AVB PSX Memory Cards

1 & 8 Meg Memory Cards

Manufacturer: AVB

Price: 1 Meg $1.50 ea;

8 Meg $12

(S&H $4.95 and up)

Review Date: 04-06-00

Features:

• Affordable alternative
• Stores 15-120 blocks of storage
• Available in different colors
• 8 Meg card has led to display which bank is active

The AVB memory cards are the first PlayStation accessories from AVB (hopefully a full line of PlayStation controllers will follow!). A memory card is a much needed accessory since the PlayStation has no other means of storing your game location and few games use input codes for this purpose (thankfully). It is a harsh reality to buy a PlayStation, play a game for an hour and decide to quit only to realize that next time you restart the game you'll be back at the beginning and loose all your hard work. Your only means for keeping your place in the game (and setup) is a memory card. Sony has a 15 block card that sells for about $15.

Fifteen blocks are easily used with just one or two games- especially if you use different characters or have one of the newer games that uses more than one block to store information. When you have many games and a short attention span as I do the 15 blocks fill up rather quick and you need another memory card (for another $15!). Sony has not endorsed any second market memory card and recommend only using theirs for reliable operation. It is true that some second market memory cards are less than reliable and most of the high capacity cards use a compression scheme that is not too effective.

The AVB memory cards are reliable and the 8 meg card is a true 8 meg, 120 block card (no compression scheme is used). The first thing I did with the cards was to transfer the information from my Sony 15 block card that was full. I used the memory card utility that appears when I start my 9001 series PlayStation. The transfer to both the 1 and 8 meg cards went without a problem. As the week of testing went on I loaded, saved new games, overwrote and transferred many files. I didn't experience a single problem. To push the cards as much as I could I routinely switched the cards. Still no issues surfaced.

The 8 meg card has 8 banks which can be active. Within each bank are 15 blocks. The game must support saving in different banks for this to be beneficial otherwise you will be limited to using only the first bank of 15 blocks. Luckily, none of the games I own have this limitation. I setup my banks for save games of the same type. The 8 meg card is a nice plug it in and forget it type of card. If you choose to use the incredibly affordable single meg cards you can dedicate a single card to each game or player. The 1 meg card has a recess for a label but none was provided. The cards come in a variety of colors making them easy to distinguish from each other. No case is provided but at $1.50 each you can't go wrong.

No matter if you choose the 1 or 8 meg card (or a few of each) you will get reliable storage at an incredible price.

Highly Recommended!