Half-Life Dreamcast, memory hog

[Londinium]

I've had the disc sitting there for the past few months, waited until I had a keyboard and mouse ready to play it, and I can only wonder...

WHY THE FUCK DOES IT TAKE UP SO MUCH SPACE

I don't think I'm even a fraction through the game and already my save takes up 99 blocks, only reason I haven't completely abandoned the game is because I have a 4x card (I will specify I am around the moment of the game where you ride the platform going down on a slanted surface while being attacked by headcrabs). I've heard stories of people literally having dedicated VMUs for HL, so my question is, is this normal? Does the game mellow down a bit, or is it that the further you go and more often you save, it takes up more and more space until you can't save anymore? Is it even possible to complete without doing it in one sitting (or at least, a few sittings)?

[Ian Micheal]

Just go close to wall when you save and it uses less space you can complete the game

[mkandersson1082]

Minus the imperfections the Dreamcast version of Half-Life is the most impressive console port as far as I'm concerned...And save states have been known to vary in size, I dedicated a whole VMU to finishing it back in the day

[Londinium]

Just go close to wall when you save and it uses less space you can complete the game

Like, a wall or is there an area called Wall?

[Ian Micheal]

Just go close to wall when you save and it uses less space you can complete the game

Like, a wall or is there an area called Wall?

for one there is other games that take a whole vmu but just face a wall close up every time you save it makes the save smaller..

[Anthony817]

I never heard about the wall thing, but the trick is to save towards the beginning of a level. If you save towards end of level it will fill up the VMU. So as you progress through any stage it increases in size. Simply save immediately after you begin the next level and you will be good to go. An alternative is to just simply use a dedicated VMU for it. I understand VMU's cost out the ass now, but if you have multiple ones it makes sense to do so.

[cbx]

Just go close to wall when you save and it uses less space you can complete the game

Does it store a screenshot or why is that?

[Hellmizer]

Minus the imperfections the Dreamcast version of Half-Life is the most impressive console port as far as I'm concerned...And save states have been known to vary in size, I dedicated a whole VMU to finishing it back in the day

It's also a good idea to format said VMU after finishing the game, cause it seems like sometimes game corrupts save data and not all blocks are freed up after deleting visible saves through UI

[Falco Girgis]

Just go close to wall when you save and it uses less space you can complete the game

Does it store a screenshot or why is that?

Yeah, what in the *actual*? Does anyone have any way of getting one of these files onto the PC? I'd love to look at it in the EVMU hex editor and see wtf it's even doing. That's kind of wild!

[Anthony817]

I will say this, Override and Dreammatrix found out how to make saves work in total conversion mods by saving at certain specific locations in game by saving a save on the PC version of the mod, and somehow injecting it onto the VMU I believe somehown the mod discs.. All I know is that you might want to take a look at Paranoia and They Hunger DC releases as they made saves work there this suggest they might be similar enough to convert from PC save to DC? Maybe that can be a clue?

Normally saves in mods does not work as if you try and save outside of dedicated locations which put messages on screen telling you to save, so if you do not do it there and load it will place you outside of the map.