PS1/2 Memory cards

[BenRK]

I've been looking into memory cards for my PS2. Been wanting to mod it like I do all my game consoles, and I've read not to use fake memory cards.

Well, what the heck is a fake memory card??? If it saves games, it's bound to be real.

Anyway, I bought a cheap 32MB memory card for my PS2 this week as I had recently got it. It was cheaper then the official Sony ones they sold there, and more importantly (to me), bigger. However, as my phone has the worst web browser in the world, I had no way of looking up how well this particular memory card worked out in use, and reviews on Amazon are nothing short of worrying. Corrupt data, not working at all, only saving so much. It appears to be a hit and miss with this particular memory card, mostly on the miss side of things.

From what I've used of it so far, it's working just fine (though a bit slower then I would have expected, but that may just be the game's issue), but I don't want to risk this.

What I'm asking is simple, is there any GOOD PS2 memory cards that are bigger then the stupidly small and expensive 8MB Sony ones? Ones that are known to work with softmodding?

If this memory card fails before Friday, I could get my money back for it, go to a pawn shop, and grab a couple of $5 used memory cards there, but that doesn't really help the situation.

For those who are curious, this is the memory card I bought in question:
Amazon.com: PS2 32 Meg Max Memory Card: Playstation 2: Video Games

[You don't have to read this next part, as it's just my opinions on this whole matter, but then again, I guess you never HAD to read any of this]

I really don't get why any of this has to be an issue. I've used 3rd party memory cards before on other systems, and they're still working just fine to this day! No save issues, no corruption, all bigger AND cheaper then official ones. I've always seen this issue though with PS2 stuffs through my friends. They would ALWAYS run through memory cards and controllers. I have no clue how they managed to destroy at least 20 controllers over the years...

 

[Nujui]

I've bought that one before, and honestly it broke after awhile. It just stopped reading anything, wiped out A LOT of saves I had. I ended up getting a smaller one and it's worked much longer and still is.

I'd suggest getting a Sony one or a much more reliable card instead.

 

[BenRK]

Well, if Sony ever made a 32 or 64MB memory card, I would, but I have yet to find one, which is why I started this topic in the first place.

 

[Nujui]

Well, if Sony ever made a 32 or 64MB memory card, I would, but I have yet to find one, which is why I started this topic in the first place.

They never did make one I believe, the only bigger ps2 memory cards are the unofficial ones.

 

[BenRK]

Yeah, and for some reason, they're prone to failure. What is it with PS2 memory cards and failing? My 3rd party GameCube card is running strong to this day, and the 3rd party PS1 memory card I gave my sister is STILL working. As previously mentioned.

As such, are there any decent 3rd party memory cards with fair sizes? 8MBs has never been enough.

 

[DeltaBladeX]

Max Memory brand has a pretty shoddy build, and they aren't licensed to use MagicGate protection. That is why they fail. The ONLY high capacity memory card I will recommend is the 2nd party Katana 16 / 32MB memory cards. They do use MagicGate, so no problems there, they use a page system (2 or 4 pages of 8MB cards) so any games that block those 3rd party high capacity memory cards won't affect them, and they had to be of a certain build quality to pass Sony standards, unlike any third party crap.

 

[BenRK]

Wow, those are expensive (the 32MB ones). It would probably be better to just grab two 16MB ones.

So the reason that 3rd party memory cards are so terrible is because of licensing issues?

 

[DeltaBladeX]

Not just because of licensing. Sure, they can't get MagicGate protection, but that doesn't mean they aren't cheaply made crap. There is a reason that 64MB memory card was cheaper than an official Sony 8MB memory card.

 

[wolffangalchemist]

i have a 16mb Max memory card that's four or so years old, been working fine as my FMCB card for a while, that said i also have 2 official 8mb Sony brand cards and save most games to virtual memory cards in OPL.

 

[BenRK]

I've always been wary of paying for logos on stuff. A little off topic, but I think Mac laptops are perfectly fine, but I would never pay for as much as they charge. Likewise, I know 8MB Sony memory cards would work perfectly fine, but are so expensive compared to other, cheaper memory cards. Not to mention 8MBs wont be enough as I'm sure I'll build an extensive library of PS2 games on my quest towards... well, what my quest is isn't important. And the whole size issue was another reason why I went with what I did.

If you guys say those Katana cards work great, then I'll probably get one or two of those.

 

[DeltaBladeX]

Unless you keep your saves forever, you won't need more than 2 or 3 memory cards. I have 333 games and 9 memory cards, but since I've started deleting or backing up most of my older saves, I only need 4 at most, all those being used for games I tend to go back to at least once a year to replay.

 

[Joe88]

Ive dealt with 3rd party memory cards before
I would never buy them again

I bought one of those cards (I think pelican or some other cheap brand) after 2 weeks memory card corrupted all saves lost, next time it only lasted 2 days before it corrupted

trashed it and bought one of the dual sony 8MB mc packs http://www.amazon.com/Playstation-Memory-C...8490&sr=1-6 , working fine to this day

though I have this 24 memory cards in 1 for PSX which has been working great, it uses a digital display and allows you to select which card you want to mount

 

[BenRK]

That's just it though, I don't WANT that many memory cards. I don't want to have to shuffle through a box of PS2 memory cards just for the save file I want or to find one with some free space. I want to have, at most, 2 memory cards sitting in my PS2 at all time.

 

[DeltaBladeX]

Just don't get hundreds of games then. Or backup saves when they are unneeded.

 

[BenRK]

[You don't have to read the post below as it's just me talking about stuff you likely don't care about]

Alright, I've decided to return the memory card and hope for a full or partial refund. Even with a partial refund, I should have enough to AT LEAST grab a Sony memory card from the local pawn shop. They're currently on sale, and I wish I had known that before I bought this memory card.

I can live with an 8MB memory card for the time being. I can only assume that official Sony memory cards last a while. I hope I'm right.

 

[Deleted member 177877]

When people say fake, it usually means non magicgate cards...Games/softmods have problems with cards that does not have magic gate on it.
Oh, I still have my card from when I first bought my ps2 (2003) and it works perfect. I have another one too and it works fine, both are sony.

I assume those katana cards should work properly if they truly have magicgate on them.

I bought a non official card once, got corrupted while installing independent exploit and now it's just a piece of junk. Since then, I always go sony (they're not that expensive anyway and I only have 40 some games)

Although do note that FMCB will take a good chunk of your memory especially if you have alot of elfs on it

 

[dewback]

I have one. It is slow saving and slow to boot from it or load programs. The true sony ones are a lot better and with hacking it you can always back up saves on a usb drive.


Edit.

I also had issue with corrupt saves sometimes with the card also

 

[BenRK]

I would hope the Sony ones survive for years. The pawn shop has a good handful of Sony memory cards among other brands.

If softmodding takes up a fair chunk of space, then it's best I either grab two 8MB memory cards or not soft mod till I grab two 32MB katana cards. It will probably be the latter, as I don't have the ability to disk swap. I don't trust YouTube videos either, but that's an entirely different topic all together (aka, PM me if you're willing to help). In any case, if I can get at least $8 back from my current memory card, I can buy two and a replacement controller (my wireless one turned to crap as soon as I plugged it into a PS2 for the first time in its life (been using it as a PC game pad)).

 

[Deleted member 177877]

what are you trying to do anyway? ESR? or HDloader/OPL?

 

[BenRK]

Well, I'm hoping to get it like how my Wii is. Loading backups from an external hard drive. If the optical drive fails on me, then I can still play games with it and such. Those sorts of things.

My Wii handles everything else in terms of homebrew, although I may have misunderstood the question.