I'm the sole member of The New Gamer whom hasn't purchased a next-generation console (not for a lack of wanting or effort, that's for sure), and as such I've been spending the bulk of my console time with the sole current-generation games machine that still has slight murmurs of life: the PS2. And as I keep trying to draw out its life, the more space I try to wring out of my two PS2 memory cards, which requires ever increasing amounts of maintenance, compromise and frustration than ever before.
My beef isn't so much with the memory card as it is with the lazy developers. I've had it up to here with games that don't bother to check 'memory slot B' for previous saves or extra space, and I'm especially sick of games that don't even bother to allow you to access a card again, just in case, you know, you've had to swap a card from slot B to slot A. In cases like those (*cough* Yakuza, Guitar Hero *cough*) I actually have to restart the game if I've accidentally slotted the wrong memory card. Come on, you mean that, because you can't be bothered to check slot B, I have to reset and wade through five minutes of logos and credits before I can even figure out whether the game can properly save itself? Thanks!
It could be worse though. I still have an '8-in-1' Dreamcast memory card containing some very time-consuming saves (such as my Skies of Arcadia saves. In case you're not familiar with the 8-in-1 concept, you have a bloated memory card that has the equivalent of eight memory cards rolled into one VMU (minus the greyscale LCD screen). In order to access each individual memory card within it, you had to press a button and toggle through all eight memory slots. I still think my Skies... save is on slot 2. Seriously, later on in my Dreamcast gaming days, I needed a graph matrix in order to play an unfinished game.
At least the infernal cards appear to be on their way out, and with them goes the frustration of juggling limited card space. However, it does rather seem that, with the embracing of hard drives, we're swapping one storage device for another, and that in a matter of years I'll be muttering profanities under my breath while hot-swapping hard-drives, but that day is not today. And at least the Wii has embraced a standard storage format, one that I can use with my desktop computer, Treo or digital camera if I prefer.
Fortunately, I can count my blessings that I never had any serious memory card problems, such as cards burning out on me, losing hundreds of hours of progress in a brief, magnetic flash. And here's where I turn to you - what are your memory card lamentations? Certainly, someone must have a gripe with the damned things that extends beyond the minor inconveniences I'm moaning about. Let's hear them, and then we can all bask in the shared hatred of the format, and pine together for the days of cartridge-based saves.
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#1 Soup Nov 29, 2006 03:24am
I remember the introduction of the PS2. I was the first kid on my floor to bring one back after thanksgiving break (even beating out "The Cool Kids"). Of course, My confusion began when I tried playing my PS1 games. Sure, they worked fine, but the games wouldn't even recognize my fancy new 8mb PS2 card. So I held onto the old PS1 cards; sure, you could copy the saves onto the PS2 cards, but you'd have to load them back onto the older cards if you wanted to actually, y'know, use them. I think I actually bought more PS1 cards after I got my PS2.
And then of course was the N64 Memory card. If developers had embraced it faster (for game saves rather than just toting around high scores), it would have served just as well as the PS1 cards in their function.
Of course, then one wouldn't be able to plug in the rumble pack...
#2 McDohl Nov 29, 2006 03:54am
Back before the PlayStation 2 came out, and I was still using my PlayStation, I had been using a third-party memory card that, apparently and somehow, screwed up my first Memory Card slot on my PlayStation, meaning I could no longer use the first slot -- I always had to use the second slot, so any game that didn't allow you to load or save on Slot 2 was a game I couldn't play. That pissed me off. Needles to say, when I got my PS2, I bought only official Sony memory cards -- though, I would have much rather bought a third-party card, because they're much cheaper. Official PS2 memory cards go for damn near $25, last time I checked.
Another story, back when I used to use a GameShark, I had, for some reason, hit "Format," thus formatting my PSX memory card, and losing all my data. I don't know what possessed me to hit "Format" in the GameShark, but yeah. I stopped using GameShark after that.
Of course, cartridges aren't any better, because, if I recall, eventually the internal battery (or something of the such) goes dead, and you lose your save. Memory cards are also far more convenient for taking places -- if you lose your memory card, you've lost your saves and the card, but not the game itself, whereas with cartridges, you lost everything. I think memory cards are better than cartridges, really -- memory cards allow you to do things cartridges don't. I like being able to back up my save to another card, or to duplicate it, if I want to experiment or something like that.
#3 Fiddytree Nov 29, 2006 06:40am
I still have not figured out how the whole chao thing from sonic adventure and the dreamcast memory card went together.
#4 Max Walrus Nov 29, 2006 12:40pm
Oh man. Those x-in-1 cards piss me off. They've given me more problems than any other memory card. I've had entire slots corrupt all the data inside in my 4 in 1 cards for BOTH the Dreamcast and N64. The memory cards weren't dead, they just liked to corrupt a quarter of my saves occasionally. Why was the N64 utilizing memory cards in the first place anyways? THAT'S WHAT CARTRIDGES ARE FOR.
Also, as for the VMU. Why was the battery life like 5 hours or something? Did anyone else have problems with this? You had to buy a crazy gigantic WATCH battery. The first time I replaced it, I only got a few days of use out of the thing. HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO TAKE CARE OF MY CHAO IF I CAN'T TURN HIM ON? Fucking VMUs. Stupid fucking idea.
#5 TrueTallus Nov 29, 2006 05:33pm
I guess I like having some physical manefestation of saves via a memory card. It'd be sort of hard to stack hard drives, or stuff a bunch of them in a game carrying case. And isn't it fun to be able to store a card in each PS2 game case? Theoretically I mean... With the PSP's 2 gig+ storage per memory stick, I'll soon be able to cram 12,500 PS1 memory cards worth of saves on one object (assuming file sizes stay the same). Sure beats 8 in 1 at any rate.
Ignoring slot B is the devil, though.
#6 McDohl Nov 30, 2006 01:14am
Uh, if you rented a NIntendo 64 game, you lost your save pretty much once you took the game back. Furthermore, it's also nice to have a back up of one's saves.
#7 Soup Nov 30, 2006 01:33am
the problem was that only like three games actually utilized the card. It was still a gimmick at the time (at least on the N64)
#8 Max Walrus Nov 30, 2006 01:41am
I didn't really find that feature all that useful. Maybe because I never rent a game more than once.
Backups are pointless. I am happy with hard drives, I was equally happy with cartridges.
#9 Grimson Nov 30, 2006 02:04am
The only games I can remember playing on N64 that needed memory cards were Turok 2 and that crappy South Park game (did Diddy Kong Racing need one?). Altogether I found the the feature quite annoying when I had perfectly good cartridges for them.
#10 R. LeFeuvre Nov 30, 2006 10:18pm
Like Max I too have been fucked by a multi-page memory card. I had purchased some 'Brand X' 4000-page megacard for the PS1 and used it to save all sorts of games, most importantly, my progress on Wild Arms. I was on the final area when my save was just nuked randomly. The whole page was just wiped away.
I eventually made my way through the game again.... and yet again the memory card exploded that save as well. >_<
I have never beat Wild Arms.
I only buy first part memory cards now.... which really sucked when I had all my PS2 cards full and the shortage hit. So many saves sacrificed to make space....
About reseting the machine, though, I've always found that if I just remove the card currently in the slot and stick a new one in that most games are set up to rescan. I've never restarted my system because of having the wrong card. That sucks.
#11 WholeFnShow Dec 1, 2006 03:10am
I was always a pretty sparse gamer, in that, I never owned too many games. I only ever requires two PSOne official cards and one official PS2 card. I, for one, love them given the types of games I play. (wrestling) Where one's created player can be carted over to another person's system. I managed to lose one, my main one, and that had my first sets of PSOne data on it. That was a tough loss. My second is still in the wings here, but it stays borrowed for people who have games they want to play on PS2.
I love the idea of memory cards, but I also love the convenience of HD saves. The Xbox is my baby, but if I wanted to continue my game of KoToR over my friends house while he was playing Warcraft 3, I couldn't do it. That portability is invaluable to me, and it's difference between carting around a card or two and lugging around my Xbox. Don't get me wrong, I love doing that too. But common sense lends a lot of value to the convenience of the cards. They shall be missed by me.
#12 Breob Jan 9, 2008 03:40am
I had a Mad Catz 4 in 1 POS for my N64. It had two switches on the back - if both were up you were in slot 1, both were down; slot 2, 1 up 1 down; slot 3, 1 down 1 up; slot 4.
Now THAT was a hassle.