DexDrive

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DexDrive
DexDrive for PlayStation
Date Invented:	1996
Invented By:	InterAct
Connects to: Motherboard via serial port I/O card via serial port

DexDrive refers collectively to a series of devices that allow game console memory cards to be accessed by a PC. The term DexDrive has also been used colloquially as a generic reference to any such device regardless of branding. Actual DexDrive-branded products were made by now-defunct InterAct for use with PlayStation and Nintendo 64 memory cards. Contrary to its name, the DexDrive is not a "drive" in the usual PC context—it is simply an external memory-card socket for the PC. It was shipped to retail stores in January 1997.

Mainly, the device provides a more economical solution for data storage. The DexDrive was sold at retail for the same price as two Sony- or Nintendo-branded memory cards—$49.99 MSRP in the U.S.—while the cost of storage was negligible on a PC due to the capacity of hard disks. Thus, for the cost of two memory cards, DexDrive owners had the opportunity to store effectively limitless amounts of game data. Additionally, as PC files, game data can be shared over the internet and/or used with console emulators.

The product shipped with a Windows application on two 3.5" floppy discs, DexPlorer, to use the DexDrive with a PC. Updated software, which addressed many of the problematic issues in the pack-in software, was available for several years on the InterAct corporate website. Unofficial software has also been written by various authors. In some cases, competitors supported the DexDrive in order to claim de facto compatibility. In other cases, DexDrive users wrote their own software to address the shortcomings of DexPlorer.