A retro cartridge question
Displaying 1-14 of 14 total.
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Alex
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Does anyone know, of have experience of, the lifespan of the lithium batteries used for maintaining saves in console cartridges? Specifically I mean Mega Drive/Genesis carts. Buying them nowadays is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair as regards whether they're going keep saved info saved. I've found that a fresh save will usually remain for a day or so, even when the battery is "flat", but it's not exactly reliable. I haven't looked inside a battery-backed Genesis cart, but I seem to remember Master System ones having the battery stapled in pretty permanently, so I'm not sure if attempting a replacement would be a good idea. A quick Googol search revealed absolutely nothing on the subject, just page upon page of the appalling battery life of the Sega Nomad...
Posted on 2004-07-27 08:33:54
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grenideer
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I know my Phantasy Star for the Master System held all the original saves a good 7-8 years after, and it had a reported lifespan of 5 years.
Not sure if it still works now - haven't plugged it in in a while.
Posted on 2004-07-27 08:44:44
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zaril
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Reminds me of the day when all my Lufia 2 saves were gone. Sometimes I felt like the crying would never end...
Posted on 2004-07-27 11:42:30
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vecna
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My Penguin Land cart for SMS still has working saves. The saves did get lost once when I hadn't loaded it in about 5 years. But it still maintains saves right now.
As of about 2 years ago my PS1 cart (also SMS) still works too. Haven't tried it recently.
All my genesis/SNES era cart batteries still work.
Posted on 2004-07-27 17:39:25
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Zip
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I had a save in Might & magic 2 where the battery backup had had a glitch and one of my characters hit point wrapped round to something like 65000. They didn't die often after that.
Zip
Posted on 2004-07-27 18:33:14
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grenideer
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dude, vecna! Penguin Land is an AWESOME game. An old game like that with a map editor was the coolest idea. Too bad I lost my copy long ago.
I wonder if I can find that on a ROM...
Posted on 2004-07-28 03:21:19
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Troupe
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I should see if I still have all my Sonic 3 saves. Man, saving was so cool when it first came out.
Posted on 2004-07-28 05:00:02
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Rysen
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One question I've often wondered is why you had to hold the reset button while pressing the power button in FF1 if you were quitting for the day. I can't remember seeing this anywhere else that had a save ability in an NES game but I could be mistaken.
Anyone know?
Posted on 2004-07-28 06:25:41
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zaril
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Now I started playing Lufia 2 again... this thread will prove to be the bane of my productivity.
Posted on 2004-07-28 11:44:43
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Buckermann
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Quote:Originally posted by grenideer
I wonder if I can find that on a ROM...
Grenideer, I can offer you:
Penguin Land (J) [!]
Penguin Land (SC-3000)
Penguin Land (SG-1000) [b1]
Penguin Land (UE) [!]
Which one do you want? If you like I can send them to you via email (around 100kb each) or upload it to my personal webspace. Though, I don't know if there is a working emu for the SC-3000 and SG-1000 versions.
Posted on 2004-07-28 14:00:35
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Alex
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I have unpacked my Mega Drive and tried various carts to see if the saves are still there:
PS1: bad
PS2: bad
PS4: Good
Shining in the Darkness: bad
Shining Force: Good
The latter two have lasted 10 and 12 years respectively, so that's pretty good going. Judging from the list there seems to be a 1992 cut-off for working saves... Thank God for emulation.
Posted on 2004-07-28 18:35:02
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mcgrue
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So only the games that were good in the first place still have good batteries?
</flamebait>
Posted on 2004-07-28 21:49:22
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Interference22
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Quote:Originally posted by mcgrue
So only the games that were good in the first place still have good batteries?
That makes so much beautiful sense it makes me want to cry. All I need now is for my NES carts of Robocop 2 and Kungu Fu to burst into a ball of flames in a ceremonious display of their crapulence.
Posted on 2004-07-29 00:31:33
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Gayo
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Batteries always varied a lot for me. I had some that crapped out after a couple years and some that are still going strong. Just make sure you don't knock or jar old games, since I find that it often erases the saves.
By the way, the staff at a good game store should be able to replace the batteries in any old games you want to preserve, but they'd probably have to order the batteries in, and of course you'd lose your old saves.
Posted on 2004-07-29 01:17:33
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