This was not a gradual failure, but more of an immediate one. I had used the system, and it worked fine. I had then put it away for about a year, then dragged it back out to find it dead.
I am loathe to take it apart, since it's ten million screws and moving parts in a cramped space. Just wondering if anyone's got an "Oh, I had that problem, and I fixed it in the following manner"
Everything would have been extremely useful years before it was developed or created. Unless it was a threaded lid for threaded glass jars. That would be silly.
I could write dozens of articles in a day, but I'm completely at odds with the editing tools of Wikia (not that I am a Wikipedia master), and my writing style is schizophrenic at best. Not good for a read, and hard to follow. Also, this, being an encyclopedia, is not suited for a lot of meandering nonsense. My collection and experience only touches the fringes of the obscure, so I can't write valuable stuff like "How I met the head programmer of Polybius at a bar", but more along the lines of "My friend once had his artwork published in the letters section of EGM". I have a working 3DO. Wow.
But hey, anything and everything is welcome. Even stuff tangentially related to classic gaming, like the pyramid scheme contests in game magazines.
Removing batteries to charge them is so last century. Just an idea for now, since all the effort will allow you to do is play Love and Punches during your lunch break.
Yes, I've seen others' works, and nearly despaired. They tend to be horrific bundles of wire and electrical tape.
LiR2032 cells exist now (not sure if the mAH values compare to general purpose lithium ion cells), and the VMU has a decent amount of empty space inside to make a simple charging circuit to prevent overcharging, and room for a microUSB connector... I haven't checked the pinout for the ports in the controller to see if power could be tapped from that point, making VMUs that recharge when inserted into a controller, which is in turn plugged into a Dreamcast that is on. Of course, don't want to burn out the controller board in the DC doing that, like some 3rd party pads do on their own.
Truly a niche market for such a plan, but hey. Ugh, now I just thought about a horribly slow trickle charge from trying to charge a 6V battery with a 5V supply.
Basically, photograph any game systems, parts, and accessories you have, or write articles/fill in or edit existing articles. Recruiting more people to contribute would be cool, too.