Memory limitations

[martiniii]

Yesterday I put Prisoner of Ice into my Saturn and a text message came up. It was in Japanese, but since it contained the number "261" and ended with the options "yes" and "no", I assumed it was telling me that a Prisoner of Ice save file requires 261 blocks of memory and asking if I wanted to continue even though I can't save.

So I went to memory management and shifted files until my Saturn's internal memory had 278 free blocks. I restarted Prisoner of Ice... and the same message still came up. Concluding I may have misinterpreted the message, I started up a new game and tried saving. Another message containing the number "261" came up, so apparently I was right about the message the first time.

This exact same problem happened to me when running Sim City 2000 (North American version); I had more free blocks than it said were needed to save, but when trying to save the game still told me I didn't have the requisite number of blocks.

Anyone have any theories as to what could be causing this? Note that I have been able to run games with high save files requirements; Virtual Hydlide, Blue Seed, and Shining Force III Scenario 3 all save just fine.

[zyrobs]

Sim City 2000 needs the entire internal memory free to be able to save. Don't know about Prisoner of Ice, but do note that sometimes the amount of space needed is higher than what it says due to how the filesystem gets fragmented.

[martiniii]

I didn't know that - or maybe I knew, but forgot. Unfortunately, I remember clearing the entire internal memory and still not being able to save Sim City 2000. However, I just now ran into the same problem again with Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV, and you're right; freeing up a few extra blocks of memory allowed me to save. Still not sure what the deal with Sim City 2000 is, but I'll give the same trick a try with Prisoner of Ice.

[zyrobs]

Try using the "Clear" feature and not just removing saves one by one... that one formats the entire memory properly.

[martiniii]

I used the "Clear" feature as you said and was successfully able to save Prisoner of Ice. Looking at the Saturn's memory manager (as opposed to my Action Replay cart's memory manager), it's now apparent that Prisoner of Ice was designed to use up every single block of the Saturn's internal memory. Which is really weird, since it's just a point-and-click adventure; there's nothing to save but your character's location, inventory, and progress. Still, it certainly beats having to play it all in one sitting.

Thanks for the help!