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Game Card
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The Game Card is the physical format used for games released on the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS family of systems. Similar to the Game Paks used on previous Nintendo handheld systems and home consoles before the Nintendo GameCube, Game Cards are small, slim ROM cartridges manufactured by Macronix.
Functionality
Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS Game Cards were small, black cards used as the physical medium by all systems in the Nintendo DS family, and are forward compatible with Nintendo 3DS systems. can hold as little as eight megabytes of data, while the largest game cards produced held a capacity of up to 512 megabytes. According to certain developers, larger Nintendo DS Game Cards have a slower transfer rate than the smaller capacity cards.[1] Unlike the Game Paks on previous systems, which used battery backups for saving game data, most Game Cards use a type of flash memory or EEPROM, though some lack any form of saving game data.
With the release of the Nintendo DSi, several developers began to release games on Nintendo DSi Enhanced Game Cards; while these game cards are similar to normal Nintendo DS Game Cards and can play on older system models, these games have exclusive features only accessible when playing on the newer hardware. While Nintendo DSi exclusive games were typically released for the Nintendo DSiWare digital format, certain games were released on Nintendo DSi Game Cards, which are only compatible with Nintendo DSi systems.[2]
Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS Game Cards are the physical format used by all Nintendo 3DS family systems. While they look similar to the Nintendo DS cards, they are white in color, similar to Nintendo DSi Game Cards, and have a small tab on the top right of the card, preventing them from being inserted into the previous generation systems. They can hold between one to eight gigabytes of data.[3]
While developers have taken advantage of the New Nintendo 3DS hardware and released games exclusively for it, Xenoblade Chronicles 3D is currently the only physical game released for the system. While older model systems will read the game, they will not play the software.
External links
References
- ↑ Creating a 3D Game on the Nintendo DS. IGN Blogs (June 16, 2006). Retrieved April 16, 2016.
- ↑ GDC 09: DSi Hybrid, Exclusive Carts Soon. IGN (March 25, 2009). Retrieved April 16, 2016.
- ↑ 3DS Cartridges Could Store Up to 8GB. Nintendo World Report (December 17, 2010). Retrieved April 16, 2016.
