A funny facts, about game batteries. Did you know?

[RegalSin]

Here is a funny fact, I have been tinking with. If you leave a gameboy games
or other devices with batteries running for a very long time, the battery will slowly
charge back up.

I have done it a couple of times, and it has lasted for a day or two longer. I wonder how long would it work for a gameboy game?

[linkzpikachu]

Huh, that is neat   

[tappybot]

   Care to explain why you think this works?

[RegalSin]

As many people know, the pocket monster Gold, Sliver, and Crystal all have weak batteries. Due to usage of the storage of long names, it ran down faster.
So I feel a sleep with the game runing, for two days ( I forget about it ), I came back and turned it off. Then came back later a couple of hours later, and turned it back on. The game was not erased.

The same could be said for the PCE interface unit, which I leave on, or the Sega Saturn unit ( which in fact thier is dozens of message boards with this battery information ) that hold a longer charge when plugged in. Like an arcade.

So the conclusion is the batteries are able to recharge, and the question is how do we do it faster? What is the ammount of time alloted that the charge will deplit itself, since real recharagable batteries holds less over time. However it might differnt.

[nintendodork]

Wait...what?  Are you saying that you left a game on for a long time, and because the game wasn't erased, you're proposing the idea that the game's internal save battery must work for a longer time than it would have normally? Or are you saying the batteries in your Game Boy died, and then you turned the system off and back on, and then the Game Boy turned on again?  That second thing works with almost any electronic device.  If my iPod's battery dies, and then I turn it back on, it'll turn on for a few seconds, and then turn back off.

[tappybot]

Oooh,.  Okay, at first I thought you meant the batteries in your gameboy system somehow recharged themselves just by using it.  Was a little confused.


But, I think I see what you're saying now.. 

So you're saying that the batteries that save game data inside a game cartridge will actually recharge if you leave the game on for a very long time?  As if the power from the system batteries are moving into the game and charging that battery back up?


Hmmm.. 

[fredJ]

More likely that the batteries get heated a little bit, just enough to drain that last power. But it is also possible they recharge just a little.

[RegalSin]

Yeah it happen again last night with my PCE engine. I keep it plugged in 24/7 and when accidently plugged out, for a day or longer the save data will stay, however the data might be currupted, so I have test every other game that used a save slot. The same could be said for the Saturn, but that is kinda iffi.
I wonder about the Sega CD save data, or is that flash.

However I believe it is matter of how much data is on  gamepack/storage device and how charged the battery.

Like Pokemon gold and Sliver longnames seems to be the excuse, to why the batteries for the G/S/C versions all ran down. However the pokemon data on my R/B games seems to be up and running.

I am also guessing to try this with A game for the NES, or a SNES.

This could be a better method rather the pain staking task, of getting that special plastic remover, and tools to open up a gamepack, and put it back together, however it is time, energy, and heat consuming.
Considering the life of the machines AC, adapter, or built in power management unit.

How long could a gameboy stay plugged in before catching fire?

[ericj]

What's probably happening is that the reaction products that build up around the electrodes of the battery are dissipating, allowing the battery to work a little bit longer until they build up again. It is possible to recharge even non-rechargeable batteries a few times, but simply plugging a cartridge into a console will not do this. Batteries are cheap, so why not just replace them?

As for the amount of data being stored and the length of the password, these have absolutely nothing to do with battery usage and life.

How long could a gameboy stay plugged in before catching fire?

It should never catch fire regardless of how long it's plugged in. If they could and there was a specific time limit, they'd be great for arsonists.

[RegalSin]

When people was using pocket monsters, they was an extra save slot, that was hidden. This allowed people to store more then what was meant to be stored. Longnames do take up extra space. Your thinking about that amount characters allowed and not the new characters the memory has to remember.

Batteries are cheap, so why not just replace them?

It is a pain, to replace them without damaging the device itself, Also why should we have to replace something that is able to charge up again. the only reason I see is PCB damage as with the Amiga computers.

[ericj]

Maybe you should read up on how games saves in carts with batteries work, since I'm fairly certain you don't understand it.

[RegalSin]

Okay care to explian beyond the idea of a battery, that keeps memory running, without writing directly to where the game is stored or changing 1's and 0's to make it appear that something is differnt, then what is already there?

[ericj]

Think of a game save as being held behind a electric gate. The battery acts as a gate keeper that holds the gate closed and keeps the game save from escaping. The battery does not directly write/transfer the data itself.      Remember that a NES cart has 5V+ available via the cart connector, so it wouldn't need to rely on a battery to power anything while it's connected to the console. Once the cart is removed from the console, the "electric gate" is held shut by the power provided by the battery, keeping your game save secure. If the battery fails or is removed, the game save escapes.

Someone please correct me if I've mis-spokentyped.

Of course, it could also be that there is a mini magic elf that resides inside the battery and scribbles down your game save data bit by bit onto a micro-sized chalkboard, and the battery powers the lights in his workshop. Who knows...

[RegalSin]

You said what I just said, but in a differnt way. Data writes to memory, battery is keeping that data from being destroyed/dissapearing. To that data, the game is still on. Like that on board storage that holds a charge until the charge is gone.