Dreamcast VMU Questions

[NayusDante]

I found a bag of CR2032 batteries in the battery drawer, so of course, I'm trying them in my VMUs. The problem is, none of them seem to be turning any of my VMUs on. How fresh do the batteries need to be? I tested them all with a multimeter and got pretty good readings on a few, but they don't work.

Once I do get the things to work, what are some of the fun or useful things to do with them? Any good VMU homebrew?

[coreys429]

Just get some new batteries. It is easier then trying to get them to work.

[heybtbm]

FYI: VMU's take two 2032 batteries and they last about an hour or so. Not really worth the expense after you've tried it once or twice.

[iloveguns]

i think the problem is not in the battery...

[NayusDante]

I've tried three VMUs, I think the batteries are just too weak.

Is there any kind of rechargeable solution for these? I do remember that they had abysmal battery life.

[Imstarryeyed]

2032's are notorious for shorting out if you store them in a bag where they are touching each other, the exact same thing happened to me when we stored a bunch of them in a zip lock bag. Just throw them away and get a bulk deal on Ebay.

[PSony]

There was a guide on making a battery pack out of regular AA batteries or something for the vmu. Check gamefaqs.

[c0ldb33r]

There was a guide on making a battery pack out of regular AA batteries or something for the vmu. Check gamefaqs.
Problem is that the batteries are bigger than the VMU itself.

[Cryomancer]

Most VMU homebrew are just animations (although many of them are kinda neat / pretty funny). There are homebrew utlitiy discs that have a built-in VMU emulator that lets you watch these. There are a few homebrew games too, there's a tetris and pac-man for VMU I believe. Many DC games have minigames you can download to your VMU and play to advance your main game somehow. For example Sonic Adventure has a minigame to increase your Chao's stats, either Powerstone or Soul Calibur has a slot machine game, things like that. Of course there are also uses for a VMU in a controller during a game, but you don't need batteries for that.

VMUs are pretty awesome actually, I was really hoping the 360 was going to have something similar. Maybe eventually the Zune will have similar functionality.

[MrSparkle]

Problem is that the batteries are bigger than the VMU itself.

Haha that's only a problem for the meek (who should wait until inheriting the earth to complain about it)

[Cryomancer]

It's a problem if you hope to use the VMU in a controller.

[Baloo]

It's a problem if you hope to use the VMU in a controller.

But then all you have to do is take the batteries out.