VISUAL DREAMS

7 April 2022

Here's an offbeat article that has little to do with Recut itself.

Recut's shell takes reference from the Visual Memory Unit instead of just being an original thing like the uh, original Riftcast.

The VMU was such a nifty piece of tech for its day, taking inspiration from Bandai's Tamagotchi and Digital Monster by acting as an independent handheld separate from the Dreamcast that can interface with others to share data.

Curiously, the very first one the world would see was the Atsumete Godzilla VMU, which came out months before the companion game (and Japanese launch title) Godzilla Generations, and that was a standalone virtual pet to boot. Would you believe that Zilla (or Godzilla USA as they put it) was the strongest of the bunch on that game?

Anyway, the VMU was pretty cool. Lots of novelty shell colours and themes too, even if most of them stayed in Japan. Shame about the rather lacking storage space for save data and downloadable games, as well as the incessant low battery beeping.

Would be real cool to make Riftcast for the Dreamcast.