Memory Card 1019

[Great Rumbler]

It seems, almost logically, that as games get better their memory card usage increases. While not always the case a lot of games are now requiring a lot of memory card space.

Originally Nintendo released the Memory Card 251 to counter this, but there are still problems for people with some games. But fret not, Nintendo have a solution.

Nintendo are to release a memory card with 1019 memory card 'blocks' so you can save any game on them. While no official price or release dates have been announced it will probably be shown at E3 and released shortly after, if not before.

This definitely something that we've needed for a while.

Cube-Europe

[Dark Jaguar]

Yes, about time indeed. Finally, the GCN will have the same size card as the other two systems. REALLY overdue. Switching around cards is annoying...

One thing though... Animal Crossing won't let you move the saved data. I can understand "copy" being disabled, but I really wish they allowed me to "move" it.

Honestly though, games getting better and more complex don't equal larger save files. Large save files come from one thing, more data that needs to be recorded. Graphics in a game are irrelevent, unless a save system is poor enough that it takes a screenshot of the game every time it saves *cough* most PC games these days *cough*. An example is pokémon, which while it's not a technically stunning game, requires a massive amount of saved data. Another example is Metroid Prime, which IS technically stunning, but uses just ONE block. Basically, all it saves is a check list, like most games should, though it's hard to really keep track of that check list and make sure it all saves right (don't want the system to record the item just BELOW (as in, below on the game's internal list) the one you picked up as collected during a save right?).

Anyway, one thing's for sure, the more games you have, the more space you need. Nintendo should have released this thing from the start, and charged the same price as the competitors did. It's lucky that the casual gamer has no idea how the blocks compare to each other so they don't know they are getting ripped off. We have the luxery of knowing from the start it's a poor value but getting it anyway because, well, we need it.

Anyway, this may be the last one I need. I have yet to need a new PS2 memory card, and only use my XBox memory card to bring saved data over to a friend's house (stupid KOTOR, not being efficient in saving data... file too large...). Besides that, I generally get around 20 games per system each generation anyway, so I doubt I'll fill it up before the N5 comes out.

[OB1]

Well with KOTOR you can save at any moment, and it saves your exact status and your exact position (or at least I think it does... it's been a while since I've played it) to every last detail.

[Dark Jaguar]

So does Halo (uses checkpoints yes, but it saves the EXACT place down to position there, leading to a few points where I remember the game saving me falling to my death). However, Halo's save files are small enough to fit on a memory card. Halo doesn't have all those stats, but that list of numbers shouldn't be so big that it increases the size to double the size of an XBox memory card. I think it basically saves the entire state of the game and doesn't use any sort of flag saving to conserve space.

[OB1]

I'm not sure how they do it with Halo, but it might have to do with the fact that they're designated save points. However in that case, autosave points in KOTOR should be smaller than regular saves. ... Are they?

[lazyfatbum]

It's interesting to note that all Gameboy games and some Gameboy Advance games could easily fit on to an 8MB memory card. I believe Zelda for NES was barely1 MB and Metroid Zero Mission is 8 MB if i'm not mistaken.

I wonder why Nintendo would release such a huge card... *rumor mills churn in the distance*

[Dark Jaguar]

Nope, not at all. Also, it's designated as a gameplay facet, not a memory file aspect. It's there to force you to take on the WHOLE challenge of some area rather than just bit by bit by itself. I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing (honestly it doesn't really matter because single player was boring as spit on a grill anyway), but that's the reason. Since the game saves ALL the same location data as KOTOR though, it doesn't exactly matter though. People have found all sorts of ways to trick the save system into recording them FAR away from the trigger point as of late. I myself was only interested in getting a few vehicles past the save point, and going across them when I WASN'T about to die. My goal was just to get the game "over with", which while yes, is a very stupid reason to play a game, is what I did just so I'd be aware of the "story" for when the next game comes out (I never learn apparently, I'm actually looking forward to the second one).

[Dark Jaguar]

Oh lazy, All GB and GBC games? Perhaps. GB games max out at 4 megabits. I believe I heard GBC games max out at 32 megabits. That's 512 kilobits and 4 megabytes if I'm not mistaken. GBA games however max out at 256 megabits last I heard (and it could be more, I dunno), which would be 32 megabytes. The question is how much does the average GBA game actually USE. Considering the detailed backgrounds and amount of custom voice and such being used, I imagine a chunk of the GOOD GBA games go over 8 MB. I suspect Sword of Mana for instance of being one of those.

I could be way off and they might not even be approaching that though. I just know the MAX amount, what they COULD use.

However lazy, your rumor DOES sound like something that could spread like a contagen agent. Contain it quickly and lock it up! (I REALLY doubt they plan on letting you copy your GB, GBC, and GBA games to your memory card for SO many reasons, most of them copy protection related).

[Great Rumbler]

Maybe I won't be buying this afterall...

Nintendo first released a skimpy 59 block memory card for the GameCube. They then switched to an improved 251 blocks to make adequate room for many titles and sports games. Sometimes 251 doesn't even cut it anymore and that's why Mad Catz will be releasing a 64 Mb memory card in the first week of April. It will hold 1019 blocks of saved data. It will cost $20 and come in four colors: Black, Orange, Silver, and Emerald. There's also a free plastic case to go with it.

Many times people stay away from such big memory cards, especially from third parties, since they can be far less reliable than the console manufacturer's official memory cards.

http://www.n-philes.com/php/eplpkfvzfuya...p?start=-5

[Dark Jaguar]

Oh great, it's not from Nintendo? Nuts...

Honestly, I've actually been thinking of trying out 3rd party memory cards again for a while now. OB1 and others say they are actually very reliable now. I'm not going to buy it "just because", it'll take me actually NEEDING more memory first. However, if the others are right and they really are reliable as the 1st party cards, then maybe I'll be able to have a little more faith in 3rd party products.

[OB1]

Yeah I've had a bunch of third-party cards this generation and none of them have blown up on me like my old PSX cards did.

[A Black Falcon]

I have a 251 and a 59... the 59 has a backup BGDA save, a second ED save (for 6 more slots! :) ), and some junk. The 251 is mostly full and has all the saves for all of my games... I don't need another 251 yet but I probably will soon. 15 games or so is about what it can take... unless you get sports games of course. But I don't. :)

Of course I had no problem with the N64 card either... as I've said before my biggest problem with that isn't blocks it's that idiotic 16-file limit... I could fit WAY more than 16! I mean I have 2 slots and about 60 or 70 blocks free on my main card (which has all my important saves for all my games but one)...

On that note, keeping saves from rentals pays off. :) I kept my Goemon's Great Adventure save for years after renting it twice and what now? I got it and can pick up getting those stray entry passes from where I left off. :)

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah I've had a bunch of third-party cards this generation and none of them have blown up on me like my old PSX cards did.

That's what happened to some of mine.

[The Former DMiller]

I've had no problems with third party memory cards this generation either. My two main GameCube cards are two Interact 16x cards, which have served me well. The only official GameCube card I use is my Animal Crossing memory card.

[Great Rumbler]

I don't think Ive bought any third-part gadgets this generation.

[Dark Jaguar]

I haven't bought any, but I got a 3rd party controller as a gift once. Not only do I never use it, no one that comes over to play wants to use it. It's just sorta there for when there's no other option. 3rd party controllers, as far as I can tell, are still notoriously aweful, at least not nearly as good as the 1st party ones. Memory cards are a different issue, but there's a bigger fear there. No one wants to have a massive collection of perfect save files, especially ones at the end of RPGs, suddenly wiped out.

[Great Rumbler]

I had two third-party N64 controllers and the Z button broke on both of them. Stupid controllers.

[A Black Falcon]

... I'm still mad at Nintendo for not allowing copying of N64 save files... especially in my situation. As I've said before I for some idiotic reason saved my Rush 2049 save on my second, third-party memcard... now that card has worked perfectly for years, but once -- in early 2000 I think, not too long after I got it and Wipeout 64 (my first memcard game and the only game of note on the card at the time), but long enough for me to have beaten all the levels -- it messed up and erased itsself... now fortunately the second time through Wipeout was a lot shorter, but having my Rush save on that same card still scares me... I need one of those things to transfer save files to a PC... it would be REALLY awful to lose that file. Especially given how much stats Rush saves! The rest of the files on that card aren't too important, but that one...

Oh, and I have one third-party Cube controller. It's usable (though its programmable button broke. Literally -- it's in the Z position on the other side, but it broke and is loose, half inside the controller...), but it has a noticably worse analog stick (not nearly as sharp in control -- okay for some games, bad for stuff like F-Zero...) and a not too good d-pad...

[Great Rumbler]

I only got one N64 memory card and I barely used it.

[A Black Falcon]

I have 8 (I think) games now I think that save just to memcard... of ~28... several others have saves on memcard too (Blast Corps, Perfect Dark, Excitebike maps, Bomberman 64 character, etc), but those aren't required...

But I have like eight or nine Gauntlet Legends saves between the two cards, and each is just 4 blocks... that chews up a lot of space (since its limited to 16!). :D

[Great Rumbler]

Some good news:

Nintendo will release a new official memory card for GameCube that can save 1019 blocks of data. This far surpasses the previous memory card that holds 251 blocks. It will be available on June 8th and retail for $30.

The SD card reader, shown first at Spaceworld 2000, promised virtually unlimited storage space but has since dropped off the radar. The Memory Card 1019 could be the next best thing. Majesco will also release a 1019 memory card, this one on April 5th.

Yay!

N-Philes

[Dark Jaguar]

Oh goody. I was worrying that the card they were first reporting would turn out to be just 3rd party (though had the need arisen I would have tried out the 3rd party cards myself), but now I won't have to do that. Fortunatly, even if I did have to get a 3rd party card, and even if it did delete everything, I could very easily just get a refund and a different brand card since after all it is defective. Did it long ago with a megamemory PS1 memory card, getting 2 normal ones for the price of "not really a memory card so much as a place holder FOR a real memory card".

[lazyfatbum]

I wasn't emplying that you would upload Gameboy games. I was thinking more along the lines of using 8MB of data for gameplay, such as recording things that you do in a more advanced setting. Remembering specific conversations where you told someone you wouldn't help them so they can haunt you later or taking your strategies and using them against you. If that information is recorded on the 8 MB card it can then be swappable, which is interesting to say the least.

[Dark Jaguar]

The oldest of RPGs remembered conversations the way you say. It's simply a flag. Yes, I know you mean more complicated things like them acting specific ways, but that's all in programming, not in how much data is stored, and RPGs you don't play do that as well. The only one I can think of to REALLY take it to the next level is ther upcoming Fable. Of course, that one goes beyond just remembering what you've said to actually having that person interact with OTHER people and develop dynamically themselves, requiring saved data for all this development, which I think considering this is world wide will be far beyond an 8MB card's capabilities. However, remembering precise strategy data (it would have to be very intricatly designed to determine what data is relevant, and at that, how to interpret said data) is indeed an amazing thing. Certainly something lots of games have tried for. Memory card size isn't the issue (except on Gamecube), so much as the difficulty in making adaptive AI. Adaptivity is a VERY hard thing to program.

Anyway, while all the things that Fable has to remember fit on an 8MB card would be VERY hard (well, I dunno, MAYBE it's possible... probably not...), a much more advanced Animal Crossing type thing would certainly be helped by the larger space.

Ya know, this is the sort of thing that makes MS's inclusion of a hard drive so very nice. It's the only real innovation that the current generation of consoles even has. One could point to the Xbox Live service, but that's software rather than hardware mostly. Even then, PC did the hard drive thing first, obviously, so MS can only claim to be the first to put it in a console. So very useful a thing, it's a shame that it hasn't been taken full advantage of by many games yet.

[A Black Falcon]

DJ it is just a flag but if you have a complex game with lots of remembered decisions you could have a whole lot of them...

And yes, HDDs are easily best. Oh, and now I have to decide what to do... I'll probably end up eventually getting one of these. My 251 has like 40 blocks free now so that's not much more (if I get games like most of mine are, that have relatively small size saves)... a 1019 would be bigger than I probably could ever use. Unless I get lots of sports games, which I don't. :)

And yes this does prove the usefulness of a HDD...