[fyfy18]

This reminds me of the VMU on Dreamcast. It was a memory unit with a built in monochrome screen. When 'docked' in the controller it would show extra information about the game you are playing. As well as saving games, you could also download minigames that could be played solely on the VMU. Some of them let you play with friends by connecting two VMUs together (no cables needed, the connector is half male half female so two connect together) - although supposedly I was the only person in the world with a Dreamcast, as all my friends at school had PS1.

https://venturebeat.com/2009/09/12/the-best-dreamcast-vmu-ga...

[Grazester]

Same dude has a VMU hack section. http://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=25.%20VMU%20Hacking

[nom]

I wonder if it ever had a positive impact on sales. It seemed so overkill, even back then, and today even more so. The idea was nice but imagine the additional costs for hardware development and also for software. Seems so silly nowadays.

[toast0]

For games where the VMU wasn't useful, they usually just put a logo or a looping animation.

For games where it was useful, you got cool things like picking football plays on a private screen, or having a private screen to see your items, hidden from the other players in the room, or inventory/status information. Etc

I didn't use any of the VMU contained games though, coin cells are too expensive.

[thebruce87m]

The Wii U kind of took the same idea and ran with it.