Battery backup games on NES

[Serguei2]

Why I always need to press reset and power button at the same time to save a game on NES 8bit? I never need to do that on gameboy or even snes.

 

Serguei

[Ian Primus]

IIRC, that was a problem with the memory bank controller on the earlier NES carts. They improved the design of the chip in some later cartridges, and for the Gameboy (It doesn't have a reset switch...) The problem had something to do with a power fluctuation when the deck was turned off, and it scrambled the SRAM. The redesigned MBC's had a powerdown circuit, that would effectively do the same thing, without the need to press the button.

 

(details may be wrong, it's late... but you get the idea)

 

Ian Primus

[email protected]

[JB]

Why I always need to press reset and power button at the same time to save a game on NES 8bit? I never need to do that on gameboy or even snes.

 

Serguei

As I understand it, it's because the other systems have a chip that prevents any spurious commands from rewriting the save RAM.

 

Late NES carts do too, actually(despite Nintendo's continued recommendation to hold reset, it isn't necessary on them). Crystalis and Kirby are the 2 I know of for sure.

[Avid Fan]

I remember when I was a kid we never held reset when playing Zelda 1&2 and we never lost the save game. In fact, my Zelda 2 has a save game on it that it 14 years old

[JB]

I remember when I was a kid we never held reset when playing Zelda 1&2 and we never lost the save game. In fact, my Zelda 2 has a save game on it that it 14 years old

I lost saves.

...

I lost a set of Zelda 1 saves jsut by dropping the cart once.

[bjk7382]

I remember when I was a kid we never held reset when playing Zelda 1&2 and we never lost the save game. In fact, my Zelda 2 has a save game on it that it 14 years old

I lost saves.

...

I lost a set of Zelda 1 saves jsut by dropping the cart once.

 

It is probly because it jarred the battery away from the contacts for a second and the memory didn't have the battery power.

[JB]

I remember when I was a kid we never held reset when playing Zelda 1&2 and we never lost the save game. In fact, my Zelda 2 has a save game on it that it 14 years old

I lost saves.

...

I lost a set of Zelda 1 saves jsut by dropping the cart once.

 

It is probly because it jarred the battery away from the contacts for a second and the memory didn't have the battery power.

Shouldnt' happen. The battery tabs are welded to the battery.

 

If the welds fail...

The game ceases saving. Ask my FF1 cart(a little exploratory surgery and some tab-bending, and it's working by spring pressure now. Should be good for a decade or so, then it'll need adjusting again).

[Scooterb23]

I made the mistake of testing a front-loader NES with my copy of Baseball Stars...with my fully buffed custom Cubs team...

 

after two blinks the game save was gone

 

Now Baseball Stars ONLY goes into the top-loader!!!!

[Jasoco]

I still have my almost to the end Dragon Warrior still on my DW pak. Haven't dared to try it in a long time.

 

Back in the day, about 1999, I found out if I turn it on and it's blinking, but I hold Reset and press Power, it won't lose the game. Same as if it actually played. So I assume the RAM deletion is done when the system powers off, whether the pak is playing regularly or not.

 

Keep that in mind.

 

If it blinks, Press and Hold! Guaranteed to work!

 

Warning: Guarantee is not real. Any saves you lose by following my instructions is purely at your own risk.

[JB]

I still have my almost to the end Dragon Warrior still on my DW pak. Haven't dared to try it in a long time.

 

Back in the day, about 1999, I found out if I turn it on and it's blinking, but I hold Reset and press Power, it won't lose the game. Same as if it actually played. So I assume the RAM deletion is done when the system powers off, whether the pak is playing regularly or not.

 

Keep that in mind.

 

If it blinks, Press and Hold! Guaranteed to work!

 

Warning: Guarantee is not real. Any saves you lose by following my instructions is purely at your own risk.

 

If I recall, speed matters.

If you get it before the LED comes back on, it's flawless, in my experience.

 

 

 

I learned to always rest my thumb on the reset button while turning battery-backed games on, just in case.

[Serguei2]

Is NES the first video game with battery backup games system?

 

 

Serguei

[JB]

Is NES the first video game with battery backup games system?

 

 

Serguei

First home game, and first to let you save game progress instead of configuration and high scores.

 

And the feature wasn't designed in. They had to retrofit it(because they declared lengthy passwords too cumbersome a solution for Legend of Zelda when they converted it from magnetic floppy to ROM pack for the US release).

[Raijin Z]

I BIONICALLY UPGRADED my Zelda cart, and now it saves intermittently! It loses data FOR NO GOOD REASON. I intentionally shook the cart like crazy, beat it on the floor, and rapidly tunred the NES on and off to try to unsave the game either by electronic whammy, or by disconnecting any possibly loose connections. My soldering is perfect, though, and none of that fucked my save up. Leaving the game sit without playing it for a few hours did it though. DON'T SAY DEAD BATTERY.