Here is the exact process to install the save data on your Android device using AetherSX2.

Step 1: Locate Your AetherSX2 Folder

Step 2: Backup Your Existing Save (Optional)

Step 3: Import the Downloaded Save

Step 4: Refresh AetherSX2

Step 5: Verify

A standard Tenkaichi 3 PS2 memory card save is roughly 1,000 KB—tiny compared to a modern screenshot. Yet inside that megabyte lives almost every character, transformation, and what-if scenario from the end of Dragon Ball through GT.

But here’s the kicker: AetherSX2 doesn’t emulate a real PS2 memory card the way you’d expect. It creates virtual memory cards (.bin or .ps2 files) that act as perfect digital replicas. That means a save from 2007, ripped from a real PS2 memory card via homebrew software, can be loaded on a Samsung Galaxy or a Google Pixel. Two decades, bridged by a file.

Here’s where emulation gets interesting. Because AetherSX2 handles save data at the virtual memory sector level, it exposes oddities the original PS2 hid.

1. The Region Lock Ghost:
A European (PAL) save won’t work on an NTSC (US/JP) BIOS without conversion tools. Load the wrong one, and AetherSX2 will see the file—but the game will report a “corrupted memory card.” The data isn’t broken. The ID strings are just different. You’d never see that on a real console because memory cards were region-tied.

2. The Save State Side Effect:
AetherSX2 supports save states (snapshots of RAM). But a save state bundles everything—including temporary character stats from a mission. Restore it without the matching memory card save, and you might have SS4 Gogeta in a story mode he doesn’t belong in. The game runs fine. The timeline does not.

3. The Cheat Engine Footprint:
Because PC-based cheat tools like CodeBreaker can modify PS2 saves before they’re moved to mobile, AetherSX2 users have created “impossible” saves: Kid Goku with Super Saiyan stats. Mr. Satan with full ki regen. The emulator accepts them all, never asking how they got there.

To avoid losing 100+ hours: