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Isn't it funny the way that something that doesn't really seem that important now, really changed the face of gaming?
Surely everyone has a memory card, or memory pack of some description, but they haven't really been around that long.
Pre memory packs, the only games that you could save on were ones that had a little RAM, or Battery Back-Up as Sega Master System games used to have flashed across their covers!
These games were primarily RPGs, a genre that wouldn't fare too well if you couldn't save your progress and continue on another day.
But when the Playstation came along, with it's CD games, these had no RAM. So they had to use Memory Cards, and made them very popular indeed. I don't know which console used them first, but they certainly became popular, and really changed the face of gaming.
Remember some of the bigger adventure games? I'm thinking Legend of the Mystical Ninja on the SNES, but there are loads of other examples. Anyway there was no way you could finish the game in one sitting. In the game they had these little areas in which you could get a password. This password would be around 100 characters long. you had no choice but to write it down.
If you got one character wrong, then you'd lost your game.
This was so very frustrating. I remember losing my progress in the cup competition on the original International Superstar Soccer. I was so damn annoyed.
So passwords weren't really all that popular. Now, thanks to memory cards you can save all sorts of data, for games that you wouldn't usually bother with.
For instance, in a beat em up you can save fighting stats, to show a long unbeaten run, or in a football game, you can edit the squads and keep them up to date.
However, the memory card has brought about other changes.
There just isn't the risk of death anymore, as you can just go back to your last save. This means you can be more careless. It doesn't matter if you miss that jump, as you can try it 1000 times with no punishment. Though i suppose it does encourage more exploration, as you can try taking a different route, without fear of death, and the waste of a couple of hours gaming.
So memory cards, how have they improved or spoilt your gaming experiences?
Have you ever lost loads of data by writing down a password incorrectly, or worse, lost data thanks to corrupt memory cards?
Surely everyone has a memory card, or memory pack of some description, but they haven't really been around that long.
Pre memory packs, the only games that you could save on were ones that had a little RAM, or Battery Back-Up as Sega Master System games used to have flashed across their covers!
These games were primarily RPGs, a genre that wouldn't fare too well if you couldn't save your progress and continue on another day.
But when the Playstation came along, with it's CD games, these had no RAM. So they had to use Memory Cards, and made them very popular indeed. I don't know which console used them first, but they certainly became popular, and really changed the face of gaming.
Remember some of the bigger adventure games? I'm thinking Legend of the Mystical Ninja on the SNES, but there are loads of other examples. Anyway there was no way you could finish the game in one sitting. In the game they had these little areas in which you could get a password. This password would be around 100 characters long. you had no choice but to write it down.
If you got one character wrong, then you'd lost your game.
This was so very frustrating. I remember losing my progress in the cup competition on the original International Superstar Soccer. I was so damn annoyed.
So passwords weren't really all that popular. Now, thanks to memory cards you can save all sorts of data, for games that you wouldn't usually bother with.
For instance, in a beat em up you can save fighting stats, to show a long unbeaten run, or in a football game, you can edit the squads and keep them up to date.
However, the memory card has brought about other changes.
There just isn't the risk of death anymore, as you can just go back to your last save. This means you can be more careless. It doesn't matter if you miss that jump, as you can try it 1000 times with no punishment. Though i suppose it does encourage more exploration, as you can try taking a different route, without fear of death, and the waste of a couple of hours gaming.
So memory cards, how have they improved or spoilt your gaming experiences?
Have you ever lost loads of data by writing down a password incorrectly, or worse, lost data thanks to corrupt memory cards?
My trusty N64 is the only console I have ever owned :(
But, I've had no memory card problems. I have 2 joytech packs, which have been written and rewritten so many times, never loosing data. The only time I've ever lost game data is because of the glitch on No Mercy. Damn that glitch, damn it!
Darkness
But, I've had no memory card problems. I have 2 joytech packs, which have been written and rewritten so many times, never loosing data. The only time I've ever lost game data is because of the glitch on No Mercy. Damn that glitch, damn it!
Darkness
My tacky unoffial N64 1MB cards used to keep losing me data.
Too tired to write anything in more detail...I'm off to bed.
Too tired to write anything in more detail...I'm off to bed.
2 of them were official.
We went to a shop to find out what the problem was. Apparantly it was due to the electromagnetic field around the DC he had sitting on top of it. This wiped the memory card in the same way a mobile phone can wipe a floppy disk or an audio or video tape.
We went to a shop to find out what the problem was. Apparantly it was due to the electromagnetic field around the DC he had sitting on top of it. This wiped the memory card in the same way a mobile phone can wipe a floppy disk or an audio or video tape.
Your Honour wrote:
> My mate had FOUR Playstation memory cards wiped.
He was well
> annoyed, he lost the game saves for loads of games. Some he'd got
> quite far in like GT2 and FFIX etc.
Were the memory cards official? If they weren`t then I can understand it, but if they were, then to wipe it you`d have to pull `em out with the power on or something.
> My mate had FOUR Playstation memory cards wiped.
He was well
> annoyed, he lost the game saves for loads of games. Some he'd got
> quite far in like GT2 and FFIX etc.
Were the memory cards official? If they weren`t then I can understand it, but if they were, then to wipe it you`d have to pull `em out with the power on or something.
Well i dunno if its the same, but what about the gltich with No mercy? that was really really annoying.
My mate had FOUR Playstation memory cards wiped.
He was well annoyed, he lost the game saves for loads of games. Some he'd got quite far in like GT2 and FFIX etc.
Whoooooops!
He was well annoyed, he lost the game saves for loads of games. Some he'd got quite far in like GT2 and FFIX etc.
Whoooooops!
Isn't it funny the way that something that doesn't really seem that important now, really changed the face of gaming?
Surely everyone has a memory card, or memory pack of some description, but they haven't really been around that long.
Pre memory packs, the only games that you could save on were ones that had a little RAM, or Battery Back-Up as Sega Master System games used to have flashed across their covers!
These games were primarily RPGs, a genre that wouldn't fare too well if you couldn't save your progress and continue on another day.
But when the Playstation came along, with it's CD games, these had no RAM. So they had to use Memory Cards, and made them very popular indeed. I don't know which console used them first, but they certainly became popular, and really changed the face of gaming.
Remember some of the bigger adventure games? I'm thinking Legend of the Mystical Ninja on the SNES, but there are loads of other examples. Anyway there was no way you could finish the game in one sitting. In the game they had these little areas in which you could get a password. This password would be around 100 characters long. you had no choice but to write it down.
If you got one character wrong, then you'd lost your game.
This was so very frustrating. I remember losing my progress in the cup competition on the original International Superstar Soccer. I was so damn annoyed.
So passwords weren't really all that popular. Now, thanks to memory cards you can save all sorts of data, for games that you wouldn't usually bother with.
For instance, in a beat em up you can save fighting stats, to show a long unbeaten run, or in a football game, you can edit the squads and keep them up to date.
However, the memory card has brought about other changes.
There just isn't the risk of death anymore, as you can just go back to your last save. This means you can be more careless. It doesn't matter if you miss that jump, as you can try it 1000 times with no punishment. Though i suppose it does encourage more exploration, as you can try taking a different route, without fear of death, and the waste of a couple of hours gaming.
So memory cards, how have they improved or spoilt your gaming experiences?
Have you ever lost loads of data by writing down a password incorrectly, or worse, lost data thanks to corrupt memory cards?
Surely everyone has a memory card, or memory pack of some description, but they haven't really been around that long.
Pre memory packs, the only games that you could save on were ones that had a little RAM, or Battery Back-Up as Sega Master System games used to have flashed across their covers!
These games were primarily RPGs, a genre that wouldn't fare too well if you couldn't save your progress and continue on another day.
But when the Playstation came along, with it's CD games, these had no RAM. So they had to use Memory Cards, and made them very popular indeed. I don't know which console used them first, but they certainly became popular, and really changed the face of gaming.
Remember some of the bigger adventure games? I'm thinking Legend of the Mystical Ninja on the SNES, but there are loads of other examples. Anyway there was no way you could finish the game in one sitting. In the game they had these little areas in which you could get a password. This password would be around 100 characters long. you had no choice but to write it down.
If you got one character wrong, then you'd lost your game.
This was so very frustrating. I remember losing my progress in the cup competition on the original International Superstar Soccer. I was so damn annoyed.
So passwords weren't really all that popular. Now, thanks to memory cards you can save all sorts of data, for games that you wouldn't usually bother with.
For instance, in a beat em up you can save fighting stats, to show a long unbeaten run, or in a football game, you can edit the squads and keep them up to date.
However, the memory card has brought about other changes.
There just isn't the risk of death anymore, as you can just go back to your last save. This means you can be more careless. It doesn't matter if you miss that jump, as you can try it 1000 times with no punishment. Though i suppose it does encourage more exploration, as you can try taking a different route, without fear of death, and the waste of a couple of hours gaming.
So memory cards, how have they improved or spoilt your gaming experiences?
Have you ever lost loads of data by writing down a password incorrectly, or worse, lost data thanks to corrupt memory cards?