OEM Dreamcast Tremor Pack or 3rd Party?

[blainelocklair]

Hello everyone!

 

I have a Dreamcast with two controllers and two Sega VMUs. I'm looking to add rumble to the controllers. I try to stay OEM with my console accessories whenever possible, but the OEM Tremor Packs from SEGA seem scarce and expensive. Are they worth the extra dough, or is a 3rd party solution just as good or better? If so, which 3rd party solution is best?

 

By the way, are the Sega-brand packs officially US released or just Japan only? I see them around eBay and Amazon but it's not clear to me whether or not the OEM ones were a US product.

 

Thanks!
Blaine

[derFunkenstein]

I never owned a Sega-branded force-feedback unit. The only ones I have experience with were made by Interact, and they're decent enough. Rumble was never a big deal for me, though, so I'm probably not the best opinion on this.

[Video]

Third party's work as well as first party in my experience. I'd probably stay away from those x in one types, they have memory issues, probably due to being a self shaking device LOL.

 

I'm sure some are better than others, think most of mine are madcats.

 

Now dedicated memory, no issue personally, though I know of no third party that has the screen, but then I know of few games that use it, and none that require it. I think some sports titles used it to privately select plays, but don't know if any required it to work. Most games just let you install some meaningless minigame, or displayed the game title.

[Reaperman]

I'm in the 'big difference' camp. Do understand that I tend to see things more on an 'it's totally perfect or it's absolute crap' scale than a lot of people do, but they're under $20 shipped (new), so why settle?

 

Right from launch day, I went with two 'performance' branded vibration packs. They were significantly less expensive than the sega ones and came out at least a week before launch (at least in my area). I figured they worked about as well as everything else, but I was terribly mistaken.

 

Last summer I got an imported sega-branded pack, and the amount of noise it generates is down quite a bit. Some of the 'performance' pack's extra noise was from the whole unit rattling around, like poor case tolerances, but I had actually shut that down long ago with adhesive padding. The rest of the noise was completely internal to the pack. Accompanying that internal noise is a bit of rattly imprecision that was not present on the sega pack.

 

While my 3rd party packs worked well enough, because I never knew what I was missing, I very much wish I could go back and do it all again with the right packs.

Edited November 2, 2018 by Reaperman

[blainelocklair]

Good inputs here. Thanks for sharing them.

 

Just to make sure I understand, the OEM Dreamcast Vibration Pack is a non-US product available through Japan or other non-US markets only? It was never released in the US on its own? I'm fine with having them imported to get the right thing, but just curious as to whether or not they are non-US only.

 

Thanks!

Blaine

[Reaperman]

They were available in the US. Here's one of ours.

 

They're just much more common/affordable from foreign markets right now. Mine came from japan.

At least the US has all those cheap green/blue VMUs right now, so it's not all bad news.

 

Part of the difficulty finding them might be your online search term. I notice you using the term 'tremor pack' which was what the Performance-branded unit was named, vs 'jump pack' which was the sega-branded unit.

 

Edited November 2, 2018 by Reaperman

[blainelocklair]

Good catch! I will tweak my search with the Amazonians and eBayers and see if I can find the right thing. I can buy 3rd party ones for $5 each plus combines shipping, but there's something about originality that really appeals to me (and to all of us in some way, I suspect, or we wouldn't be here). I'll work on the search terminology and be patient. I have a really nice trouble-free Dreamcast and want to keep it that way.

 

Thanks!
Blaine

[dj_convoy]

I don't think you'd have anything to worry about from a 3rd party jump pack. 3rd party memory is where it gets dicey (altho' I have a dual bank one that's been working fine for the past 13+ years).

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I personally never liked the 3rd party jumper packs. They never had as good a response as the Sega branded ones I owned. In fact most of the issues I had with the 3rd party ones was that they wouldn't have the same levels of vibration built into them. Hard to explain, but they always seem to not hit enough or too much. And in some cases, on a game that might have a situation where low rumble was needed, the 3rd party ones didn't activate because again their level of sensitivity wasn't as broad a range as the Sega ones.

 

I say stick to the 1st party jumper packs and you won't have to worry about it ever again.

[blainelocklair]

Thanks everyone! Found a set of Sega brand NIB from the Amazonians. Looking forward to some rumbie when I play some Blitz 2K1 with my son!

Edited November 5, 2018 by blainelocklair