Dreamcast VMU: Change language?

So I brought a Japanese Dreamcast VMU, come to find that it's in Japanese. Well, obviously, right? At the time, I didn't know there was a menu and stuff on the things, I figured they just saved and displayed stuff on the screen Is there a way of changing the language of VMUs?

 

bit of quick googling i found this may help you get through the menu's

http://www.gamefaqs.com/dreamcast/916412-dreamcast/faqs/2675

im not sure if theres a way to maybe connect it to a pc or flash a english language software over to the vmu

if you take a look on ebay theres someone selling a load of offically brand new VMU's which are apparently US versions but should work in any dreamcast.

 

Thanks for the guide, but I was hoping to be able to change the language on the VMU itself

 

dont think its possible, but theres also this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TBwE7ZFQ0

VMUtools at least will give you access through the dreamcast itself in english.

http://www.thocp.net/software/games/consoles/sega/manuals/dreamcast_visual_memory_unit.pdf

^ manual but nothing about language

 

That program looks pretty cool! Surely there's a downside to expanding the VMU's capacity? I mean, if it was possible for it to be bigger, I would think Sega would have made it bigger.

 

It could be like the Sega CD backup ram cart, or Gamecube memory cards. I've heard their real max sizes weren't released.

 

Why would they do that?

 

Likely cost. Not enough user demand for more expensive versions.

Probably part of why PSP's ludicrous-priced memory stick hasn't exceeded 32GB. Despite adding firmware support for more. (at least IIRC, the planned memory stick XC isn't out yet)

 

So there's no risks or downsides to going the VMU capacity hack then?

 

That depends on game programming. Some titles might not agree with non-standard size.

 

have you tried plugging it into an English dreamcast yet?
it maybe the dreamcast lang settings that set the VMU lang
you could even backup the saves off it if its important to you
and then format it with the dreamcast

also its size is limited by the 8 bit CPU inside the VMU
so it never was able to see large sizes due to the firmware limitations imposed by an 8bit addressing space they can
get bigger but cost wise the pageing system use on offeshial 4x VMUs was not only easier but simpler to impliment

 

My Dreamcase is a Japanese one, but it's set to English, does that count? I've formatted the VMU, but that didn't appear to change the language sadly Thanks for the technical info, I'm thinking it would be safer to leave it the way it is