Boring, but essential, equipment for the PS1

There are few things more boring for the PS1 than memory cards. Indeed, a memory card is often the last thing people think about when purchasing that nifty new game, but it's the first thing folks will cuss at when things go wrong.

Simply put, I'm not sure why a market ever existed for third-party memory cards for the Sony PS1. I've tried a couple of those things on a whim, and I've regretted it every time. I once wound up with one by Performance that simply stopped working after a short time. I found another one by Naki that the system just wouldn't read every now and again (that problem was easily corrected by pulling the card out and putting it back in the machine again).

Sure, you might save a couple of bucks by ignoring the trusty, old 15-block Sony card, but why bother? The Sony memory card is a dull piece of equipment, but it does it's job well -- it's a reliable little card that lasts for years with little or no care. There are few things more annoying that working on a game for a week or so and then having a memory card that malfunctions and loses your place in the game. You might as well stick with a card that works, right? The Sony one works every time.

I know there's a temptation to grab a third-party card to save some cash, or maybe one that has 30 blocks instead of 15 is cool. Many are shaped like footballs or popular game characters, and those look fine. I, however, have learned that getting anything else but the trusty Sony card can lead to heartache, and who wants that?

For those unfamiliar with memory cards, those are simple devices. In the old days, when cartridges ruled, the more complex games had some memory built into the carts dedicated to saving games. That system worked very well and was utilized on many console platforms.

That method of storage wasn't an option on the PlayStation because games are put on read-only CD-ROMs. Sony, then, added a couple of slots that could read memory cards, and the rest is history. There are two advantages to the memory card setup -- those things are portable and the systems built-into carts would fail after a period of time.

The standard Sony memory card for the PS1 comes with 15 blocks and different games utilize those blocks differently. Some games only takeup one memory block to save games for several players, while some take up a few blocks if complex stats and such have to be stored (this is particularly true when it comes to sports games). The PlayStation makes figuring managing that data simple as blocks can be erased manually when necessary.

These Sony cards hold up very well, too. I tend to store mine in the machine and have swapped cards around with the power on. I don't bother storing the things in cases and tend to store the ones not in my console wherever they land when I toss them. The good news is, I haven't had one fail even though I don't take great care of the cards.

The Sony ones, too, come in an array of colors. This is nice because I have a few of them and having cards that look different helps me remember where certain game saves are stored.

So for reliable, cheap memory, it's hard to go wrong with the trusty Sony cards. You might save a few bucks or get extra space with other brands, but why bother?