Fantascape's original MEM, the Memory Maker, was primitive and impractical. A microchip the size of a credit card MEM Version 1.0 required a larger docking bay and power source. Furthermore, you needed a bulky adapter to jack in and download the memory. Finally, memories were limited to a gig, and individual chips cost anywhere from a grand to twenty five hundred dollars.

Technology being what it is, it took only a few years of R & D to improve the MEM to what it is today. MEM V. 3.4 is the size and shape of an oyster cracker, plugs directly into your PDA, and uses the standard hardware for data transfer. Perhaps most importantly, the current storage cap is somewhere around 78 gig, and price is down: Commercial MEMs are as low as $49.95, the Fantascape Intro Pack, for example. Average MEMs, one you'd buy as a birthday gift for your mother for example, hovers around eighty dollars.