Battery Save Games (Your Oldest Save)

[Gentlegamer]

All media is distributed with an expected life. We were told 5 1/4" floppy disks would hold data for 1-2 years, but there are 30+ year old games still alive and well.

NES battery games are supposed to have around a five year life. And of course anyone who collects old carts will find carts with dead batteries that need to be replaced.

Well, I sat down to play some NES tonight. On a whim, I checked my Zelda II cart that I received for Christmas 1988 along with my NES.

Below: my original Zelda II save game from 1989, still on the cart! Thirty-one years later!



So, what is your oldest save game?

[VideoGameCritic]

I few lessons here. First, those little batteries are a miracle of technology. I've had to replace very few batteries from the NES/SNES collection because frankly they tend to all still work!

Second, this is why people don't trust the so-called "experts". That guy I talked to at Babbages in 1982 didn't know how long a floppy disk would last, but he didn't want to look dumb so he just gave his best guess, and of course he was way off.

[Shapur]

Can’t say for sure my oldest cart. I know almost all still saved last time I checked, except Zelda NES. I was always kind of impressed that I never once replaced my Sega CD battery but it just keeps on going.

[VideoGameCritic]

Can’t say for sure my oldest cart. I know almost all still saved last time I checked, except Zelda NES. I was always kind of impressed that I never once replaced my Sega CD battery but it just keeps on going.

So apparently the Sega CD has a rechargeable battery that will retain data if you fire it up every few weeks or so. Typically when I turn mine on that internal memory is gone. I vaguely recall watching a YouTube video about someone replacing their Sega CD battery, which was a big project. It's not a CR2032 or anything like that.

[Gentlegamer]

There's a tragic ending to this story. I played through the entire second quest to discover my number of crystals is glitched, prohibiting me from accessing the Great Palace and finishing the game.

Curse you, Glitch Gremlin!

[strat]

My Zelda I (grey cart) still had its saves last time I played it (but that was a few years ago). However, my copy of Kirby's Dreamland 2 (GB) needs a new battery and possibly my Kirby Superstar. Otoh, after 7 years I've yet to replace the batteries in my keyfobs. Those CR2032 batteries are a bit unpredictable.

[pacman000]

Probably Kirby's Pinball Land, since I've never reset the high-score table. I have other mid-90's games with working save systems, but I've restarted & deleted my old saves from-time-to-time.

At least, I hope the saves functions still work; they worked last year.

[Teddybear]

As of the fall of 2019 (yes, I write these things down) my original NES Tecmo Super Bowl still saves the season.

Also that fall, I tried every Sega Genesis Madden game where I started a season but come the next time I turned it on nothing was saved - except Madden '94. I was able to play a full season.

Someday I need to find one of those Youtube videos on replacing these batteries..........

[travistouchdown]

Zelda: Links Awakening, started 1993 when the game was released. Got to Dungeon 6 before getting stuck.

Picked it back up and finished it from the same save file a few months back. Save file is going strong after 27 years.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/sn69N9aZiJfw5Vuh9