/vr/ - Retro Games

>>3314142
The memory card is 1MB, We can assume that each block is worth 68KB. If something takes up more than 68KB of space but less than 137KB, then it will take up 2 blocks.

If the images are saved in decent quality (not played MGS1 in centuries), taking up around 80-90KB is not unreasonable. The real problem here is that the memory card is shit, unlike the PS2 memory card which could handle any filesize within the 8MB limit.

If you ever played Music 2000 (or MTV Music Generator in the US) you could record a sample from any CD to use in your song. A cool idea, but because you were storing an uncompressed.wav on the memory card just one sample usually ended up taking up half the blocks. I bought hordes of memory cards to try to get around this but they filled quick.

>>3314142
Diablo 1 used 10 blocks just to save your character data, what's your point?

>>3314154
>The memory card is 1MB
Woe times.

>>3314182
Didn't the RPG Maker games take up an entire card just for one game?

>>3314154
No the memory card is 1 MegaBIT -- 128 KiloByte. That means each block is just 8 KB (1 is reserved for the index). Encoding a picture into 16 KB max is pretty impressive.

>>3314192
>Didn't the RPG Maker games take up an entire card just for one game?

Sometimes more than one card.

SaGa Frontier also comes to mind. There are seven main characters, and save files take up two blocks each. Then the system data takes up one block.

>>3314236
I could understand the other examples in this thread but having 16KB just to store the stats (and I'm assuming inventories etc?) of each character seems ridiculous and terribly inefficient.

>>3314249
SaGa Frontier has tons of variables unlike most RPGs on the system, and it came out in 1997, it's actually not that bad, I mean, look at Diablo.

>>3314249
Well, there's a bit more to it than that, because it has some other stuff to keep track of. Like which skills / spells have been learned, which monsters have been absorbed into mystic weapons, which enemies your monsters have previously absorbed (each new absorb gives you bonus HP), and so on.

You could have a maximum of 15 party members on each file, and keeping track of all their equipment, skills, spells, monster absorbs (where applicable), and so on might take up more space than you'd expect. I don't really know for sure, though.

>>3314142
Memory Card?

>>3314268
Also, I forgot to mention:

You can save pretty much anywhere you want in SaGa Frontier, so it has to store the exact coordinates for that, as well. I don't know how much that would add to it, but it probably counts for a bit.

>>3314276
PUT

YOUR CONTROLLER

ON THE FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR

>be silent hill
>can save shitloads on one block

THANK YOU. Now I can have one save for each of the hyper blasters no problem.

Blocks were such a stupid concept. Why couldn't the just use dynamic file sizes like in later generations?

>>3316790
numbers confuse normies

>>3314142
>2 BLOCKS! A normal card only has 15 blocks total.

Saving your game takes 10 blocks out of 15 in PSX version of Diablo and 1 additional blocks for your characters.
saving your game in
RPG and/or Fighter Maker can take up all 15 blocks.
>implying MGS's 2 blocks for photos is that bad

>>3314142
Metal Gear Solid is so fucking boring it makes me want to put my head through the tv screen. You can literally run around every enemy in the game (all 25 of them) with ease, every fourth room you "stealth" through there,s an underwhelming boss fight, and the last half of the game is nothing but action set pieces and boss fights, completely departing from the core mechanics the first part of the game was derived on.

Kojima should have focused more time and effort on the actual game part of Metal Gear Solid instead of overly obsessing on cutscenes and voice acting filled with spy movie troupes and schlock, proto-Call of Duty over the top gameplay cinematics, and anal retentive focus on environment and easter eggs/4th wall breaks based on his lowbrow humor

>>3317839

Pretty much this.

After psycho mantis the whole game nosedives.

It seems like MGS1 shills only played the demo. Ghost Babel a superior MGS game.

>>3316790
>Why couldn't the just use dynamic file sizes like in later generations?

Because each block was only 8 KB anyway. Having 15 blocks was way more consistent and reliable. It'd be a bitch if you were updating your save game and the game said "Sorry, you need 33 bytes more".

Speaking of Memory cards are dex drives still worth it in the current year? I have a ton of PS1 games but I don't want to have a plethora of memory cards all over.

>>3317839
>Buy PS3
>Hyped for all them exclusives
>Get MGS4
>Trigger the alarm
>AI is so fucking retarded, they don't even attack me when they sees me
>I can stack up pile of corpses
>Get under the car
>Shoot their legs until they die
I understand that games focuses on stealth but this is borderline stupid.
>Sell the game after 2 hour play

>>3317880
If you have a PS3, you can get a memory card reader and store your saves on there.

>>3317880
did they make a USB version? because serial can be a pain in the ass nowadays. most motherboards don't have the socket, but the header pins are usually still there, you'd have to buy/build a cable.

>>3317905
Really? idk I have a modded PS1 and a slim PS3 so I'd need to get like a converter for that right? I have no room on my memory card and I'm really itching to play some RPGs.

>>3317906
sadly no from what I can recall but I heard that you can get a serial to USB converter and it might do the trick and theres a fan made software for it instead of using floppy disk.

>>3317880
Maybe, assuming if your PC still has and can still interface with those old-ass serial COM ports.

It could be possible to transfer PS1 saves via UlaunchELF's file browser since I remember being able to copy saves off of a PS1 memory card to a USB stick.

>>3314217
JPEGs are pretty cool for space restrictions.

>>3314179
Pretty sure it first converted them into ADPCMs, maybe with extra steps to minimize redundancy. How many seconds did it take?

>>3316790
Blocks are what filesystems use to identify chunks of data. One block represents the smallest amount of data that can be stored. Even if you make a blank text file on your computer, it'll still take up one block of space, generally 4-16KB. And saying something is in block 14 is a lot easier than saying it's at byte 114,688

>>3317908
Just get one of these and you can backup your PS1 and PS2 saves to a PS3. From there, you can move them to a flash drive or whatever.

>>3318014
Thats awesome! so I can move games from PS1 to my PC to an SD card or does it go ps1 memory card -> PS3 -> Storage device?
Thanks for the idea

>>3314142
>He use a normal card

Not gonna lie I was frustrated too with that problem...Until I found those lives savior

>>3317904
MGS4 was such an overwhelming disappointment. I got the MGS4 bundle pack for $400 and only played it once.

Speaking of MGS and memory cards, it was also bad on PS2 how the extra costumes in Subsistence each took up extra space. I don't think there was any way to even save them all to one card, so if you want to you gotta break it up among multiple cards and try to remember which camo is on each.

>>3318025
I think you can hook it directly to a PC, but you have to jump through hoops in order to get it to work. The easiest way would be to go through a PS3.

>>3318027
Those things are notorious for corrupting save files.