Which Gamecube Memory Card to Buy?

[WiseSalesman]

Alright, Nintendo, you've really gone and screwed me this time, haven't you? Five saves and my Memory Card 59 is full? What's up with that? Anyway, I want to buy metroid prime, and thus need a new memory card. IGN reccomended a product called the Mega Memory 16x, and I saw one today for $30, but what do you guys reccomend?

[Charlie]

My advice is to never ever ever ever buy 3rd party memory cards. Get the big Cube card... the one Nintendo puts out.

[WiseSalesman]

Yeah, but, hell, it's only four times bigger than the one I have now. And none of the game saves on my current should even be that big! We're just talking Smash Bros., WaveRace, Eternal Darkness, Beach Spikers, and Master Quest, here. I mean, if it's really a bad idea, than I won't get one, but I'm trying to not have to buy another one for awhile.

[Mr-E_MaN]

I always by official peripherals. I have the 59 and 251 memory card and have no shortage in storage space.

[kevincure]

251's are 20 bucks, you can't beat that. It holds pretty much everything you want to save.

Sony's 8mb card, on the other hand, is way too small for what I use it for. A season of Madden will take up half the card!

[WiseSalesman]

Um...you do realize that Sony's 8MB card is still something like 4 times that size of a GCN 251 right? But, point taken, offical peripherals only.

[kevincure]

True, Wise, but the size of saved games (at least for the games I own) tend to be much larger on PS2. I don't know why that is.

[CrazyImpmon]

Just stick with 251 cards. I have 10 or 11 GC games and I still haven't filled the card up. Of course I don't have a single sport game.

Some 3rd party cards uses compression scheme to simulate larger capacity card but they have failed and corrupted memory data before. I've lost too many saves on a cheap PS1 cards so I just don't trust 3rd party cards.

[Raedon]

my first 3rd party card was on the N64.. never ever again.. ever..

I used it 4 times and all 4 times it failed.. took it back and paid the extra $5

[Mayhem]

Listen to Charlie... never EVER buy 3rd party Nintendo cards. They screw up eventually. Neved had a problem with official ones. I also hear Zelda: Wind Waker refuses to save properly on anything but an official Nintendo card too...

[Tritoch]

True, Wise, but the size of saved games (at least for the games I own) tend to be much larger on PS2. I don't know why that is.

Probably because the developers know they have more space to work with. Thus, they aren't as concerned about minimizing save file size.

[Captain Wrong]

Maybe I'm just living on borrowed time, but I've NEVER had a problem with third party memory cards. Have them for PSX, DC, N64, and Saturn. Of course I stay away from the compressed memory cards (except for the Saturn, it's all I could find) so maybe that's the key. I've used Nyko and some really funky one I got dirt cheap for PSX, Performance for N64, Mad Katz for DC, and the infamous Saturn one Vic Ireland was railing against. *knock on wood* No problems.

[Sylentwulf]

I've ALWAYS gotten first party memory cards as well.

A note to everyone saying that the memory cards are too small - READ THE GAME PACKAGE They **ALL** say how much space the game takes up.

Madden 2003 takes up almost half the memory card, MOST games only take up 1-3 blocks, so if you aren't playing any sports games, you can probly fit every game you own on one memory card (With multiple saves even)

Animal crossing, Sports and other complex games are a whole other story, Just DELETE the saves when you're done, plain and simple, there's no way you're keeping them around :)

[WiseSalesman]

Madden 2003 takes up almost half the memory card, MOST games only take up 1-3 blocks, so if you aren't playing any sports games, you can probly fit every game you own on one memory card (With multiple saves even)

Wave Race: Blue Storm - 12 blocks
Eternal Darkness - 15 blocks
SSB Melee - 11 blocks
Beach Spikers - 3 blocks
OoT Bonus Disc - 15 blocks

...and that's the end of my memory card 59. It only has 3 blocks left on it now. In order to buy Metroid Prime and RE 1 like I'm planning, I'll definitely need another one. Not to mention I have a preorder down for Wind Waker.


Just DELETE the saves when you're done, plain and simple, there's no way you're keeping them around

After all that work to get the extra courses unlocked in WaveRace? No to mention everything I had to unlock in Smash Bros.? Somehow, I don't think I'll be deleting those.

[Anonymous]

There are two times when I really prefer talking to the adult on a call.

1) when the kid is a complete moron/can't read/refuses to do what I tell him/generally acts like a spoiled brat.

2) when the reason they are calling is because "he started his game today and all of his (covers phone) what was it, honey? (/covers phone) he said all of his shines are missing (kid wails in the background)"

This NEVER happens with the first party memory cards. I've talked to way too many blubbering 9 year olds to ever use a third party memory card. Especially Nintendo third party memory cards, for some reason Mad Catz, Nyko, Nuby, Intec, Pelican, Performance, and Interact just can't seem to get them right.

Having said all that, there is a football (or is it baseball) game out there that can take up to 500+ blocks of memory if you start a season and do one of the other modes in the game. It sucks if you play sports games, but also keep in mind that a memcard251 costs almost half of a sony memory crd.

[hamburgler]

Just get the 251 memory card made by nintendo.It's the most reliable nintendo memory card next to memory card 59.

[mitmoe]

251 :D

[GENESISNES]

I would recommend a 251. I havent even halfway filled it up with like 8 games! Anyway, i got a question.

Now, you know where you check your memory card, and there are 16 spaces (boxes) for which you save games on? can you go more than 16, or should i delete some random tony hawk crap? like if you hit 17, will an arrow appear like the PS2 memory card, so you can scroll?

[CrazyImpmon]

When there's more than 16 save games, the Gamecube will allow scrolling to see the rest. The scrolling is disabled if you don't have more than 16.

[Dobie]

NCAA Football 2003 takes up one full 251 card if you play the dynasty mode. Anything else, like profiles, and you'll need another card. That's the biggest 'Cube file I've run across thus far. I have two cards, one for NCAA Football, and the other for the rest of my games. The second card still has tons of room, and it has files from Rogue Leader, Metroid, Master Quest, Skies of Arcadia, and a few others. Not even half full yet. My friend bought one of those third party memory cards, and on the first day took it back. Same reasons as the other people who've posted.

[Six Switch]

My advice is to never ever ever ever buy 3rd party memory cards. Get the big Cube card... the one Nintendo puts out.

I agree,every 3rd party card I have bought for any system is crap and ending up breaking. >:(