Video game systems typically include a microprocessor within a game console which uses a video screen for a visual output. The video game system also includes an external game controller and a user may choose from many different games by changing game cartridges. The game cartridges typically contain a preprogrammed read only memory (ROM) which contains a set of program instructions for a particular video game. New generation of video gaming systems are equipped with a hard disk drive to enhance gaming, and broadband connectivity to facilitate online gaming. With these additions, significant amounts of data can be stored within the video gaming system using the hard disk drive. This new internal storage capability creates new issues with respect to software or data corruption on the hard disk drive. Most video game consoles have a slot for receiving a video game cartridge. A user places a game cartridge into the slot in the console, and can then play the video game by viewing a display and by providing input via a variety of different input devices. Popular video game consoles include Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, and Sony PlayStation. Input devices to a video game console include control pads, joysticks, guns, steering wheels, gloves with sensors to detect motion of the hand and fingers, and foot switches. Some games allow a user to save information relating to a particular state of a game on a game system memory card. This information is commonly referred to as a game save. Game saves allow users to recreate the state of a game program at the point where a previous instance or execution terminated. The game console reads the game save on the game system memory card and the game cartridge or disk and starts the game program at the point where the user finished in the previous instance. In sports games, storing game saves on game system memory cards avoids the necessity of restarting the entire season each time the user plays the game. Some game system consoles have two memory card slots to allow copying of game saves from one game system memory card to another game system memory card. In the home-based video game industry, there exist two basic types of gaming platforms: the dedicated video game console and the general purpose personal computer (PC). A dedicated video game console is a specific computer-based device that executes only video game software that is typically resident on a memory chip mounted within an insertable plastic cartridge or on a CD-ROM. The PC gaming platform allows a video game to execute as an application program, wherein the images are displayed on the monitor and sounds are played through a sound card and speakers. In both types of platforms, the user is provided with an input/output device called a video game controller to interact with the game program and cause certain events to occur. The video game controller may be a keyboard, steering wheel, foot pedals, joystick, trackball or simulated light gun which is connected to a standard game port located on an interface board in the PC or directly to an input port of the game console for dedicated console applications. Home video game systems generally have a game console coupled to a television monitor and one or more game controllers connected to the console which permit user interaction with a game being played.

Most video game systems are sold with game controllers that are connected to the console through a hard-wire link. Wireless game controller accessories have been developed which provide players with more freedom of movement. Such wireless controller accessories replicate the basic control features found on conventional hard-wired controllers by using infrared (IR), radio frequency (RF) or other electromagnetic radiation to send signals to the console. Various manufacturers make and sell dedicated game consoles that have proprietary, rather than industry-standard, interfaces and protocols that are not interchangeable with each other. A television game console generally comprises a central processing unit (CPU), a video processor, a video random access memory (RAM), an audio processor, an audio RAM and a radio frequency (RF) modulator. The television game console is provided with a socket connector which detachably receives a game cartridge read only memory (ROM). There are game consoles made up of a cabinet with squared-off angles. These can come in a variety of sizes and are typically painted or covered with decals representing some imaginative form of the game. They are painted and covered with decals to attract attention to the game. Arcade video games involving an activity such as flying an airplane or driving a race car are provided seated gaming consoles for a more realistic feel to the game player. Seated gaming consoles have been enhanced by adding a pedal accelerator or adding a motion source to simulate the movement that might be created by the activity depicted on the video game screen. Unlike the video games found in commercial establishments such as video arcades, shopping malls, restaurants, grocery stores and lounges, home video game controls are not set in the video game computer console. The home video game controls are either held in the hand or placed on a level surface such as a table or desk top. In contrast to a PC game system in which only one player is supported on each PC, a multiplayer game console supports a plurality of players on each console. Voice communication systems for game consoles enable verbal communications between a plurality of players who are playing a game. The verbal communication can be between players on the same game console or between players on different game consoles that are coupled in communication, either directly or over a network, such as the Internet.