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#                                                                             #
#                             VMU TOOL 0.7.0                                  #
#                                   By Speud                                  #
#                                                                             #
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speud@free.fr                                            http://blueswirl.fr.st



What is VMU Tool ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is an app for the Dreamcast and especially for its memory card, the VMU.

With this tool you'll be able to:
- manage files from your VM easily (copy, rename, remove copy protection...)
- download saves and minigames from your CD or your PC
- backup files from your VM to your PC
- increase your VMU capacity to 241 blocks
- change the icon and color without having to reformat your VM
- hexedit your files or your whole VMU
- dump your VMU to your PC
- edit existing extra icon or draw a new one
- save extra BG images for your boot menu
plus a few other things that are not yet implemented...

The goal of this project is to have everything you need for your VM gathered
in one ultimate VMU Tool :)



What's new in version 0.7.0 ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- fixed a lot of bugs
- added an "Options" menu with a skin selector
- implemented multi-language menus
- allowed free browsing in "Open CD/PC" functions instead of the "vmutool" dir
- rearranged the menus so they are more user friendly
- implemented the Extra icon editor
- made the app check for existing files with ability to overwrite them
- added the ability to rename the file before saving
- optimized the code to gain some speed (noticable with the Hexeditor)
- implemented VM icons and eyecatches for files created with the app
- added an Extra BG selector
- fixed the creation date and time
- probably a lot of other things that took me so long but I can't remember :P



What do I need ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You will find 3 files in this archive:
- vmu__070.bin
- vmu__070.elf
- vmu__070.sbi

If you have a BBA or a coder cable you can upload the elf file to your DC using
dc-load/dc-tool. I don't have any of them for now so I can't give you more
details.

If like me you don't have any BBA or coder cable you have to burn the tool on a
CD. The bin file is the scrambled binary. You can burn the app to a separate CD
using your favorite selfbooting method or make a multisession disc you boot
with DC-hakker.

You can use the sbi with Selfboot Inducer to create a Selfboot image easily.
Visit sbiffy.com for more infos on sbi and Selfboot Inducer.

The tool supports disc swapping, you can burn your disc with your VM files or
burn the app on a disc and the files on another disc.

You can create dirs/subdirs and place your VMI+VMS files in them or put them
directly in the root.
Make sure the VMI files correspond to the VMS files.
The filenames length can't exceed 12 chars (8 for name and 3 for extensions).
Lower case extensions are supported.



How does it work ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The navigation uses simple menus, you will see the submenus and files in the
top frame, complementar infos in the bottom frame, in some menus you can control
the cursor with up and down, select a file or a submenu with A (or START in some
cases), press B to return to the main menu or cancel. Sometimes you can also use
the triggers to change values quickly or switch to the previous/next page.



How can I download a file from my CD/PC to my VMU ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Choose to open the appropriate device in the main menu (CD/PC), a list will show
the VMI files found in your dir.
It will also display subdirs if found some, so you can open them to scan them.
Select a file with the cursor, choose the VMU to save the file to, rename
the file if you want and save the file.
If a file with the same name already exists it will ask you if you want to
overwrite it, if you decide to overwrite it the app will first delete the old
file before saving the new one.



How can I upload a file to my PC ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Choose to open the VMU in the main menu, select the VMU to copy the file from.
A list will display all the files found on your VMU, select the file you
want to backup with the cursor, open the submenu, select "Copy to PC"
and the upload starts.



How can I access to the "extras" menu ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can access to this menu, that contains all the functions related to a
specific menu, by pressing X on the VM-select menu.



What are the known issues ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I tried to fix most of the bugs I could before releasing this version, it
should have a lot less bugs than the previous version.
Though as I modified the code in the last minute without taking much time to
test this could have created new bugs I didn't notice.
The only bug that I noticed happens in the options menu, sometimes after
having modified the BG image or the extra BG and/or having applied the
changes the app reboots.
If you notice anything else please report it.

Also not really a bug but the extra blocks might cause some problems with
some games when enabled, the games that are known to have such problems are:
- DreamKey/DreamPassport (the VM is not detected)
- Sonic Adventure 2 (can't save file)
To solve these problems simply turn the extra blocks off before loading these
games, the files saved in the extra blocks won't be available until you turn
them on again.
If you know another game that is incompatible with extra blocks please let
me know.

Another thing that you have to keep in mind when using the filemanagers is that
it's not optimized to load a lot of files.
It shouldn't be a problem for the "Open VMU" function, but for the "Open CD/PC"
make sure you don't put all your files in the same dir if there are more than
50 files, the app will have to scan the whole list everytime it has to display
file infos or a new page.
If you have something like 100+ files it's better to create dirs/subdirs with
the minimum number of files in each dir/subdir.
Also the app doesn't like path longer than 255 chars.



How can I help ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, this becomes an expensive hobby...

I still don't have my coder cable and I burned lots of CD to test each
change. Also my DC is almost dead, I have only one VM to test and my
CD burner has suffered of making so many multisession discs.

So if you like my work and would like me to be in the best conditions
for the next versions feel free to donnate to my Money-bookers
account at speud@free.fr

Any donnation is greatly appreciated, not only the biggest ones ;)



Special thanks to:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Bucanero for being the author of "VMU Backup Tool", the project that largely
inspired "VMU Tool", and for the alpha testing

- WaCk0 for making all the VM icons, eyeactches, extra BG images, taking some
screenshots and having tested the beta version. A great help for this version :)

- Ian Micheal, Mikey242, Blu3flame, Curt Grymala and WaCk0 for the BG images

- Ian Micheal for the BG musics I couldn't implement in this version :/

- law for the german translation
- Captain Skyhawk for the dutch translation
- WaCk0 for the portuguese translation
- Bucanero for the spanish translation
- Rastaman33 for the swedish translation
- M@jk for the polish translation

- Fackue: alpha & beta tester
- Shark812: alpha & beta tester
- DCnewbie: alpha tester
- JMD, diwee & Smiles: quick alpha testers

- People who offer suggestions, bug reports, support, etc... on boards interested
in the project, such as http://www.dcemulation.com/ and http://www.dcemu.co.uk
- Anyone who helped or at least tried by answering to my questions in the
programming forum of DC-emu and consolevision

- Dan Potter for the essential and well known KalistiOS
- Marcus Comstedt for his excellent programming site http://mc.pp.se/dc/
- Blue Crab for his helpful MinGW tutorial http://ljsdcdev.sunsite.dk/tools.php
- BlackAura for his interesting KOS 2D tutorial

If you feel that you should be in these credits and you're not please let me know so
I can fix this error as soon as possible.


More to come...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




















































































































































































































































































































































































                                                                                                                                                                What's that ?
                                                                                                                                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                                                                                                                                Something to reward curious people :)

                                                                                                                                                                When you save an extra icon created/edited with the tool go to the
                                                                                                                                                                DC boot menu and choose any option but "Play", press Start and
                                                                                                                                                                you'll see the "real" DC boot menu.

                                                                                                                                                                On the main menu of VMU Tool keep Start pressed and press A 10
                                                                                                                                                                times to unlock debug mode.












































































