Memory Card Faq

how do you get to the memory management screen?

memory management screen:

hold ABCD on 1p controller and press reset.

controller test screen:

hold ABCD on 2p controller and press reset.

a guide to replace the battery on your dead memory card can be found here.

cheerz

metallizer said:

Does anyone has a picture of all memory card models SNK produced? I would like it see it.

Click to expand...

There are really only the two main styles are there not? Straight black and marble. Although there are two varieties of marble card I have seen:

Ah right a gold one.

Didnt someone mention differing colours.....can we confirm this?

When I finally get my AES I'm really only planning on getting fighting games. Is there any need for me to get a memory card?
I know the Dreamcast version of Mark Of The Wolves had a gallery that could be unlocked. Did the AES version have a unlockable gallery?

So.... just how large is a memory card exactly, and how much space does a game on average use up on the memory card?

Also, i've been hearinga lot about these 3rd party memory cards. Does someone have information on these?

bokmeow said:

So.... just how large is a memory card exactly, and how much space does a game on average use up on the memory card?

Also, i've been hearinga lot about these 3rd party memory cards. Does someone have information on these?

Click to expand...

The card lists it's capacity as 2K, which seems about right for the amount of data it holds.

The only meaningful info I could pull off the device was power management settings:

| | | +-o pccard-no-cis@0,0 <class IOPCCard16Device, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 7>
| | | {
| | | "IOName" = "pccard-no-cis"
| | | "FunctionName" = "Anonymous"
| | | "Power Management protected data" = "{ theNumberOfPowerStates = 3, version 1, power state 0 = { capabilityFlags 00000000, outputPowerCharacter 00000000, inputPowerRequirement 00000000, staticPower 0, unbudgetedPower 0, powerToAttain 0, timeToAttain 0, settleUpTime 0, timeToLower 0, settleDownTime 0, powerDomainBudget 0 }, power state 1 = { capabilityFlags 00000000, outputPowerCharacter 00000400, inputPowerRequirement 00000400, staticPower 0, unbudgetedPower 0, powerToAttain 0, timeToAttain 0, settleUpTime 0, timeToLower 0, settleDownTime 0, powerDomainBudget 0 }, power state 2 = { capabilityFlags 00000000, outputPowerCharacter 00000002, inputPowerRequirement 00000002, staticPower 0, unbudgetedPower 0, powerToAttain 0, timeToAttain 0, settleUpTime 0, timeToLower 0, settleDownTime 0, powerDomainBudget 0 }, aggressiveness = 0, myCurrentState = 2, parentsCurrentPowerFlags = 00000002, maxCapability = 2 }"
| | | "IOInterruptSpecifiers" = (<00000000>)
| | | "Power Management private data" = "{ this object = 03996d00, interested driver = 03996d00, driverDesire = 0, deviceDesire = 0, ourDesiredPowerState = 2, previousRequest = 2 }"
| | | "SocketNumber" = 0x0
| | | "IOGeneralInterest" = ("_IOServiceInterestNotifier is not serializable")
| | | "FunctionNumber" = 0x0
| | | "IOInterruptControllers" = ("IOPCCardInterruptController00001300")
| | | }

It was quite interesting that the card did not report itself as a block storage device, withouth a driver to match against it that would be expected though.

I might look into writing a driver to see if it will force mount a disk node to take a peek at what data is on the device. Back to geekdom...

are you just using a pcmcia card reader?

I've often wondered about a linux filesystem driver for memcards, you you could plug it in your lappy and upload/download saves etc

I'd help on coding

praedicator said:

The card lists it's capacity as 2K, which seems about right for the amount of data it holds.

The only meaningful info I could pull off the device was power management settings:

| | | +-o pccard-no-cis@0,0 <class IOPCCard16Device, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 7>
| | | {
| | | "IOName" = "pccard-no-cis"
| | | "FunctionName" = "Anonymous"
| | | "Power Management protected data" = "{ theNumberOfPowerStates = 3, version 1, power state 0 = { capabilityFlags 00000000, outputPowerCharacter 00000000, inputPowerRequirement 00000000, staticPower 0, unbudgetedPower 0, powerToAttain 0, timeToAttain 0, settleUpTime 0, timeToLower 0, settleDownTime 0, powerDomainBudget 0 }, power state 1 = { capabilityFlags 00000000, outputPowerCharacter 00000400, inputPowerRequirement 00000400, staticPower 0, unbudgetedPower 0, powerToAttain 0, timeToAttain 0, settleUpTime 0, timeToLower 0, settleDownTime 0, powerDomainBudget 0 }, power state 2 = { capabilityFlags 00000000, outputPowerCharacter 00000002, inputPowerRequirement 00000002, staticPower 0, unbudgetedPower 0, powerToAttain 0, timeToAttain 0, settleUpTime 0, timeToLower 0, settleDownTime 0, powerDomainBudget 0 }, aggressiveness = 0, myCurrentState = 2, parentsCurrentPowerFlags = 00000002, maxCapability = 2 }"
| | | "IOInterruptSpecifiers" = (<00000000>)
| | | "Power Management private data" = "{ this object = 03996d00, interested driver = 03996d00, driverDesire = 0, deviceDesire = 0, ourDesiredPowerState = 2, previousRequest = 2 }"
| | | "SocketNumber" = 0x0
| | | "IOGeneralInterest" = ("_IOServiceInterestNotifier is not serializable")
| | | "FunctionNumber" = 0x0
| | | "IOInterruptControllers" = ("IOPCCardInterruptController00001300")
| | | }

It was quite interesting that the card did not report itself as a block storage device, withouth a driver to match against it that would be expected though.

I might look into writing a driver to see if it will force mount a disk node to take a peek at what data is on the device. Back to geekdom...

Click to expand...

metallizer said:

memory management screen:

hold ABCD on 1p controller and press reset.

controller test screen:

hold ABCD on 2p controller and press reset.

a guide to replace the battery on your dead memory card can be found here.

Click to expand...

Have you Metallizer or anyone else, succesfully changed a battery in a memory card. I'm getting an AES soon and my memory card in on the way. It seems pretty easy, until I get to the battery replacing part. I'm not really understanding; mounting the battery. Sorry for being a noob, but this is the part I don't understand: Step 3 Replacing batteries.

The original 3-volt lithium battery is a pcb solder mount Panasonic CR2016. I was unable to source a board mount type locally so soldered tags on to each side of a standard CR2016, the type used in calculators etc. If you are unable to source the solder in type and go for this method take care not to use excessive heat when soldering on the tags, it could damage the battery and/or cause the battery lithium to leak, lithium is nasty stuff- very poisonous I believe, so beware.

Remove the old battery; the new modified battery is then soldered back to the board. Make sure the tag on the negative side has adequate clearance so as not to short the battery. If the negative touches the back of the front cover when reassembled, no problem as it is at the same potential.

Thanks

zapatistab said:

Have you Metallizer or anyone else, succesfully changed a battery in a memory card. I'm getting an AES soon and my memory card in on the way. It seems pretty easy, until I get to the battery replacing part. I'm not really understanding; mounting the battery. Sorry for being a noob, but this is the part I don't understand: Step 3 Replacing batteries.

The original 3-volt lithium battery is a pcb solder mount Panasonic CR2016. I was unable to source a board mount type locally so soldered tags on to each side of a standard CR2016, the type used in calculators etc. If you are unable to source the solder in type and go for this method take care not to use excessive heat when soldering on the tags, it could damage the battery and/or cause the battery lithium to leak, lithium is nasty stuff- very poisonous I believe, so beware.

Remove the old battery; the new modified battery is then soldered back to the board. Make sure the tag on the negative side has adequate clearance so as not to short the battery. If the negative touches the back of the front cover when reassembled, no problem as it is at the same potential.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Could you be more specific? I can follow all the instructions without any problem and its a very simple thing to do, Do you have any experience in soldering or eletronics?

Anyway, most likely the card you´re about the receive is working, only very few cards have been reported with dead batteries.

metallizer said:

Could you be more specific? I can follow all the incructions without any problem and its a very simple thing to do, Do you have any experience in soldering or eletronics?

Anyway, most likely the card you´re about the receive is working, only very few cards have been reported with dead batteries.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have basic electrical knowledge, and I solder all the time. (Messing around with console Joystick mods) Maybe when I see it in my face, it will make more sense. I thought I would swap the battery, so I wouldn't have to worry about it for a long while. (Maybe it's just my need to take something apart) Thanks

Toddy wrote a how-to w/ pics on hardmvs for how to change a battery.

http://www.hardmvs.com/html/battery.htm

good stuff.

-DT

dogtoy said:

Toddy wrote a how-to w/ pics on hardmvs for how to change a battery.

http://www.hardmvs.com/html/battery.htm

good stuff.

-DT

Click to expand...

That's the link I asked about. I'm just being a memory card noob. I'll figure it out if I ever need to change the battery.

zapatistab said:

That's the link I asked about. I'm just being a memory card noob. I'll figure it out if I ever need to change the battery.

Click to expand...

Looks like a fairly simple procedure, I wouldn't want to have to cut the backing off of my memory card, but I also wouldn't want a memory card that doesn't work.

How do you save data to a memory card? Is it for other games besides fighting games? What purpose does it serve exactly?

That was a pretty nice faq, but Mahjong Kyo Retsuden also employed a password feature.

Jeff

Great Information here! By the way, do anyone has the third party memory card on hand? any photos?
ckchan

Would a pcmcia compact flash adapter be usable as a memory card?

masschamber said:

Would a pcmcia compact flash adapter be usable as a memory card?

Click to expand...

No.

There have been threads about this before. Bottom line- compact flash is by definition flash memory. There is no such thing as "Compact Flash SRAM cards". Since the Neo Geo requires either the official neo memory card or any other PCMCIA SRAM card, then flash memory is out of the question.

People have tried compact flash and pcmcia flash cards, but they do not work. That is because the flash memory is not addressed by the system in the same way an SRAM card would be, they are completely incompatibile. No doubt if you were a hardware wizard you could make a hardware SRAM <-> FLASH translator (with a microcontroller for address translation, read/write request translation, etc.) so that flash cards could be used in SRAM systems. This would be very difficult and expensive to design and market. The good news is, it would work with both compact flash and PCMCIA cards (compact flash is electrically identical to 16-bit PCMCIA).

These would only be useful if SRAM cards were no longer available and FLASH was the only viable replacement so that people could continue using legacy hardware (new hardware that uses pcmcia SRAM cards for backup memory are extremely rare, if not non-existant, yet there are companies still selling new cards for legacy hardware). example: if I had bought a commercial sewing machine 10 years ago that cost several thousand dollars, I would still expect to be able to get new replacement memory cards for it today, and you can.

There are lot of PCMCIA SRAM cards on the market, sold as sewing machine pattern expansion cards, or synthesizer voice expansion cards, or plain old pcmcia sram cards (sometimes labled 'PCMCIA Ram card'). These cards are available in sizes from the Neo-geo's 2k all the way up to 4mb.

These pcmcia sram cards have been tried and proven. Also some claim that using larger cards (than snk's 2k card) will allow more game saves. I cannot personally say that this is 100% true, because I have never owned the original SNK memory card.

If someone builds the SRAM <-> FLASH interface please post it here along with source code for the microcontroller, I would really like to see that one in action. Actually it would probably be a relatively straightforward thing to do(If you have experience with that sort of thing ). SRAM cards max out at 4mb, it would be harder to use more than this 4mb on the flash card, and fully utilizing a full 128mb flash card as SRAM would be a sweet accomplishment indeed.

cheers,
-DT

I just saw this and had to respond:

metallizer said:

Does anyone has a picture of all memory card models SNK produced? I would like it see it.

Click to expand...

After all these years, we don't even have pictures (or manuals) of all the MVS or 'MVS photo' boards. If there are indeed more than just black and two kinds of marble memory card then I doubt someone has tried to track down all of them for a photo shoot.

Feel free to try it, I'd like to see this too! :chimp:

SO one of those pcmia sram cards that are regularly on ebay would work?

Does anyone know if the PCMCIA SRAM card has to have 2k attribute memory? Some devices need this for Card Information Structure storage. Would the Neo be included?

I didn't push my memory card in the slot all the way. It works just fine now. Sorry to bother you all with such a dumb post.

TerryBoguard200 said:

I didn't push my memory card in the slot all the way. It works just fine now. Sorry to bother you all with such a dumb post.

Click to expand...

Many thanks for the heads up!

Very intersting FAQ

MS3

I just got a new memory card but the high score is not saving on Metal slug 3, only the change in options are saved. Does anyone know what could be wrong?