Memory card
The GameCube Memory Card is a propriety flash-based memory device used to save data for games on the Nintendo GameCube. The cards are compatible with the Wii, though they cannot be used to save data for its games.
Nintendo released cards with three different capacities: 59 blocks (512 kilobytes, grey in colour), 251 blocks (2 megabytes, black in colour), and 1019 blocks (8 megabytes, white in colour). Some third-party manufacturers also released cards that were larger in capacity than any of Nintendo's official products.
In Super Smash Bros. Melee
The Gamecube memory card is necessary in order to save data of any sort in Melee, including Records, unlockable characters, and other accomplishments, as well as snapshots taken with the game's Camera mode; as data is frequently saved throughout gameplay, Melee's manual recommends against removing cards or shutting down the console before returning to the title screen. If no memory card is present, the game will warn the player of the fact when the game is booted, though the player can still play the game; inserting a memory card at any point will let the game begin to save data, though it will overwrite any previous Melee data on the card.
Melee requires 11 blocks for its save data, along with further blocks in order to save snapshots; the latter can require anywhere from 3 to 12 blocks of data depending on the complexity of the image.
By default, Melee reads save data from Slot A only, though Snapshots can be viewed from either Slot A or B.
Compatibility with Pikmin
In an unusual use of the memory card, players are rewarded the Captain Olimar trophy if they have save data from Pikmin on their memory card while loading up Melee. Pikmin itself was released after Melee in PAL regions, which made it impossible to collect all the trophies in the game's first month of release; in Japan and North America, Pikmin was released prior to Melee.
Save data for Pikmin takes up 27 blocks on a memory card.
Compatibility with Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Some Wii games can read data from memory cards and utilise them for a variety of uses; Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, for instance, allows the player to import data from its prequel in order to unlock bonus scenes and carry over some data relating to characters. Despite this functionality being available, Brawl yields no bonuses if a memory card with save data from other games is inserted into the console, and it lacks any sort of functionality with memory cards.
Some Memory Card 1019s can pose unusual difficulties when used with a Wii in GameCube mode, notably the Wii believing that the card is corrupted when it actually is not. In the specific case of playing Melee on a Wii, the card may read as corrupted upon booting the console, but taking it out and re-inserting it with the "card is corrupted" message displaying can clear the issue. The exact cause of this phenomenon is unknown, but it is often claimed that the heat emitted by the Wii while it remains in standby causes issues with the physical hardware of the memory card. Neither the Memory Card 59 nor the Memory Card 251 are reported to suffer from this issue. As a result of these issues, most tournament setups for Melee prefer the use of the GameCube over the Wii, as well as the two aforementioned cards over the Memory Card 1019.
