Some of you may remember the article I published on April 17th this year highlighting a brand-new VM2 feature that allowed openMenu, the open source menu software for the GDEMU ODE, to bring automatic per-game virtual VMU switching to the SEGA Dreamcast for the very first time. To draw a comparison for the uninitiated, this is a feature similar to what’s seen with the MemCard PRO products from the fantastic folks over at 8BitMods.
At the time, many asked if such a feature would ever be possible using other ODEs, like USB-GDROM or MODE, or even with original (or burned) discs. Until now, that answer has been no. Why, you ask? Well, there’s no full-proof, 100% successful way to automatically identify a game launched on the Dreamcast without something telling the VM2 its unique identifier.
While this is still the case, Chris Daioglou of DreamMods.net decided to revisit an old idea for how his VM2 might be able to achieve something like 80-90% auto-detection, regardless of how users are playing their games.
The result? Today, he proudly released VM2 firmware version 1.4.2 which delivers precisely that and a whole lot more!
Note that this initial release only supports the NTSC and PAL libraries, as well as a sizeable chunk of the indie games released for the Dreamcast over the years. Rest assured though, support for the Japanese library will be coming too.
See the changelog below.
- Refined menu & explorer scrolling (up/down)
- SD Explorer now also supports folders deletion (by pressing the MODE button)
- Automatic game detection (GameID) for all ODEs + original discs (works for ~90% of DC library)
- Automatic game detection (GameID) can be enabled/disabled from VM2 (Memory) settings
- GUI updated to 1.6.0.0 : Addition of VM2 emulator + support of GameID to uSD Explorer
Check out the announcement post linked below. For those curious to see this feature in action, I recorded a work-in-progress preview video earlier this month.
NOTE: The upcoming VMU Pro from 8BitMods will have an identical ODE-agnostic feature.
