Dreamcast Visual Memory Unit (VMU) Review

The Dreamcast Visual Memory Unit (VMU) is a device that was ahead of it’s time. The VMU is a memory card at heart, but with the added screen, directional pad, and A and B buttons. The little unit looked like a micro Game Boy (not to be confused with the actual Game Boy Micro.

The VMU runs at a processor speed of 8-bits with 128 kb of memory. This little guy was more powerful than my Commodore 64. The sound source was one channel, which basically mean a ‘beep’ in different tones. The unit runs off of 2025-sized button cell batteries.

The screen was the tour-de-force of the VMU. It couldn’t be called a Visual Memory Unit without it. It would probably just be called a Memory Unit. The screen was 48 dots wide by 32 dots tall and was monochrome. And for what it did, monochrome was okay.

Depending on the game, developers could maximize a game’s potential by utilizing the VMU. Unfortunately, most gamemakers took a passive approach for game interaction.

Sonic Adventure used the VMU to allow you to play the mini-game, Chao Adventure. This Tamogotchchi-style game directly involved the main game because any stats accumulated would be transferred to Sonic Adventure on the next play. Sonic’s pet could be played in the game or on the VMU, which meant long hours at work hiding in the bathroom could be spent making your Chao better. (Or was that just me?)

Seaman lived in your VMU once you saved a session. Time didn’t freeze for Seaman because the VMU kept the clock running and the tank would get dirty, Seaman would get hungry, etc. He could die right on the VMU.

The Sega NFL games let you pick plays straight from the VMU so your opponent couldn’t tell what you were picking.

Resident Evil constantly showed your character’s health via a heart rate monitor-style line. Even though you couldn’t continuously look at it, the rumble pack vibrated like a heart to help you.

In the end, the VMU was an underutilized device. Long after Sega stopped making games, you can still find homemade animated clips and programs (VMU Football) proving that Sega has one of the most loyal followings of any company.

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