[PS1] Interact V-Mem - ROM or firmware dump

BIOS, Controllers, Memory Cards, Serial I/O, Parallel I/O, etc.
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pool7
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[PS1] Interact V-Mem - ROM or firmware dump

Post by pool7 » September 13th, 2016, 1:43 pm

Copy-pasting from my own thread from assemblergames; hope that's ok.
@Mods, Admins: feel free to move this if it doesn't belong here.

The device is the InterAct V-Mem (Virtual Memory Card System), by the creators of the Gameshark.
It connects to the fat PS1 parallel / expansion port and basically allows saving to its internal memory that is split in various virtual memory cards (can't remember now how many).

-Does anyone here own this device and is willing to (try to) dump its ROM / Firmware?
-Also, anyone that owns one of this, can you provide the ROM / Firmware version? Not sure where it would be listed, but it should be somewhere (hopefully). I was always curious to know if more than one version was released.

"Fun" fact: As far as I know (ie. by searching around the net), this device was never released outside the US, which is kinda weird, as Interact (US) was just a reseller of Datel (UK) products. But I couldn't find an equivalent product with Datel brand.

PS: I'm NOT talking about the V-Mem feature of the GameShark and similar cartridges; this is a separate device that was exclusively a huge storage with multiple virtual memory cards. Google "interact v-mem" (no quotes) and you'll fine pictures of it.

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Post by Yuri^Cybdyn » October 12th, 2016, 5:22 am

interesting, if it based on replacing of bios calls, which work around mem-card device (like INIT, READ, WRITE), so it might be possible to redirect it to work like V-mem with other external devices))

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Post by Bones » January 9th, 2017, 2:37 pm

I came across this forum and post while checking for additional info about my V-mem module, registered here to give what little info I can.

Now..... The module will store up to the equivalent of 60 PSX memory cards. 8-)

You access the module by first, pressing and holding any button on the #1 controller, then power on the PSX and continue holding the button until the V-Mem screen appears.
Once in, you can scroll around with the directional controller and see what's on each individual "Card" by pressing the O button when the card you want to check is in the middle of the screen. Empty "Cards" are indicated by it being green, cards with data on them will appear to be a reddish color. To erase the card the module will have you open the PSX's lid and do the erasure within the PSX menu - You cannot swap between these cards while in this menu.

To access other cards you'll have to reboot the system and access it again as described above and select another "Card" to view, erase or use.

As for getting a dump of it's ROM I'll have to see if I have some way of accessing it but cannot promise anything ATM, will take a bit of digging on my part to see.

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Post by Squaresoft74 » January 9th, 2017, 2:50 pm

It has been dumped by (afaik) krHACKen a few months ago.

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Post by Bones » January 9th, 2017, 2:53 pm

Squaresoft74 wrote:It has been dumped by (afaik) krHACKen a few months ago.
Good to know someone was able to help out. :)

At least if someone runs across one of these they can see this and know how to use it, I saw several questions around the web about how to use the module and gave that info to contribute.

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