Whatever happened to the VMU?

[Limewater]

Also the storage they offered was way too little (8 Megabytes memory cards? WTF)

As of October 2000, when the PS2 came to the US, flash memory was still somewhat expensive. I was still carrying around files on floppy disks, as were most of my friends. USB flash drives were just starting to become common, and were still being sold in 8 and 16MB sizes. MP3 players were still bulky and could usually only hold about 64MB.

[Ziggy]

Except when you look at those examples external memory was practically required anyway, since the internal memory was so minimal.

Yeah, but those were years earlier. PS2 should have stepped it up! Even still, limited memory is still better than NO memory in my book. At least you could save some games until you can buy a memory card. I had 2 games for my PS2 for months before I could finally save!

[Hobie-wan]

The Gamecube was the last console to use memory cards...

*cough* 360 *cough*

[MrPopo]

The Gamecube was the last console to use memory cards...

*cough* 360 *cough*

I suppose I should have tossed in an "exclusively" or "primarily". The 360 memory card was thrown in so Microsoft wouldn't have to enable USB sticks for save transfers (which they eventually did anyway).

[D.D.D.]

Well, don't forget the advantage that having an external memory card gives you; the ability to take your saves to a friend's house. With the SNES you'd just bring your copy of Secret of Mana so you both can pick up the level 30 party. So with the external card the PSX used you had the same capability. And if you're already going to support an external card then you have less of a reason to provide internal storage, which lets you shave money off the cost of production.

I still remember the SNES CD's solution to the whole memory card issue (if it actually came out). They were going to put the CD in a caddy, kinda like a big MiniDisc, and in one of the corners of the caddy would be a battery for saves. At the time I thought it was cool but now, as cheap as USB memory is, wouldn't be practical.

And as few games really used the VMU screen, I don't know how it would be but, someone mentioned a screen built-into a controller as a pseudo-VMU. That could be cool if developers actually used it but even on the DS not that many use it really well. The big thing is that on the DS, from top to bottom screen, it's not that much eye-travel; from the TV to your controller screen it's significant.

[ZeroAX]

As of October 2000, when the PS2 came to the US, flash memory was still somewhat expensive. I was still carrying around files on floppy disks, as were most of my friends. USB flash drives were just starting to become common, and were still being sold in 8 and 16MB sizes. MP3 players were still bulky and could usually only hold about 64MB.

True, but they could have upgraded the memory cards in the PS2's 10 year life. I bought a PS2 in 2005 and I remember paying 30€ for a 8MB PS2 memory card. By that time flash memory had gotten a lot cheaper. They could have sold 128MB for that money and still make a huge profit. But they wanted an even bigger profit, and hey why shouldn't they? It's not like the other 2 consoles were any serious competition.

[Limewater]

True, but they could have upgraded the memory cards in the PS2's 10 year life. I bought a PS2 in 2005 and I remember paying 30€ for a 8MB PS2 memory card. By that time flash memory had gotten a lot cheaper. They could have sold 128MB for that money and still make a huge profit. But they wanted an even bigger profit, and hey why shouldn't they? It's not like the other 2 consoles were any serious competition.

Ah. I've never bought a PS2 memory card, so I had no idea what they were charging. That was pretty high.
The memory card I have now is an unlicensed one labeled "16MB", but all games I've tried just refer to it as 8MB.
I'm sure it's a serial interface, but maybe the console firmware is restricted to 8MB of memory card space and the unlicensed cards actually resort to bank switching. I'm just talking crap now, though, so I'll shut up.

[BurningDoom]

Yeah, the VMUs are awesome. It's one of my favorite features on the Dreamcast. I loved the idea of taking LCD games with you on the go, but very few games actually used this feature. I also get a simple joy out of just seeing whatever game I'm playing's logo on the controller. And the idea of having stats and gameplays and such hidden from other players is a great idea.

The way technology is nowadays, they should be able to have a similar screen built into the controller itself nowadays, if the VMUs are indeed expensive to make as some others on this thread have said. And since modern controllers are now $50 a piece (FREAKING OUTRAGEOUS!), if they tell us it's because of money restraints then their full of crap.