Memory Card

It has been requested that this article be rewritten and expanded to include more information. Reason: Highlight and write about its relation to games of the Super Mario franchise. Some of the information is also a bit too technical.

A Memory Card is a video game accessory that has been a part of many gaming consoles. Essentially, it is an external memory database where game data is saved.

From Nintendo 64 to Nintendo 3DS, a non-standard measurement unit called a block (a page on Nintendo 64) was used for memory card capacity by Nintendo and in the consoles' system settings, and the size of the unit increased between console generations. From Wii U onwards, industry standard units like gigabytes and megabytes are used within the consoles' settings.

Nintendo consoles

Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64's Controller Pak (front and back)

The Nintendo 64 was the first Nintendo system to have a memory card, officially known as the Controller Pak. It plugs into the controller's accessory slot. The Controller Pak, however, is not necessary for many games, as the cartridges that the system uses allow for data to be directly saved onto them (much the same as the cartridges for the Game Boy).

Many games just use the Controller Pak for storing non-main game data. An example of this is Mario Kart 64, where all race data is saved onto the game, but Ghosts from time trials are saved onto the Controller Pak, where they take up either 121 (30.9 KB) or 123 (31.4 KB) blocks.

Most Controller Paks can only hold up to 123 pages (31.4 KB) of memory, and have 128 pages total (one page being 256 bytes), with the remaining 5 pages (1.2 KB) reserved for formatting purposes. However, an unofficial accessory was released in 1998 to allow users to transfer saves onto their PC known as the DexDrive, bypassing the need to buy multiple Controller Paks.

Nintendo GameCube

A Nintendo GameCube memory card

Unlike the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo GameCube is very dependent on the memory card. As with many disc-using games, data is either saved on internal memory or on a memory card. The GameCube has no internal memory, and has two slots for memory cards. Games played without the memory card inserted act as if they were being played for the first time, and data cannot be saved.

There have been three different kinds of GameCube memory cards that were released. The first could store up to fifty-nine blocks (0.47 MB); the second could store up to 251 (2.0 MB); and the third could store up to 1,019 (8.1 MB). These cards were often color-coded to differentiate themselves: 59-block cards were light gray, 251-block cards were black, and 1,019-block cards were white. Despite 1,019 blocks being the highest capacity of any first-party GameCube memory card, the console is capable of supporting ones up to 2,043 blocks (16.3 MB) in size, a utility alluded to in unused text in various games and in GameCube development tools.

Nintendo of Europe lists the rate for GameCube memory cards as 59 blocks (4 MB), which would result in 66-70 KB per block; other sources contradict this, indicating that Nintendo of Europe mistakenly measured in megabytes instead of megabits, instead resulting in 7-8 KB per block.

Game	Blocks	Kilobytes (KB)
Super Mario Sunshine	7	56
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!	4	32
Mario Party 6	5	40
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!	8	64
Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (each Time Trial ghost)	5	40
Super Mario Strikers	5	40
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door	17	136
Mario Party 7	6	48
Mario Power Tennis	3	24
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour	13	104
Donkey Konga 3 JP	5	40
Wario World	10	80
Nintendo Puzzle Collection	6	48
Mario Party 4	2	16
Mario Party 5	5	40
Luigi's Mansion	3	24
Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix	2	16
Mario Superstar Baseball	10	80
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat	3	24
SSX on Tour	59	472
NBA Street V3	15	120

SD cards

It has been requested that this section be rewritten and expanded to include more information. Reason: The section contradicts itself on whether pre-Switch consoles could handle more than 32 GB, e.g. 64 GB. (tagged on May 4, 2024)

Design of an SD card.

Starting with the Wii, Nintendo became less dependent on proprietary memory cards. The Wii has files of internal memory for saving game data (unlike the GameCube). It does, however, have a slot for an SD card (also used in cameras and other devices). SD cards can store the Wii's channel data and some game data. Pictures taken on a camera saved on an SD card can be displayed on the Wii's Photo Channel. Some games also use the SD card to store non-save game data. An example of this is the snapshots that can be taken in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. These snapshots can be saved onto either the Wii itself or the SD card.

Before Wii System Menu 4.0 was released in March 2009, Wiis could only use standard SD cards, which could store up to 2 GB of memory. System Menus 4.0 and later gained the ability to use SDHC cards that could store a maximum of 32 GB of memory. However, most games do not support SDHC cards, such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Nintendo 3DS and Wii U also retain the 32 GB limit.

One block on the Wii, Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS is 128 KB.

If the 512MB capacity of the Wii internal memory were split into 256MB for user use and 256MB for system use, the user gets 2048 blocks ideally.

Nintendo Switch supports MicroSD cards up to 2 TB.

Game storage

The Nintendo Wii has an SD card button in the lower left corner of the Wii Menu. If the button shows up as blue instead of gray, meaning the Wii acknowledges that an SD card is inserted, clicking on the button will show a special menu with gray boxes on black, showing Virtual Console and WiiWare games that are stored on the SD card.

The enabled write-protection error message

From the Nintendo 3DS onwards, inserted SD cards are fully integrated in the console main menus, and games can be launched from them normally. If the SD card is ejected while on the main menu, the theme will revert to the default white, and only system apps, DSiWare games, Miis, and the card slot launcher will be shown. The missing content will be restored once the SD card is inserted again.

The Nintendo 3DS is able to detect whether an SD card has the lock slider on the left set to on, and will show an error message if this is the case, resulting in the same aforementioned restored main menu. Wii and Wii U can show similar error messages, but on a much smaller scale. The Wii can load games from a write-protected SD card, and can store save data from such games to the internal memory, but will show an error when copying or moving save files to it. The Wii U shows an error in Mii Maker when trying to add a photo of a Mii to it.

Save game file sizes

For Wii games whose save files can be copied normally to an SD card in the Data Management settings.

Game	Blocks	Kilobytes (KB)
Super Mario Galaxy	1	128
Super Mario Galaxy 2	1	128
New Super Mario Bros. Wii	1	128
Super Paper Mario	1	128
Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition	1	128
Mario Strikers Charged	1	128
Super Mario Sluggers	2	256
Mario Power Tennis	1	128
Mario Party 8	1	128
Mario Party 9	1	128
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (each custom stage or replay)	1	128
Donkey Kong Country Returns	2	256

SD card support table

	Wii	Wii U	Nintendo DSi	Nintendo 3DS	Nintendo Switch
SD					3
SDHC	1				3
SDXC	2	2	2	2	3

¹ - Needs to be on Wii System Menu 4.0 or higher. Most older games are incompatible.
² - The SDXC card has to be formatted to FAT32 with 32k clusters.
³ - MicroSD only