| | | https://segaretro.org/VMU_Explorer
The version 1.0.0 .exe is dated 7/22/2006. The URL in the program's "About" window (which also notes "by Speud"; with a free.fr email address, which is why I set it as location EUR : P), http://blueswirl.shorturl.com, forwards to http://bswirl.kitsunet.org/ , which is blank--although the http://bswirl.kitsunet.org/tools/download/vmuexplorer.rar download address still works.
It's a utility for importing and exporting Dreamcast .VMI and .vms co-save files into virtual .bin save files used by emulators like Flycast (see entry 1615).
When I used DreamShell (see entry 1626) and the DC SD Adapter V2 (see entry 1627) to dump my VMU saves from the 40 blocks of save space on my Brook Super Converter (old version), all I got were .vms files.
But a save I made fresh in Flycast, then exported from Flycast's virtual data/vmu_save_A1.bin with VMU Explorer, had both .VMI and .VMS (capitalized). So I borrowed that .VMI, paired it with my .vms--giving my .vms a filename matching the .VMI--and imported them into the .bin with VMU Explorer; Flycast was then able to load the save, and there was my SoulCalibur progress from on playing on the DC. : ) |
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| | | | Also, there's a French version of the readme. |
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(I kept calling the DC SD Adapter V2 "Card Reader" instead of "Adapter." : P) |
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| | | One slight annoyance is that it pops up a window saying ~'unsaved changes will be lost, are you sure you want to quit' every time you go to quit, even if you just saved.
I've been able to use it to import saves downloaded from GameFAQs--to unlock characters easily in Japanese MvC2, for instance, and especially in JP JoJo's Bizarre Adventure--because I really wasn't looking forward to trying to beat all the Challenge (Survival) modes in that game to unlock the rest of the characters! Ah and 3rd Strike, to get all the colors without having to beat Arcade with each character again. Oh and GGX! 'Cause to get all the colors there you have to beat Survival (just once, apparently) which um I have never even come close to doing. |
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| | | On the Saves tab for a DC game on GameFAQs, the VMS direct download link is to the .VMI file. You also need the .VMS though, so you have to copy the VMI link, replace the "I" with "S," and punch that edited .VMS link into your browser address bar to download the .VMS file--or at least, that's what I seem to have to do in Firefox.
And VMU Explorer refuses to import from the GameFAQs .VMI files. So I have to export a save of the game that I've saved from the game running in Flycast (or I suppose from a dump I've made through DreamShell), rename the GameFAQs .VMS file to the same name as the exported .VMS file, delete the exported .VMS file and the GameFAQs .VMI file, then import the now pair-named GameFAQs .VMS file and exported .VMI file in VMU Explorer. |
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