Dreamcast VMU myth or fact?

[gblock]

K, this is something I just remembered hearing a few years back near the end of Dreamcast's "official" life cycle.  That VMU's were shorting out controller ports cause of the power they draw through the controller.  Is there any truth to this/did it happen to anyone, or was this just a bunch of BS?  Always wondered, cause if so, why wold anyone use one and not a non-screen memory card?

Thanks.

[willplayer]

I never experienced this, nor have I ever heard of it! I can't even see it as a possibility, considering how very little power the vmu's consumed once turned on!

[jem]

I never heard of this either.  And it never happened to me.

[Thex81]

Hmm...Well, sometimes my controllers did short-out on me, bu I don't think the VMU has anything to do with it because when it happened with my first one, I didn't have a VMU yet...

Hope it isn't true...I have 2 VMUs in one controller right now.

[warmaster670]

i can;t see that happening, maybe if VMUs were third party things, but sega made them for the controller, so i would imagine the memory card ports would have been made to handle them

[willplayer]

Did anyone find using a VMU useful when playing anything on the DC? I can't think of a time it warned me of something coming up in the game or if I was ever low on something etc. It was just fun to look at during load times and when I wasn't doing anything in particular.

[Elite Evil]

SOA made use of it. If the dreamcast had taken off properly being able to trade saves by plugging them into each other would have been really awesome.

[jem]

Wouldn't let me transfer my PSO save that way  .

[warmaster670]

Did anyone find using a VMU useful when playing anything on the DC? I can't think of a time it warned me of something coming up in the game or if I was ever low on something etc. It was just fun to look at during load times and when I wasn't doing anything in particular.

in code veronica, you could see your health on it, that was sorta useful

[Donkeyboy]

The VMU, like the Dreamcast itself, was so far ahead of its time that it could never have filled the shoes of its potential.  It's like the greatest athlete ever getting run over by a bus.

[willplayer]

I really thought they had a good idea going with it for a while. Til the Dreamcast was pushed aside by other competition.

[wickidweasel]

Some third party controlers have been known to cause the F1 fuse on the controller port PCB to blow so i would assume its possible for a VMU to do the same

[grimangel]

had my dc for 7-8 years now never happened to me