VeMUlator: A free new SEGA VMU emulator for Android!
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 12:15 am
VeMUlator
After months of hard work and days of no sleep, in addition to the lack of documentations regarding this device, I am happy to announce the release of a new SEGA Visual Memory Unit emulator for Android devices. It is totally written from scratch using native Android API.
One of the reasons I have created this emulator is to enjoy VMU mini-games loaded into Dreamcast flash memory dumps (.bin) used in various Dreamcast emulators such as: reicast, NullDC and Chankast. The emulator supports real-time save/write to the flash memory dump (Can be disabled), which means that if one for example was playing Chao Adventure and the game saves its progress, it would be saved to the real flash memory file instantly, so if the player wanted to return back to the mini-game later, he will start playing from where he had reached, this also means that if the player got his Chao out of the VMU in Sonic Adventure (Using reicast emulator for example), the Chao will be affected by the Chao Adventure according to the progress.
The emulator also supports playing (.vms) standalone mini-game files, but without save/write capability, due to the fact that these files are not a whole flash memory, but rather just the data of the mini-games, but this will soon be fixed by adding support to convert (.vms) files to flash memory dumps (.bin) from within the emulator.
Other features include:
- Compatibility with any Android device screen size (With support for wide-screen gameplay.)
- Compatible with Android gamepad/controllers (MOGA).
- Supports searching for flash memory dumps inside reicast's system folder.
- Supports most official mini-games in addition to homebrews.
The emulator requires the VMU BIOS in order to work, the VMU BIOS file specifications are as follows:
Filename (Usually): VMU_BIOS.bin or DC - VMS BIOS (Full).bin
Filesize: 64KB
MD5 checksum: 4bffb9b29b9aeb29aa618f3891a300ce
The BIOS can also be found from within the whole Dreamcast BIOS package:
Filename: Dreamcast.zip
MD5 checksum: acf579f9256494df571e8a07341b028d
Once BIOS is obtained, it must be renamed to "VMU_BIOS.bin" and placed in "VeMUlator" folder in the phone's internal storage.
The emulator still doesn't emulate sound, because sound relies on a hardware inside the VMU which is already emulated but is still under testing, once I am assured it is working 100% as intended, sound emulation will be implemented.
After months of hard work and days of no sleep, in addition to the lack of documentations regarding this device, I am happy to announce the release of a new SEGA Visual Memory Unit emulator for Android devices. It is totally written from scratch using native Android API.
One of the reasons I have created this emulator is to enjoy VMU mini-games loaded into Dreamcast flash memory dumps (.bin) used in various Dreamcast emulators such as: reicast, NullDC and Chankast. The emulator supports real-time save/write to the flash memory dump (Can be disabled), which means that if one for example was playing Chao Adventure and the game saves its progress, it would be saved to the real flash memory file instantly, so if the player wanted to return back to the mini-game later, he will start playing from where he had reached, this also means that if the player got his Chao out of the VMU in Sonic Adventure (Using reicast emulator for example), the Chao will be affected by the Chao Adventure according to the progress.
The emulator also supports playing (.vms) standalone mini-game files, but without save/write capability, due to the fact that these files are not a whole flash memory, but rather just the data of the mini-games, but this will soon be fixed by adding support to convert (.vms) files to flash memory dumps (.bin) from within the emulator.
Other features include:
- Compatibility with any Android device screen size (With support for wide-screen gameplay.)
- Compatible with Android gamepad/controllers (MOGA).
- Supports searching for flash memory dumps inside reicast's system folder.
- Supports most official mini-games in addition to homebrews.
The emulator requires the VMU BIOS in order to work, the VMU BIOS file specifications are as follows:
Filename (Usually): VMU_BIOS.bin or DC - VMS BIOS (Full).bin
Filesize: 64KB
MD5 checksum: 4bffb9b29b9aeb29aa618f3891a300ce
The BIOS can also be found from within the whole Dreamcast BIOS package:
Filename: Dreamcast.zip
MD5 checksum: acf579f9256494df571e8a07341b028d
Once BIOS is obtained, it must be renamed to "VMU_BIOS.bin" and placed in "VeMUlator" folder in the phone's internal storage.
The emulator still doesn't emulate sound, because sound relies on a hardware inside the VMU which is already emulated but is still under testing, once I am assured it is working 100% as intended, sound emulation will be implemented.