Support NeoGAF

[siamesedreamer]

Don't shoot me because I just found out something that's been known for five years. But, I just bought a PS2 specifically to play FF7 (yeah, I've never played it). Now I find out I need to have a PS1 memory card to play the damn game. Who was the genius who decided to not allow PS1 games to be saved on PS2 memory cards? Better yet, why didn't the dumbass at Gamestop tell me? I can understand not allowing PS1 memory cards to be able to save PS2 games cause they want to make money on the PS2 memory cards, but this is just asinine.

 

[mj1108]

Different file formats, IIRC.

 

[Suikoguy]

PSX = Blocks
PS2 = Bytes

 

[DarienA]

...you're dumb.

PSX = Blocks
PS2 = Bytes

No that's not the reason. While they may have said blocks the PSOne memory cards really do have a byte measurement, I just cant' remember what it is right now.

There really is no reason why they couldn't do it... It's a pretty dumb thing.. but we've dealt with it.. FOR FIVE YEARS ALREADY...WELCOME TO THE F'N CLUB.

 

[Pack of Wild Rats]

I ran into the same problem when i tried to paly some classic Square games. Borrowed one from the kid next store and finally got to start playing.

 

[Wario64]

you can actually transfer ps1 saves to a ps2 memory card. but you cant actually load the save from the card

 

[jiggle]

Wait for the remake

 

[radios shipping overview]

PS1 games don't support PS2-specific hardware. It's like putting a PS2 memory card into a PS1 and expecting it to work. No USB ports, no DS2 pressure sensitivity, and so on.

 

[Ikaris]

LOL... PS2 BC n00b...

BTW you can turn on texture smoothing and faster disc speed !

hehe...

I kid, I kid...

 

[Nintendo Ate My Children]

Don't shoot me because I just found out something that's been known for five years.

Why not?

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

I just got a PS2 last year (and never owned a PS1), and I was pretty pissed to find this out too.

 

[Gattsu25]

everyone here is focusing on the wrong issue...what the hell are you doing trying to play FF7?

 

[Uncle Dukey]

I think it's a pretty lame restriction too... PS1 memory cards should be fairly cheap by now I would think though?

 

[MoxManiac]

well a psone mem card is 128k..so divide that by 15 for the # of bytes per block i guess.

 

[sangreal]

You bought a PS2 specifically to play FF7? You know there is a PC version, right?

 

[Teddman]

I'm sure Sony could have made PS2 cards work. Bottom line is that it keeps a trickle of extra profit coming in from the continued sales of PSOne cards, which must cost pennies to make nowadays.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

That's really stupid dude! All you need to play FF7 is ePSXe which is a really awesome PSX emulator for Windows! FF7 looks fantastic on it.

 

[mr2mike]

Probably because the PS2 does PSone emulation in hardware, so the PS bios inside it can't make head or tails of the PS2's Magicgated memory cards

 

[Zaptruder]

It's a shame that you can't format a area of the PS2 card and have the PS1 games read that.

 

[Attack You]

I think it's a pretty lame restriction too... PS1 memory cards should be fairly cheap by now I would think though?

TRU had them clearanced out at $1 each for Sony-brand memcards. Until a couple months ago, the only PS1 memcard I ever owned was the one I bought at system launch back in '95.

 

[Shouta]

PS1 memory cards are like 2-3 bucks nowadays.

 

[Reilly]

almost 10 years later you decided to pick this game up? :lol

 

[Defensor]

PS1 memory cards are like 2-3 bucks nowadays.

True. That said, I can't believe a 3rd party has not made a memory card that saves both ps1 and ps2 games.

 

[GDGF]

almost 10 years later you decided to pick this game up? :lol

I actually played it through for the first time a few months ago myself!

(and I can finally say without talking out of my ass that FF 3/6 is the better game )

 

[tedtropy]

I remember when my folks bought me a PSX and FF7 for Christmas they neglected to buy a memory card. Wound up playing the game for like three hours anyways without the ability to save. Eventually picked up one of those cool blue transparent Christmas-color ones Sony was selling at the time. Sigh, how I sometimes long for those summer breaks where I could blow an entire day just leveling up. Damn you adulthood and responsibility. Damn you up the ass!

 

[MrDaravon]

You can get used 1st party cards off ebgames for about 2.50 shipped. I'm sure you'll live.

 

[Teddman]

My recommendation to you is to find a copy of the Versus Books Perfect FFVII Guide by Casey Lo any way you can. If you have to eBay it for $30, it's worth it.

I played the game as recently as 2003 with that guide and had an awesome time. Saw everything there is to see in FFVII, and it's a vast game with cool optional minigames and sidequests that you could easily miss.

Unfortunately, it's the only guide that Versus ever made for a Squaresoft game (unauthorized). Brady took over after that and they were way inferior.

 

[echoshifting]

I remember when my folks bought me a PSX and FF7 for Christmas they neglected to buy a memory card. Wound up playing the game for like three hours anyways without the ability to save.

^Same exact experience. Christmas Day...Playstation, FF7, Castlevania: SOTN, a couple other games I don't remember...no memory card.

Looking back, I have to wonder what the hell the store clerk was doing. If they bought it at a Target or something, that's forgiveable, but my parents have always done most of their shopping in malls. You would think the specialty shops would have been all over making sure no unwitting parents walked out the door without a memory card. Oh well.

 

[Teddman]

That reminds me of when I saw a mom and her kid buying a GameCube on release date at Toys R Us. She wouldn't let him get a memory card.

Kid: "Mom, I need a memory card too!"

Mom: "No you don't! We're just getting the system and the game. You didn't have a memory card with PS2 either for the first few months and it was fine...."

Kid: "Yeah, but I didn't have a game either! I just watched DVDs!"

:lol

 

[Tarazet]

If this doesn't earn him a tag, then I'm just going to give up hope on getting another one...

 

[GDGF]

That reminds me of when I saw a mom and her kid buying a GameCube on release date at Toys R Us. She wouldn't let him get a memory card.

Kid: "Mom, I need a memory card too!"

Mom: "No you don't! We're just getting the system and the game. You didn't have a memory card with PS2 either for the first few months and it was fine...."

Kid: "Yeah, but I didn't have a game either! I just watched DVDs!"

:lol

:lol :lol

That would have made for a funny Penny Arcade strip.

 

[echoshifting]

That reminds me of when I saw a mom and her kid buying a GameCube on release date at Toys R Us. She wouldn't let him get a memory card.

Kid: "Mom, I need a memory card too!"

Mom: "No you don't! We're just getting the system and the game. You didn't have a memory card with PS2 either for the first few months and it was fine...."

Kid: "Yeah, but I didn't have a game either! I just watched DVDs!"

:lol

They had a PS2 for MONTHS just for the sake of watching DVDs??? That has got to be one of the funniest/most retarded things I've ever heard. I wonder if they bought near launch. An oversized, $300 DVD player (more if want a remote) that doesn't even work half the time. Christ. :lol

 

[Lyte Edge]

That reminds me of when I saw a mom and her kid buying a GameCube on release date at Toys R Us. She wouldn't let him get a memory card.

Kid: "Mom, I need a memory card too!"

Mom: "No you don't! We're just getting the system and the game. You didn't have a memory card with PS2 either for the first few months and it was fine...."

Kid: "Yeah, but I didn't have a game either! I just watched DVDs!"

:lol

This kind of thing happens all the time. Sony and Nintendo should just consider making bundles with a memory card included.

Everytime I sell a system to someone at work, I always STRESS the need for a memory card, and the morons that say they don't need one come back an hour later. You just spent $150+ on the system...another $10-$20 is too much for you?

 

[Danoss]

:lol I experience the same thing where I used to work. Especially telling them that if they want to play GT mode in GT4, they're gonna need a memory card. "Nah, I'll be fine" they'll say, and then turn up the next day to buy one after a night of arcade mode only.

 

[Lyte Edge]

They had a PS2 for MONTHS just for the sake of watching DVDs??? That has got to be one of the funniest/most retarded things I've ever heard. I wonder if they bought near launch. An oversized, $300 DVD player (more if want a remote) that doesn't even work half the time. Christ. :lol

People used to post on forums like this one that all their PS2 systems were good for were DVDs some years back. (rolleyes) It's no surprise.

 

[Datrio]

Now I find out I need to have a PS1 memory card to play the damn game.

Well, you don't have to have a PS1 memory card.

You can just leave the console running for a few days and play through the whole day and whole night. You'll eventually finish it.

Just be sure to stay alive during the last boss fight. If you'll die, you're totally fucked up.

 

[bjork]

I'm currently replaying this to try and trigger that Barret date. It's a good game to just zone out on for awhile. But if I didn't own a PS1 memcard, I'd have to buy online, because Riverside/Orange Country are pretty much dried up as far as official memcards go.

 

[The_Sorrow]

I'm currently replaying this to try and trigger that Barret date. It's a good game to just zone out on for awhile. But if I didn't own a PS1 memcard, I'd have to buy online, because Riverside/Orange Country are pretty much dried up as far as official memcards go.

The MadCatz memory cards work just fine. That's all they had at my EB so I decided to pick it up and they worked fine.

 

[ChrisReid]

They had a PS2 for MONTHS just for the sake of watching DVDs??? That has got to be one of the funniest/most retarded things I've ever heard. I wonder if they bought near launch. An oversized, $300 DVD player (more if want a remote) that doesn't even work half the time. Christ. :lol

Well, they definitely bought it before the Cube came out, so very probably $300. But this is an every-day thing at game stores. People have no idea what they're doing.

 

[bjork]

The MadCatz memory cards work just fine. That's all they had at my EB so I decided to pick it up and they worked fine.

I've had a few unreliable third party ones in the past, so I tend not to buy those.

Though, MadCats has a big building about 20 miles from here... I could always complain in person if it messed up.

 

[garrickk]

PSX = Blocks
PS2 = Bytes

I've programmed embedded memory controllers for Flash devices; they are all in "blocks" or pages of data when in comes to erasing segments of the chips. For instance, you can't just write to any location - the whole block must be cleared and then any address in that block can be randomly written to until full.

So, you erase the chip. Then you write in data. If you want to overwrite something, you must first cache the data in a block, erase the whole block (say, 32KB), and then write back the data to the block with the new data added.

Of course, there are more clever ways of doing this and many ways around this limitation.

The old systems of using Flash memory cards in consoles must have just decided to force everyone to use the "blocks" hardwired to the flash chip structure as storage blocks to make everything easier. With the PS2 memory cards, they decided to develop a rudimentary "Flash file system" and work around the hard boundaries of the blocks. It's not terribly hard to do, but it is somewhat more complicated.

All modern flash systems have to do this, but the controllers and software have gotten better, and of course stream writing/reading doesn't take a performance hit because blocks are cleared out in advanced.

Still there is no reason the PS2 couldn't take a small section of the memory card and emulate a PSOne card. Just a bit more software and testing. Lazy, cheap, and it sells a few more peripherals.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Don't shoot me because I just found out something that's been known for five years. But, I just bought a PS2 specifically to play FF7 (yeah, I've never played it). Now I find out I need to have a PS1 memory card to play the damn game. Who was the genius who decided to not allow PS1 games to be saved on PS2 memory cards? Better yet, why didn't the dumbass at Gamestop tell me? I can understand not allowing PS1 memory cards to be able to save PS2 games cause they want to make money on the PS2 memory cards, but this is just asinine.

... idiot. you could have just spent 10 dollars and gotten the PC version of FFVII. :O

 

[ram]

the pc version of FFVII was pretty bad actually.

 

[GaimeGuy]

the pc version of FFVII was pretty bad actually.

Not really. It's the same game. :lol

The only problem anyone could have is the lack of having the original music (due to the difference in sound cards between the PS and PC, thus, different midi sounds).

But there's a patch for that, so...

 

[robertsan21]

FF VII was awsome but go and play a better FF game namely FF VI instead!

 

[djtiesto]

Hey, you could have a situation like the Xbox memory card... half of the games out for the system don't even support the thing! I bought one without knowing this, hoping to transfer my Jade Empire data so I could play it on a friend's Xbox. But Jade Empire isn't even compatible with it

 

[Ash Housewares]

don't play FF7

problem solved

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

I hope we don't have to deal with the same thing on PS3.


But knowing Sony I think we will.

PS1 cards, PS2 cards, and lame Multitaps = $$

 

[Solid]

sorry but this thread title made me :lol :lol

 

[Mike Works]

I just bought a PS2 specifically to play FF7