Chao! Chao were a fun diversion from the main campaign, and are yours to grow, level up, and play with, but without bringing them into the real world on your VMU, you're not really getting the full experience! Chao Adventure is a minigame for the VMU that is literally a little adventure for your Chao! You can watch your little buddy explore the world over various terrain, get special fruits, and even boost its stats! Your Chao can't age or die while inside your VMU, which means you'll be able to level them up more than what is possible in the main game! You can even connect your Chao VMU with a friend's to battle, or get your Chaos to do the nasty, I mean hey, what's an adventure without a little romance? [♫ sensual music ♫]
or get your Chaos to do the nasty, I mean hey, what's an adventure without a little romance? Your Chao even sends you messages every hour or so, it's... it's cute! I remember being so jealous of my friends who would bring their Chao to school or level them up on the bus. So... uh, why didn't I take a Chao to school with me? Well, this brings us to one of the big problems with the VMU, its batteries. The VMU requires two CR2032 batteries to maintain minigames and its always-on realtime clock. These batteries are more expensive and tougher to find than something like a triple-A battery, and on top of that, the clock in particular means that the VMU eats batteries like no-one's business! How many batteries have we bought for this video yet? Like ten? [VMU beeps]
How many batteries have we bought for this video yet? Like ten? And without working batteries, you are subjected to this angelic chorus every time you plug it into your system: [VMU beeps] [VMU beeps] Stop beeping. [long, sustained beep] Luckily it doesn't need batteries for in-game stuff like saves or mid-game animations, After the Dreamcast, Sega retired from console production, but Chao Adventure found a new home on the GameCube and GBA! ... well, sort of: With the GameCube GBA Link Cable, you could transfer your Chao over into the Game Boy Advance's Chao Garden. It has some quality-of-life improvements over Chao Adventure, but overall the GBA Chao features are less robust, with only one minigame per version, depending on the main Sonic game. The VMU, in contrast, is more of an overall bonding experience with your Chao, even if it's less interactive. Honestly, I'd rather go on a VMU adventure instead! Sonic is Sega's flagship series, it's no surprise it went all-in on the VMU, but another huge game for the system was, of course, Shenmue. Well.. Yu Suzuki presents... GRACE: Presents!
DEREK: Loading... Shenmue. It is not only a massive game and a graphical marvel for the time, it also has a ton of extras on the bonus fourth disc, Shenmue Passport. There is SO much on this disc, but the bulk of it is in the Passport section. It's here you can browse a universe encyclopedia, check your minigame scores on online leaderboards, check the health of your kitty, and finally, download the VMU minigame Shenmue Goodies. It's here you can exchange winning cans for character animations that you can watch on your VMU! Winning cans are rare drops from the game's vending machines, and there are over 70 character animations that can be downloaded onto your VMU. It really highlights just how fricking much time and care was put into Shenmue! But it also shows how Sega was, at the time, more about coulda, not so much about shoulda, because Shenmue Goodies underscores another major problem with the VMU: Storage! Oh, the irony! The VMU only has one megabyte of space, the same as a PlayStation 1 memory card, actually, though for the VMU, this is divided into 200 blocks. While a PS1 card could hold 15 different saves, Sega instead opted not to regulate data usage for their developers. If you plan on diving into the minigame stuff that makes the VMU so cool, you're gonna run out of storage really fast, like in Shenmue for example: To use Shenmue Goodies, you first need Shenmue campaign data, which is a whopping 80 blocks. Then, to download the actual Shenmue Goodies minigame is another 50 blocks, a total of 130 blocks, or 65% of the dang VMU, and then, each animation is another two blocks, yes, the animations themselves take up data, and yes, that means that at most, you can only access less than half of the total animations on a single VMU. If you are not interested in these extras, the VMU is fine just for save data. For years I only had one VMU and never ran into any problems. And it might also be possible to download Shenmue Goodies onto a separate VMU, you know, since the Dreamcast controllers have two slots. I'm actually not sure, because to access any part of the Shenmue Passport section, you must have your Dreamcast connected to the internet, and hey, guess what?! Them servers ain't been up for a minute! So I wasn't actually able to personally test any of this, however, it turns out that a lot of the Passport stuff is still on the disc, and hardworking Shenmue superfans have found a way to access it all without an internet connection! I got links and more info in the description below if you wanna know more! But really, at the end of the day... all this for some measly three-frame animations? [sigh] Yeah, it's not quite as cute or exciting as raising and breeding Chao, but it doesn't get much weirder, or more ambitious or unnecessary, than filling 65% of your memory card so that you can watch one three-frame animation of Ryo punching! And all this Passport stuff was cut from Shenmue HD, which just makes this original version that much cooler! But also, yeah, Shenmue Goodies is not really a minigame, right? I mean, it shows just how versatile developers were back then, but... yeah, it's not really a minigame. No, for quality VMU minigame action, you need look no further than Skies of Arcadia, one of the definitive RPG's for the Dreamcast! On top of being an epic RPG that gave the PS1 RPG's of the time a definite run for their money, Skies of Arcadia features Pinta's Quest, a game all unto itself that perfectly complements the main game! In Pinta's Quest, you fly around an ever-expanding world, not as the characters from the game, but as Pinta, an adorable belly boy adventurer! It has six simple challenges that let you grind for gold and other items while you're away from your Dreamcast! Dodge rocks, trade items with other ships, or just find loot in the world! Play for as long as you like or, y'know, for as long as these batteries will let you play, then transfer your games over into the main game. You even level up Pinta's ship the more you play! You don't really get anything too special from Pinta's Quest, but it cuts down on the main game's griding a little bit and gives you an early edge in combat. And the further you get in Skies of Arcadia, the more of the map opens up for Pinta, and with it, the possibility for better gear! The only items that are exclusive to Pinta's Quest are Idols, which are worth a lot of money in the main game. Other items, like moonberries and seeds, are more common in Pinta's Quest, and this is the optimal way to farm for them. Pinta's Quest is not unlockable from the start of the game, though it doesn't take too long to get it: You can talk to Pinta on Sailor's Island to unlock the game from the menu... ... or don't! It's a totally optional part of Skies of Arcadia, and it takes up a whopping 83 blocks, which, along with the 27 blocks for a game save, is over half of a VMU. But don't worry, there's still space for an Illbleed save! Just like Sonic Adventure, Skies of Arcadia got a GameCube port: Skies of Arcadia Legends! However, it does NOT have any GBA link cable support, meaning that Pinta's Quest is entirely missing from this version. I mean, Pinta's still in the game with the exact same dialog, but instead of introducing the minigame, he just rambles on about adventure and then is like, "Alright, bye!" Pinta, you deserve better! It's not all bad though: Other VMU features like the Cham finder's VMU beeps, are replaced with controller vibration, which works well enough. And the Idols are now tied to the new Moonfish and Wanted Battle sidequests, so you can still get them in-game. Still, I miss my lil' belly boy adventures though... There is a TON of other VMU minigames, another standout being Sega GT's take on the Tamagotchi, but with cars! Pocket GT Racer actually has a lot more depth than you'd expect, with you raising a racer and grinding gold to put back into the main game. While I remember Metropolis Street Racer being the better racing game, it didn't have none of this cool VMU extra stuff, so point for Sega GT! Some other games don't even bother with the Tamagotchi stuff and just give you extra bonus games, like two Capcom fighters, Power Stone and Tech Romancer. Oh, I mean, sorry... TeEeEcH RoMANcer. They both have three simple games each, but Falcon and Ayame's VMU games in Power Stone actually unlock extra content, the sound test and art gallery, respectively. Not to be outdone, Tech Romancer has maybe my favorite minigame of them all, Love & PUNCHES! It's the game where you punch all the girls and kiss all the Junpeis! Tch! Now how's that for romance! I also wanted to tell you about the really impressive Tamagotchi VMU stuff in Zombie's Revenge, which is a kinda brilliant but also kinda garbage lovechild of House of the Dead and Dynamite Cop? Right as I was transferring food that I'd gathered in the game to my VMU, it crashed... or something, and the food disappeared? This actually happened twice, I dunno why... Here's another problem with the VMU's: They don't really work all that well! ... I actually had a lot of trouble getting Zombie's Revenge working with my VMU, before it just said, like, "Nah man, you need more batteries!" And then I was like... the batteries are fine though, they work in the other VMU's! Maybe that one was just getting old, I dunno... But if you wanna ditch the physical hardware and all its issues, I've got news for you: VMU emulation is alive and well, so you can actually test out most of these games for yourself, if you know where to look! And also, there's a VMU homebrew community, yes, really, and it's awesome! Check out this massive and terribly slow Pac-Man port by Tyro! There's also many different animations, my favorite of which being this interactive FPS animation by Lauren Peace. Man, what if someone could get Doom on a VMU... And also, gotta give a shout-out to Guacasaurus Mex, a.k.a. 8-Bit Interactive, for making this incredible-looking port of Pokemon GO for the VMU, though they never released it. Basically, the VMU is one of the most underrated gaming peripherals of all time, despite its battery and storage issues. Sega eventually released memory cards with more space that didn't have a screen, but the thing you really need the extra space for are for the minigames, which you can't play without the screen! I'm not surprised it didn't catch on! The whole thing's kinda ridiculous. The PlayStation 2 launched soon after the Dreamcast, with a memory card that held 8 times what the VMU could. At the end of the day, the VMU was super cool, but it wasn't practical, and the timing just wasn't right. Still, we love the little dude for being a true Punching Weight legend! Huge shout-out to our Patreon supporters, their support helped us buy the WAY too many batteries we needed for this episode, and their support also helped us g- helped us get... d- did you realize that complete-in-box VMU's are actually not that hard to find? Uh, their support helped us buy a brand-new VMU for this episode, I got this cool blue guy here... ... uh, he worked a lot better than the white VMU that I got at a Goodwill, maybe that's why the white VMU wasn't working for, uh, Zombie's Revenge... I don't know, but anyway, huge shout-out to every single one of these people here, if you wanna help support the show, help us get more dumb stuff to make more dumb videos, or more great videos about dumb stuff, check us out, Stop Skeletons From Fighting is on Patreon, we have merch as well, we got t-shirts, we got hoodies... uh, and we got more videos comin'... ... what we have us is stopping. Wait, we don't have that, 'cuz we never stoppin', thanks for watching!
