Should You Buy the 8BitMods MemCard Pro for Sony PlayStation 1

In this episode, we unbox and test out the MemCard Pro from 8BitMods for the original Sony PlayStation.

Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
2:28 - Unboxing
5:28 - On-Board Display
6:13 - PSOne Testing
7:46 - Transferring Data to PC
8:50 - Final Thoughts

You kids today, you don't know how easy you got it! Want to save a disc based game! Your hard drive will take care of it! Well, back in the day, we didn't have hard drives, and we liked it! We had memory cards, lots of memory cards, memory cards and all sorts of different colors, memory cards in all different sizes, and no way to save them to our pc. And we liked it! Wait a second, no we didn't like it, it really sucked. We hated having to have multiple memory cards for systems, and the PlayStation was one system that seemed to eat up memory cards and storage space. That's where 8BitMods comes along with their new memory card for the Sony playstation, and one of the coolest things is what it actually uses to store your information on. But we'll get to that in a minute.

The MemCard Pro is designed to essentially act as memory cards in one. Instead of using its own flash memory or on board storage, it uses common everyday micro SD cards. That means your storage is only as limited as your budget. To be honest with you, since Save State files are so small, I don't know that you would ever need anything larger than a 16 gig MicroSD card, and even that might be extreme overkill.

The internals of the MemCard Pro are very interesting. I've never heard of a memory card using an FPGA, but this does it! It also has Wi-Fi connectivity so that you can access the unit via your computer to either make changes or potentially swap data. A small display has been integrated into the top of the memory card pro, displaying which card of the four you are currently accessing. I forgot to mention but you can also get this in a number of different colors, so you can mix and match to have one that matches your system as well.

8BitMods did an incredible job on the pins with this card, it is silky smooth, and there's no hint of death grip or any other type fitment that you may run into with other cards. It honestly feels OEM. One thing I noticed is that, either the processing of the FPGA or the backlight of the LED display produces a decent amount of heat. So don't be surprised if you go to remove your memory card Pro and you notice that it's warm to the touch. It won't burn you, but you will notice it.

Well I have several original PlayStations and a PSOne, I normally play my PlayStation 1 games through my PlayStation 2 Slim. My Playstation 2 Slim is backwards compatible, and it actually outputs component video which the PSOne does not so the overall picture quality is better. I was disappointed to find out that the MemCard Pro does not work with some models of the PS2, including mine, nor does it work with the memory card adapter for the PS3. Let's hope that they will add that compatibility in future firmware updates.

There's not much you can really do to test a memory card is there? Plugged into my PSOne, I was able to save data from a game directly to it, and I was able to transfer save data from other memory cards to it as well. For a memory card, just like a hard drive, the best thing you can say is that it's unnoticeable when in use. It should be practically invisible, and this was. I was able to access my save data on my laptop, but none of it was named to identify what game that it went with. If you are looking to back up your save data to your pc, I would do one game at a time myself

Why it RoX
- Unlocks practically unlimited storage
- Firmware updatable
- Multiple color options available
- Excellent fitment

What could be improved
- Not compatible with all PS2 models
- Cannot store PS2 data
- No manual included

Should you buy one?
If you are a PlayStation aficionado, I don't know that there's a better way to store your stave data than what the MemCard Pro. It doesn't take up a whole lot more space than an original memory card, the storage options are infinitely expandable, and you can transfer your save data and back it up on a pc. This is a wonderful device, it just needs a little bit of refinement in my opinion. There's absolutely no instructions provided with the unit, so users are kind of left to their own devices to figure out how to use it. Yes, it's a memory card, you put it in and you save your data to it, but how about unlocking some of the other features such as wi-fi? I am hopeful that we will see more exciting updates for this as time goes on, and I would absolutely love to see one of these for other systems such as the Gamecube, the original Xbox and the PlayStation 2.

#Playstation #MemcardPro #8BitMods #StoneAgeGamer

The footage used in this review are used under the Fair Use laws, referenced below:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107