older official Gamecube 251 memory vs clone/3rd party

[donssword]

So, I expanded my Wii's USB Loader GX HDD to 750GB and ripped all my Wii games onto it. Brilliant. Now I want to rip my GC games to it, but I keep running into problems with my 3rd party 1019 memory. I want to grab an official 251 memory card, but all the "new" ones on Amazon and ebay are clever bootlegs.

So, would I be safer buying older official GC memory cards, or using my late gen MadCatz 16x or other 3rd party or bootleg memory. I pretty much think bootleg cards are out of the question, but I don't know enough about the performance of older official GC memory to make a smart decision.

Should I just buy older, used official GC 251 memory cards?

[theclaw]

I suppose official 251 is the safest.

Though I haven't tested them myself, 2043 3rd party cards are an option. They're not 1019 and so shouldn't corrupt as much on Wii.

[Tanooki]

There is an official white Nintendo made card that's over a thousand blocks, think NOA sold it direct though only. I've seen them on ebay they're not horribly priced and at least being OEM 1st party you'll know it's safe.

http://www.amazon.com/Gamecube-Memory-C ... B000L9NPGG

First link I could find using google was amazon but you could dig more.

[Ziggy]

An official first party card is always gonna be the best bet.

[donssword]

So, my best solution was:
1) Buying memory cards from my local video game stores, where I can see the card before I buy it.
2) eBay auctions for used cards with photos of the tri-wing screws.

There are plenty of good bootlegs out there right now, being sold as new, with amazing packaging, but bootlegs are bootlegs.

[Tanooki]

Kind of curious why you're paranoid about screws on a Gamecube memory card. Did someone bother making a perfect mold/color copy of what Nintendo made for sale?

I'd think if you just ebay'd the size you wanted, and bought it, you'd be fine. On some slim chance it's knockoff garbage, fire off a return, 100% sure ebay would award you a win once you provided descriptive (and then if the dude argues as it allows then) and photographic evidence it would be a done deal.

[ElkinFencer10]

MadCatz makes shitty ass controllers, but I've never had a problem with the quality of their memory cards (though I might just have gotten lucky). Honestly, though, if you've got Homebrew, I'd say just get a cheapo first party card that you know is solid quality, and use that for whatever you're playing at the time. When you get done with a game or put it down for a while, back it up to your Wii's SD card. That's what I did with some of my "holy fuck, I seriously don't want to lose this data" like my Soul Calibur II file with everything unlocked or my Super Smash Bros Melee file with every trophy.

[nightrnr]

I've heard problems with even Nintendo's official 1019 (sorry, I have no links). From what I understand, some games don't like to read too big of a card and if there's too many saves (like 100), it can reach a limit of making any more (until you delete some).
It would be better to get a couple 251 cards IMO.

Also, Nintendont has a virtual memory card feature. The FAQ for the loader mentions that it's not 100% perfect and can even corrupt your save if you shut it down at the wrong time (to be fair, that can happen on a real card). But a cool option nonetheless (I've haven't had a save delete yet, but am a relatively new user).