What is the best use of the Dreamcast's VMU?

[James]

I personally love the VMU it is just a brillient idea. My personal favourite use of it has got to be D2. In D2 it's used as a compass and works beutifully, I can't think of a better use of it. As for D2 itself it's a great very in depth game that combines about 6 genres in one. I wish they would release it on other consoles so more gamers could enjoy its glory although it wouldn't be as good without the VMU.

[unbroken]

out of all the dc games i have ever played, skies of arcadia was one of the only ones i actually sat down and played with its vmu game. the vmu was a very good idea, i would like to see more systems down the road use something like it but with better gameplay and graphics, maybe like 5 years down the road they could make something the size of the vmu but with gba graphics so you could actually play it for a few hours and not a few minutes like the vmu. i mean the vmu was a great idea, but whos gonna actually sit down and waste their time on the crap games, i had more fun staring and the funny little things it does while youre playing a dc game.

[vulcanjedi]

Hmm

I kept a few Chao as virtual pets from Sonic Adventure 1. This obsession lasted through about $15 worth of batteries.

And played the Pintas Quest in Skies as well.

VJ

[jdc]

How about the worst thing about the VMU?

Only being able to put one PSO character on a card. I had 7 half-used VMUs.

[Nez]

The Resident Evils. The VMU showed you how much ammo was in your gun, how much health you had left, and what game you were playing!

Oh wait that last one wasn't note worthy.

[ddockery]

Playcalling on the NFL2K series. I never once used the VMU to play any of the extras outside of the game, but loved when it was used for something useful like this. I'd love to see someone re-use this idea next generation, but with a slightly bigger color LCD. They're getting cheap now, so it's a real possibility, but I doubt we'll see it.

[Muscelli]

powerstone had a ton of minigames on it, i loved it..

quake has a cool animation when ur playing the game

[le geek]

I liked the "freeware" tetris game...

[tholly]

Playcalling on the NFL2K series. I never once used the VMU to play any of the extras outside of the game, but loved when it was used for something useful like this. I'd love to see someone re-use this idea next generation, but with a slightly bigger color LCD. They're getting cheap now, so it's a real possibility, but I doubt we'll see it.

i hate sports games, but i got the football games and loved picking plays that no one else could see, so, thats what i would say was the best use of the VMU....because we all know any use that involved the batteries was pretty bad

[GarrettCRW]

i hate sports games, but i got the football games and loved picking plays that no one else could see, so, thats what i would say was the best use of the VMU....because we all know any use that involved the batteries was pretty bad

On the plus side, though, is that if you have a lot of VMUs, you can harvest the batteries for all of your old NES/SMS/Genesis/etc. games.

[JB Lars]

Pinta's Quest, easy. There was a massive missed opportunity in not bringing an updated version of that to GBA as part of SOAL.

[James]

out of all the dc games i have ever played, skies of arcadia was one of the only ones i actually sat down and played with its vmu game. the vmu was a very good idea, i would like to see more systems down the road use something like it but with better gameplay and graphics, maybe like 5 years down the road they could make something the size of the vmu but with gba graphics so you could actually play it for a few hours and not a few minutes like the vmu. i mean the vmu was a great idea, but whos gonna actually sit down and waste their time on the crap games, i had more fun staring and the funny little things it does while youre playing a dc game.

It might be sooner than that. One of the things I think is a strong possibility for the Revolution is having a controller with a screen built in. Now the system is probably going to come stock with wireless controllers anyway. Now imagine if they had a 3 inch or so backlit colour LCD touch screen much like the DS's along with all the regular buttons and joysticks you would normally find. It would function much like the VMU did and would probably have a couple of cartridge slots, one for GBA and one for a newer format of game. And the controller doubles as a Gameboy or something similar when not being used with the main system. Wouldn't that be cool!

[suppafly]

In virtua tennis, you could play the game without looking at the TV, because the VMU had the game graphics too. That way. I could go into the bathroom (bring the control with me), close the door, and still be playing virtua tennis against anyone

now THATS cool

[Lord007]

It might be sooner than that. One of the things I think is a strong possibility for the Revolution is having a controller with a screen built in. Now the system is probably going to come stock with wireless controllers anyway. Now imagine if they had a 3 inch or so backlit colour LCD touch screen much like the DS's along with all the regular buttons and joysticks you would normally find. It would function much like the VMU did and would probably have a couple of cartridge slots, one for GBA and one for a newer format of game. And the controller doubles as a Gameboy or something similar when not being used with the main system. Wouldn't that be cool!

I don't think they're planning on adding a screen to the Revolution's controllers:

Q: Will Revolution feature screens on the console or the controller?

A: No. At a June 2004 analyst briefing in Japan, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said, "We have no intention of making a two-screen console akin to the [Nintendo] DS."

He denies having "two-screen" and I think he meant that for the actual console...but maybe a single screen on the controller is in the works? I dunno.

Oh and here's the link to the story: http://cube.ign.com/articles/522/522559p1.html

[James]

It might be sooner than that. One of the things I think is a strong possibility for the Revolution is having a controller with a screen built in. Now the system is probably going to come stock with wireless controllers anyway. Now imagine if they had a 3 inch or so backlit colour LCD touch screen much like the DS's along with all the regular buttons and joysticks you would normally find. It would function much like the VMU did and would probably have a couple of cartridge slots, one for GBA and one for a newer format of game. And the controller doubles as a Gameboy or something similar when not being used with the main system. Wouldn't that be cool!

I don't think they're planning on adding a screen to the Revolution's controllers:

Q: Will Revolution feature screens on the console or the controller?

A: No. At a June 2004 analyst briefing in Japan, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said, "We have no intention of making a two-screen console akin to the [Nintendo] DS."

He denies having "two-screen" and I think he meant that for the actual console...but maybe a single screen on the controller is in the works? I dunno.

Oh and here's the link to the story: http://cube.ign.com/articles/522/522559p1.html

I'm not sure if it would be cost effective now but it would be pretty neat if we could use the Revolutions controller for multi purposes, etc. and it would be a huge selling point. If you were to take away the top screen from the DS and thus the extra ARM 7 CPU and add 2 more buttons and 2 joysticks with stick buttons(Like Xbox and PS2 controllers) the price of it would drop to about $50 US at cost(meaning Nintendo wouldn't lose money or make money) and possibly even cheaper. This could then be a feasable idea and with prices on these sorts of technologies dropping all the time, when the system is released a little over a year from now it will be even more affordable to do. I hope they do it, they have hinted at something of the like before.

[SMB]

In virtua tennis, you could play the game without looking at the TV, because the VMU had the game graphics too. That way. I could go into the bathroom (bring the control with me), close the door, and still be playing virtua tennis against anyone

now THATS cool

I thought that was awesome!