page_title: Memory card
section_title: Video game consoles
hierarchical_section_title: Memory card / Video game consoles
caption_attribution_description: A memory card for the Neo Geo AES console, one of the first memory cards for a video game console.
context_page_description: A memory card or memory cartridge is an electronic data storage device used for storing digital information, typically using flash memory. These are commonly used in portable electronic devices, such as digital cameras, mobile phones, computers, tablets, PDAs, portable media players, video game consoles, synthesizers, electronic keyboards and digital pianos
  The basis for memory card technology is flash memory. It was invented by Fujio Masuoka at Toshiba in 1980 and commercialized by Toshiba in 1987.
  PC Cards were the first commercial memory card formats to come out, but are now mainly used in industrial applications and to connect I/O devices such as modems. Since 1994, a number of memory card formats smaller than the PC Card arrived. The first one was CompactFlash and later SmartMedia and Miniature Card. The desire for smaller cards for cell-phones, PDAs, and compact digital cameras drove a trend that left the previous generation of "compact" cards looking big. In 2001, SM alone captured 50% of the digital camera market and CF had captured the professional digital camera market.
context_section_description: Many older video game consoles used memory cards to hold saved game data. Cartridge-based systems primarily used battery-backed volatile RAM within each individual cartridge to hold saves for that game. Cartridges without this RAM may have used a password system, or wouldn't save progress at all. The Neo Geo AES, released in 1990 by SNK, was the first video game console able to use a memory card. AES memory cards were also compatible with Neo-Geo MVS arcade cabinets, allowing players to migrate saves between home and arcade systems and vice versa. Memory cards became commonplace when home consoles moved to read-only optical discs for storing the game program, beginning with systems such as the TurboGrafx-CD and Sega-CD.
  Until the sixth generation of video game consoles, memory cards were based on proprietary formats; later systems have used established industry hardware formats for memory cards, such as FAT32.
  Home consoles now commonly use hard disk drive storage for saved games and allow the use of generic USB flash drives or other card formats via a memory card reader to transport game saves and other game information, along with cloud storage saving, though most portable gaming systems still rely on custom memory cartridges to store program data, due to their low power consumption, smaller physical size and reduced mechanical complexity.
  For example, the Xbox 360 allowed the user to operate proprietary memory cards in models produced until 2010 and a special hard disk to store data. Later, Microsoft allowed user to connect USB flash drives and USB HDDs to the system. The console initially allowed up to 16GB on any USB devices but further updates have removed this limit. Last models of the system (S, 2010-2013 and E, 2013-2016) no longer have slots for the memory cards.
  Due to very high volumes of data, the new Xbox Series X system will (in addition to its internal 1TB SSD) have an ability to connect a special memory card which is a specialized very high speed SSD. Users are still allowed to connect USB storage devices but new Series X games cannot be run from a USB storage disk.
caption: Neo Geo 2KiB memory card
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