PS2 Memory Expansion Pak by Intec

[Merrick Bill]

Is anyone familiar with the PS2 Memory Expansion Pak by Intec? It's an 8 Meg memory card for the PS2 but it requires an original Sony 8 Meg card to work. You plug the Sony card into the Intec card and then plug the Intec card into the PS2. Then you can press a button on the Intec card to switch back and forth between the two.

 

Toys 'R Us is selling these cards for $2.98 each so I bought a couple. I found that once the card is inserted into the PS2 (with the Sony piggybacked in it) the Sony card can be removed and the Intec will continue to work until the PS2 is powered off or reset. Then you can piggyback the same Sony card into another Intec card and put it in slot 2 and do the same thing.

 

I Also tried daisychaining the Intec cards with the Sony at the end and they worked that way as well.

 

Intec also makes a 16 meg card that you plug an 8 meg Sony card into for a total of 32 meg but Toys 'R Us was selling those for $14.98 which seemed a little too expensive for experimenting.

 

It's a little inconvenient to have to use the Sony card to make the other card work but the price was right. Sony 8 Meg cards cost over twenty bucks a piece and these were three bucks each.

 

My question is, why do you think Intec would design a product like this? Do you think they were trying to get around a patent and avoid paying a royalty? (They also make "regular" PS2 memory cards that don't need to be piggybacked). Do you think it was a way to have more memory plugged into the game at one time.

 

It just seems like a very odd product but worth three bucks I guess.

 

Bill

[Mr.FoodMonster]

I wouldn't put anything important on the card that piggy backs, OR the card that is plugged into it. Just sounds like a very shoddy idea, and it IS intec, so I'm sure the fail rate is high

[kemsted]

I got one of those in Shopko's clearence isle for $6 and I thought it was a pretty good deal because I went there to buy a Sony card and found that with double the space for a fraction of the price and it hasnt failed me yet.

 

-kemsted

[Merrick Bill]

After playing with them for a while I went back and picked up two more.

 

So far they work pretty well and you can't beat that price. If you have an original Sony card, I'd recommend heading over to Toys 'R Us and checking these silly things out. Now I wish the 16 meg ones will drop from 15 bucks to under 10.

 

Bill

[Stingray]

Why is it that every Toys R Us everywhere else in the US seems to be having these outrageous video game sales, and the one where I live has the highest video game prices in town? It's not fair dammit!

 

-S

[kemsted]

After playing with them for a while I went back and picked up two more.

 

So far they work pretty well and you can't beat that price.  If you have an original Sony card, I'd recommend heading over to Toys 'R Us and checking these silly things out.  Now I wish the 16 meg ones will drop from 15 bucks to under 10.

 

Bill

 

The 16 meg ones are the ones on sale at Shopko for $6.

 

-kemsted

[Brad2600]

Why is it that every Toys R Us everywhere else in the US seems to be having these outrageous video game sales, and the one where I live has the highest video game prices in town? It's not fair dammit!

 

-S

 

Because they have plenty of chain stores to afford it?

[Merrick Bill]

I tried a different Toys 'R Us today and they had one 16 meg card for 7 bucks (not as good as your deal but still pretty good). I may go back to the Toys 'R Us that was selling them for 15 and see if they'll price match their other store. Now I need to buy a game or two so I have somthing to save on the memory card.

 

Bill

[Merrick Bill]

And still no theories about why they require a Sony card in order to initialize?

 

Bill

[Wntermute]

And still no theories about why they require a Sony card in order to initialize?

 

Since these are unlicensed third-party memory devices, they don't have the MagicGate ICs. Piggybacking a real Sony card will let the system access the Sony card's MagicGate and will let the third-party card be used.

[Merrick Bill]

Since these are unlicensed third-party memory devices, they don't have the MagicGate ICs. Piggybacking a real Sony card will let the system access the Sony card's MagicGate and will let the third-party card be used.

 

That's kind of what I figured. The weird thing is that they also make memory cards that don't require piggybacking.

 

Bill

[Wntermute]

That's kind of what I figured.  The weird thing is that they also make memory cards that don't require piggybacking.

 

MadCatz licensed the MagicGate technology for a couple years and made official 3rd-party cards (I have 2). After a while, they stopped making them and now Nyko licenses MagicGate to make official 3rd-party cards.

[Merrick Bill]

And they work great. But they don't work on the new slim PSTwo. It's unfortunate because they're so cheap. So now I use a regular Sony card on the PSTwo and then use the original PS2 to transfer the game save to the Intec memory cards for storage. Not as convenient, but still cheap.

 

Bill