What to do about batteries...

[Josh]

I'm worried about batteries.  I'd like to play games that use battery backup, mostly RPGs, but if I put, say, 20 hours into Final Fantasy III or something, then turn on the console one day and see all my saves gone before I even finish the game, ... well, I'd be depressed. 

So, how long do the batteries in these cartridges last, in practice?  ...I'd rather not replace them, because I'd probably screw things up, either in the short term or in the long term...

The alternative would be to just play ROMs on an emulator, because I could basically keep a backup of my saves forever...  But really, that's just not the same. 

Hmmm......  What to do, what to do...

[nurd]

I bought a copy of Zelda for the NES about a year ago, has the original battery, It still has saves on it.

[UglyJoe]

I've never had a battery in an NES cart die on me.  I've seen a few SNES ones die, but never an NES one.  I'm not saying they last forever, but they are rather resilient.

I would play to the first save point, save, and then turn it off.  Wait overnight or so and then turn it back on.  If your savegame is still there, then your battery is still good.

There are ways of transferring save games to/from a cart (but not for cheap):

http://retrousb.com/index.php?productID=155

Personally, I just accept the battery's ultimate failure and chalk it up as part of the 8/16 bit gaming experience.

[ericj]

You could always just go into the cart & solder in a new battery. I doubt it's worth it, though. I have a Zelda cart that I played & saved games on when I was around 12 or so and the games are still saved on it. That was 17 years ago. 

However, my Super Mario World SNES game has failed to retain a save for more than a week. Bastard cart.

[Josh]

That's the thing...  I'd like to put new batteries in every cart I buy, but I'm afraid it's too difficult for me, or I'd screw something up...

But anyway, what is the battery replacement process like for Famicom cartridges?

(And for any other cartridge-based systems, too, if you know)

[ericj]

I don't know the actual procedure. I'd imagine that the hardest part is getting the famicom cartridge apart. Once you get the case separated, it should be a simple process of de-soldering and removing the old battery & replacing and re-soldering a new one.

[133MHz]

You can replace a battery without losing your save file, you have to solder a battery in parallel with the onboard battery (preferably on some adjacent traces), remove the onboard battery, install a new one and remove the battery you soldered on the first place. If you do this the memory will remain energized the whole time and your save files will be safe

If you remove power for just a second, the memory will go poof, so make sure your life support battery is soldered properly and you do it quickly and correctly. Also wear an anti-static wrist strap and use a grounded soldering iron. Electrostatic discharges can corrupt your save files and damage your cart too.

[Ghegs]

There are instructions for changing the battery here. It's for NES carts, but it should be pretty much the same for FC carts as well.

[FamicomFreak]

What about Disk System ? You can save games in some of the disks....do they ever die???

[UglyJoe]

FDS disks don't have batteries, the saves are written to the disks themselves.  Your saves won't ever be erased, but they may get corrupted over time.

[FamicomFreak]

That's awesome! But hmm worried about corrupted disks...

[133MHz]

Just take care of them as you would do with ordinary floppy disks. I've got a few boxes of 5.25" disks from ~20 years ago which still work perfectly and everything, just store them properly.

[FamicomFreak]

wow 5.25" disks! I would love to get some of those in the future along with a reader....I love how big those disks are!

[nurd]

Are those the floppy disks that were actually floppy?

[ericj]

I think "floppy" refers to the magnetic disk itself, not the casing.  
I remember using them in elementary & junior high school on Apple computers with the green monochrome displays.

133MHz, do you have any of the 8" disks & disk drives?