Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14665 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2004-03-19
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Subtitled in: German

Amazon.co.uk Review
Building a better system from the ground up sometimes involves digging into even the most mundane components. Take memory cards, for instance. To provide larger storage capacity and faster access rates--PlayStation2 cards transfer data 200 times faster than cards for the original PlayStation--PlayStation2 developers have upgraded the technology for the new memory card. The 8 MB Memory Card uses Flash Memory, the storage technology that's revolutionising handheld computers, digital cameras and MP3 players. In contrast, the 128 KB memory cards that were designed for the original PlayStation use memory blocks. While large files can spill over several blocks, you can't store more than one file per block in that design, no matter how small the file. The 8 MB Memory Card alleviates that problem by organising and storing files much more like a computer hard disk. --Simon Priestly

Customer Reviews

Essential
Well, unless you complete all of your games in one sitting then you`ll need one of these. The capacity could do with being bigger as I have five of them now, with alot of the sports titles being extremely demanding on space. However, in the absence of any other storage medium (apart from the hard drive) this will have to make do. Don`t even think about getting a third party manufactured card as they are notoriously unreliable and you will end up in tears after losing your "hard work" when they conk out. Sony only please!

Don't Get A PS2 Without One!
I have had my Playstation 2 now for a couple of years and i don't know what i would do without one of these little memory cards to save all my game data on to. On the outside it just looks like a small piece of plastic, but on the inside it holds so much infomation that can be plucked out depending on which game you are on at the time.

In total this offical Sony memory card holds up to 8MB (Megabites), which although may not seem much in today's world of 300GB+ (Gigabites) computers, concidering how small it is and when it was first created, its pretty good, and can actually transfer data two hundred times faster than the original Playstation memory cards. If your a serious gamer then you probably won't be able to hold all your save points on one single memory card, you may need two or three or more, but for a more casual gamer such as myself, one card is plenty.

Of course different games vary in size and so they may take up more or less space depending on what is saved. On the old Playstation Memory Cards all the infomation was organised into blocks, and each game told your how many blocks saving would take up on your memory card. However this PS2 memory card is organised more like a computer where each game has its own icon, which you select and then see how big the file is.

To view your memory card you simply insert it into your PS2 and turn on the console. After a few seconds you can select the 'Browser' link and select which memory card slot you wish to view. You will then be presented with a list of icons. Each game that you have saved has an icon and you can usually tell what game it is from the icon. For example if its a football game you have saved, the icon may be a football (you get the idea). You can then select the game you want and view how big the save point is, when it was last saved etc, and you then have the option to delete the file. Easy.

Overall, this offical Playstation 2 memory card is a vital piece of storage software for your PS2 and i highly recommend that you get when you buy a PS2 console. With 8MB of space, a casual gamer will have just enough space to save games, and if you do run out of space and don't want to delete and files, simply get another card.

Unless you are a goldfish, you'll need one of these
Sony's 8meg memory card is the essential purchase to go along with any new PS2. The nature of gaming nowadays means that we have high scores to save, progress during games to save, options files to save ... and because we've moved on from cartridge media, where do we save this? Negating the need for an internal hard drive, Sony provided the memory card as the solution. 8meg large, its plenty of room for the avid gamer to fit a hell of alot of game data on. Imagine you have been bought a PS2, a lovely Squaresoft RPG and no memory card. Unless you plan on keeping your PS2 turned on for the duration of the 60hours+ of gametime needed to play the game, you're not going to get past the initial stages. Frustration ensues, and the PS2 is regarded with disgust as you quickly bore of your machine. Many parents out there don't know of the need of having this piece of hardware, I hope I'm making you aware of this need!

Something to note, PS1 game owners will not being able to save their game data to a PS2 memory card (much the same as many PS2 games like Gran Turismo 3 are not compatible with the old grey Dual Shock controllers). If you plan on playing PS1 games on your PS2, you will need the old style '15 block' 1meg cards for that.

When I first got my PS2, I thought that the rather pricey tag pretty much took the mickey. I remembered this though, after using a 3rd party memory card for a while on my PS1, it began to corrupt, losing valuable save data. This is something you really don't want to happen. The one thing about Sony is that they KNOW how to make the best hardware to support their machine. They make the best controllers, they make the best memory cards. Stick with Sony basically, and if this is your first foray into consoles and you've just got yourself a PS2, you must own one of these.