Nintendo Game Cards are the media format used to distribute video games for the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

 and Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo 3DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. The autostereoscopic device is able to project stereoscopic 3D effects without the use of 3D glasses or any additional accessories. The Nintendo 3DS features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS series software, including Nintendo DSi software...

 systems. The Game Cards resemble smaller, thinner versions of cartridges for previous portable gaming consoles released by Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

, such as the Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

 or Game Boy Advance

Game Boy Advance

The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...

. The mask ROM chips are manufactured by Macronix and have an access speed of 150 ns. Cards currently range from 64 mebibit

Mebibit

The mebibit is a multiple of the bit, a unit of digital information storage, prefixed by the standards-based multiplier mebi , a binary prefix meaning 220...

s to 4 gibibit

Gibibit

The gibibit is a multiple of the bit, a unit of digital information storage, prefixed by the standards-based multiplier gibi , a binary prefix meaning 230. The unit symbol of the gibibit is Gibit or Gib....

s (8–512 MiB) in size (although the maximum capacity is unknown) The cards usually have a small amount of flash memory

Flash memory

Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...

 or an EEPROM

EEPROM

EEPROM stands for Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory and is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices to store small amounts of data that must be saved when power is removed, e.g., calibration...

 to save user data such as game progress or high scores. However, there are a small number of games that have no save memory such as Electroplankton

Electroplankton

Electroplankton is an interactive music video game developed by Toshio Iwai and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was first released in Japan, and was later released in North America and Europe. This game allows the player to interact with animated plankton...

. The game cards are 35.0 mm × 33.0 mm × 3.8 mm (about half the breadth and depth as Game Boy Advance cartridges) and weigh around 3.5 grams (1/8 oz.).