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Lady Bow

Member
Nov 30, 2017
11,308
Back in the early days of the Nintendo 64 a lot of games used SRAM batteries for game saves while others used the memory pack (which also utilized a SRAM battery). The drawback to the SRAM battery is that it has a life span of about 15-20 years give or take from when the memory was manufactured. Here are the 12 N64 games that used SRAM batteries:


1080 Snowboarding
F-Zero X
Harvest Moon 64
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Major League Baseball featuring Ken Griffey Jr.
Mario Golf
The New Tetris
Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
Resident Evil 2
Super Smash Bros.
WCW/NWO Revenge
WWF: Wrestlemania 2000


N64 Games that used the Memory Pak for Save Data (189):

(Note that some of these games only used the memory pack to save high-scores, time-trials, create-a-character, or make portable save back-ups)

A Bug's Life
Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage
All-Star Baseball '99
All-Star Baseball 2000
All-Star Baseball 2001
Animal Forest
Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M.
Army Men: Air Combat
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2
Asteroids Hyper
Automobili Lamborghini
Bassmasters 2000
Battle Tanx
Battle Tanx Global Assault
Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs
Beetle Adventure Racing
BioFREAKS
Blues Brothers 2000
Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling
Buck Bumble
Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition
Bust-A-Move '99
California Speed
Carmageddon
Castlevania
Castlevania Legacy of Darkness
Chameleon Twist 2
Chopper Attack
CyberTiger 2000
Daikatana
Deadly Arts
Destruction Derby 64
Disney's Tarzan
Donald Duck Going Quackers
Doom 64
Dual Heroes
Duke Nukem 64
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour
ECW Hardcore Revolution
Extreme G
Extreme G 2
F-1 Pole Position
FIFA: Road to the World Cup
FIFA Soccer 64
FIFA '99
Fighter's Destiny
Fighter's Destiny 2
Fighting Force
Flying Dragon
Forsaken
Fox Sports College Hoops
Gauntlet Legends
GEX: Enter The Gecko
GEX 3: Deep Cover Gecko
Goemon's Great Adventure
Golden Nugget
GT 64: Championship Edition
Iggy's Reckin Balls
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Hexen
Hot Wheels Turbo Racing
Hybrid Heaven
Hydrothunder
International Superstar Soccer 64
International Superstar Soccer '98
International Superstar Soccer 2000
Jeremy McGrath's Supercross 2000
Knockout Kings 2000
LEGO Racers
Madden Football 64
Madden '99
Madden 2000
Madden 2001
Madden 2002
Morita Shogi 64
Mia Hamm Soccer
Micro Machines Turbo
Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits
Mike Piazza's Strike Zone
Milo's Astro Lanes
MLBPA Bottom of the 9th
Monoco Grand Prix
Mortal Kombat 4
Ms. Pac Man Maze Madness
Multi Championship Racing
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Nagano Winter Olympics '98
Namco Museum
NASCAR '99
NASCAR 2000
NBA Hangtime
NBA In The Zone '98
NBA In The Zone '99
NBA In The Zone 2000
NBA Jam '99
NBA Jam 2000
NBA Live '99
NBA Live 2000
NBA Showtime
NFL Blitz
NFL Blitz 2000
NFL Blitz 2001
NFL Blitz Special Edition
NFL Quarterback Club '98
NFL Quarterback Club '99
NFL Quarterback Club 2000
NFL Quarterback Club 2001
NHL '99
NHL Blades of Steel '99
NHL Breakaway '98
NHL Breakaway '99
Nightmare Creatures
Nuclear Strike
Offroad Challenge
Olympic Hockey '99
Paperboy
Penny Racers
Polaris Snocross
Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue
Quake
Quake II
Quest 64
Rainbow Six
Rally Challenge 2000
Rampage: Universal Tour
Rampage: World Tour
Rat Attack!
Rayman 2: The Great Escape
Razor Freestyle Scooter
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
Re-Volt
Road Rash
Roadsters
Robotron 64
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA
San Francisco Rush Extreme Racing
San Francisco Rush 2049
S.C.A.R.S.
Scooby Doo! Classic Creep Capers
Shadowgate: Trials of the Four Towers
Shadow Man
Sim City 2000
Snowboard Kids
South Park
South Park Rally
Space Invaders
Spider-Man
Stunt Racer
Super Bowling
Supercross 2000
Superman
The World Is Not Enough
Tonic Trouble
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Top Gear Hyper-Bike
Top Gear Rally
Top Gear Rally 2
Toy Story 2: Space Invaders
Track and Field 2000
Triple Play 2000
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion
Turok: Rage Wars
Twisted Edge Snowboarding
Vigilante 8
Vigilante 8: Second Offense
Virtual Chess 64
Virtual Pool 64
Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey
Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98
WCW Backstage Assault
WCW Mayhem
WCW Nitro
WCW vs. NWO World Tour
Wetrix
WinBack: Covert Operations
Wipeout
Wonder Project J2
World Cup '98
World Driver Championship
WWF Attitude
WWF War Zone.
Xena Warrior Princess: The Tailsman of Fate

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If your save file is still intact and your battery is still hanging on, please heed:

DO NOT CHANGE THE BATTERY BEFORE YOU BACK-UP YOUR SAVE!!!

The instant you plop the battery out of the cartridge, all memory held in the SRAM will be erased.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, here's ways you can back up your save.



METHOD 1: SANNI CART READER (PCB BUILD) (RECOMMENDED) (BACKS UP GAME PAK/MEMORY PAK)

Link: https://github.com/sanni/cartreader/wiki

Requirements:
-PCB Build Experience
-Every part listed here: https://github.com/sanni/cartreader/wiki/Needed-Parts
-Any Modern OS Computer
-SD Card

Description: This is the swiss army knife of everything related to backing up saves for the Nintendo 64, SNES, Gameboy, GBA, and more. This little device that you have to build on your own can read and back up the save files of your N64 Game Paks and Memory Pak. I recommend you go with this build if you want to back-up your saves. I have one myself and it's very intuitive and fast.

68747470733a2f2f646c2e64726f70626f7875736572636f6e74656e742e636f6d2f732f6764373438716a6a3175367038707a2f626c75652e6a70673f646c3d31



METHOD 2: ULTRA SAVE (REQUIRES 64DRIVE FLASHCART) (RECOMMENDED) (GAME PAK BACKUP ONLY)

Requirements:
-64Drive Flash Cartridge: http://64drive.retroactive.be/ $199 USD
-Ultra Save peripheral for 64Drive: http://64drive.retroactive.be/features.php#ultrasave $25 USD
-Any Modern OS Computer

Description: The Ultra Save is without a doubt the easiest backup method to operate out of the box. You basically plug in the 64drive and the cartridge you want to backup into the Ultra Save PCB, boot up the Ultra Save program on your PC, hit the backup/restore button, and wallah! This is definitely the priciest option out of the bunch but you do have the benefit of now owning an Everdrive-type device with being able to play N64 prototypes, homebrew, etc.


e2c9ktK.png


FmtLQhi.png



METHOD 3: RETRODE (GAME PAK BACKUP ONLY)

Requirements:
-Retrode 2: https://www.dragonbox.de/en/71-retr...416650091.html?search_query=retrode&results=7
-Retrode 2 N64 Plugin: https://www.dragonbox.de/en/134-retrode2-n64-plugin-cart-reader.html?search_query=retrode&results=7
-Firmware v0.23 http://forum.retrode.org/index.php/topic,382.0.html


Video Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzg862ZMx-8

pjkvWLX.jpg



METHOD 4: GAMESHARK/EVERDRIVE 64 (GAME PAK BACKUP ONLY)

Link with guide: https://assemblergames.com/threads/tutorial-backup-those-precious-n64-save-games.54845/ (READ ALL THE POSTS, NOT JUST THE OP)

Requirements:
-Gameshark or Passport Cartidge
-Everdrive 64
-Memory Pak
-PC Hex Editor


yIKUs3f.png



METHOD 5: DEXDRIVE (MEMORY PAK BACKUP ONLY)

Requirements:
-Computer with Serial Connection
-Computer with Windows 2000 or before recommended (Virtual Machines might work)

Description: I only recommend this method if you don't really have the skills/time/work needed for the build above. I should warn that I almost didn't post this method since it didn't work for me when I bought one, but others have had success with it. It can be really buggy at times. You can find these on Ebay still for pretty cheap.

Ag7CqwR.jpg




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And lastly, here's a great video on how to change the battery AFTER you've made a backup:




If you're concerned about any of your saves listed above being gone I'd go check if you got the time. Hope this helps!
 
Last edited:

Bman94

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,553
Jesus, Classic gaming is literally killing itself. I really wished developers would port more 90s games to modern platforms even if they weren't best sellers just for the sake of preservation. These games have a big risk of being lost to time and soon emulation will be our only way to experience these titles.
 

Deleted member 8752

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,122
Jesus, Classic gaming is literally killing itself. I really wished developers would port more 90s games to modern platforms even if they weren't best sellers just for the sake of preservation. These games have a big risk of being lost to time and soon emulation will be our only way to experience these titles.
The preservation scene is very dedicated. I doubt we'll lose many more games to time that haven't been lost already. Certainly, none of the titles above are at risk.
 

Raw64life

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,983
The Retrode, which until last year was unable to read save files, does now read save files and is way easier to do than any of the methods in the OP.

I did the Gameshark Pro/DexDrive method years ago and I did not have a good time. I also never figured out how to get the save files to work on emulators using that method, whereas with the Retrode it rips the save files directly instead of converting them to a DexDrive file.
 

MrNelson

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,356
Jesus, Classic gaming is literally killing itself. I really wished developers would port more 90s games to modern platforms even if they weren't best sellers just for the sake of preservation. These games have a big risk of being lost to time and soon emulation will be our only way to experience these titles.
These are game saves my dude. The only thing that's at risk of being lost is your progress, which you can mitigate by using the methods listed above to back them up. The games themselves are fine, you'll just need to change the batteries so you can save again should they die.
 
Oct 25, 2017
12,644
Arizona
Huh. I might look into this for the sake of Smash, though I did end up buying that on the Wii Shop anyway...

Sad just about all of my old Pokémon saves are lost now though.
 

BocoDragon

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,207
Jesus, Classic gaming is literally killing itself. I really wished developers would port more 90s games to modern platforms even if they weren't best sellers just for the sake of preservation. These games have a big risk of being lost to time and soon emulation will be our only way to experience these titles.
Pretty sure cartridge games will actually outlast both optical media and online servers that patch optical media + digital downloads.

So a battery you can replace is dying?. I don't want to say "big whoop" because I take this stuff seriously and I think the OP's message is a great one... but more like, "easily fixable".
 
OP
OP
Lady Bow

Lady Bow

Member
Nov 30, 2017
11,308
MUST. PRESERVE. MY CREATED WRESTLERS.

YgAAsVY.gif


Jesus, Classic gaming is literally killing itself. I really wished developers would port more 90s games to modern platforms even if they weren't best sellers just for the sake of preservation. These games have a big risk of being lost to time and soon emulation will be our only way to experience these titles.

The only thing at risk here are save files thankfully. The games themselves will work for a very very long time. Probably even past our graves.

That is a lot of trouble to go through to save N64 save files...

N64 is serious business fam.

The Retrode, which until last year was unable to read save files, does now read save files and is way easier to do than any of the methods in the OP.

I did the Gameshark Pro/DexDrive method years ago and I did not have a good time. I also never figured out how to get the save files to work on emulators using that method, whereas with the Retrode it rips the save files directly instead of converting them to a DexDrive file.

Ah thanks I didn't know about this! I'll look into it and add it to the OP.
 
Last edited:

Bman94

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,553
These are game saves my dude. The only thing that's at risk of being lost is your progress, which you can mitigate by using the methods listed above to back them up. The games themselves are fine, you'll just need to change the batteries so you can save again should they die.

It's still a lengthy process to save materials that was destined to fail in a given time. What about those who know nothing about saving the files? I mean just regular old 26 year old Joe Blow who wants to relieve their childhood and boys these games second hand with destroyed saving capabilities?

Eventually more cases of classic games from the NES, SNES, Saturn and Playstation eras will pop up them no longer be able to work due to disc rot, save failure, hardware failure etc.
 

BocoDragon

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,207
It's still a lengthy process to save materials that was destined to fail in a given time. What about those who know nothing about saving the files? I mean just regular old 26 year old Joe Blow who wants to relieve their childhood and boys these games second hand with destroyed saving capabilities?

Eventually more cases of classic games from the NES, SNES, Saturn and Playstation eras will pop up them no longer be able to work due to disc rot, save failure, hardware failure etc.
Yeah that would be a real shame if cheap cartridge games started flooding the market with nothing more than dead batteries ;)

Disc rot, I agree, will be a problem many decades down the road (I dunno... Sega CD and PS1 games still work fine and I regularly buy them)
 

Barrel Cannon

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
9,305
The preservation scene is very dedicated. I doubt we'll lose many more games to time that haven't been lost already. Certainly, none of the titles above are at risk.

Yup, Peltz is right. There's been huge efforts over the last decade and a half to preserve a lot of older games. People looking to preserve their N64 games should consider getting an Everdrive and dumping their games on it and using the Everdrive as their main cartridge.

As far as preserving stuff goes, it's mainly the more modern stuff relying on servers that poses the most risk to being lost in time in the future. Stuff like Chromehounds and Demon Soul's are some of the more high profile games that are dead from last gen.
 

Barrel Cannon

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
9,305
After looking at the Repo thread the other day it's sort of ironic that one day in the future the only way to play these old games on an old console would be through piracy or through preserving your own cartridges with battery substitutes.
 

lightchris

Member
Oct 27, 2017
681
Germany
The preservation scene is very dedicated. I doubt we'll lose many more games to time that haven't been lost already. Certainly, none of the titles above are at risk.

Exactly. Plus: They are on the internet, on many servers and on many more hard drives of people. The internet doesn't forget that easily.

Also, if we're talking about the original cartridges: This is just about preserving save games. The games will still work fine regardless. Of course at some point the cartridges' ROM will be affected too, but that should still be a long way off.
 

Popetita

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
1,957
TX|PR
I am curious, is this really a big thing in the gaming community?

edit: No preservation, but keeping personal old saves. I ask because personally one of the cool things of revisiting old games is starting from scratch.
 

hibikase

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,820
Jesus, Classic gaming is literally killing itself. I really wished developers would port more 90s games to modern platforms even if they weren't best sellers just for the sake of preservation. These games have a big risk of being lost to time and soon emulation will be our only way to experience these titles.

?? This is a weird takeaway from this thread. Losing save data sucks but it's not losing the games themselves. And as OP explains this can be fixed.
 

BocoDragon

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,207
After looking at the Repo thread the other day it's sort of ironic that one day in the future the only way to play these old games on an old console would be through piracy or through preserving your own cartridges with battery substitutes.
I don't really get why replacing a battery is that ironic. It's an off the shelf part... you swap it out. It's like changing the batteries in your Game Boy.

(to be fair, the batteries are soldered in. But a little solder/de-solder is not really a drastic mod)
 
OP
OP
Lady Bow

Lady Bow

Member
Nov 30, 2017
11,308
I am curious, is this really a big thing in the gaming community?

edit: No preservation, but keeping personal old saves. I ask because personally one of the cool things of revisiting old games is starting from scratch.
For a lot of people the memories (literally and metaphorically) on some of those cartridges can be really sentimental. (And some people just don't want to unlock everyone in Smash 64 again)
 

MrNelson

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,356
It's still a lengthy process to save materials that was destined to fail in a given time. What about those who know nothing about saving the files? I mean just regular old 26 year old Joe Blow who wants to relieve their childhood and boys these games second hand with destroyed saving capabilities?

Eventually more cases of classic games from the NES, SNES, Saturn and Playstation eras will pop up them no longer be able to work due to disc rot, save failure, hardware failure etc.
I was addressing more the "Classic gaming is literally killing itself" and "These games have a big risk of being lost to time" parts of your post. While yes, it sucks that battery backups die and will need to be replaced, which isn't necessarily something the layman will know/be willing to do, I thought you were coming at it with more of a "these games will be entirely unplayable" angle.
 

Raw64life

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,983
The preservation scene is very dedicated. I doubt we'll lose many more games to time that haven't been lost already. Certainly, none of the titles above are at risk.

I definitely wouldn't worry about anything pre-DLC era gaming, but I am worried about the preservation of today's games for the future. Today's game are going 40-50GB a pop, with a constant flow of patches, DLC, GaaS garbage, etc. I have no idea if there are people out there with the means to preserve this stuff, but I think it's pretty clear most game companies don't give a shit about preserving the content and only care about the bottom line. It sucks that pirates seem to be the only people who care about this.
 

Barrel Cannon

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
9,305
I don't really get why replacing a battery is that ironic. It's an off the shelf part... you swap it out. It's like changing the batteries in your Game Boy.

(to be fair, the batteries are soldered in. But a little solder/de-solder is not really a drastic mod)

I find it ironic because we have to mix legitimate parts with off the shelf parts to continue playing a retail game, whereas there will be plenty of repos continuing the flood the market with fresh batteries. It's a positive thing for me cause now I might be able to finally build my N64 collection up a bit better if people start flipping good old games that have dead batteries
 

Stalker

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
6,755
I definitely wouldn't worry about anything pre-DLC era gaming, but I am worried about the preservation of today's games for the future. Today's game are going 40-50GB a pop, with a constant flow of patches, DLC, GaaS garbage, etc. I have no idea if there are people out there with the means to preserve this stuff, but I think it's pretty clear most game companies don't give a shit about preserving the content and only care about the bottom line. It sucks that pirates seem to be the only people who care about this.

Trust me, They are preserved.
 

Deleted member 8752

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,122
I definitely wouldn't worry about anything pre-DLC era gaming, but I am worried about the preservation of today's games for the future. Today's game are going 40-50GB a pop, with a constant flow of patches, DLC, GaaS garbage, etc. I have no idea if there are people out there with the means to preserve this stuff, but I think it's pretty clear most game companies don't give a shit about preserving the content and only care about the bottom line. It sucks that pirates seem to be the only people who care about this.

I think most videogame publishers and devs have much better preservation methods/practices in the modern DLC era than they did in previous years. I doubt they'll be losing their own stuff any time unless they go out of business. It's whether they make these things available to consumers that will be the question a decade or two from now.
 
OP
OP
Lady Bow

Lady Bow

Member
Nov 30, 2017
11,308
N64 emulation will forever be wonky, though :( It's incredible how hard it is to get right.
Yea, N64 Emulation is notorious for being very wonky since a lot of emulators use hacks to get games to work. The most accurate N64 emulator so far, CEN64, still has a long way to go too. It's crazy how complex that system was when you think about it. All the custom microcode that developers used for the N64 probably doesn't help either.
 

Raw64life

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,983
N64 emulation will forever be wonky, though :( It's incredible how hard it is to get right.

There is a cycle accurate N64 emulator in development, but progress has been very slow. Probably a few good years to go at it's current pace before most games are playable on it unfortunately.

I think most videogame publishers and devs have much better preservation methods/practices in the modern DLC era than they did in previous years. I doubt they'll be losing their own stuff any time unless they go out of business. It's whether they make these things available to consumers that will be the question a decade or two from now.

Yea that's what I meant. I know they'll have all their content stored away, but they're not gonna give anyone access to it unless it's in high demand and there aren't any ownership/licensing issues with the game 20-30 years down the line.
 

RPG_Fanatic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,650
It has been so long since I played any of my N64 games that I can't bring myself to care if the batteries are dying on some of them.
 

BocoDragon

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,207
I find it ironic because we have to mix legitimate parts with off the shelf parts to continue playing a retail game, whereas there will be plenty of repos continuing the flood the market with fresh batteries. It's a positive thing for me cause now I might be able to finally build my N64 collection up a bit better if people start flipping good old games that have dead batteries
Nintendo never made their own batteries. They were always off the shelf parts. Now you're just replacing them with other off the shelf parts. It's no more or less legitimate with or without a new battery.

Prices for games will never actually drop because of dead batteries. Look at NES and SNES games.... the battery condition affects nothing. People replace them and sell them.
 

ASaiyan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,228
It would suck if I lost my 101% DK64 save. But I'll always remember that I did it, and I have photographic evidence that it happened, so imo it's not really worth the effort, lol.
 

Barrel Cannon

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
9,305
Nintendo never made their own batteries. They were always off the shelf parts. Now you're just replacing them with other off the shelf parts. It's no more or less legitimate with or without a new battery.

Prices for games will never actually drop because of dead batteries. Look at NES and SNES games.... the battery condition affects nothing. People replace them and sell them.
Yea I guess drawing the line at the actual game board in terms of piracy would be the best scenario

In terms of it not effecting prices, you are sort of half right. Some people aren't willing to do that work. It's only enthusiasts and game stores that really want to go through that hassle. I picked up a box of around 20 SNES cartridges like this once at a garage sale because two of the 3 titles I tested seemed to have dead batteries. I walked away with all for 10 bucks. Like I know I'm not going to find that type of deal online or at a store. I'll only find it at something like goodwill, a garage sale, or through friends who have old collections they want to offload.
 
OP
OP
Lady Bow

Lady Bow

Member
Nov 30, 2017
11,308
What about the EEPROM games? Were those saves already nuked?
EEPROM and Flash have huge read/write life cycles so they should theoretically outlive us with casual use I believe.

It would suck if I lost my 101% DK64 save. But I'll always remember that I did it, and I have photographic evidence that it happened, so imo it's not really worth the effort, lol.

DK64 doesn't use a battery so you're good. ^^ (that should really go in your resume btw)
 

MrSaturn99

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,487
I live in a giant bucket.
The graphics on my cartridges began deteriorating years ago -- having seen the exact same symptoms on videos/
other people's cartridges (As well as similar effects for SNES), I'm honestly surprised this isn't a more documented issue.

This is why well-preserved emulation is such an important issue.